St Augustine: Where to Go for a Romantic Dinner

Choose Collage for an intimate celebration dinner, or Cap’s on the Water for sunset over the Intracoastal Waterway. Between those two settings, St Augustine offers a cocktail-led date on Aviles Street, Spanish-style dining rooms, a Victorian house and Latin-influenced fine dining above a winery. The choice is as much about where you want to spend the evening as what you want to eat.

Choosing a dinner for two

Restaurant	Area	What to order	Food per person
Collage	Historic centre	Scallop saltimbocca	US$60–85
Forgotten Tonic	Aviles Street	Shrimp and grits étouffée	US$35–55
Columbia	St George Street	Spanish bean soup; paella marinera	US$55–70
Raintree	San Marco Avenue	Grilled salmon; crème brûlée	US$35–55
La Cocina	King Street	Rack of lamb	US$55–80
Cap’s on the Water	Vilano Beach area	She-crab soup; herb-crusted fish	US$45–65

These estimates rise with extra courses. Drinks, tax and a tip add to the bill. Sharing a starter or dessert can keep food costs down. Choose downtown for dinner alongside a stroll, or choose Vilano with the outward and return journey arranged.

Arrange a table for two at a fixed dinner time, request quieter seating as a preference rather than a guarantee, and leave the evening free to enjoy the meal. Forgotten Tonic suits a cocktail-led date, while Columbia offers Spanish-style rooms, Raintree a Victorian house and La Cocina indoor fine dining.

Collage Restaurant

Collage Restaurant’s intimate dining room makes it a choice for a celebration centred on conversation and dinner. Wooden doors framed by flowering plants mark the entrance on Hypolita Street in the historic centre. The setting gives you a reason to stay over the meal rather than treat it as a stop between sights.

Order scallop saltimbocca: diver-caught sea scallops wrapped in prosciutto and sage, then seared. Pan-roasted potatoes and Parmesan cream sauce accompany them. The salty cured ham, herb and creamy sauce make this a substantial main, so choose a starter or dessert according to how much of the evening you want to spend at the table.

Forgotten Tonic

Forgotten Tonic on Aviles Street suits a date where cocktails are part of dinner, not a separate stop. Its menu spans house, modern and non-alcoholic cocktails: the namesake Forgotten Tonic is one house choice, while N/A Velvet Slippers gives you an alcohol-free option. Choose between the indoor dining room, bar seating and outdoor patio according to how you want to spend the evening.

For dinner, order shrimp and grits étouffée. Blackened shrimp sit over creamy cheese grits, a ground-maize porridge, with a Cajun-style andouille sausage sauce, green onion and jalapeño. It brings a fuller meal to the cocktail-led setting, with spice and richness rather than just something to nibble.

The premises occupy the former site of the home of Francisco Menéndez Márquez, royal treasurer to the Spanish Crown. That history places this contemporary restaurant within Aviles Street’s older Spanish story.

Columbia Restaurant

Columbia Restaurant on St George Street makes the Spanish-style dining room part of the occasion. Hand-painted tiles and wrought-iron chandeliers give you details to linger over, while the courtyard-like room brings an open-air feel to the setting. It suits a dinner for two that you can combine with time in the historic centre.

Start with Spanish bean soup, then choose paella marinera, seafood rice with shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels and squid. This is the seafood-led order to build the meal around. If one of you prefers a vegetarian main, vegetable paella is also on the menu, so you need not both choose seafood to enjoy the same style of dinner.

Request your preferred room when arranging the table, but be willing to accept another room or wait. A seating preference is not a promise of that particular setting. Decide together whether the room matters enough to delay dinner, especially if you have plans afterwards.

Raintree Restaurant

Raintree Restaurant occupies a historic Victorian house with an indoor dining area, on San Marco Avenue north of the historic centre. Allow time to get there from the historic centre before sitting down to dinner.

Order grilled salmon and leave room for crème brûlée, custard beneath a caramelised sugar crust. The dessert’s crunchy topping is the contrast to its soft centre. This main-and-dessert pairing gives you a straightforward way to shape the meal without committing to a succession of courses.

Dinner begins at 5pm. Make this an evening meal in the house, allowing time to settle at the table before ordering, rather than fitting it between other appointments.

La Cocina at the Cellar Upstairs

La Cocina at the Cellar Upstairs brings chef-owner Norberto Jaramillo’s Latin American influences to dinner above San Sebastian Winery, on King Street at the western side of downtown. Reserve the indoor dining room for the fine-dining menu, while the open-air rooftop restaurant and bar works on a first-come, first-served basis, making it a different kind of evening.

Choose the full or half rack of New Zealand lamb. Both come over corn bread with pancetta and butternut squash, a red wine-rosemary reduction and mint chimichurri, a herb sauce. The two sizes let you choose an individual main according to your appetite without changing the preparation.

Indoor dinner is served 5pm–9pm. A lift reaches the upstairs dining space without stairs, so you can reach the restaurant above the winery without a stair climb.

Cap’s on the Water

Cap’s on the Water is the choice for dinner overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway and sunset over the water. Its deck looks towards passing boats and marsh, giving the view a role in the evening. In the Vilano Beach area, outside the walkable historic centre, it calls for an outward and return journey rather than a downtown stroll.

Start with she-crab soup, typically a rich, creamy crab soup, then order herb-crusted fish. That pairing keeps seafood at the centre of the meal while you enjoy the waterfront setting. Arrange your transport back before sitting down, especially if drinks will be part of dinner.

Let the weather decide whether the deck suits your evening. A covered pavilion and an indoor dining room offer other settings. Shelter can help in light rain, and heaters can take the edge off chilly conditions. Poor weather can still make outdoor seating uncomfortable or unavailable, so be ready to choose another setting on arrival. Closing time also varies with the weather, making a late dinner less suitable for an evening you want to linger over.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: opening hours and key figures.

• Cap’s On The Water — opening hours
• Cap’s On The Water — key figures
• Collage Restaurant — key figures
• Columbia Restaurant — key figures
• Dinner Menu – Raintree Restaurant
• Dessert Menu – Raintree Restaurant
• La Cocina at The Cellar Upstairs — key figures
• Forgotten Tonic — opening hours
• Menu – Forgotten Tonic
• Forgotten Tonic menu (Storytime: History of 4 & 6 Aviles Street)