The Parkview is a favorite wine bar and restaurant on Park Avenue. Besides a terrific lineup of wines (be sure to check out the wines offered with the Coravin device) the kitchen puts out some good food to accompany.

The menu does not read as French but there is classic Frenchness in its execution, as you might expect from executive chef Emmanuel Clement.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a big new JW Marriott has appeared and along with it a pretty darned good restaurant, Sear + Sea Woodfire Grill.

The hotel is a new neighbor of other large hotels like the Waldorf Astoria, Hilton and Wyndham in the area known as Bonnet Creek. In fact, if you sit on the restaurant’s comfortably spacious veranda, as I did on my recent visit, you’ll have a view of the actual creek and its woody banks just below.

As you might deduce from the clever name, Sear + Sea is a steak and seafood restaurant, which might sound a bit ho-hum at first. But the menu, under the direction of chef de cuisine Alex Pyser, is creative and appealing.

Disney’s newest top-tier restaurant on the top floor of the Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. It’s a Spanish-inspired menu with a special emphasis on seafood.

A favorite of locals for special occasions, the former Venetian Room has become Venetian Chop House and specializes in steaks. But while the menu has been tweaked a bit, this is still very much a fine dining restaurant. The dining room is every bit as elegant as before and the service just as professional.

It would be almost enough to go here to sit at the bar, sip a glass of wine and eat strips of bacon while listening to live jazz. (Instead of salty peanuts they put rashers of crispy bacon on the bar here.)
On my first visit to Vines I dined in the main room. I sampled the onion soup, a hearty bowl of beefy broth topped with stringy cheese. For my entree I had the braised beef short rib, oh-so-tender meat that had long given up the bone, served with polenta infused with blue cheese and Brussels sprouts roasted with bacon. (They love bacon in this joint.)
On another visit, I decided to make a feast of a couple of appetizers while sitting at the bar. I selected the steak tartare and seared day boat scallops. The tartare looked as though it were a burger patty ready for the grill. It was surrounded by the usual accouterments, capers, onions, as well as hot sauce drizzled on the plate and a pile of salt. It was topped with a raw quail egg, cracked open and still in the shell. The bartender/server asked if I had ever had the tartare there before and I allowed as to how I had not. She made the suggestion that I blend everything together, the hot sauce and salt included, before eating. It was good advice. The meat was fresh tasting and delicious, and the salt and hot sauce added just the right flavor notes.
Service on the whole was superb.
The dining room is classy and upscale (check out the video wall of fire), which matches the prices.