Introduction

St. Augustine's dining scene spans Spanish colonial-district settings to a converted historic ice plant. We checked eight restaurants below, all confirmed currently operating year-round, consistent with the city's mild Florida climate — a couple of well-known local institutions turned out to have closed in recent years and are excluded here.

Raintree Restaurant

Fine dining in a restored 1879 Victorian home, opened in 1981 and still run by the founders' family, serving Mediterranean, American, and Asian-influenced cuisine.

• *Hours:

• Closed Monday. Dinner Tuesday-Saturday, roughly starting 4-5pm and closing 8:30-9pm — sources give slightly different minute-level times, so confirm by phone if exact timing matters. Sunday brunch 9:30am-1:30pm.

• *Reservations:

• Strongly encouraged via OpenTable; call after 1pm to reach the reservationist by phone. Groups and private dining require phone booking.

• *Good to know:

• Business-casual dress code; full bar with an extensive wine list; pet-friendly with on-site parking.

Columbia Restaurant

Spanish and Cuban fine dining on St. George Street, part of a restaurant family founded in Tampa in 1905, often described as Florida's oldest restaurant. Open 365 days a year.

• *Hours:

• Daily 11am-10pm (lunch 11am-4pm, dinner 4-10pm).

• *Reservations:

• Accepted via OpenTable and phone; not required, but recommended to avoid waits.

• *Good to know:

• A large, historic dining room; curbside pickup available.

O.C. White's Seafood & Spirits

A seafood restaurant in a bayfront building dating to the 1790s, with a tropical garden courtyard and nightly live music.

• *Hours:

• Mon-Thu 11:30am-10pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am-10pm dining with the bar open until 11pm; Sunday 9:30am-10pm with brunch 9:30am-1pm.

• *Reservations:

• No standard reservation system for regular dining — instead an online waitlist plus a phone "call ahead" list. Effectively walk-in/waitlist-based.

• *Good to know:

• Live music nightly in the courtyard/balcony is well corroborated, though no official schedule is published; happy hour Mon-Fri 4-7pm at the bar.

The Ice Plant

A craft cocktail bar and scratch kitchen inside a restored early-1900s former ice manufacturing plant, alongside a working distillery, retaining the original overhead ice crane.

• *Hours:

• Mon-Thu 11:30am-midnight; Fri 11:30am-2am; Sat 10am-2am; Sun 10am-midnight — sourced from independent listings since the official site's contact page blocked direct verification.

• *Reservations:

• Mixed signal across sources — most describe it as first-come, first-served, though a phone number for calling ahead also appears. Expect a possible wait, especially evenings and weekends.

• *Good to know:

• Craft cocktails plus farm-to-table food (hand-cut fries, sandwiches, local seafood) in a genuinely distinctive 1927 building.

Prohibition Kitchen

A 1920s-themed gastropub on St. George Street, built using reclaimed materials including centuries-old heart-of-pine ceiling boards.

• *Hours:

• Full menu daily 11am-10pm, with a late-night bar/limited menu Friday-Saturday until 1am.

• *Reservations:

• No general walk-in/reservation policy for regular dining — reservations are specifically for private-room bookings and groups of 15+.

• *Good to know:

• Live music nightly per the official site, though the specific lineup requires checking their separate music calendar page.

Kingfish Grill

A seafood and sushi restaurant, now at 504 W. Geoffrey Street in Cobblestone Village after relocating in 2025 when its 20-year former marina location's lease wasn't renewed — any source citing the old Yacht Club Drive address is outdated.

• *Hours:

• Mon 11:30am-8:30pm; closed Tuesday; Wed-Thu 11:30am-8:30pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am-9:30pm; Sun 11:30am-8:30pm. Daily happy hour 2-6pm.

• *Reservations:

• A reservation option exists on the official site, though it's not stated whether it's required.

• *Good to know:

• The relocation is fully current — confirmed independently by local business press covering the 2025 move.

Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille

A long-running Cajun and Creole-inflected seafood restaurant in the bayfront historic district.

• *Hours:

• Lunch daily 11am-4pm; dinner Sun-Thu 4-10pm, Fri-Sat 4-11pm.

• *Reservations:

• Not accepted at this location specifically — the chain's Call-Ahead Seating program used elsewhere isn't available here. Effectively walk-in only; arrive early for faster seating.

• *Good to know:

• Multi-level courtyard seating with bayfront views.

Cordova Coastal Chophouse & Bar

A Spanish and Moroccan-influenced chophouse inside the historic Casa Monica Resort & Spa. Worth a rename flag: this space operated as Costa Brava before a rebrand completed alongside a roughly $3 million hotel renovation — it's the same restaurant, not a new or different one.

• *Hours:

• Breakfast daily 7-11am; lunch 11:30am-4pm; weekend brunch (Sat-Sun) 11am-2pm; dinner Sun-Thu 5-9pm, Fri-Sat 5-10pm; bar Sun-Thu 11am-10pm, Fri-Sat 11am-11pm. Weekend lunch and brunch windows overlap slightly across sources — confirm directly for Saturday/Sunday midday plans.

• *Reservations:

• Highly suggested via OpenTable, especially for dinner and weekend brunch, given the intimate setting.

• *Good to know:

• Located inside a luxury historic resort; the 2023 rebrand from Costa Brava is independently confirmed by local business press.

Restaurants We Excluded

A1A Ale Works, a well-known 29-year craft-beer institution, closed in May 2024 after its lease expired — it was a very frequently recommended pick in older "best of St. Augustine" lists and should no longer be included. Preserved Restaurant, a farm-to-table spot in a Victorian house, has also closed.

Practical Tips

• All eight restaurants here operate year-round — St. Augustine's mild climate means none of the seasonal closure patterns seen in the Northeast coastal towns we've covered.

• Double-check any source recommending A1A Ale Works — it closed in

• If you have an older reference for Kingfish Grill's address, confirm it's the current one before heading over.

• The Ice Plant's and Raintree's exact hours vary slightly by source — call ahead if precise timing matters to your plans.

• St. Augustine's own airport (UST) has no commercial flights; Jacksonville International, about 47 miles away, is the realistic option — see our travel guide's "Nearest Airport" section for the full breakdown.

Sources and Verification Notes

Each restaurant's operating status, address, and character were checked against its own site and cross-checked against Yelp or TripAdvisor. A1A Ale Works' and Preserved Restaurant's closures, along with Kingfish Grill's 2025 relocation and Costa Brava's rename to Cordova Coastal Chophouse & Bar, were each independently confirmed before being noted or excluded. Hours were checked directly against each restaurant's own site where available; where sources genuinely disagreed, we said so rather than picking one figure arbitrarily.