The best restaurants in Margate, FL sit on a handful of commercial strips rather than in a walkable downtown. Atlantic Boulevard carries the city’s one white-tablecloth room and its busiest breakfast cafe, State Road 7 (also called 441) holds the Haitian, Jamaican and Thai kitchens that give Margate its character, and Sample Road and Coconut Creek Parkway cover the diner and the family Mexican standby. A short drive over the Coral Springs line adds a brewpub and a few larger dining rooms. Here’s what each corridor does well, what to order and the hours that catch people out.
Margate’s Dining Map: Three Corridors and One Short Drive
Margate covers about 9 square miles and held 58,712 people at the 2020 Census (Margate’s Census profile), and it was laid out as a postwar Broward suburb rather than a town with a main street. Almost every restaurant sits in a strip plaza on one of the commercial spines, so you’ll drive between meals, but every plaza in this guide has its own free surface lot a few steps from the door.
Price tiers here are flat and low. Most of the city eats cheaply, only a single restaurant qualifies for a special occasion, and the middle tier is thin. A family of four can eat Haitian griot, Jamaican curry goat or a Philly cheesesteak in Margate for less than one entree costs on Las Olas.
Timing matters more than in most South Florida cities. The median age at the 2020 Census was 44.3 and 21.5% of residents were 65 or older (Margate’s Census profile), so Margate eats early and most kitchens are dark by 9 or 10 p.m. The exceptions are Delish Caribbean, which runs to 4 a.m. on Saturday, and Jesse’s Sports Bar & Grill, which serves until 4 a.m. on Sunday, Thursday and Friday.
Atlantic Boulevard: The Special-Occasion Room and the Breakfast Crowd
Atlantic Boulevard is Margate’s main commercial spine and the corridor most visitors end up on. It runs the width of the city, connects Coral Square in one direction to Pompano Beach in the other, and holds Lakewood Shopping Center and several of the city’s best-known dining rooms.
Pasta And is the one restaurant in Margate people drive across Broward for. Chefs Luigi and Esperanza Marenco run it with their son Gian Marco, cooking northern Italian from Piemonte and Veneto with house-made pasta, risotto and dishes built on wild boar, lamb, veal and tripe (Pasta And). A large Italian wine list backs the kitchen, reflecting Luigi’s family roots in winemaking, a serious commitment for a small room at 4990 W Atlantic Blvd. It’s dinner only, 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, and a weekend table needs booking. Temperature-sensitive inventory is also why climate-controlled storage in Margate gets used by so many small local businesses for overflow stock.
Toasted Cafe at 5428 W Atlantic Blvd has been family-owned since it opened in 2016 and runs a split menu: waffles, pancakes, omelets and eggs Benedict on one side, spinach pie, gyro pita, moussaka and pastitsio on the other (Toasted Cafe). The breakfast quesadilla is one of the dishes regulars come back for. Hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, so the kitchen shuts at 2 sharp.
Jesse’s Sports Bar & Grill at 5442 W Atlantic Blvd earns a mention on food as well as beer, with burgers, wings and Philly cheesesteaks alongside pool tables, darts and stand-up comedy nights. It opens at noon and stays open until 4 a.m. on Sunday, Thursday and Friday and until 2 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and on Saturday, per Jesse’s contact page. Our Margate nightlife guide covers the rest of the bar side of the city.
State Road 7: Caribbean, Latin and Asian Kitchens
State Road 7 is where Margate’s food gets genuinely interesting. The 441 corridor is the city’s most internationally mixed strip, with Haitian, Jamaican and Thai kitchens in small plazas along it, plus a pizzeria, a cheesesteak counter and the city’s best-loved breakfast room. Traffic is heavy at rush hour and left turns are the main frustration, so plan your approach from the side of the road you’re already on.
Delish Caribbean Restaurant at 171 S State Rd 7 cooks Caribbean and Haitian creole: griot, tasso goat, stew chicken, whole fried snapper, plantains and conch fritters. What separates it from everything else in the city is the clock. It runs 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, to midnight Friday and to 4 a.m. Saturday (Delish Caribbean), which makes it one of the very few late-night kitchens in Margate.
Grace of God Restaurant at 360 S State Rd 7 is Haitian home cooking at casual prices, and regulars order the patties and the griot. It’s open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days, clean and family-friendly, and about as cheap as a full plate gets here.
Marthabrae Jamaican Restaurant at 3213 N State Road 7 works the same corridor from the Jamaican side. It’s one location of a small South Florida chain, open seven days, with jerk chicken, stew chicken, oxtail, curry goat, fried dumplings and homemade juices (Marthabrae). Lunch is the rush, and takeout is the easy way to beat it.
Jasmine Thai & Sushi at 1785 N State Road 7 pairs classic Thai dishes with Chinese entrees and a sushi bar. The catch is the schedule: lunch runs Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. only, and dinner starts at 5 p.m. That midafternoon gap strands more people than any other hours quirk in the city.
The Gem Eatery at 1043 N State Road 7 is the mom-and-pop breakfast and lunch counter that locals name first for brunch, with homemade food like German pancakes, sausage gravy and biscuits, cinnamon bun-style French toast and a jumbo cinnamon bun (The Gem Eatery on Yelp). It’s open Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. and closed Sunday and Monday. The room is genuinely small, so a weekday visit before 9 a.m. gets you straight to a table, and Saturday is the day to expect a wait.
Anne Marie’s Pizza Co at 2403 N State Road 7 does pizza, pasta, parm sliders, subs and salads, and reviewers name the garlic bread as often as the pies. It’s closed Mondays for deep cleaning and opens at noon the rest of the week.
Spanky’s Cheesesteak & Wings Factory at 309 N State Road 7 is one of Tripadvisor’s top-rated Margate restaurants, a fair result for a counter-service storefront most people drive past for years. Build your cheesesteak first, add wings and fresh-cut fries second.
Sample Road, Coconut Creek Parkway and the Rest of the City
Margate’s remaining strengths are scattered through plazas that reward knowing where you’re going. These are the places locals send visitors when the question is where to eat rather than where to be seen.
Lester’s Diner at 4701 Coconut Creek Pkwy has been a South Florida institution since 1967, serving breakfast alongside sandwiches and dinner entrees. The oversized coffee cup is the signature. This branch runs 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, so the 24-hour version means driving to the Fort Lauderdale location on State Road 84.
La Bamba Mexican and Spanish Restaurant at 5452 W Sample Rd, in the Peppertree Plaza area, is the group dining answer on the north side of the city. Reviewers keep coming back to the warm tortilla chips and salsa that arrive first, and steak fajitas, enchiladas and pitchers of margaritas do the rest. It suits families and birthday tables better than a quiet dinner, so a weekday lunch table is easy and Friday evening is a wait.
For a sit-down Sunday meal, our Margate brunch guide covers the brunch rooms and coffee counters separately, which matters because The Gem Eatery is closed that day.
Worth the Drive Over the Coral Springs Line
Four kitchens just outside Margate get named by locals often enough to belong in an honest list, and none is more than about 15 minutes away.
Falafel Gourmet at 4344 N State Road 7 in Coral Springs, in the plaza north of Sample Road, handles the vegetarian question better than anywhere in Margate, with falafel, chicken, beef and lamb shawarma, hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanouj and veggie kibbeh (Falafel Gourmet). Independents like this work out of storefronts with almost no back room, which is why 10×10 storage units, about half a one-car garage, are a common answer for catering gear and seasonal stock.
Livello at 2047 N University Dr in Coral Springs runs wood-fired Italian with handcrafted pasta, vegan options and a cocktail list, and it’s one of the few nearby kitchens doing lunch and dinner service properly. It’s closed Mondays and serves 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., then again from 5 p.m. (Livello). Sunday’s midday service is a brunch.
La Marsa at 6268 W Sample Rd in Coral Springs is a halal Mediterranean kitchen that’s been serving the area since 2006, with an extensive menu that suits a group (La Marsa). It’s open from 10 a.m. daily, which makes it an easy early lunch.
Big Bear Brewing Co at 1800 N University Dr has brewed on site since July 1997 with no preservatives in the beer, and pairs it with an American grill menu of homemade soups, dressings and sauces made from scratch daily (Big Bear Brewing Co). Happy hour runs daily from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. It closes earlier than most South Florida brewpubs, at 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:30 p.m. on weekends, so plan it as an early evening.
Parking, Reservations and the Hours That Catch People Out
Parking is the easiest part of eating in Margate. Every restaurant in this guide sits in a plaza with free surface parking, so the valet math that shapes a night on Las Olas doesn’t apply. What you’re managing instead is drive time between plazas and the left turns on 441 at rush hour.
Reservations are rarely necessary and occasionally essential. Pasta And is the only place where a weekend table needs booking. Everywhere else the strategy is timing: weekday lunch, or before 6 p.m. on a weekend, and you’ll walk in.
Mondays are the real trap. Pasta And, Anne Marie’s Pizza Co, Livello and The Gem Eatery all close on Mondays, which removes the Italian option at three price points and the best breakfast room at once. Toasted Cafe shuts at 2 p.m. daily and Jasmine Thai closes between 3 and 5, so a midafternoon meal is narrower than it looks. Delish Caribbean, Grace of God, Marthabrae and Lester’s Diner are the seven-day fallbacks.
Weather shapes the calendar too. Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks around September 10 (NOAA National Hurricane Center). Restaurants with patio seating spend storm watches hauling furniture indoors, and plenty of local businesses keep that seasonal overflow in a 5×10 unit, which holds the contents of one room, rather than a back hallway. Snowbird season from January to April is the opposite problem, filling dining rooms; residents who close a condo for the summer often leave boxes and seasonal gear in a 5×5 locker instead of hauling them north.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best restaurant in Margate?
Pasta And is the best restaurant in Margate for a special occasion, serving northern Italian with house-made pasta and a large Italian wine list at 4990 W Atlantic Blvd. For everyday eating, Delish Caribbean and Grace of God on State Road 7 give you more food for the money.
What are the highest-rated restaurants in Margate?
Spanky’s Cheesesteak & Wings Factory is one of the top-rated restaurants on Tripadvisor’s Margate list, and The Gem Eatery is a local favorite for breakfast and brunch. La Marsa, just over the Coral Springs line, is another highly rated pick. Ratings shift constantly, so treat all three as a starting point.
What’s Margate, FL known for?
Margate is known as a quiet residential Broward County suburb of about 58,700 people, built around roughly 30 miles of canals and 19 city parks, 7.5 miles from the Atlantic (City of Margate). On the food side, it’s known for cheap and excellent Caribbean, Haitian and Jamaican cooking along State Road 7.
How far is it from Fort Lauderdale to Margate, Florida?
From downtown Fort Lauderdale it’s roughly 14 miles northwest, about a 30-minute drive in normal traffic and longer at rush hour, which is close enough to come up for dinner on State Road 7 and be home the same evening. The airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, is about 20 minutes out, and the beach at Pompano Beach is another 9 miles east along Atlantic Boulevard.
Is Margate good for a night out?
Margate works for a relaxed night out rather than a late one. Jesse’s Sports Bar & Grill stays open until 4 a.m. on Sunday, Thursday and Friday, and Delish Caribbean’s kitchen runs to 4 a.m. on Saturday, but most restaurants close by 9 or 10 p.m. For a bigger evening, Seminole Casino Coconut Creek is about 15 minutes away.
Where Value Store It Fits Into a Margate Kitchen or Move
Restaurants aren’t the only thing that runs out of room in a 9-square-mile city. Value Store It’s Margate location rents month-to-month with no long-term contract and puts individual alarms on the units. A 5×15 unit, which holds the contents of two rooms, or a 10×5 storage space for a furnished bedroom suits the boxes and equipment a condo or a small storefront can’t hold. Step up to a 10×15 storage unit for a two-bedroom apartment or a 10×20 unit for a three-bedroom home during a renovation, and the 10×30 units take a four-bedroom home or a business inventory. If you’re unsure which fits, the storage unit size guide beats guessing.
Planning a bigger trip around the food? Pair this guide with our roundup of things to do in Margate, the Margate shopping guide for the plazas these restaurants share, and our guide to moving to Margate if the meal is really a scouting trip.
