Rusty Bellies

Rusty Bellies is a five star. The food is delicious, the atmosphere is excellent. I come here 2 to 3 times a month for the garlic white wine mussels, and the rusty bucket! It’s a bucket full of seafood and potatoes and corn. The taste of the food has been consistent with fresh seafood, fresh made burgers, nice selection of wine, and many others. I am a local and this is my spot I always hit up with family and friends.

Hands down, the best! Fresh seafood, great drinks and the bisque is to die for.

Where to start? First if you want fresh seafood stop by and give it a try. I have never had fresher tasting shrimp. On top of the shrimp you MUST try the hush puppies. Best hush puppies I have ever had.

I love their seafood. Fresh and clean. Nice view for outside seating. Server was nice. We ll be back

This is the best waterfront seafood restaurant in North Pinellas! I’ve enjoyed lunch and dinner here for several years and I shop for seafood next door at Pelican Seafood.
During the week I stopped for lunch recently and I was really in the mood for a combination seafood platter.
What I choose was the fried shrimp platter and I also added fried oysters. It came with thin fries and really delicious Cole slaw. The order came out quickly and everything was cooked perfectly. They use a very light breading for the fresh seafood. I can’t forget their complementary and deliciously huge hush puppies.
If you are unfamiliar with Rusty Bellies, they have their own boats and they bring in freshly caught shrimp and fish daily. Can’t get it any fresher. Enjoy!

Great local seafood on the water! Tried this place with my family on vacation and wasn’t disappointed. Hush puppies that everyone raves about on here are all that. But more importantly the entrees are great. Had a Seafood boil, crab legs, oysters, mussels, shrimp, and it was so fresh and good you would have swore they just pulled it out of water and cooked it! Great atmosphere and people and the prices are amazing for what you get!

hush little puppy don’t say a word…
Seriously — I was all hush hush eating these b/​c they are SOOOOOOOOO freakin’ good. And let’s just say I indulged b/​c my dad was buying! We had the most amazing ceviche and I got the shrimp n grits which is my favorite thing to try in Florida. I don’t know why but I cannot seem to pass it up even for lunch.
We got to sit outside at lunch on a Tuesday in April. It was BUSY and after we got up to leave, there was a 20 minute wait… in the middle of the day on a Tuesday… Florida life is still hard for me to figure out. It’s like either everyone is on perpetual vacation or skipping work.
Anyway, everything looked really good on the menu. My mom got the mojito which was wonderfully mixed by the guys at the outdoor bar and our waitress was polite, informative and on top of things. I want me to hush some more puppies.

Some damn good food. Pretty popular place but the wait wasn’t long. Hostesses were very pleasant. Our server, Sam, was definitely busy yet we never had to wait for anything. Fairly good server assist by Tanner when Sam got another big top. More than happy it was recommended on our boat tour to come here. My friend and I are already making plans to have more friends come out with us next time we head this way.

Came here on a Saturday night and the staff was very tentative. Hush puppies where delicious! One of the best I’ve had! Great ambiance, we sat outside and it was just so refreshing with the ocean breeze and great food.
I got the grouper and it was very tasty and fresh! You can taste how fresh the food is which is everything!
There was also live music since it was Saturday evening! Will be coming back for sure!

You know a place is good when your wait time is an hour and a half! Saturday night live music, packed and tasted amazing. Excellent crab cakes and the hush puppies are so good we ordered another round.
Waitstaff was very good even though they were super busy. Tipped extra for the excellent service.
The wait was perfect for a walk around the shops before sitting down.

I was so excited to eat here… until I waited 2 hours to be seated. The hosts didn’t bother to explain why the wait was so long-​even though very few people were waiting. They kept telling us 15 minutes so we just kept waiting. 2 hours later we are starving and they decide to finally seat us at a booth even though we had 2 grandmas in wheelchairs. What a joke. I will absolutely never return.

It was tough getting here since Tarpon Springs was «rockin», and then it took a while to find parking, and then we had to wait half an hour for a table.
IT WAS ALL WORTH IT.
Both my wife and I started with the Stone Crab Soup — excellent — -lots of crab meat and perfectly seasoned. I then had the Crab Cake sandwich. There were two good sized cakes with a delicious sauce, among the best crab cakes I have had. My wife got a simple grilled shrimp skewer and she loved it. The ambiance right on the ocean is perfect and our server, GiGi was friendly and did a perfect job.
One of the best lunches I’ve had in a while.

Good stop for great food and drinks. Nice location on the water in Tarpon Springs, FL.

Fresh and delicious seafood!
This place is adjacent to a seafood market where they get all of their fresh food for their meals. It is at the end of the road in the tourist section of Tarpon Springs, so you have to walk just a little bit off the beaten path. It is well worth the effort. They seat you and you are at a table or booth with paper covering the table. Your server then writes their name upside down on the paper to make sure you remember their name. They are quite talented at this.
You are served a nice-​sized portion of hush puppies before you even order your meal. I’m not much of a hush puppy fan, but I found myself chowing down on these. They were really good. For my main course, I opted for the grouper nuggets. They arrived in a timely fashion, were fresh, and nice and hot. They were also delicious! You could tell this was fresh-​caught seafood!
I would not hesitate to come back here. The seafood is some of the freshest I have ever eaten. The service was also great. We were treated like they wanted us there, and that is getting difficult to find these days. Give this place a try!

This place had some pretty good grouper nuggets. Ate outside on an nice day. I would definitely go back to try more dishes. Staff was very friendly.
***update 5/​22/​16***
Had Kim as our waitress and she was very friendly! We got the grouper sandwich. Wife got hers beer battered I got mine blackened. It was delicious. The hush puppies were great also. We love this place!

The food is just… ok.
The key to enjoying yourself here is to sit at the outdoor bar. You can order from the full menu, you get fast and friendly service overlooking the harbor, and it’s a fun evening.
Indoors, it’s just the look of a chain restaurant, with mediocre food. If you stick with basic items that don’t have many ingredients (stone crab, rock shrimp, hush puppies) you’ll be very happy. I ordered chowder and actually sent it back, it was horrible. Tasteless, not a piece of fish in it, and totally greasy.
I’ll go back, because there aren’t a ton of options in the area, but I’ll stick to the outdoor bar with its nice vibe, and order just the basics.

Rusty Bellie’s is a casual seafood restaurant right on the water in Tarpon Springs. I liked the food, didn’t love the service, but was left thinking that there is something missing here from the overall experience. At the same time, it was certainly a restaurant I found to be worth revisiting in the future if vising the area again. Maybe it was the waitress who seemed like she would rather be enduring a root canal without anesthetic than be there, or some dishes being haphazardly thrown together, but there was just something that didn’t sit right with the experience.
Positives — The fish and seafood is fantastically high quality. The grouper dishes are delicious, as is anything with shrimp (the bucket is awesome). The food is great to such an extent, it’s easy to discount the negatives. It’s laid back, comfort seafood cuisine with some Greek-​ish flavor (grouper souvlaki sandwich = damn good). Combine this with a reasonable selection of microbrews, both local and from abroad, and you really have yourself a great meal.
The primary negative would have to do with service. I think our table was pretty cordial and pleasant in approaching the server, but she must have been having a bad day. Or maybe not. Who knows? The front of the house was quick and nice to deal with. Another complaint was regarding the grouper po boy. The sandwich was just to massive and required fork and knife. I know that this has the mark of a first world problem complaint, but it’s not really a po boy if you can’t pick it up, is it? It’s a grouper (again, damn good grouper) dish with bread on the bottom that you’re better off eating with a fork and knife. I refused to go gently into the good night and just tossed a bunch off until I could close the po boy.
The few negatives aside, I recommend this restaurant.

Our last day of our trip and my husband and I treated our family to the final dinner before our departure. We were quite pleased with Rusty Bellies. It had beautiful views, and was so nice to dine waterfront. The only thing negative I would say is I ordered the grouper souvlaki which was delicious, but it was really just grouper on pita with sauce and onions, I was hoping for some lettuce or something in there since that is usually how souvlaki comes… Everyone loved their meals, the waitress was super friendly and on point, and it was an enjoyable time.
We had a party of 10 and our bill came out to below $ 200 it was shocking!

We were here with a large group, on a hot & sunny Saturday afternoon in November… so I’m not judging the service — the restaurant was packed, and the two girls working our group did a great job keeping all of us happy. And since this was a wedding reception also, we weren’t in a hurry, and appreciated extra time to visit with family.
What I want to talk about is the food. Everyone in our group raved about their meal. Not one grumble of any kind from over 30 people. I ordered the Carly Sue Shrimp N’ Grits… and I was in heaven. Lots of small shrimp sauteed with bacon, in a big bowl of creamy cheese grits, topped with sprinkles of bacon & scallions. I was so excited to have some to bring home! My husband got a Grouper Po’Boy… fried grouper pieces topped with dill sauce & scallions, and served on a bun with lettuce, tomato & onions. It came with kettle chips, and he said they were good. They must have been — he ate almost every one.
My only complaint is that the bathroom on the deck was disgusting. I *could have* gone inside to use what I dearly hope was a fresher bathroom, but the proximity of this one to where we were sitting just inspired me to use more tp on the seat & extra soap washing my hands.
We sat at on the Tiki Deck, which offered a great view of the water & boats. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any dolphins. Lots of fans on the ceiling kept us comfortable in spite of the 86°F weather. After our long lunch, a few of us stayed past sunset to enjoy beer & cocktails together. Even though a big FSU game was on in the bar, none of the TVs were facing our end of the deck, so we had to keep wandering away to check on the game. Around the time we were leaving, the live music began. Of course, we would have loved to stay, but we’d had a long day already and faced a 45 minute drive home.
This was our first visit, and definitely won’t be our last. Lots of other menu items sounded delicious, so I know we’ll be back.

Down past the Greek joints
At the end of the sponge docks,
You’ll find Rusty Bellies.
Every Tarpon local’s favorite spot!
It started as a fish market
But people wanted more.
So they decided to build
A restaurant next door!
Over the years, it’s grown
It’s almost splitting at the seams!
So they added an awesome tiki bar
Where you can watch the sunset beams!
If there’s one thing that brings me here
Stone crab claws are the reason!
But you can only get them Oct. thru May
Otherwise, they’re out of season.
Everything here is good tho.
The seafood is super fresh
You can even see the boats,
The fishermen hauling in their catch!
Start your meal w/​hush puppies
And end it with Keylime pie.
If you wonder how they’re always busy,
Have a meal here, you’ll see why!