Restaurants with the Best Value in Naples

As its name suggests, this is an old-school kind of place that still does a soup and salad bar (in the back of a 1940 Model T) and throws back to the classic comedy series "Spanky and Our Gang." It has been a Naples fixture since the '80s. Happily, the prices are a bit of a throwback as well, thanks to its location well east of downtown and the beach. Serving all-American specialties, Spanky's offers an extensive menu of burgers, cold sandwiches, wings and a nice selection of salads at lunch. Dinner adds steaks, ribs, seafood, pasta and chicken to the menu. There are a few tables on the back porch overlooking a canal, but most take to the cool dining room decorated with memorabilia.

The original of now three storefronts, it's not just all about tacos. But Tacos & Tequila Cantina's menu does list nearly 30 different flavors from traditional carnita to Buffalo, po' boy shrimp and veg out tacos. Sauces and ingredients all taste fresh in this indoor-outdoor garage chic setting that looks as though it could do some partying. Other traditional and inventive food offerings include grilled corn on the cob with ancho chilies and Cotija cheese, huevos rancheros and Mexican burger. It's not all about tequila, either, although the drink menu lists 30-something different kinds of Blanco, Reposado and Anejo tequilas. Choose also from 20 flavors of margaritas and other fruit drinks.

Open for breakfast and lunch only (until 2:30 p.m.), it tastes like eating at home - especially if you are from Philly. Then you will likely order the Philly Breakfast with Taylor pork roll or scrapple or the Philly cheese steak served on genuine, Philly-imported Amoroso rolls. Even non-Philly guests will love Old 41's made-from-scratch offerings: fresh-ground Colombian coffee, corned beef hash house made from Boar's Head meat, an incredible Texas French toast with homemade caramel and pecans, Carbon's malted Belgian waffles, Boar's Head hoagies, hot roasted turkey or beef sandwiches and homemade rice pudding. The setting is a simple strip mall storefront - bright, clean and friendly.

Now, this is what a beach restaurant should look, feel like and charge like. You will find a number of resort restaurants that overlook the beach, but to get the real thing, travel north to Bonita Beach where you can walk right off the beach and into this beer-and-burger joint for a break from the sun. Sit out back, right on the beach, if you can't bring yourself to drag your toes out of the sand. Or sit inside, where there's shade. If you're looking for air-conditioning on a hot summer day, head upstairs to order your breakfast, lunch or dinner and watch the game. The kitchen is famous for its Chicago-style pizzas, served after 4 p.m. Day-long there's seafood, burgers and key lime pie.

A dozen or so picnic tables on the dock outside the fresh seafood market afford guests the best catches and views. Some of the tables at deck's edge have seating only on one side for the optimal overlook of the river and its working waterfront. There's also upstairs air-conditioned seating (no handicap access) with table service for breakfast. In season (November through mid-May), it's open for dinner, too. The rest of the year the restaurant and cafe close at 6 p.m. For other meals, you must place your order in the fish market. Order up generous servings of soft-shelled crab, cracked conch sandwich, soft shell crab sandwich, oyster po' boy, pulled pork sandwich (for landlubbers) or baskets of cracked conch, clam strips, frog legs or fried 'gator.

The current owner has operated this off-the-beaten-path breakfast and lunch joint since 1999, and it has become a favorite for the local work force and residents who discover its friendly atmosphere and reasonably priced food. Inspirational sayings such as "Is today the best version of you?" and a few televisions decorate the walls of the clean, cheerful space. The extensive all-day breakfast and lunch menus stay the diner-fare course. Specialties include corned beef hash and eggs, country-fried steak, pancakes, Reuben, clubhouse sandwich, and keep-it-coming coffee served in a mug plastered with ads for nearby businesses. Servers in black logo T-shirts recognize most customers by name. If they don't know your name, you're "my love" or "dear." Every day they pay the tab for two customers, with the caveat that they then pay it forward. It's that kind of place.

If it has ever swum in the sea, Swan River Seafood carries it - fresh - for lunch (seasonally) and dinner. The team is proud of its crab cakes, and rightly so. Pure crab patties are lightly bound and served with a nice, homemade tartar sauce. Try it as an appetizer or platter. Sandwiches and seafood entrees come with a choice of house-made sides; the potato salad and creamed spinach have their own unique twists. Fish comes from New England, Florida, and beyond - prepared lightly dusted and fried, blackened, grilled or, on the day's specials, creatively paired with seasonal fruits and veggies. Landlubbers find plenty to please on the extensive menu, which includes such end-of-meal pleasures as well-loved carrot cake and key lime pie.

You could sum up the fishing town of Goodland in one word: idiosyncratic. Likewise, the Little Bar, one of three watering hole restaurants that tourists love as much as the (idiosyncratic) locals. Because besides the usual frog legs and seafood Everglades fare, its dry-erase board menu lists some Old World folk foods such as liver and onions, kielbasa and kraut and marinated herring. There's yet another dimension to its menu - finer fare such as crab cakes with lobster cream sauce and blackened mahi-mahi. The setting is every bit as quirky. Outside, the view is bay waters, fishing docks and crab traps. The interior is cobbled together with salvaged wood from a historic boat, pieces of pipe organ, stained glass and various other components with a past.

It's thoughtful that a restaurant would strive to serve the best possible food for our good health. But it's even better that Food & Thought's dishes reflect the kind of creative thinking that raises them above typical health food juice-bar fare. Like most of its kind, Food & Thought's service is order-at-the-counter. It serves all the typical veggie juices, including wheatgrass, and fruit smoothies, plus your standard hummus wrap and tabouli salad. It breaks the mold, however, with its daily hot entrees, soup and side dish menu. These are served cafeteria-style, but somehow manage to taste made-to-order. On the regular menu, you will find breakfast items such as quiche and sprouted pancakes, plus chickpea salad and chicken salad wrap or sandwich. Everything is certified organic and homemade, and the indoor-outdoor setting is as fresh as the food.

Opened in December 2018, the brainstorm of the owner of Three60 Market across the creek, Celebration Park celebrates the food truck boom that has been sounding across the nation these past few years. About 10 food trucks and stands park permanently (or at least seasonally) leading up to a stationary covered bar at Celebration. Some tables, high-tops, bar stools, and high chairs at a bar overlooking the creek providing seating. Choose from curry, barbecue, seafood, Greek dishes, gourmet burgers, hot dogs and mini-beignets at the different trucks. At Dilly's Seafood, the spiny lobster roll is probably the most expensive thing you will find at $19.