One thing everyone has in common while at the beach: we gotta eat! Below are some of our personal favorites and/or popular spots on the beach. I tend to prioritize food quality over ambiance, and usually dive restaurants have the best food. If you like these types of restaurants, feel free to give me a buzz or shoot me an email. I pretty much know all of the hidden gems on the beach. The money bag 💰 indicates how much you can expect to pay for a dinner for two with one drink each. Let us know your favorite spots. Side Note: I have eaten at nearly every St. Pete Beach restaurant, and it owns two records: the most restaurants of any Pinellas beach and the lowest amount of recommendable restaurants per capita. There aren’t a lot of bad restaurants, but most are just OK or are over-priced. If you are here for more than a night or two, I recommend driving north to find better bites for your belly. That being said, a few are worth a visit. 1200 Chophouse. This is my personal favorite in St. Pete Beach. It has a small seating area, so be prepared to wait, but it is WORTH. THE. WAIT. The service is also very good; not pretentious like other restaurants of similar quality and ambiance. 💰 $75 📌Block north of the SPB Publix shopping center Maximo Marina Seafood Shack. OK, this technically isn’t St. Pete Beach, but SPB lacks an excellent dive restaurant [sorry Willy’s, you’re 4 stars of flavor, not 5]. Maximo fills this niche better than most. They pull the fish off the boat, filet it right in the shack right front of you, and you eat it on some picnic tables in front of the kitchen shack. Very few know about this hidden gem. They close at 7pm, so get there early. 💰 $30 📌4801 37th St S – behind Beef O’Brady’s Spinners. The food is average, but the view is amazing. 💰 $75 📌Grand Plaza Hotel. TIP: they are open for lunch; you might go up for an appetizer and drink vs. spending a ton on dinner.