Wesley Chapel Dining Survey Results: Your Favorite Latin Restaurants!

Rafael Jarnica serves up a combo platter, taco salad and burrito at Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant in the Wesley Chapel Village Market plaza, which is one of our area’s oldest restaurants and consistently one of the most popular with its huge menu of Mexican and Latin cuisine options.  (Photo: Charmaine George)

1. Vallarta’s
5335 Village Market
(813) 907-5161
VallartasRestaurants.com
Wesley Chapel has an ever-growing number of Latin restaurants, from Mexican and Tex-Mex to Puerto Rican and even Venezuelan options, but the one that’s been around the longest and always finishes at or near the top of our readers’ list is Vallarta’s Mexican Restaurant in the Village Market plaza.

Vallarta’s is part of an extended-family-owned local mini-chain where you always get good value for your money. Its entrées like tacos, burritos, enchiladas, sizzling fajitas and other Mexican specialties are always served with rice, refried beans, which means you’ll never go home hungry.   

Vallarta’s features great appetizers like a variety of nachos, guacamole, bean dip, taquitos and even a Mexican shrimp cocktail. There’s also large entrée-sized salads and a deliciously spicy Mexican chicken soup. Lunch combos start at just $6 and offer everything from tacos to chile rellenos, and from chalupas to quesadillas. There also are 30 different $10 combination plates available.

But, my favorite dishes at Vallarta’s are the variety of steak options, including the carne asada (thin-cut ribeye topped with grilled onions), the batter-dipped milanesa and the spicy steak a la Mexicana with fresh jalapeños, tomatoes and grilled onions.

Vegetarian tastes will appreciate the variety of veggie options, from bean and potato burritos to vegetarian fajitas. And, save room for the authentic churros, flan and fried ice cream.

Vallarta’s, which features a full-liquor bar, also is know for its “as big as your head” margaritas and variety of Mexican and domestic beers. — GN  

2. Rice-n-Beans
27405 Wesley Chapel Blvd.
(813) 803-7974
RiceNBeans.com

For those in Wesley Chapel who prefer Puerto Rican cuisine to Mexican, the relocation of Rice-n-Beans from its much smaller former location on S.R. 54 in Lutz to the former location of Remington’s Steakhouse and Cody’s Roadhouse on Wesley Chapel Blvd. was a revelation.

This much larger, sit-down restaurant with full premium liquor bar and live entertainment (Wed.-Fri.) has only been open for a couple of years, but it has attracted a loyal following of those who crave chicharrons (fried chicken or pork), mofongo, fried whole snapper (photo), Puerto Rican-style empanadas and more.

Also be sure to ask for the daily lunch specials. — GN

3. Capital Tacos
27209 S.R. 56
(813) 973-3777
CapitalTacos.com
Capital Tacos, located in the Cypress View Square plaza, takes your traditional tacos or burritos and turns them on their heads.

Instead of a tortilla (or bowl) stuffed with the typical meat, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese, you can choose from delicious slow-cooked pork, carne asada, shaved steak, chorizo sausage, fried chicken and vegetarian options, complemented by Texican BBQ sauce, dirty potatoes, corn salsa, Chihuahua cheese, carmelized onions and spicy slaw, to name a few. 

Capital Tacos, now with five locations, bills itself as “Tex-Mex Done Right,” with hand-crafted and hand-spiced favorites like quesadillas, crazy fries, epic nachos and Mexican street corn.

Rest of the 2021 Latin Top 10:
(4) Latin Twist
(T5) Cantina Laredo
(T5) Chuy’s
(T7) Tijuana Flats
(T7) Chipotle
(T9) Taco Sun
(T9) Señor Tequila
(T9) Taco Bus. 


Wesley Chapel Dining Survey Results: Your Favorite Asian/Mediterranean!

General manager Khan Ly (second from left) and his staff have made sure that The Hungry Greek is not only the best Greek restaurant around, but one of the best overall.

1. Hungry Greek
2653 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
(813) 345-8526
TheHungryGreek.com

The Hungry Greek may be known as that fast and casual  Greek place right across the street from AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, but it wasn’t that way when franchise creator George Constantinou originally opened the doors to this first link of his now-10-location mini-chain on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel on Oct. 5, 2008.

“It was two lanes and there were cows across the street,” Constantinou says. “It was in the middle of the housing recession, and everyone pulled out and it was just us and a balloon store. My dad looked at me and said ‘I hope this was a good move.’”

As it turns out, it was. It just required some patience.

Now, the Hungry Greek is smack dab in the middle of a booming area with two malls, countless homes, businesses and restaurants, across from one hospital with a second being built a mile or so away. And, as it pretty much always has been, The Hungry Greek is once again the most popular Mediterranean restaurant in Wesley Chapel, according to our readers.

Something of a spinoff of his father’s former Happy Greek restaurant in Dunedin, the Hungry Greek — in 2015 and 2016, it was the No. 2 overall favorite restaurant with our readers — serves up food made from his family’s recipes.

While they did at one time also serve food like burgers, it was a change to a more traditional Greek menu and an emphasis on the things they did best — Greek salads, gyros (gyro platter shown below), chicken souvlaki and tzatziki sauce, to name a few — made with the best ingredients.

The steady hand of local owner Khan Ly has the BBD location humming along as one of the mini-chain’s best, and the local Greek favorite year after year. — JCC

2. Yamato
28347 Paseo Dr., #150
(813) 907-8701
YamatoWesleyChapel.com
As Wesley Chapel’s only teppanyaki (hibachi) table Japanese restaurant, Yamato Japanese Steak House & Sushi Bar’s location in the Shops at Wiregrass mall helped guarantee that people would at least try it, but it is Yamato’s excellent fare and reasonable prices (especially when compared with other Japanese steakhouses) have continued to keep it high on our readers’ list of favorite restaurants year after year.

While Yamato has never finished higher than fifth overall in the Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel (it finished tied for 29th this year), it has always been in the top five favorite Asian restaurants and had we not combined Mediterranean and Asian cuisines in the same category this year, it would have been #1 this year, losing to Hungry Greek by only four votes and finishing a dozen ahead of 3rd place Zukku-San. — GN

3. Zukku-San
25916 Sierra Center Blvd.
(813) 419-1351
ZukkuSushi.com
When it opened in 2020, we were excited by the possibilities of a new and unique sushi restaurant with predominantly Japanese (and some Korean) specialties in what is surely the most beautiful Asian restaurant in Wesley Chapel. 

Zukku-San, owned and operated by Ferdian Jap and his family, also has less formal locations in Charlotte, NC, at Tampa’s Armature Works and coming soon is Ato, which will feature sushi bowls and “burritos” in the KRATE container park at The Grove in Wesley Chapel.

Although many locals choose Zukku-San for the sushi, if you haven’t tried the gyoza dumplings, the super-crispy spring rolls, the chicken and steak yakitori (below), the Japanese fried rice or full-liquor bar, you’ve been missing something special. — GN

The rest of the 2021 Asian/Mediterranean Top 10:
(4) China Wok
(5) Bonsai
(6) Umu
(7) Hibachi Express
(T8) Asian Buffet
(T8) Arroy Thai
(10) Gonna China.

Wesley Chapel Dining Survey Results: Your Favorite Pizza!

(L.-r.) Preston Parilo, Cynthia Andujar, Joe Carrion & Ivan Plumb obviously enjoy serving — and eating — the delicious New York-style pepperoni pizza at 900º Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass Mall. (Photo by Charmaine George)

1. 900º Woodfired
28152 Paseo Drive #195
(813) 527-6940
900DegreesWoodfirePizza.com

Pizza continues to be a favorite option for lunch and dinner with our readers and none is more popular this year than owner Steve Falabella’s 900º Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass, which won this year’s Favorite Pizza in Wesley Chapel with our readers by a fairly wide margin.

And, considering that Falabella opened not only his Falabella Family Bistro (our readers’ fourth favorite restaurant in WC) but also a second 900º Pizza location (900º New York Pizza, which finished a solid sixth with our readers in its first year) in The Grove at Wesley Chapel in 2021, the fact that so many still selected the original 900º location as their favorite pizza place is a testament to Falabella’s commitment to quality food at super-fair prices.

The primary difference between the two 900º locations is that only the original pizza shop in Wiregrass offers Neapolitan-style woodfired pizza (like the Margherita pizza in the photo, right), as well as the New York style ‘za available at both locations.

But, thanks to its other great Italian specialties, 900º Woodfired Pizza also finished 10th as our readers’ Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel. Among the favorite appetizers are the deep-fried calzones known as Panzeretto and the bruschetta, while my favorite pasta dish is the authentic pesto Genovese, although the penne alla vodka, Alfredo and Bolognese sauces also are all pretty popular.  And, wash them down with ice cold Peroni on draft, as well as bottled beers and wines by the glass or bottle. — GN

2. PizzaMania
1734 Bruce B Downs Blvd.
(813) 907-0005
MyPizzaMania.com

One of the first pizza places to open in Wesley Chapel also is still high among our readers’ favorites, as the NY/NJ-style pies and Italian specialties continue to earn lots of votes.

Not only is there ever-popular regular pizzas, but also gourmet options, like But, of course, pizza, including gourmet options like Margherita, white sauce and more, but PizzaMania also offers everything from fried ravioli and bruschetta to arancini (traditional rice balls) and other appetizers, plus a variety of salads, hot and cold subs, calzones and strombolis, plus wings with a variety of sauces, lasagna, baked ziti, stuffed shells, gnocchi Sorrentina and pasta with vodka, white clam and pesto sauce and even a seafood combo of mussels, shrimp and clams that helped it finish tied for 34th Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel with our readers. — GN

3. NY NY Pizza
3757 Bruce B Downs Blvd.
(813) 528-8771
NYNYPizzeria.com

Technically, the New York New York Pizza in Wesley Chapel is part of a small eight-unit chain (including one in Tampa International Airport) of no-frills Tampa-area pizza places that serve excellent true-New York-style pizza. But, chain or no chain, the Wesley Chapel location has been among the top five favorite pizza places with our readers since it first opened.

NY NY, which finished third to second-place PizzaMania by only two votes and ahead of Amici by a half-dozen, offers a large variety of pizza-by-the-slice and whole-pie options, including everything from cheese and pepperoni to meat lovers and white and from cauliflower crust to my favorite Grandma’s pizza with a garlic red sauce in our area.

NY NY also has a nice selection of salads, sandwiches and even burgers plus baked pasta options. — GN

The rest of the 2021 Pizza Top 10:

(4) Amici
(5) Mellow Mushroom
(6) 900 NY
(T7) Fratelli’s
(T7) Best NY
(T7) Blaze
(T10) Papa John’s
(T10) Bosco’s.