Restaurant review: Suntree Cafe Beachside

Suntree Cafe Beachside
3 palms
Where: 718 South Patrick Drive, Satellite Beach
Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; 4 to 8 p.m. Friday
Call: 321-773-0304 
Other: While the cafe is primarily a breakfast and lunch place, it also offers a New England fish fry from 4 to 8 p.m. Fridays. Doggie dining is offered outside, complete with treats.

Suntree Cafe Beachside, located in Satellite Beach after moving from its namesake origin, has some hardcore fans. Several of them wrote to me raving about the breakfasts, including baked oatmeal, and its New England specialties.

I went with a couple of friends for lunch. The smell of fish greeted us at the door, which could be good or bad. We took it as a positive sign of lots of fresh-cooked fish on the menu, and indeed, that’s the case. The cafe even has a Friday night fish fry.

Expect to find a variety of sandwiches, salads, burgers and wraps, along with fish, shrimp, oysters and scallops. To start things off, I ordered onion rings, which came hot and very tasty.

One of my friends ordered the fish and chips ($8.99). The cod was lightly battered and fried, and the accompanying fries were likable, too. Another friend got the corned beef Reuben ($6.99). While it was tasty, the mild corned beef reminded us more of ham, so the flavor was unexpected.

For my lunch, I had to check out that New England classic, the lobster roll ($11.99). A peppery lobster salad came stuffed into a hot-dog roll. It was good, and there was plenty of lobster, some of it chewy. The upgrade to sweet potato fries was an excellent choice. The meals also came with coleslaw, with a surprising and very pleasing touch of horseradish, just the zing coleslaw needs.

The desserts are not made in-house, but we tried a couple anyway — a pretty basic chocolate cake and a very satisfying lemon pie. It’s clear the cafe has a following. Cheerful service and a relaxed atmosphere, enhanced by the work of local artists on the walls, make this a comfortable spot to eat, and by noon, the place was packed.

Suntree Cafe also is dog-friendly, with a patio for doggie dining. Dozens of snapshots of four-legged visitors decorate the eatery. This is the kind of place that says “welcome to the neighborhood.”

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