Darrell’s Restaurant

I’ve had their vegetable sides several times. Nonna’s beans are great.

First of all, Darrell is a warm and genuine people-​person who cares deeply about the quality of your experience at Darrell’s. His name is on the door for a reason: he’s earned it. From the moment you walk in his door, you are treated like a member of the family — and it has been that way since the very first time I visited and met Darrell at his old location in 2013.
Now he has relocated to the other side of the bridge, and is on the Island. I went there for the first time the other night, and I was not surprised: Same warm feeling, great food, exceptional service and, if he happens to be there — which is most of the time, same big smile. Thank you, Darrell!
Do yourself a favor, and give Darrell’s a try — I know you will be glad you did.

My fiancé and I were lucky enough to stumble upon Darrell’s one afternoon shortly after moving to Florida. We arrived between rushes, so we had the place to ourselves. Darrell himself seated us and took our orders, making recommendations and even bringing us free samples. The ribs fell off the bone, the pulled pork melted in your mouth, but the pig wings were my absolute favorite. I am a huge fan of hot sauce, and Darrell’s homemade is some of the best I’ve ever tasted.
Fast forward a few months: we’ve been back to Darrell’s several times, having an exceptional experience each meal. My fiancé and I are deciding who to have cater our wedding reception on Anna Maria Island and we decide to ask Darrell if he’s willing to make the trip. He says he’d be honored and we meet him at the restaurant to discuss the menu. After we’ve agreed upon our catering plans, Darrell touched base with me every few weeks to make sure nothing had changed and to confirm our menu. I couldn’t believe the quality of customer service he provided… he was hands down one of the best event vendors I’ve ever worked with.
The wedding was a couple weeks ago and I had absolute RAVE reviews about the food. Our friends and family were enamored of his decadent mac ‘n’ cheese, the tri-​color baked beans, the juicy smoked chicken, and the fluffy corn bread. My husband and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the quality of both the food and the service. Thank you, Darrell!!!
In short, no matter what you order from Darrell’s, you won’t be disappointed. This family business knows how to provide delicious food with excellent service at a great price. In short, if you’re in Venice make sure you hit this place!
(Note that the restaurant recently moved to a downtown location and they haven’t yet reopened… check their website or Facebook page before planning your visit)

Excellent food and great service!!! We enjoy the owners as well!!! Great people and great place to be!!! Thank you, Darrell, for always making our experience a great one!!! We always enjoy going there. Both Darrell and Lisa (the owners) have always been good too us and the service is impeccable.

We just arrived to eat here and they are out of business. Not one thing is in or on the property:(
Just discovered they are only moving! Yea! Congratulations! They will be back!

Amazing!!! The best cornbread I have ever eaten… Deep South decadence! Creamy tasty Mac n cheese… Bbq pork wings fall off the bone melt in your mouth good! And the most flavorful cucumber salad ever … Really tasty. This place is a cut above the rest … Flavor profile is right on!!!

An outstanding find. We had the Thursday special, pulled pork over Mac and cheese, and the bbq sampler. Both were very tasty. Mac and cheese is a must and the brisket was very good. Not many people in the restaurant at 7ish, had great service. They are moving to a new location in May.

Great food and friendly staff. Had the chicken pot pie special and mac and cheese. Girlfriend had pulled Piggy and collard greens. The food was very tasty and the mac and cheese is worth getting.

A little difficult to find but so worth it! Absolutely best mac n cheese I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot! Perfect smoked chicken. Husband had ribs and chicken, fried okra and fries. Everything is from scratch. Drinks come in big mason jars. Waitress was very attentive and friendly named Micha. Oh and the cornbread is amazing! I would love the recipes! I will be coming back.
I’m told they are moving to a better location the end of this month.
Wow! Good stuff!

His place rivals any BBQ place I’ve been to. The service fantastic for any area but exceptionally good in the Venice area.
Try the chicken and dumpling soup. Try the header but share it. The wife loves the salmon salad with balsamic dressing. The kids love the Mac n cheese and grandpa loves the fried okra. Something for everyone for sure.
Oh yea, they make their own white and red sangria in house.

Awesome food, awesome service. Our waitress was wonderful her name is Micha! Will definitely be coming back here

Great food and wonderful service and family atmosphere. and some great ribs and smoked chicken. will be looking forward to our next visit…

Great barbecue! Everything is of high quality. My favorites are the chicken and dumpling soup and the brisket.

Really good barbecued ribs and smoked chicken. The BEST Mac an cheese ever. A must stop.

Nice Southern inspired menu. Located in a funky little plaza; It was warm enough that I was able to enjoy outdoor seating. I enjoyed very friendly service. Fried chicken was good, & accompanied by corn bread & two sides. My greens were very tasty, & not over-​salted (like you get here up North!)-they were just right. I will definitely visit again, the next time I am in the area.

A little hard to spot from the road. We can’t wait to come back on our next vacation. The ribs are litterly fall off the bone yummy! Fried chicken is flavorful & juicy. Mashed potatoes & gravy are like home made… loved the baked beans too. Mason glasses for drinks are a nice touch too!
The waitstaff as SO genuinely friendly and attentive!
I heard they will be relocating in March down the road to a better location,
Thank God for Unilocal!We would not have found this place otherwise.

Wow! Pleasant surprise. This place is tucked into a courtyard plaza on the 41 bypass cluttered with pawn and other unsightly businesses. Once again learning to not judge a book, restaurant, by its cover or neighboring businesses. I had the Andy Dandy. Pulled pork shoulder and slow smoked midwestern beef brisket. This came with choice of a side, I got collard greens, all of this was absolutely A plus. I also got the mac n cheese (had to try it), mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and cobler for dessert. The coleslaw had a wonderful crunch to it. The only constructive criticism I have is to lay off of the spray chemical cleaner when people are eating it mists up into the are and kinda wrecks the whole dining experience!
Wait staff is the best Ive seen in Florida! Really cozy interior too!

I love barbeque. I am always looking for more. Most of all, I am just looking for a place that actually tastes good. As I was in Venice, I got that hankering and searched around. As I saw Darrell’s, we decided to give it a try for lunch. It took a while for us to be seated, which is surprising considering it was empty.
After looking at the menu, we ordered the following items:
Hungry Heffer
Mac n Cheese
Mash and gravy
Fried green tomatoes
Chicken and dumplings
I love to create my own buffet when going to a new restaurant, we all get to try all of the new items instead of having to stick to just one plate. Overall, though, there wasn’t really anything that stood out. The food was greasier than I would have expected from all of the other reviews and the flavor wasn’t anything spectacular. I may return at some point later in life just to see if anything has changed, but I won’t go out of my way to come back.

came here yesterday for the first time. Diffidently the aloha vib here. I couldn’t express to you anymore how welcomed you will feel as soon as you walk in! Strange location, but super cute! Little hard to find in the plaza due to small hidden sign behind a column but you’ll find it near the fountain. But soon enough they’re relocating onto the beach so kudos for this guy! Right off the bat we were joyfully greeted by the owner himself, he sat is down asked us what we’d like to drink and said our server would be right with us surly enough right as he stepped away to grab our drink our waitress came on over asking what we’d like to drink and to all of our surprise there Darrell was with our drinks we were all laughing bustin chops, looked over the menu for what seemed like forever because everything looks so good. He recommend mac n cheese and it really helped me quick decide so I got it absolutely scared out of my skin to order «homemade» Mac and cheese because no matter where you go there’s always something gross and funky about people’s restaurant «homemade» mac n cheese. What was not even a 10 – 15 min wait from placing our order our food was being walked on over to us. It not only looked delish it smelt mouth watering! Once we drenched our food in their bbq sauces we dug right on in… Died and came back. Food was so good it was speechless but me being me I couldn’t shut up about how good it was. Great dish! The pork was cooked beautifully, shredded nicely and presented pretty :) Mac n cheese itself was dull. In a good way! Actually a great way and let me tell you why once you’ve got not only that pork on top once you add that bbq… OMG. But wait that’s not it, what really made this dish. Was the corn bread! It was made with love. I mean. All the food is, I’m nosey I watched everyone’s dish come out and smelt them as they were walked past me and placed a table over. That corn bread was rich, heavy and sweet! Not many restaurants nail a great corn bread taste! I can’t stress this Mac n cheese enough I’m so glad I tried it and I’m sorry for ever just read this long rant! Moving on my man being a man of course didn’t super rant on his dish at least not like how I did but he did eat all of his food… And the rest of mine: D and he’s not typically the human vacuum type of guy… So he obviously enjoyed it and we are both absolutely thrilled to be coming back to this location and the new location that soon will be opening up on the beach. Before we had left Darrell had offered up dessert. I can’t say no to food! Come on now! Got his banana dessert… Dude off the chart if you love bananas or banana cream/​pudding pie you’re gonna love this! You’d think after such a huge meal you’d want to not just crawl out the restaurant more like sloth on out… This dessert is so light and. Oddly refreshing it sort of knocks you out of that food coma, come on now we all know that feeling where you hold your food and gaze at it like «ugh ew man done eating you feel like crap now» it’ll about 80% go away (: upon the time being here lots of bustin chops laughing, being loud and … Being personable which is a great attribute to not only a great restaurant but the owner himself (: people love that !! Gives you a reason to be a loyal customer who keeps coming back telling everyone about the place. And no matter where I go now I’m gonna have to tell people about this place because. You can tell those who work here love it. And you can see the passion from Darrell sunbeam right out of him. Love the passion here everyone has for this place! Kid friendly, people friendly, nice little plaza area. Takes AMEX!!(: k I think I’m done!
Just check it out! You’ll love it! You leave with this high of joy it’s like … Twilight zone happy.

Get your FAT pants on and show up hungry! This place is AwEsOmE! Southern classics just the way Mee-​Maw used to make. The Fried Okra, Southern fried chicken, pulled pork, smoked brisket, black eyed peas and catfish were all worthy of a 5 star rating. The woman that owns the place was as sweet as can be and the service was excellent as well. If you’re staying on the island… Get down here, if you’re not… GET DOWN HERE!

Hab in ganz sw Florida kein besseres pulled pork gegessen. Unbedingt ein abstecher einplanen und darrels besuchen. Super delicious and the best pulled pork I know in sw Florida. Perfect service!