So, this year’s 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 we’re asking you, as New Tampa residents, to do in this issue is name your FIVE (5) Favorite Restaurants located in New Tampa — 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.) — on the entry form HERE!Â
Submit a correctly filled-out form and you’ll 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 month’s Survey. You’ll get to vote for your five favorites in Wesley Chapel next issue.
Here is what you need to know to enter this year’s 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 “chain” — whether regional or national — that has fewer than ten (10) total locations, is listed in alphabetical order below.Â
Please note that although the restaurant list doesn’t 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 don’t appear on the list or some combination thereof, in order to be considered to win any of this year’s 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 year’s 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! — 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) — to any restaurant in the Tampa Bay area — 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 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.Â
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.Â
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.
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.
Las Palmas Wins Favorite Latin & #2 Overall; Via Italia Is 3rd & Also Wins Fave Pizza & Italian!Â
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.
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.
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.Â
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.Â
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.Â
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.”Â
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!Â
