Tampa Bay's Top 100 Restaurants: seafood

Restaurant critic Laura Reiley dined out for nearly 200 meals this past year, so she knows where the best restaurants are in Tampa Bay.  As we roll out her Top 100 Restaurants, here are her picks for best places to eat what everybody comes to Florida for: seafood. Your fave's not listed? Let us know in the comments section. And if you want all 100 in a handy guide, be sure to pick up a Weekend section in Thursday's St. Petersburg Times.

Full Top 100 list | Search for another restaurant/bar

Best seafood
I like Walt Wickman's approach. See what's fresh, get some, figure out what to do with it tonight. Get up tomorrow, repeat. He grew up in Dunedin, so his Walt's Seasonal Cuisine seems to have a special affinity for gulf goods — jumbo stone crabs, grilled hogfish with key lime vinaigrette, he knows what he's doing. One of my favorite finds of the year was Wild Shrimp Company, a little fish shack adjacent to Haslam's bookstore that specializes in sweet wild gulf shrimp, sometimes deep-fried, sometimes studding a gumbo or jambalaya. Tom Pritchard and his partner Frank Chivas never seem far from these best-of lists, their Salt Rock Grill and Marlin Darlin spoken of reverently by seafood fans, the former also prized for its front deck and its aged steaks, the latter for its Key West good-times cheer.
The Sandpearl's Caretta on the Gulf has a raw bar and seafood-savvy menu that almost makes one forget the gorgeous beach views and swanky décor. The kitchen globe-trots through Szechuan prawn to crisp-skinned snapper and a delicate brown-butter sautéed skate, never missing a step.
     Walt's Seasonal Cuisine, 1140 Main St., Dunedin; (727) 733-1909, waltscuisine.com 
     Wild Shrimp Company, 2005 Central Ave., St. Petersburg; (727) 209-0813 
     Salt Rock Grill, 19325 Gulf Blvd., Indian Shores; (727) 593-7625, saltrockgrill.com 
     Marlin Darlin, above, 2819 W Bay Drive, Belleair Bluffs; (727) 584-1700, baystarrestaurants.com 
     Caretta on the Gulf, Sandpearl Resort, 500 Mandalay Ave., Clearwater Beach; (727) 441-2425, sandpearl.com