La Cita Golf & Country Club — Restaurant in Titusville

In its heyday, La Cita Country Club set the standard for country clubs on Florida’s Space Coast. When its doors opened in 1985, this landmark country club attracted some of the region’s most influential golfers and socialites; not just from the immediate area, as most new clubs tend to do, but from as far as Orlando, Palm Beach and Jacksonville.

The course is a traditional blend of manicured turf, decorative landscapes, and native woodlands. Mature trees line many of the fairways and water comes into play on 14 holes. Break out the bird watcher’s guide as you make your way around; you’re bound to encounter white egrets, sand hill cranes, ospreys, hawks, and even the occasional eagle.

La Cita is definitely not your typical Florida golf course[.] In fact, it’s very challenging no matter which set of tees you play. The course takes full advantage of the surrounding topography; in addition to the lakes and woods, you’ll encounter small hills and slight elevation changes, something not common in this part of the state. For the most part, the greens are small and elevated. They tend to run on the fast side and roll true, which only adds to the excitement.

A full complement of practice facilities — including a driving and chipping range — are at your disposal. There’s also a large practice putting green in front of the clubhouse. The range maxes out around 200 yards, so most players won’t be able to hit driver.

Plenty of doglegs and mature oak trees with overhanging branches will challenge your accuracy, especially off the tee. Your accuracy is greatly rewarded on approach shots as well, because many of the greens are very small and crowned.

After your round, be sure to stop by the clubhouse for a cold beverage and some great food. The well-stocked bar has all your favorite libations, as well as several domestic and craft brews on tap and a respectable wine list. Seasonal menus authored by executive chef Daro Chan can be enjoyed for lunch and dinner, as well as a for Sunday brunch. Chan was lured to La Cita last fall from Indian River Preserve, a nearby public course. His regional reputation is formidable, and his culinary range impressive.

One of the menu selections that piqued my palate was the Pot Roast Poutine: tender braised prime rib tips and cheese curds in a rich, brown gravy. At the time of this writing, it was available for both lunch and dinner. Another interesting option is the Salmon BLT: poached, flaked salmon, bacon and Swiss cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla with lettuce, vine-ripe tomato and lemon-dill mayonnaise.

Until only a few years ago, the club was in decline; despite the previous owners’ good intentions, appearances were not being kept up. In December 2016, the property was purchased by Vivian Dimond, an influential and highly respected South Florida real estate developer and investor who is also a famously gracious hostess. She immediately set out to restore La Cita to its former glory, from the clubhouse to the greens, where a new irrigation system was immediately installed, and a fleet of new golf carts purchased. Granted, the work continues, but conditions are improving on a daily basis, particularly on the golf course.

In addition to the Stay-and-Play component and member-for-a-day specials, La Cita currently offers some great golf membership opportunities. The Unlimited Membership includes unlimited access to the golf course, driving rage, tennis and racquetball courts, swimming pool, athletic club and clubhouse. Corporate memberships are also available. Snowbirds will appreciate the seasonal membership, which can be purchased with or without golf cart privileges. (All memberships have a low monthly food and beverage minimum.)

As La Cita puts members and guests first, and completes its renovations, this once-famous course should regain its place of prominence on the Space Coast. My advice: Play this course while you can; once restoration is complete, getting a tee time...

Played La Cita today and it was just ok. On the positive side, the course layout is fantastic and the price was fair. There is loads of potential here to make this course a gem. There are good, challenging holes, lots of water, changes in elevation and gorgeous oak trees throughout the course. But it is only potential at the moment. The course needs lots of work. Most of my lies today were very poor, lots of grassless and sandy areas. When there was grass, it felt like a luxury and made me imagine how good this course probably used to be and could definitely be again. Many concrete cart paths are in disrepair and need a lot of work. It makes for a bumpy ride and my girlfriend was very uncomfortable with the jostling around. Either fix them or remove them. The carts themselves were nice. There was no map on the scorecard, so 2 or 3 times, we didn't know which way to go. This should be a no brainer and it is extremely commonplace at most golf courses, so it is expected and needed. Also missing from the scorecard were the blue tee yardages! What is that about? The course also had no blue tee markers on it. The hole signs showed blue teeing grounds and yardages, these tee markers should be present on the course. You are missing out on a large segment of golfers who prefer playing a course from the tips. Currently from the white tees, the course only plays just over 6,000 yards. That's not enough for some big hitters. Reinstall the blue tee markers! There were many ball washers, which is nice, but there were either no or ratty towels on them. This is a simple and cheap fix that should be done. Add garbage cans on every hole. Some didn't have one. Bunkers were in rough shape. They need new sand and the patrons need to be implored to rake after use. There are some areas that obviously used to be bunkers, but have been allowed to grow in with grass. These should be restored. Greens were actually pretty true. They looked a lot worse than they actually are. They feel very close to being quite good, which is a bonus. There was only one person I encountered in the pro shop and they were not very engaging, but they were very efficient. The clubhouse itself is gorgeous. There was a wedding set up to day and it looked really nice. So, all in all, an average experience with tons of potential to make it well above average. Hopefully the owner keeps at it to make the necessary improvements and restore La Cita's glory!

UPDATE 7/27/25: Please cut new holes in the greens. It such a simple thing to do and it hasn't been done in ages. The holes were REALLY bad today. Just have one of the groundskeepers spend an hour and half doing this task that should be a regular part of course maintenance. It's an easy way to make an improvement to the course. On the plus side, it was really great to see the bunkers fully raked...

Extremely rude, unprofessional staff, over priced, save yourself your time and money.. Do not book events at this place.. event planner and venue manager have no clue what it takes to do the bare minimum.. we were contacted a half hour before our event that has been scheduled 2 months in advance to tell us that the kitchen will be closing early a half hour after the start of our event because they are hosting an event for 60+ people at the same time as ours! We couldn’t find any other place to accommodate our party with such short notice because it was a group of senior citizens having their annual Christmas/holiday get together party. So we ended up going anyway, to start off , service was absolutely terrible, but we were all being patient with them and tried to be understanding and focus on enjoying our time together, the event coordinator kept pushing and leaning against my chair every time she entered the room which extremely inappropriate behavior and highly unprofessional to say the least. The food that was served to us started off with what the event coordinator claimed to be bread that she had stolen from the other event! Followed by what appeared to be and tasted like food that had been prepared and sitting out for about an hour, what was supposed to be sautéed vegetables had turned into cold vegetables laying in a puddle of oil, accompanied by what was supposed to be a portobello steak that was flavorless and dried out because of how long it had been sitting out.. after getting done with our “meals”, we paid and left a generous tip despite the terrible experience, in comes the “manager” demanding that we pay him $150 for the room. We ended up paying, but will never...