Cedar River - Lake City

Pros: tasty food, large portions, affordable prices. Cons: food served cold or ill prepared, tired decor, dirty restrooms. Options available for gluten-free and Low FODMAP. When you sit down, they give you seafood dip which is cream cheese with shrimp, tilapia and crab with Old Bay seasoning. Good but cream cheese is the strongest flavor. Served with wheat Club crackers. For the appetizer, we had fried mozzarella sticks. They were frozen and not fried enough for the cheese to melt properly. Instead, the cheese was still in block form with slight melt and the crusty outer layer was too thick. The marinara sauce for dipping was good, but from a jar. Entrees tasted good, but all entrees were served cold at a time when there were few people in the place. The seasoning on the blackened scallops and mahi-mahi (both upcharges) was delicious. The seafood was cooked well. The Mac cheese was okay, creamy and cheesy, but could use a crispy cheese layer or bread crumbs. The coleslaw was a mayonnaise base and okay. The hush puppies were oil soaked and inedible. The grilled shrimp was a large portion with 3 skewers of 6 shrimp each coated with a honey butter sauce and seasoning over yellow rice. Really delicious but absolutely cold. Chose a baked potato and green beans from a long menu of side options. The potato was well cooked and the green beans well seasoned. The potato was hot, but the beans were not. Service was attentive and prompt. The place was a little rough. Felt shabby and run down. Seemed like a discount seafood restaurant that was tired. I had heard positive reviews on Cedar River Seafood, but it's not for me.

I am updating my review from several years ago. Today was passing through and couldn't wait to come here fir lunch! Still FIVE stars! Enjoy the shrimp cocktail and clam chowder ! Greens are fresh, cold , crunchy and delicious! Kind and professional staff who were very friendly! Clean accessible restrooms and accessible parking! Great food for a fair price! Highly Recommend!

Nice friendly place, service was hood. If you like fried seafood, its the place. Large portions. All the fried stuff I had was good. Also ordered blacken grouper, a little disappointed but my boyfriend had the fried platter and grouper was good fried. My bad.

According to Yelp, Cedar River is one of the top restaurants in Lake City. We fish off the east coast of Florida, are knowledgeable about fish and love to eat fish. This meal was pretty disappointing. While you receive a good amount of fish there is really no distinction in the taste between blackened and grilled. I ordered the grouper special....if it was grouper I'm not sure what country it came from because the fillets were so small and thin. My husband ordered flounder. The good news was it wasn't over cooked but very bland. We ordered sides of fried pickles which were the best part of the meal, collards that had a weird taste and okra and tomatoes that were funky tasting. The hush puppies were greasy. If you like wine, don't order it here. My husband's beer was good and cold. Our server was very friendly and attentive.

We were on a road trip and stopped in Lake City for lunch since we wanted seafood. We had fried crawfish, alligator and flounder. But most of all our server Jessica was very friendly and funny. We enjoyed our food and the customer service. If in the area, we would come back again.