Chart House

Chart House Restaurant Review:

There are three reasons to visit the Chart House. For starters, the view is primo, allowing guests to take in panoramas of the Jacksonville skyline, the St. John's River, and the Riverwalk. Architecture buffs will be wowed by the restaurant's low-slung building --- designed by architect Frank Gehry and inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. And then there's the hot chocolate lava cake, a chocolate soufflé topped with vanilla ice cream, Heath bar crunch, and bittersweet Belgium chocolate sauce with a molten Godiva center that actually explodes. Yet it seems ironic that a Wright-inspired structure would be decorated with wooden models of ships, nautical art, and tables topped with laminated sea-charts. Still, steaks and seafood are nothing out of the ordinary but the setting is lovely. Prime rib is the house specialty, and fresh seafood ranges from macadamia-crusted mahi with warm peanut sauce with a hint of Frangelico to a coconut shrimp with crab fried rice.