We were excited to visit and support the Bubble Room, as they'd been closed for a long time due to the storm damage. The restaurant is full of kitschy decorations, toys, photos of yesteryear and a unique place to be sure. The seating for four was a little tight - tables are close together and the buzzing staff skirted by fairly continuously during the meal. Everyone was friendly and overall, the service was OK. The food on the other hand, was pretty mediocre. The fish dishes were overcooked and tough. A raw tuna appetizer was discolored and off (we didn't eat it). The fish dip app was weirdly baked and average in taste. Deserts were very good and one should definitely get a slice of their cake (even to share). Although the meal wasn't overly expensive, it wasn't cheap either. There are better options in my opinion on Captiva and Sanibel. Glad I went here once, but that's probably my only visit. read more

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My wife has wanted to go here for years so we finally did. The decor inside is very cool. I had the pork chops, and she had the salmon with shrimp. The prices are not cheap but you grt what you pay for, the food was delicious. You also have to save room for cake afterwards. We took ours to go and had it back in our room. Very very good cake. Food came quickly and was on point. Don't forget to look around the place there are 3 floors to explore. Try and find the train whistle attached to the string... read more

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Super fun place to have lunch! We went for the quirky experience - tons of memorabilia on the walls, lots of Christmas decor, themed areas. It works because it's so over the top and the staff is equally committed. Can't imagine how much work it was to pull this place back together after hurricane damage - kudos to those involved! Parking was pretty easy, but we went late afternoon on a weekday before high season was in full effect. We sat at the Lover's Table, which was very cute and included a loveseat that faced out at the restaurant. Our server was exceptional. He was knowledgeable, attentive and fun, but not pushy. We ordered the Napoleon Bonapart (prime rib sandwich), crab cake meal, orange crunch cake, iced tea & lemonade. All the food was good. The crab cakes were our favorite and the white rice that came with it was really delicious - perhaps it was a coconut rice? Typically white rice is pretty bland, but this one was very good. I realize everyone raves about the desserts, particularly the orange crunch cake. It was good, but perhaps the reviews hyped it a bit too much. Or perhaps it just needs to sit out a bit before serving, as it's served cold so the frosting is pretty firm. We found that the leftovers we had later at room temp were much better. I'd definitely recommend Bubble Room to others for the experience. The food is fine, but the ambiance and fun will be great memories. read more

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My friend suggested the newly re opened Bubble Room for my Birthday. While they do not generally do reservations, they do take them for large groups. There is plenty to look at while you wait, as well as a gift shop across the street. When coming up with a theme, it seems that three different people had three different ideas: Christmas, old Hollywood, and under the sea. Then they just decided to do all three. The result is a whimsical mash up, one room decorated for Christmas with a train running through an upper balcony, another with table side fishtanks, and the woman's bathroom plastered in Hollywoods golden age stars. There's something to see anywhere you sit, though warning for those who get overstimulated. We sat in the smaller upstairs room, which managed to combine all three themes. The server did an amazing job of taking care of nine adults and three kids. Their menu is a good size, with good options: salads, seafood, steak, but not overwhelming. They also have a kids menu. Then they brought a giant basket of bread and cinnamon rolls. Be careful to not fill up as the bread is so good. I had the grouper with a creamy sauce, which came with a twice baked potato, and veggies. You can pick the fish and the preparation style. All of the food was great, despite being full, our group managed to share a few (giant) slices of cake. The Bubble room is known for their cake, making it the perfect end for a birthday dinner. Both the chocolate and the orange crush were delicious. Captiva was a bit of a drive, but the restaurant was worth it for a great birthday experience. read more

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1. Very unique place 2. Great atmosphere 3. Amazing decorations 4. Great food 5. 100% will come back when I visit Sanibel. 6. Les was an amazing waiter read more

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You can't pass this place up. The cutest restaurant you ever did see. Filled with all types of memorabilia. There isn't an empty space on the walls. So many things from my childhood. Oh, the memories it brought back. Food is extraordinary too. The portions sizes are exceptional. And the dessert!!! Wow! Delicious. Do not miss this place while visiting Captiva. Well worth the money. read more

The Bubble Room Emporium - The restaurant - Gift Shops Near Me - Captiva, Florida

A trip to Sanibel isn't complete without a meal at the Bubble Room! I'm glad they've been able to reopen after the hurricane. It's Christmas every day at the Bubble Room, which is covered in antique and funky decor, a few Santas included. Tacky in a good way. The service is good, and the food is tasty. You start with a sweet and savory mix of cheesy toast and cinnamon buns. I then got the pistachio crusted Mahi which was delicious. I also tried the crab cakes and she crab soup which were great as well. The cakes are massive and were more that we wanted on this trip so we went across to Boop by the Bubble Room, which is right in front where the gift shop used to be (which is now across the street) and got fantastic ice cream. Definitely recommend! read more

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Well this crazy place should be on your must try list. The waitress was adorable! The food! The drinks! The cake!!! Just go and try it for yourself. read more

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Landmark restaurant that delivers a unique themed experience. The food and drinks remain consistently good. The desserts are a unique treat that can't be copied anywhere else. Prices are acceptable for the location and quality of the food. There is something for everyone on the menu. They even had a gluten free hamburger bun for my friend who has a gluten sensitivity. The bubble servers happy& fun demeanor is infectious! So glad the Bubble Room is back! As a long time resident of SW Florida so many great places from the past no longer deliver a great dining experience. The Bubble Room has come back just as tasty as I remember. read more

What is better than a slice of cake? Perhaps eating it on the beach while watching the sun go down. Well, at Bubble Room, this vision is possible. The cake selection at this location is to die for. Bubble Room's menu features cakes such as French Chocolate Torte, Very Moist Chocolate, Jamaican Rum Cake, Key Lime Pie, Butter Crunch Ice Cream Pie, Tropical Breeze, New York Style Cheesecake, White Christmas, Red Velvet, and a fan favorite, Orange Crunch. I've had the pleasure of trying some of these cakes, and boy, are they good!!! Melt-in-your-mouth, take-you-to-heaven good. Every bite is insanely moist and fresh, with flavors that truly explode -- rich chocolate, bold rum, bright citrus -- whatever you choose, it delivers. Oh, and they're HUGE. Great bang for your buck $$. Beyond just the cakes, they offer both lunch and dinner menus that highlight mainly seafood dishes. YUH-UM! A little history on the place, Bubble Room was established in 1979 to mimic life in the 1920s-1950s. The entire restaurant is decorated with carnival-like decor, immersing the guests in a nostalgic experience. And they definitely do just that! I'd go back in a heart-beat. Cake lovers, don't walk... run. read more

The Bubble Room Emporium - Gift Shops Near Me - Captiva, Florida

The Bubble Room has reopened! If you've never been, you must go. The food is wonderful, but the desserts are out of this world. Must try the orange crunch cake. What you see in the picture is the actual sizes of the cakes (huge), and well worth the million calories! Although the wait time for our party of six took a bit, it was well worth the wait. The prices were reasonable, with a decent selection. Although nobody in our group had one, there was a drink they served in a pineapple that looked really good. Whether you're old or young, you'll enjoy looking at all the vintage items that are in every nook and cranny. I don't remember our waiter's name, but he was awesome. read more

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The Bobble Room is awesome, a completely unique restaurant worth the drive out to Captiva. The food was some of the best we experienced on our last trip to Florida. I highly recommend the Bubble Room restaurant and it's associated gift shop across the street. This is definitely an experience I will not soon forget. read more

Food was okay. Way too much going on. Decoration made me recognize the vastness and lack of importance of time. At the end of the day, nothing we do matters and none of it ever will matter. We're all just tiny ants doing meaningless tasks. Once our grand kids die, the truth is no one will remember a single thing we do. Does anything even matter or is everything inherently meaningless? I was twenty-six when my father died. We buried him on a grey Tuesday, the kind of day that feels embarrassed to exist. A dozen people stood around the grave, umbrellas dripping, saying the small true things people say when words have already failed. He had worked forty-three years in the same factory, raised three children, loved one woman until her own heart gave out first, and kept a tiny garden where tomatoes grew sweeter than anywhere else. That was his whole life. When the minister said "ashes to ashes," I remember thinking: that really is it. A handful of soil, a few photographs that will yellow, grandchildren who will forget the sound of his laugh. The universe didn't pause. The traffic lights kept cycling. Somewhere a star burned out and no one on Earth noticed. Most of us will leave even less. We wake, we worry, we fall in love, we nurse someone through fever, we stand in grocery lines humming songs we half-remember, we grow tired and old and frightened and brave in ordinary proportions. We try to be kind on the days we can manage it. We fail, we try again. And then, quietly, we're gone. The bedroom we painted that soft impossible blue gets painted over by strangers. The jokes that once made our friends collapse in laughter die with the last person who understood them. Eight billion hearts beat right now, each certain it is the center of something, and every single one will stop without moving the stars even a fraction closer together. Yet every night I still catch myself talking to the dark like it might be listening. I say thank you for the way my daughter's hair smells after rain, for the friend who answered the phone at 3 a.m., for the brief, ridiculous joy of a perfect cup of coffee on a morning when nothing hurts. I don't know to whom I'm speaking--God, the dead, the empty air--but the gratitude feels necessary, like breathing. It's absurd: this stubborn refusal to let the story end with "and then it meant nothing." I think that refusal is the most human thing about us. So yes, we are small. We are grains of salt spilled on a table that stretches farther than longing can reach. But salt still remembers the sea. And sometimes, when I kiss my child goodnight or when a stranger and I laugh together over some small shared stupidity, I feel the ancient tide moving in us anyway--something that insists, against all evidence, that love is not just a trick to keep us breeding, that tenderness matters even when no one is keeping score. Maybe that insistence is delusion. Or maybe the delusion itself is the thinnest, brightest thread connecting us to whatever made the stars in the first place. I don't know. I only know that tomorrow I will wake up and make breakfast and try, once again, to be gentle with the unbearable brevity of being alive. And that feels, for reasons I will never explain, like enough. Waiter was nice! read more

Such a nostalgic place. Great food , great service and a really cool atmosphere . All the blast from the past around . read more

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We sat at the bar upstairs and were served by Dave the bartender. He made everything so fun and made some amazing drinks. I highly recommend! read more

Our server was lovely, the food tasted fantastic and the atmosphere is so unique and fun! A must try when visiting. read more

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The dessert is ridiculous! Just amazing The orange cake is worth every single bite!!! read more

The Bubble Room Emporium is a cute little shop that has lots of little and unique souvenirs. It is located across the street of the Bubble Room restaurant. They do offer some Bubble Room merchandise such as cups, pictures, post cards, cups and shirts along with non Bubble Room merchandise. They have some specialty items that are thousands of dollars but clearly are antiques and collectibles. There is a lot to look at and lots for you to buy. The store itself used to be much smaller and had really small variety of items. They in the last few years expanded and moved across the street. Even if you don't eat at the Bubble Room (which you should definitely eat at) you can stop in and do some shopping. I like to buy the bubble room postcards and have also bought glasses and tee-shirts. Make sure to grab your $5 off if you eat at the Bubble Room. The shop is also really cool so on a hot day it is a great place to walk around and take a peak at. My only complaint is they are pretty expensive and I would love to see more Bubble Room items. They have a few but we love the restaurant so we would love to have more souvenir options to buy. My favorite antique is the old timey shooting game which now lives behind the registers. I would definitely recommend stopping and taking a peak. read more

Wonderful shop across from the famed Bubble Room restaurant. It has an excellent assortment of gifts and Bubble Room accessories. It is also a museum with a wonderful assortment of antique games and amusement items. It is a real fun place to go before or after the Bubble Room. It is a large shop with t shirts, eccentric gifts and toys. read more

Food was just ok and very expensive $120 for two . Interesting place though visit during lunch where the prices are more reasonable.

The Orange Crunch cake was delicious!!! Our lunch was amazing and this place had the cutest Christmas tree topper. I highly recommend stopping by for lunch read more

Good value, service & selection of ice cream, orange sherbet, floats, cake, breakfast & lunch sandwiches. Good parking across street. My receipt says Boop's by the bubble room. The restaurant is under Hurricane Ian ongoing rehab. read more

So happy to have been on the island for their reopening after Ian shut it down in 2022! We were down from Ohio so our timing was perfect! My wife has been many times as a kid but this was my first visit and it did not disappoint! The food, the service, the memorabilia, ALL of it was worth the trip and money! Oh, and the red velvet and White Christmas cakes were some of the best ever! We'll hope to be back! Congrats to everyone involved in getting this Captiva institution back up and running! read more

A must visit if you're in the fort Myers Sanibel area. AMAZING food, monkey bread, orange cake just to get you started. One of the most unique restaurants you'll ever visit. Don't leave without walking around first. Feels like a place you would eat at Disney world but pure authentic Florida read more

The Bubble Room Emporium is the beloved gift shop for the Bubble Room restaurant. It reopened on August 24, 2019 across Captiva Drive in the building formerly occupied by Albert Meadow Antiques. The buildings was once part of the original Bubble Room property but at one point it was sold off. Now it has been reunited with the Bubble Room. Artist Katie Gardenia founded the Bubble Room restaurant in 1979 in a house. She also owned the 2,000 foot building to the north which used to serve as the emporium and the 6,000 square foot building across the street. She sold the business in 1989 and that is when the antique business that was occupying the building was able to buy it. Since the 1940's it had been an antique store in the front and a two bedroom cottage in the rear. The owner of the Bubble Room Stephen Peach always wanted the third building and entered in a verbal agreement with the owners of the antique store that if they ever wanted to sell the Bubble Room would be able to buy it. When one of the antique store owners passed away it was finally time to take over the building and create a new and larger emporium. Before the emporium could open it need extensive renovation. The building required insulation, new wiring, and fire sprinklers. While all of the work was being done the owners were careful to maintain the buildings historical integrity. Now open the Bubble Room Emporium still has all of the Bubble Room souvenirs along with a few surprises like the early 20th century cast iron shooting gallery from the Oceanside Pier in California that now sits behind the cash registers. There is also a fortune teller machine from 1919. On display is a gas powered tether racing car purchased for Shirley Temple who used to drive it around the 20th Century Fox's lot. Antiques for sale include a Chris Craft coin operated boat ride, a 1950's Ride the Spaceship coin operated ride, two Wurlitzer juke boxes, and motorized Citron and Austin J40 mini cars. In the back of the store is a Gasparini orchestrion that has 100 songbooks. The idea to sell antiques in the emporium was a carry over from the Bubble Room which is three floors full of antiques from the 1930's to the 1950's during the Golden Age of Hollywood. In addition to the antiques, the Bubble Room Emporium has an eclectic selection of items. They offer coastal and beach themed jewelry made with precious metals, leather handbags, yard art, and shirts. Some of my favorite items were the grass flip flops "grown" on Captiva Island, the shirt featuring all of the cake slices from the Bubble Room, and the Spartina line of Florida purses and wallets. If you dine at the Bubble Room you get a $5 off $30 purchase card to use at the emporium. Even if you don't dine at the restaurant it is worth stopping in here. I love what they did with this historic property. The emporium channels the same wacky and wonderful vibe that is embraced at the Bubble Room restaurant across the street. read more

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Wow! When you walk in you are mesmerized by the sensory overload There is a little something for everyone no matter how young or old you are! I could've spent all afternoon in there... but unfortunately I arrived 10 minutes before closing. For anyone that is really into sharks or fishing I highly recommend the baseball hat that looks like a shark took a bite out of part of the bill! I happened to catch a 7 foot lemon shark earlier in the day so it was a definite must have! They even had them in children's sizes. Captiva is really struggling still after hurricane in just over a year ago. If you find yourself in the Sanibel Captiva area, make sure to show as many of the small businesses, as much love as you can. read more

We had a blast! Our party of 6, all enjoyed a large slice of Red Velvet Cake! Tim was our server and he was great! Love this place read more

Perfect spot to grab a fun treat while on the island, we ate lovely ice cream and drinks with the kids. In November it was quite slow which was nice to make it a easy meal with the fam read more

The Bubble Room was an absolutely incredible experience! The overall decor was super cool and really fun! The food was absolutely phenomenal! It was so fresh! The fish was some of the best I have ever had! Also, when you go you have to try the Bubble Bread! It is SO SO SO YUMMY! I also recommend trying the Orange Crunch Cake! It was sweet and sour! It was so good! :) I highly HIGHLY recommend The Bubble Room Emporium! read more

The Bubble Room Emporium - Gift Shops Near Me - Captiva, Florida

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I was last at the Bubble Room in 1990, as a teenager. It was such a fond memory. I was back this week after 31 years, and it was exactly as I remembered. Regular food is just Ok, but the desserts are to die for! It took me 3 days to eat the red velvet cake, but it is out of this world, fantastic! You pay for the experience!! What a unique and quirky place. Since my last visit, they have added an "emporium" gift shop and ice cream shop - but we're delightful! Service was excellent!! read more

The Bubble Room Emporium - Red velvet cake! - Gift Shops Near Me - Captiva, Florida

Lovely gifts reasonably priced. Lots of choices and workers are so nice! Don't miss this.

We are lovers of Sanibel and the bubble room is a true gem if not JUST for the pies. Omg the pies are to die for and it's a must every time we're in town! My family knows this is one of my "musts" on my list every time and it's 110% worth it! read more

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We are Floridians and by far the Bubble Room is a must go. Been coming here for 30+years, plus the Maitland location years back. Captiva always had the little emporium that had a slew of kotchkys and speciality items. We were pleased to see they had the old antique store across the street with many local artists items, gag and funnies, plus your typical Florida tourist items. We replaced our chipped 25year old coffee cup and loads of other little gifts and remembrances of our wonderful experience at the Bubble Room. Love the larger store and the way everything is displayed. The old emporium is now an old fashioned soda fountain with their yummy cakes for sale in that wonderful case that use to lie under the stairwell. read more

The Bubble Room Emporium - Lots of neat items - Gift Shops Near Me - Captiva, Florida

Trilateral nostalgic and great food. I think they came back after the hurricane. I will have to return.

Great atmosphere and food is out of this world. Jennifer was super nice, friendly and very professional.

I came here with my family as a kid, I remember getting a Shirley Temple and eating the best food and then, they brought out the cake. Some type of orange crumble cake. I don't think you understand when I say that this cake lives in my dreams still to this day. I just saw a friend of mine post the cake on Instagram for Thanksgiving, so they are still making it, and the next time I'm in Florida I will make a trip out there to get it. Seriously this orange cake will change your life! And this place will just make you so happy. It's one of my fondest childhood memories! Go check it out! read more

We had such a fun time here! The guys behind the counter made the experience A+. They were so friendly, fun, and made me laugh and smile the whole time. It is extra touches like this that make you remember your experience forever. The ice cream was super tasty and I loved the flavors I got. I had the mint chip and chocolate. Next time I am in the area I will definitely be back. If you're looking for a fun and uplifting experience with a tasty and delicious treat you will love this place. Highly recommended. read more