City Place Restaurants

There is no way to cover all of the City Place restaurants on one web page because there are just too many good ones. This discussion will focus on some of the new activity in 2009.

First, City Place now has several good places to get quick snacks as opposed to a sit-down meal. Not long ago (back in 2008), the Panera Bread store opened up across from the long-standing Starbucks, and it has been hugely popular since the very beginning. Previously the only activity in City Place in the early morning was at the Starbucks, and now there are two somewhat complementary places that have substantially increased the morning crowd. Panera Bread has some super tasty breakfast sandwiches, as well as some great breakfast treats like cinammon rolls. There are now significant groups of people that tend to gather outside these two places opposite each other at the main entrance to City Place just off Rosemary Avenue south of Hibiscus Street.

In addition, a great yogurt place has opened up right on Rosemary Avenue at Hibiscus. Finally, just now (May 2009) a Smoothie King has opened up in the kiosk just off Rosemary Avenue in the center of City Place (formerly home to a second Starbucks). I haven't tried it yet, but it seems to offer some very healthy fruit-filled drinks as well as some more indulgent drinks with lots of ice cream, and the posted hours are outstanding (from 7 AM in the morning to 10 PM at night most days).

As far as the sit-down restaurants, there has also been a lot of recent activity. Last year the opening of Taverna Opa created quite a stir and it's still going strong. (This is a Greek-themed restaurant where loud pounding music is played along with waiters and patrons dancing on the tables, quite an experience). Taverna Opa is located on the second level just above the Panera Bread. Just recently in 2009, a Thai restaurant (Thai Jo) opened up right next to Taverna Opa -- it looks like one can get a high-quality meal there in a somewhat quieter setting.

At the southern end of City Place on Rosemary Avenue and Okeechobee Boulevard sits a relatively new restaurant called Kona Grill. This one is a favorite of both my wife and I in terms of the quality of their food. Also opened last year at the northern end of City Place (farther down Rosemary Avenue to the north), the Italian Oven Cafe offers very tasty pizza and sandwiches. In the middle of City Place sits the ever-present Cheesecake Factory. The lines always seem to be so long there that I have never bothered to try it out.

Overall, in the three years that I have lived in downtown West Palm Beach, there has been a huge improvement in the diverse selection of food available at City Place. It seems that three years ago there were only a series of regular sit-down restaurants, and now there are various other quality choices of the more take-it-and-run variety, plus some great new entertainment-style restaurant venues.