This was out first time visiting Lido Beach. We stayed at the resort where this restaurant is located. With the restaurant being on the 8th floor, with large windows, the views of the gulf and bay were amazing. The restaurant is fancy without feeling pretentious. The server was amazing, welcoming and attentive. I had the crab-cakes and shrimp cocktail from the appetizer menu. Both were delicious. I highly recommend Drift, and I look forward to our next meal there. read more

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I wanted to have a great expense at Drift, I truly did, but that was impossible. For starters, it seemed we were forgotten about after checking in for our reservation. We were seated only after watching everyone else around us be seated and finally decided to go check back in. They'd forgotten about us and sat us right away at that point (finally!). Our server was very nice. She was warm and helpful, no issues there. The second issue was the food itself. I ordered the Lido Key Fettuccine and genuinely couldn't figure out if it was good or not. The pasta itself was actually quite good but the acidity of the sun-dried tomatoes clashed with the Alfredo sauce's creaminess and nuttiness. To make matters worse, my husband ordered one of their steaks, which he was very excited about, but quickly discovered had a propane/chemical taste. He ate as much of it as he could and we considered bringing it to our server's attention but ultimately didn't (possibly a fail on our part). From my understanding, this type of propane taste is typically due to a faulty burner and/or dirty grill parts, both which are quite concerning. The mashed potatoes that accompanied the steak were very good so at least there's that, I suppose. All in all, our experience was lackluster and not worth the cost. We both left feeling very disappointed. read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar - Lido Beach Resort - Lido Key Fettuccine...good except the acidic tomatoes clashed with the Alfredo sauce. - Seafood Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

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During our stay at the resort, we decided to have breakfast at the restaurant one morning. We arrived about 45 minutes before closing and still had to wait around 15 minutes for a table for two. Although the restaurant appeared mostly empty, there was only one server covering a large section, so service was understandably slow. It took a while before we were acknowledged and served, but the server was friendly and did let us know she would be with us shortly. For food, I ordered the panini breakfast meal, which was very large--much bigger than expected--and I wasn't able to finish it. We also had a granola yogurt bowl, which was fairly standard and as expected. Overall, the restaurant is beautifully designed, spacious, and offers a great ocean view. However, between the service delays and the food experience, I'm not sure I would return. read more

This is a great date-night spot! There is a great view of Lido beach which is stunning around sunset. The service was good and the manager really went above and beyond to ensure I had a memorable experience! Food is also delicious and there is a decent mocktail menu. read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar - Lido Beach Resort - Seafood Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

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Great view. Excellent service. Food was just ok. Pizza app was good. Calamari was a bit weak. Drinks decent but pricey. Beef was very fatty. Pollet meal was very bad. read more

Very attentive service. The space is pretty, Get the specials when possible. Good Caesar salad (get the extra Spanish anchovies!) and the pasta. The view of Lido key and sunset is a winner read more

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We had reservations at 7 pm for dinner and decided to have a drink at the bar beforehand. The bartender was very nice and made a great lemon drop martini. It was 6:45 and I hadn't even sipped my drink and they wanted to seat us and they were adamant about it. Gave us a table that was not at the window even though my husband made a special request because we were celebrating our anniversary. Things didn't start out well. Our server overheard everything and said he would take good care of us and even throw in dessert. I ordered the Caesar salad and the braised short ribs. The salad arrived timely and was a good size. Not much dressing, but I could deal with it. The bread was very good as were the choices of spreads. We both ordered a glass of wine and it was a nice pour. We waited over 35 minutes for our entree. Our server came by once and said it wouldn't be much longer. In the meantime, a couple came in, got a recently vacated window seat and ordered the same starters as we did. Our food finally arrived, and theirs arrived 5 minutes later. What the heck! My first bite of carrot found it stone cold, but the protein and potatoes were at least hot. Everything was extremely salty, which is not to my liking. Our server did come and offer us dessert, but at that point, we weren't interested. We thought maybe we had found the resort we would come to every month, but with this being the only real restaurant, it's doubtful. Update: We came for breakfast on our check out date. Waited 45 minutes for oatmeal and an omelet. This kitchen has serious issues. read more

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We chose this wonderful establishment for my birthday dinner, and it did not disappoint! The location is absolutely beautiful, offering the perfect setting to enjoy a delicious meal while listening to soothing music and taking in one of the breathtaking sunsets that Southwest Florida is known for. We sampled several dishes from both the regular menu and the dinner specials, and everything was excellent. A special thank you to Susana, our waitress, who was attentive, friendly, and extremely knowledgeable about my son's gluten allergy. Her attention to detail gave us peace of mind and made our dining experience even more enjoyable. From the amazing food and atmosphere to the outstanding service, everything exceeded our expectations. We will definitely be back! read more

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My hubby and I enjoyed a delicious steak dinner and chilled jumbo shrimp appetizers on Friday, August 7, 2026; Our last night on vacation. Michael was our excellent server...he was more than helpful but welcoming and very knowledgeable about the dishes. I wish we had had another vacation night so that we could have had another meal at this upscale and "fancy" restaurant I highly recommend this place for the food, service and ambiance...Gloria S. read more

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Atmosphere - Excellent! The restaurant is located on the 8th floor in the Tower building. The restaurant has floor to ceiling windows and offers a nice side view of the Gulf, as well as St Armond's Circle. The restaurant has an elegant beach vibe. Service - Disappointing. I will not go into the details, as my wife's review includes the issues. I will just say that, for a resort and a restaurant that promotes itself as being a luxury experience, our experience with the service (other than the bartender) fell woefully short of luxury and in many instances bordered on rudeness and was inattentive. Food - Below Average. I ordered the New England Clam Chowder to start and the Ribeye as my entry. The soup was served hot and tasted great. It was very flavorful. We waited roughly 30 minutes from the point where we finished our starters and the presentation of our entrees. My Ribeye was served warm and it was extremely tough to the point where I had to hack away at it into tiny pieces to eat. I barely ate 1/3 of it and simply gave up. Overall Value - Below Average. This is not an overly expensive menu and the atmosphere is great. For purposes of this particular review, I think a 3 Star rating is perhaps on the generous side. However, it is very possible that my experience is not entirely representative of what I might have on any other given night. I did contact the property management team and voiced my displeasure. Update - The Food and Hospitality Manager reached out to me. He asked if I would share with him my experience. He thanked me for contacting management and he apologized on behalf of the restaurant and the resort. He was extremely gracious and professional. He handled the situation perfectly. read more

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Birthday dinner for my niece from Chicago. Absolutely amazing experience. Mussels to start delicious Pork chops, short ribs all fabulous. Shout out to Joel for excellent service Top of the night was espresso martinis for the birthday celebration courtesy of restaurant read more

The food was "ok". The wait (once seated) was obscene!!! More than an hour after ordering before we got our food. Otherwise, the staff was pleasant and we benefited from a nice, long, conversation at the table while waited for the food. Also...don't order the pizza. Gross!!! The view was nice but not enough to justify the overly priced food and obnoxiously slow service. read more

I thoroughly enjoyed my first time dining experience here on a Friday evening. They seated us next to the window and I loved being able to watch the beach and water. We ordered the spinach and artichoke dip which was served hot and was delicious. Their bread came with butter, hummus and a yummy oil dip. I ordered the snapper and the presentation was pleasing to the eye and tasted just as good! Our server was attentive and it was a great evening! read more

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I made reservations for Mother's Day and nothing was said about a fixed price menu or that it would be a Buffet. The Buffet was marginal at best - hot dishes were vegetable quiche. pasta, and potatoes, all cheap to prepare, and definitely not worth a $100 price tag per person. Just another restaurant taking advantage of a Holiday and they were definitely the beneficiary NOT the customers. read more

The restaurant is very beautiful and the views are amazing. Service was slow. The flat bread and meatballs were very generic. The one good dish was the fettuccine. Go for the sunset, pass on the food. read more

Greeted at the door of DK&B with a smile and glad you decided to join us started the night off with a perfect touch. The upscale fresh decor and view that Drift offers makes you want to settle in and enjoy the jazzzy vibe , excellent creative craft cocktails , revolving monthly specials, a regular menu filled with many choices the DK&B hits all the right notes. Our minestrone and short rib arancini starters were excellent and a special monthly sea bass offering plus my sautéd snapper off the regular menu were fresh and tasty preparations that warrant a repeat !! Yes I know the DK&B is a hotel restaurant but this spot is special and with our server Joel's menu knowledge and recommendations we enjoyed the entire evening. read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar - Lido Beach Resort - Sea bass special unfortunately after a couple bites - Seafood Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

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Wow! How did we miss this one? We saw the sign every time we passed but never thought to try it. Then one morning I said let's go and Hubby said ok. I think the bagel and smoked salmon called him. The restaurant is on the 8th floor. Marvelous views from here. Everything was perfect. It's a luxurious breakfast place, so make sure you wear your heels for breakfast lol (kidding!). Make sure to be comfortable in your beach shirt ha! Hubby and I ordered a smoked salmon platter. They were generous with the smoked salmon. Now we're talking! With the amount of smoked salmon, you can make two bagels and lox! The platter's combination was perfect! It includes boiled eggs, onions, and capers. We also ordered egg Benedict. This one was another bonus because the meal came with fruit salad. The fruit salad was a great one, too. Both of our meals were excellent! Our waiter, Marco, was perfect! He was attentive and friendly. This breakfast was the best of all our breakfasts during our trip, and we will return in December! The fact that it was under the same management as the resort we were staying was wild. So, we might as well come here for breakfast because they got our favorite bagel and lox, and it was the best one too. Amazing! read more

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We had an excellent dinner at Drift on 5/14/26. The Red Snapper and Halibut were amazing and the service was phenomenal! Joel Z was the best waiter we have ever experienced and we will definately be back! Joel the Manager was so professional and attentive. Great experience! Shelly A - Omaha read more

A great find Located on the 8th floor of the Lido Beach Resort, Drift offers a spectacular view of Lido beach from its high vantage point. This was our first visit and although we live in Sarasota, we both felt like we were on vacation. We were there for breakfast and arrived not much before they closed until dinner. Noon is pretty early to close but it is in essence a hotel restaurant and it was also off-season. Even though we were one of the last customers we were not rushed at all and enjoyed chatting with our personable server. Service was great. For breakfast I did their Create Your Own Omelet where you select three ingredients from a list of over a dozen. I had a create your own omelet at another restaurant just a couple of days ago where you could select four things, so without being aware I just rattled off the same four things this time, mushrooms, ham, sausage, and cheddar cheese, and that's what I got. It wasn't until today when I looked over the menu did I realize my mistake. They also did not charge me extra. Thank you Drift. The plating of my omelet didn't look that appealing but it sure tasted great. I had opted for fruit instead of potatoes and that came in a nice sized container. A restaurant with both a great location and great food is a great find. We liked it so much I wouldn't be surprised if my wife brings up us returning for a sunset dinner. read more

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Superb, I can say enough about the food it was great, staff was terrific and professional. The view is excellent and beautiful sunset. Our go-to place to enjoy a great evening. read more

Gluten free Tuscan pizza and Gemelli pasta was delicious!!! And they also have gluten free pasta! read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar - Lido Beach Resort - Gemelli pasta - Seafood Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

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Loved the clam chowder and the Keylime pie! The view is absolutely amazing! Nice varied price range on the menu. Great service. This is a find! Never been here and we live Sarasota. We will definitely be back. read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar - Lido Beach Resort - Sunset & Dessert - Seafood Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

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I made a reservation at Drift for our anniversary last week on their website. We are local and really love it there so we were excited to go back. Once we arrived at the host stand the manager , Dijon, questioned our reservation since apparently it wasn't in the system. I showed him the email confirmation and also let him know I had called the restaurant as well to have them make notes that it was our anniversary and I would really appreciate a window table for sunset, our reservation was at 7:30, perfect time to get settled and enjoy the sunset, I was told by the host on the phone that we were all set. So obviously I was surprised they had no trace of the res. Now I have worked in hospitality including hotels and have ran restaurants and owned restaurants for decades so I understand things happen. What really aggravated me was his arrogance. He made us seem like we made a mistake. He then said he could "squeeze us in" without so much as an apology. The hostess, Victoria who was super sweet walked us to a back table in the middle of a hallway, strange enough that my guest asked what did you just add this table now? It was such a terrible location and not at all what I had planned for our anniversary. I went back up to the host stand and asked to speak to Dijon again. He was with a guest but the hostess let him know I was up front. He saw me yet chose to talk to a regular, I'm guessing, for over 10 minutes with me just standing there like an idiot. Then he proceeded to walk away again and chat with someone else. Mind you it's know almost 8 and the sun is setting and we are in the lobby while he parades around chatting people up. He finally came over and I let him know that while I appreciated the effort that table was terrible and not what we had reserved. He proceeded to question if I made it for the right Drift, even though I showed him the confirmation. Then he talked over me and was rude and condescending. I said we would be willing to wait for a decent table if he could make it happen. His smugness was ridiculous and extremely off putting. Meanwhile the hostess Victoria was so kind and empathetic. 10 minutes later a table opened up. Thankfully we were now done with the Dijon show, or so I thought. As he sat us he felt the need to mention that we could stay as long as we like, huh! Mind you the sun has now set and our night was ruined. Saving grace was our server Olivia was really amazing and kind. The food as always was great but the manager ruined our entire experience with his rude, condescending obnoxious behavior. We will still go back but next time HOLD THE MUSTARD !! read more

Went for dinner, food was very mediocre for the cost of the meal. Chicken piccata seemed like the chicken was boiled with very little flavor. My wife got a pasta dish which was underwhelming. We went once before and didn't have a great experience, thought we would give it another try. Was hoping for a better result. On the plus side the view is very nice. read more

Good service. Ambiance can be nice when they have music. Otherwise energetic. Good is good. The menu hasn't changed in a long time. Need some updates. Having a hard time picking... Otherwise reliable and good go to read more

Made reservations for Mother's Day and just like others on this page NOTHING was mentioned about the meal being a Buffet. In fact the description appeared to look like a prix fixe menu with options for each part of the meal. The quality of the food on the entire buffet was not near worth the $100 price tag. Hot food was warm and bland. There was no discount offered for two kids aged under 10. Unless you're a fan of overpriced free-for-alls and prefer quantity over QUALITY, skip this one in a heartbeat. read more

Food service ambiance and MOST important the view at sunset where not only guest from hotel come but to see locals that is a good sign

The food is so gooooood. We had a reservation for 11 people and they situated us in a semi private room at the back. The service is so so as we had a larger party and dinner took almost 3 hours. We ordered the kids meal first and dinner took so long that by the end of the night, some of the kids wanted to order more appetizers before dessert. Yes. They had 1.5-2 dinners essentially. The bread is fresh and hot. The butter, vinegar and hummus dips were yummy. The seafood cioppino had the richest, flavorful seafood sauce. The seafood was super fresh. Would highly recommend the seafood dishes. read more

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The wait staff was friendly but overworked. His section was far too big for him to be able to give proper attention to any of us. The food was mediocre at best. And it took forever to get the food. I had grilled salmon which was good but the rest of the plate was an afterthought. The mashed potatoes were ok not great. The cooked spinach was a lump of yuck. My husband had one of the pasta dishes. It was good but not great. The views of the gulf were very nice. read more

Gerenisse our waitress was amazing. Very attentive to our dietary needs and restrictions. She went above and beyond. Will definitely be back. read more

To celebrate my birthday, we dined at The Drift Kitchen with friends. The atmosphere was wonderful, as always, and we've typically enjoyed the food here. However, I was disappointed with my entrée - the day boat scallops. The dish arrived with just three small scallops, which were unfortunately overcooked and chewy, paired with lukewarm risotto. At $56, the price felt excessive, especially since I hadn't checked the Market Price beforehand. After waiting quite a while for our meals, I chose not to send mine back, but next time, if there is one, I'll be sure to speak up. read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar provides a uniquely pleasant and satisfying dining experience. The ambiance, food and service are superb with most tables enjoying a clear view of the nightly sunset over Lido Beach. Specialty cocktails are a wonderful beginning followed by many deliciously prepared entrees. Be sure to save room for dessert. read more

View was terrific. Staff very friendly and attentive. Gluten free flatbread was the worst I've ever had. Tasted like cardboard drowned in cheese. Don't like to waste food so I took it home. Ended up throwing it away. read more

My son and I had breakfast here October 14 - 18, 4 out of 5 days it was good no issues the last day in the morning {Saturday} we got there @ 7:10 A.M. had breakfast as usual we ate then we were looking for our waiter to either hopefully get a refill or pay our bill we use cash waiting @ 15 minutes didn't see anyone and we were the only one's there ??? finally I ask someone if they can get our server finally he came over with the bill we were upset we did not say anything but it was reflected on his tip$ and wrote on the bill waited 15 minutes I understand this industry is hard my son is a cook at a restaurant and he tells me all the stories but we were the only 2 in the restaurant at 7:45 A.M. read more

We had both breakfast and dinner here, and everything was excellent. The menu offers a wide variety of options, so there's something for everyone. The food was delicious, the service was attentive, and the view was absolutely amazing. Highly recommended! read more

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Drift is the restaurant within the Lido Beach resort and looks very nice, floor to ceiling windows in our own dining area was awesome. Our waiter was as good as you can get, pleasant, on point, and provided excellent service. The food is a mixed bag from outstanding to not good at all which surprised me because of the ambiance and recipes were of the 4-5 star kind... So beginning with Burrata Caprese, it was absolutely delicious, the last thing on that plate was our reflection after enjoying a fist sized cheese and what tasted like Jersey tomatoes , definitely perfection here. We each enjoyed a bikini martini that was a fun island type drink. The mussels were also on point with 1 mussel closed, and 1 mussel had an off taste, otherwise very good. My wife had Snapper topped with crab which was fantastic, perfectly cooked and seasoned. The special was lamb and it was cooked medium well to well, very dry and chewy.. not good at all. Last was Crème Brûlée, VERY DISAPPOINTING as this was the worst I've ever tasted with no glacé at all to break, the confection below was sticky, off tasting, and not even close to being ok... so you've heard some really good, to not so good... it's a shame because we're here for 4 days and I would've gone back for lunch daily, as well as late night eating.. but in the case of drift, once was too much. read more

Ambiance is amazing along with the views during daylight. Food is always amazing. Lots of drink selection from Cocktails to wine. After dinner coffee is amazing. Service is always top notch. read more

Drift Kitchen & Bar - Lido Beach Resort - Gulf Shrimp Gnocchi $26 Shaved Ricotta Salata, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Toasted Pine Nuts, Kale Pesto - Seafood Near Me - Sarasota, Florida

Everything from start to finish was exceptional. The service was great, the short ribs are awesome as well as the lobster. Great view and sunset! read more

Excellent drinks, very nice atmosphere. The fish was delicious and fresh. Pasta was also very good with tomato cream sauce and olives. You can t see much of the view at night but I bet it's very nice during the day. read more

The atmosphere and food was amazing. We had tuna and ciopino dishes. The service was good.