Aqua Opens in Cape Coral, Blending Seafood, Steak, and Pasta

Cape Coral's South Cape dining scene picked up a heavy anchor in mid-March when Aqua Seafood & Steaks opened its doors at 870 SE 47th Terrace inside The Cove at 47th, the luxury mixed-use development that has been reshaping the Cape Coral Parkway corridor since 2024. The restaurant is the fourth location from the Stojkoski family: Goran "Gordon" Stojkoski launched the original Aqua on Fifth Avenue South in Naples in 2011, followed by Bonita Springs in 2022 and North Naples shortly after. The Cape Coral outpost is the only two-story location in the group, pairing a 5,500-square-foot main dining room with a 2,500-square-foot rooftop bar that faces south across the parkway.

The menu replicates what made the Naples flagship a fixture: Mediterranean-style cuisine built on fresh wild-caught local fish, the finest quality steaks available, and fresh locally sourced vegetables, anchored by a raw bar and tableside whole-fish preparations. Pasta sits comfortably in that lineup rather than as a concession to non-seafood eaters. The menu is full of locally sourced meats, fish, vegetables, pasta and an impressive raw bar. That formula matters for pasta enthusiasts specifically: a Mediterranean kitchen that leads with seafood treats pasta as infrastructure, not garnish. Fra Diavolo tossed in brandy with capers and fresh torn basil, or mussels finished with white wine, garlic butter, and lemon zest over pasta, are the kinds of dishes where the noodle earns its plate space.

Gordon Stojkoski was direct about the Cape Coral concept before opening: "It will be identical to the others, right down to the chandeliers and dinnerware." That means the customer-favorite daily happy hour from 4 to 7 p.m., the large wine selection, and the nightly entertainment program carry over intact.

For anyone scoping out the room: the venue works best as a date-night destination or a bar-seat stop during happy hour, when the raw bar and small plates let you graze across the menu's breadth without committing to a full dinner. The venue is described as family-friendly with approachable price points, which makes the dining room a reasonable call for groups that include non-adventurous eaters alongside the pasta-forward crowd. The rooftop bar is the shareable detail worth passing along: Cape Coral had no rooftop bar scene before this opened, and Aqua's 2,500-square-foot perch above the parkway is the only elevated outdoor bar in the development.

The fra Diavolo is the pasta dish to order on the first visit. The combination of brandy heat, capers, and torn basil sits in that sweet spot where Italian-American technique meets coastal produce: it is a preparation the Naples and Bonita Springs regulars already know, and Cape Coral diners are now discovering it two blocks from the water. Whether Stojkoski's team develops a Cape Coral-specific pasta to complement that rooftop view is worth watching as the spring season progresses.