This was a super-competitive category, as NY NY, 900º Woodfired & Amici all finished within three votes of each other, while PizzaMania, last year’s #1 “Favorite Pizza in NT & WC,” dropped to 4th in WC this year.
(l-r) Coopers Hawk Churrasco Steak and Azteca D’Oro Taquito
Meanwhile, Wesley Chapel is where chain eateries continue to dominate the landscape, as well as our voting (despite my best efforts to get our readers to vote for non-chains).
But, while Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant did mistakenly appear on the ballots for the first issue of the voting, it was so dominant in the voting after it came off the ballots that it would still have been #1 “Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel” without that one-issue advantage. Anyone who has been to the place on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, when it is still on a wait throughout its dinner hours, can understand how Cooper’s Hawk took home this year’s top prize in WC in its first year of eligibility.
Azteca D’Oro and Grillsmith repeated as our readers’ #2 and #3 Favorites in WC, while last year’s first-place finisher, Noble Crust, dropped to #4 this year. New to this year’s top-10 were Vallarta’s at #5 (up from #12), Mac’s Custom Meats & Deli at #7, Florida Ave. Brewing Co. at #8 (up from #16) and Chuck Lager at #9. Dropping out of this year’s top-10 were Zukku-San (down from #5 to #11), Bubba’s 33 (down from #10 to #19), Bonefish, BJ’s Brewhouse and Bahama Breeze (down from #8 to #17). The last four of these are all chains that weren’t on the ballots. — GN
If everyone in Wesley Chapel is so sick of chain restaurants, then how and why did Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant dominate the voting in this year’s Reader Dining Survey & Contest?
The answer to that rhetorical question is that all of you are tired of mediocre chains and although Cooper’s Hawk isn’t Fleming’s, Charley’s or Ruth’s Chris, it is definitely a step up from most of the other chains in the “Chap.” It boasts a solid menu of very good steaks, good seafood, pretty decent pasta and a nice variety of starters, lunch and brunch menu items.
When you add to that the novelty of getting to taste an ever-changing array of palate-pleasing wines in Cooper’s Hawk’s wine bar (although I wish there were seats in it, or at least allowed), it’s easy to understand why locals are fighting for tables there every night. We’ll see how long the party lasts, but so far, so good.
It’s clear that last year’s top-vote-getting newcomer did not suffer a sophomore jinx with our readers this year, as Azteca D’Oro repeated as your #2 overall Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel and again won Favorite Mexican Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, albeit by a much smaller margin than last year.
With tasty menu items like chicken taquitos (top), plus a huge variety (above pic from DoorDash) of authentic Mexican favorites like fajitas, molcajete, burritos, tacos and quesadillas, plus beautiful indoor & outdoor bar areas with great Happy Hour specials, Azteca D’Oro also features a private room that is the perfect place to host your holiday party with its lively music and festive atmosphere.
Grillsmith is always among our readers’ favorites every year and repeated last year’s #3 “Favorite in Wesley Chapel” finish again this year. This five-unit mini-chain continues to serve quality fresh fish (photo), plus assortments of flatbreads, salads, steaks, burgers, chicken and pasta options that keep our readers coming back for more. It also is a popular weekend brunch spot with everything from bananas Foster French toast to chicken & waffles Benedict.
Even though it was bumped down to #4 Favorite this year by our readers after a two-year run in the top spot, Noble Crust’s “Deep South Italian” fare continues to garner lots of attention, as well as votes (even though it fell short of making this year’s “Favorite Pizza” list). With unusual entrées like bronzed salmon (photo), chicken fried chicken parm, bucatini & meatballs & Cajun shrimp risotto, Noble Crust also claims to feature the “Best Brunch in Wesley Chapel.”
Whenever you see people in a local online community ask for recommendations for a great Mexican restaurant, roughly half the people highly recommend Vallarta’s, while the other half say “it’s gross.”
Those who love it point to the restaurant’s huge menu with even bigger portions (like the burrito shown here) at the best prices of any true Mexican restaurant in Wesley Chapel. We guess those folks helped Vallarta’s jump from #12 “Favorite WC Restaurant” with our readers last year to #5 Fave in 2024.
Although a lot of online community members complain vehemently about its 20% service charge, our readers still kept The Living Room in the same #6 “Favorite in Wesley Chapel” spot it occupied last year.
That means that a lot of our readers care more about dishes like the Bobby Boucher pasta shown here, sautéed red grouper, “You Bet…Churrasco” and adobo braised pork osso bucco than they do about having to pay the service fee. The Living Room also is another local brunch favorite.
7. Mac’s Custom Meats & Deli
26316 Wesley Chapel Blvd., Grand Oaks Plaza, Lutz
(813)428-6573
It seems like there’s at least one restaurant that seems to come out of nowhere to crack the top-10 with our readers every year.
This year’s surprise is Mac’s Custom Meats & Deli. Although we also enjoy Mac’s quality sandwiches (photo), it’s still really more of a meat market than a restaurant, but whether it made this year’s list because of ballot-stuffing or because enough people really love it this much likely won’t be known until next year’s Reader Survey.
Jumping up eight places from #16 last year is Florida Avenue Brewing Co., which has changed its food menu so often it’s hard to keep up with all the new items to go with its crowd-pleasing variety of house-brewed beers, hard ciders and seltzers. Of course, you can’t go wrong with Florida Ave.’s wings (photo), cheesesteak egg rolls, smash burgers and chimichurri-style Argentine flatbread. Also ask about the Express Lunch menu and about becoming a Brew Perks member.
Another mini-chain making a big jump with our readers this year is Chuck Lager America’s Tavern, which narrowly missed the top-25 last year to jump up to #9 this time — giving The Shops at Wiregrass five of this year’s top-10 Favorites in Wesley Chapel!
Now with three locations and another coming soon to Ft. Myers, Chuck Lager continues to serve tasty giant pretzels, flatbreads, sliders (all in photo), as well as everything from Chuck’s citrus salmon to NY strip steak and Italian specialties like chicken parmesan and Fabio’s meatball sub.
Meanwhile, Ford’s Garage, located across from the Tampa Premium Outlets, dropped one spot from #9 last year to #10 this year, but still garnered plenty of attention from our readers for its popular sports bar-style fare, like the Giant Funnel Tower of Jumbo Piston Onion Rings, Famous Firestone Shrimp, BBQ pork ribs, chicken mac & cheese, smoked brisket burnt ends melt and especially, its Burgers of Fame (photo).
Plus, Motor Club members get 25% Off every 4th visit, a free birthday appetizer, exclusive news & events and more.
This was fun this year. Instead of grouping all of the pizza places in both of our distribution areas in one category, we gave the pizza places in NT and those in WC their own separate categories this year. And boy, was the voting close. Via Italia was the clear winner, but #s 2-6 below were all separated by just a few votes each.
Las Palmas Wins Favorite Latin & #2 Overall; Via Italia Is 3rd & Also Wins Fave Pizza & Italian!
Executive Chef Danny Manzur, sous chef Jason Price, kitchen manager Gary Zimmerman & operating partner Dennis Diaz celebrate the fact that Stonewood Grill & Tavern in Tampa Palms again won “Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa” with Neighborhood News readers for 2024. (Photo by Charmaine George)
There isn’t much more we can say about Stonewood Grill & Tavern that hasn’t already been said each of the past eight years as our readers’ Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa, so we won’t even bother. Suffice it to say that Stonewood’s combination of quality food, an elegant setting, outstanding service, New Tampa’s most hopping upscale bar crowd and fair prices continue to keep it at the top of your list.
This year’s second-Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa (and Favorite Latin Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel) was at least a little bit of a surprise, NOT because Las Palmas Latin Grill isn’t a great mom-&-pop restaurant, but because owners Ramses and Ana Garcia were still operating out of a food truck, rather than their brick-&-mortar location, when last year’s survey was conducted. For Las Palmas to nudge past last year’s second place finisher, Via Italia, after not making the 2023 top-25 was very impressive.
Overall, seven of your 2023 top-10 Favorite Restaurants in New Tampa still made this year’s Top-10 (some moved up, others down), but Las Palmas, EggTown and the reopened Kobé moved into the top-10 while Fresh Kitchen, Olive Garden & Minerva (which still won for Favorite Indian Restaurant) dropped out. — GN
So, even though it is part of a mini-chain with fewer than ten units, no one should be surprised that Stonewood Grill & Tavern — which was the first upscale restaurant to open in New Tampa and has always been at or near the top of our Reader Survey rankings ever since — took home top honors again this year.
With new menu items like peach bourbon-glazed pork chops (top) and the huge tuna poké stack appetizer (bottom) always being added to the chain’s menu by Tampa Palms executive chef Danny Manzur, and the most New Tampa of all bar scenes in zip code 33647, it’s not difficult to understand how Stonewood keeps itself at the top of our reader rankings (and at least near the top of mine) every year. Kudos to Manzur and operating partner Dennis Diaz and their staff for never skimping on quality.
When owner and chef Ramses Garcia told me last year that he sold his Las Palmas food truck and was getting ready to reopen in the same space his brick-&-mortar Las Palmas Latin Grill had been in before (after closing for about a year because of a kitchen fire), I knew he was going to be successful, but I had no idea that he would be able to go from not making the top-25 in the 2023 Reader Dining Survey to #2 Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa in such a short period of time.
Of course, adding beer and wine had to help, but adding new dishes — like his delicious fried whole snapper (top photo) to go with his award-winning Tampa- and Miami -style Cuban sandwiches (bottom photo) likely helped even more.
No matter what menu items you love at Las Palmas, it’s clear that Ramses and his wife Ana have provided the restaurant comeback story of the year for not just our readers, but for yours truly as well.
3. Via Italia Wood Fired Pizza & Bar
8644 Hunter’s Village Rd., Village at Hunter’s Lake
Finishing closely behind Las Palmas for #2 this year was last year’s #2 finisher, Via Italia. I don’t believe that the drop of one spot from last year has anything to do with former owner Roberto Maganuco selling the restaurant to new owner Sonny Patel, as the restaurant still serves the same delicious Italian fare (like the tagliatelle Bolognese shown here). I just think Via Italia fell victim to a new wave of support for Las Palmas.
Jumping up from #6 last year to the fourth spot this year is Liang’s Bistro, which also continues to dominate the “Favorite Chinese Restaurant in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel” vote, as it has every year since it opened.
As I have often said, while not all of Liang’s dishes can be called “New York-style” (although its crispy egg rolls, right, are very NY-ish), there’s no doubt that it has been our area’s only quality sit-down Chinese place.
5. Fat Rabbit Pub
16029 Tampa Palms Blvd. W., City Plaza at Tampa Palms
There’s no doubt that the Fat Rabbit Pub has been a model of consistency since it opened to rave reviews several years ago and this year is no exception.
Fat Rabbit has repeated as our readers’ #5 Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa, thanks to still serving its more upscale pub items (like its new fattened shrimp appetizer and a variety of new rice bowls, including the Fish Taco bowl with Mojo mahi-mahi), as well as some of the best wings (photo) in our distribution areas.
Although it dropped from #2 Favorite Restaurant in New Tampa two years ago to #3 last year and #6 this year, there’s no doubt that a large number of our readers love owner Frank Gouveia’s Grill at Morris Bridge, as it finished only a few votes behind the #3-#5 favorites on this page, all of which were significantly ahead of #s 7-#10.
Plus, with the recent addition of new bar menu items (like this chili cheese dog), The Grill isn’t just for “date night” anymore. It’s also a great place to watch a game, too.
After returning to the top-10 (#8) in New Tampa last year, following a mysterious one-year absence from our readers’ top-25, Mr. Dunderbak’s and its German (and American) cuisine continues to be not only a popular place to have a beer, but also everything from corned beef Reuben sandwiches (photo) to jagerschnitzel, as it rose to #7 this year. In short, Mr. Dunderbak’s is still Tampa’s “German Bierhalle, Braueri, Marketplatz und Restaurant.”
Although New Tampa’s original “bowl culture” eatery has risen and fallen a few spots year over year, Cali Tampa Palms continues to be one of our readers’ Favorite restaurants in New Tampa.
Known not only for its tasty bowls (like the “Lean & Clean” shown here), but also for delicious wrap sandwiches, salads and oven-baked pizza — all with quality ingredients, Cali is likely to remain a consistent favorite for years to come.
9. EggTown
17507 Preserve Walk Ln. (New Tampa) & 27607 S.R. 56 (Wesley Chapel)
Jumping up eight spaces from #17 last year is this year’s #9 Favorite restaurant in New Tampa, EggTown.
Despite losing out to Keke’s in this year’s “Favorite Breakfast Place” voting, this growing (now up to five units) mini-chain (with locations in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel) is a great place for delicious breakfast items (like the egg, chicken & waffles shown here) but also delicious lunch/brunch specialties like chicken salad croissants, burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches. It has super-fair prices, too!
You can’t really call Kobé Japanese Steakhouse a “newcomer” to our area because it had a New Tampa location for several years before shutting down to relocate a few miles south on Bruce B. Downs Blvd., but it is the first time in a couple of years Kobé has been open and our readers obviously are still taken with what is now New Tampa’s only place for “dinner-&-a-show” teppanyaki-table Japanese fare. Our readers obviously appreciate that Kobé — now with eleven locations throughout central Florida, — has returned with the same quality it had before.
You still have a chance to win FREE dining in this year’s Reader Dining Survey & Contest, but as you’re reading this, there’s only a little more than six weeks left to vote for your favorite eateries in Wesley Chapel & New Tampa! Click HEREto enter!
Here are this year’s categories again!
1) Your Five Favorite (overall) Restaurants in Wesley Chapel (WC)
2) Your Favorite American Restaurant in Wesley Chapel
3) Your Favorite Pizza Place in WC
Those same three categories also appear on the New Tampa ballot.
Both entry forms, however, also include lists of places that ask you to pick your Favorite in New Tampa (NT) AND Wesley Chapel, often (but not always) because there aren’t enough in a certain category in just one of our distribution areas. Here are those other categories:
1) You Favorite Mexican Place in NT/ WC
2) Your Favorite Latin (but not Mexican) Restaurant in NT/WC
3) Your Favorite Chinese Place in NT/WC
4) Your Favorite Japanese/Sushi Restaurant in NT & WC
5) Your Favorite Thai or Korean Restaurant in NT/WC
6) Your Favorite Italian Food in NT/WC
7) Your Favorite Greek or Mediterranean Restaurant in NT/WC
8) Your Favorite Indian Place in NT/WC
9) Your Favorite Breakfast Place in NT/WC
9) Your Favorite Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt or Gelato Place in NT/WC
10) Your Favorite Bakery in NT/WC
11) Your Favorite Coffee Shop in NT/WC
We’re providing the lists of places, although we’ve left out the large national and regional chains (with more than 50-60 total locations), because you have to write (or type) the names of your favorites in the spaces provided and we’re pretty sure you know those if they’re your favorite in a category — and yes, you can still include them (we just wish you would focus on local).
Fill out as many categories as you like, but please don’t put the same name in every category, because those votes won’t be counted and if a restaurant is on our Wesley Chapel list, your vote won’t count if you write the name of that restaurant in any New Tampa-only spaces and vice-versa.
You can submit both New Tampa & Wesley Chapel ballots without being DQed — and, as always, there is still no purchase of any kind necessary to enter or win a great FREE prize! Click HERE for Wesley Chapel and click HERE for New Tampa.
This year’s Grand Prize is now $200 in FREE dining to the restaurant of your choice anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. There also are prizes of $100 and $50, all chosen at random from among all correctly-filled-out entries received by email or on our NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net website (Note-no U.S. Mail entries will be accepted for this year’s contest!) by Friday, October 18.