So, this yearâs Dining Survey & Contest is all new! Below are pictures & descriptions of all of the mom-&-pop and small (10 units total or less) chain restaurants in or near Wesley Chapel (see location info below), with their addresses, phone numbers, websites and a picture of their exteriors and/or signage.Â
All weâre asking you to do, as Wesley Chapel residents, in this issue is name your FIVE (5) Favorite Restaurants located in Wesley Chapel â in zip codes 33543, 33544 & 33545, plus locations on Wesley Chapel Blvd. & S.R. 54 in Lutz up to Oak Grove Blvd.
Submit a correctly filled-out form HERE and youâll be entered into a random drawing to win up to $200 in FREE dining at the restaurant of your choice located ANYWHERE in the Tampa Bay area!Â
Please do not include ANY restaurants located in New Tampaâs 33647 zip code on the entry form HERE. Youâll have a chance to tell us your five Favorite Restaurants in New Tampa by filling out the form HERE!Â
Here is what you need to know to enter this yearâs Survey & Contest:
(I hope) every brick-&-mortar restaurant that serves food and is located in & near Wesley Chapel (WC) that is either a true mom & pop or part of a âchainâ â whether regional or national â that has fewer than ten (10) total locations, is listed in alphabetical order below.Â
Please note that although the restaurant list doesnât include any chain eateries with 10 or more locations in Wesley Chapel, you can still write the names of your favorite chains in any or all of the five spaces on the entry form HERE.Â
But, whether you choose five places from the Wesley Chapel list of nearly 100 restaurants or five chains that donât appear on the list or some combination thereof, in order to be considered to win any of this yearâs five dining prizes, you must write the names of FIVE (5) WC-area restaurants in the five spaces on the entry form HERE!Â
HERE ARE OUR OTHER RULES!
1) DO NOT write the name of your one favorite place in more than one Top-5 space. Only its first-place vote will count.
2) If the restaurant is on this list below, we consider it to be in Wesley Chapel. If you want to vote for a chain restaurant, please look up its zip code or location to see if it qualifies as a Wesley Chapel restaurant.Â
3) In order for your votes to count and help your favorite restaurants, you must include your real first AND last name, the community you live in (Lexington Oaks, Epperson, etc.), your daytime phone number where I can reach you (which I will only do if your name is selected to win a prize) and your valid email address.
4) This yearâs prizes are again FREE dining at any restaurant YOU choose anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, including the Grand Prize of $200, as well as prizes of $100, $75, $50 & $25.
5) See the Entry Forms HERE and HERE to find out how to have your votes counted & win prizes! Good Luck! â GNÂ
So, this yearâs Dining Survey & Contest is all new! Below are pictures & descriptions of all of the mom-&-pop and small (10 units total or less) chain restaurants in or near New Tampa (see location info below), with their addresses, phone numbers, websites and a picture of their exteriors and/or signage.Â
All weâre asking you, as New Tampa residents, to do in this issue is name your FIVE (5) Favorite Restaurants located in New Tampa â all of zip code 33647, and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. between Tampa Palms & E. Bearss Ave, as well as on E. Bearss Ave. between Bruce B. Downs & Livingston Ave.) â on the entry form HERE!Â
Submit a correctly filled-out form and youâll be entered into a random drawing to win up to $200 in FREE dining at the restaurant of your choice located ANYWHERE in the Tampa Bay area!Â
Please do not include ANY restaurants located in zip codes 33543, 33544 or 33545 (Wesley Chapel) in this monthâs Survey. Youâll get to vote for your five favorites in Wesley Chapel next issue.
Here is what you need to know to enter this yearâs Survey & Contest:
(I hope) every brick-&-mortar restaurant that serves food and is located in & near New Tampa (NT) that is either a true mom & pop or part of a âchainâ â whether regional or national â that has fewer than ten (10) total locations, is listed in alphabetical order below.Â
Please note that although the restaurant list doesnât include any chain eateries with 10 or more locations in New Tampa, you can still write the names of your favorite chains in any or all of the five spaces on the entry form HERE.Â
But, whether you choose five places from the New Tampa list of more than 70 restaurants or five chains that donât appear on the list or some combination thereof, in order to be considered to win any of this yearâs five dining prizes, you must write the names of FIVE (5) NT-area restaurants in the five spaces on the entry form HERE!Â
HERE ARE OUR OTHER RULES!
1) DO NOT write the name of your one favorite place in more than one Top-5 space. Only its first-place vote will count.
2) If the restaurant is on this list, we consider it to be in New Tampa. If you want to vote for a chain restaurant, please look up its zip code or location to see if it qualifies as a New Tampa restaurant.
3) In order for your votes to count and help your favorite restaurants, you must include your real first AND last name, the community you live in (K-Bar Ranch, West Meadows, etc.), your daytime phone number where I can reach you (which I will only do if your name is selected to win a prize) and your valid email address.
3) This yearâs prizes are again FREE dining at any restaurant YOU choose anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, inclduing the Grand Prize of $200, as well as prizes of $100, $75, $50 & $25.
4) See the Entry Form HERE to find out how to have your votes counted & win prizes! Good Luck! â GNÂ
Whether your favorite local restaurant is Lima Peruvian Cuisine in New Tampa or Tallo Caribbean/American cuisine in Wesley Chapel (or anyplace else), you could win up to $200 in FREE dining (or another free dining prize) â to any restaurant in the Tampa Bay area â simply by entering our annual Reader Dining Survey & Contest! But hurry, there are only three weeks left to enter! Click HERE to enter!
If you want a chance to win up to $200 in FREE dining at the restaurant of your choice anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, CLICK HERE & tell us your favorite restaurants in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel! No purchase of any kind necessary! Good luck!
(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 Cooperâs 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 âFavorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapelâ 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 Cooperâs Hawk took home this yearâs top prize in WC in its first year of eligibility.
Azteca DâOro and Grillsmith repeated as our readersâ #2 and #3 Favorites in WC, while last yearâs first-place finisher, Noble Crust, dropped to #4 this year. New to this yearâs top-10 were Vallartaâs at #5 (up from #12), Macâs Custom Meats & Deli at #7, Florida Ave. Brewing Co. at #8 (up from #16) and Chuck Lager at #9. Dropping out of this yearâs top-10 were Zukku-San (down from #5 to #11), Bubbaâs 33 (down from #10 to #19), Bonefish, BJâs Brewhouse and Bahama Breeze (down from #8 to #17). The last four of these are all chains that werenât on the ballots. â GN
If everyone in Wesley Chapel is so sick of chain restaurants, then how and why did Cooperâs Hawk Winery & Restaurant dominate the voting in this yearâs Reader Dining Survey & Contest?
The answer to that rhetorical question is that all of you are tired of mediocre chains and although Cooperâs Hawk isnât Flemingâs, Charleyâs or Ruthâs Chris, it is definitely a step up from most of the other chains in the âChap.â 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 Cooperâs Hawkâs wine bar (although I wish there were seats in it, or at least allowed), itâs easy to understand why locals are fighting for tables there every night. Weâll see how long the party lasts, but so far, so good.
Itâs clear that last yearâs top-vote-getting newcomer did not suffer a sophomore jinx with our readers this year, as Azteca DâOro 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 DâOro also features a private room that is the perfect place to host your holiday party with its lively music and festive atmosphere.Â
Grillsmith is always among our readersâ favorites every year and repeated last yearâs #3 âFavorite in Wesley Chapelâ 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.Â
Even though it was bumped down to #4 Favorite this year by our readers after a two-year run in the top spot, Noble Crustâs âDeep South Italianâ fare continues to garner lots of attention, as well as votes (even though it fell short of making this yearâs âFavorite Pizzaâ list). With unusual entrĂŠes like bronzed salmon (photo), chicken fried chicken parm, bucatini & meatballs & Cajun shrimp risotto, Noble Crust also claims to feature the âBest Brunch in Wesley Chapel.âÂ
Whenever you see people in a local online community ask for recommendations for a great Mexican restaurant, roughly half the people highly recommend Vallartaâs, while the other half say âitâs gross.â
Those who love it point to the restaurantâs 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 Vallartaâs jump from #12 âFavorite WC Restaurantâ 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 âFavorite in Wesley Chapelâ spot it occupied last year.
That means that a lot of our readers care more about dishes like the Bobby Boucher pasta shown here, sautĂŠed red grouper, âYou Bet…Churrascoâ 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. Macâs Custom Meats & Deli
26316 Wesley Chapel Blvd., Grand Oaks Plaza, Lutz
(813)428-6573
It seems like thereâs at least one restaurant that seems to come out of nowhere to crack the top-10 with our readers every year.
This yearâs surprise is Macâs Custom Meats & Deli. Although we also enjoy Macâs quality sandwiches (photo), itâs still really more of a meat market than a restaurant, but whether it made this yearâs list because of ballot-stuffing or because enough people really love it this much likely wonât be known until next yearâs Reader Survey.
Jumping up eight places from #16 last year is Florida Avenue Brewing Co., which has changed its food menu so often itâs 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 canât go wrong with Florida Ave.âs 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 Americaâs Tavern, which narrowly missed the top-25 last year to jump up to #9 this time â giving The Shops at Wiregrass five of this yearâs 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 Chuckâs citrus salmon to NY strip steak and Italian specialties like chicken parmesan and Fabioâs meatball sub.
Meanwhile, Fordâs 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.
