Seafood at Fish City Grill in Lakeland

I tend to get some serious cravings for fresh seafood, especially fresh-shucked Gulf Coast oysters, peel-and-eat shrimp, and steamed crawfish. We were staying in Lakeland this weekend and I couldn't stop thinking about oysters and shrimp. I didn't think that I'd find a good place for seafood in Lakeland, but did a quick lookup on Yelp anyway, and found a potential place for dinner, called Fish City Grill at Lakeside Village. It had quite a few great reviews and the menu items sounded amazing, so we decided to give it a try.

Since the weather has been so nice and breezy the past couple of days, we chose to sit outside on the patio. I started off by ordering Bill's Bloody Mary, which was beautifully garnished with an olive, okra and a large shrimp.

The mixture was quite yummy--still not as comparable to the Bloody Marys at Datz and Ella's, but I would definitely order it again. For appetizers, we went a little crazy, and ordered a dozen oysters on the half shell, a dozen peel-n-eat shrimp and an order of fried dill pickles.

Everything was on-point! The oysters were fairly large and tasted fantastic with a bit of lemon, cocktail sauce and Tabasco on top. The shrimp were large and succulent, and the fried pickles were perfect--lightly-breaded and thick-sliced, served with a cool ranch dressing for dipping.

For my main course, I ordered shrimp and grits, prepared with smoked bacon, red bell peppers and cilantro. It was so flavorful! The shrimp were, again, quite large, and paired with the cheesy grits and bits of smoked bacon, made for a delicious main entree.

Fish City Grill has officially because my favorite spot in Lakeland, and I'm willing to drive the hour from Tampa just for its oysters and shrimp.

Fish City Grill is located at 1485 Town Center Drive, Suite D112 in Lakeland and is open on Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can check out the menu here, and visit Fish City Grill on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.