By Gary Nager,

Once again, here is my list of favorite eateries in New Tampa & Wesley Chapel for 2013 and again, my list looks very different from the list compiled through the votes of our readers.

Of course, one reason for the differences between my “survey” and yours each year is that I get virtually all of that calendar year to look back on, while we start asking you to submit your favorites in September or October, and there are always newcomers that catch my eye that either weren’t open long enough to register with you or didn’t open until after your votes were already submitted. Three of my absolute new favorites this year that didn’t open until December, for example, are City Grill and D’Alessio’s Ristorante in Wesley Chapel and Sushi Raw in Tampa Palms.

The restaurants in bold on the first two lists include my five favorites each in new Tampa & Wesley Chapel, as well as those which opened in 2013 that made my list.

I also once again want to remind you that although only the top 25 of my favorites in each area are listed, I actually genuinely like closer to 40-50 restaurants in each of our distribution areas, so finishing 25th is still far from finishing “last.”— GN

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Restaurants In New Tampa

1. Café Olé – The combination of the closing of several of my other favorite restaurants in New Tampa and the continued amazing mastery of sauces, especially for pork and fresh fish entrées, has moved Café Olé up to my #1 favorite in New Tampa for the first time. Owner Frank Aliaga is getting ready to open his third dining room (in the former Pizza Kitchen location) in February, which means Café Olé is now also an even better place for even larger parties than it was before.

2. Acropolis Greek Taverna – Also moving up a notch this year, Acropolis still has delicious fresh fish and great lamb chops, plus all the traditional Greek and Mediterranean dishes (gyros, souvlakis, hummus, etc.) and evening entertainment.

3. Koizi Endless Hibachi Grill – Moving up three spots this year, the best value in fresh sushi, hibachi grill entrées and more in New Tampa continues to improve and is one of the most popular lunch locales in our area.

4. Ciccio’s Cali

5. Sukhothai

6. Thai Ruby

7. Stonewood Grill & Tavern

8. Liang’s Bistro Asian Cuisine

9. Takara Sushi & Sake Lounge

10. Sushi Raw (see page 36!)

11. The Little Greek

12. Sushi Café

13. Oakley’s Grille

14. Petra Mediterranean

15. Woodfired Pizza (Bearss Ave.)

16. La Cubanita Café

17. Casa Ramos

18. Toast Fine Wine & Café

19. Taste of NY Pizza

20. Las Palmas Spanish Café

21. Sushi Ko

22. Fushia Asian Bistro

23. Peabody’s

24. Full Circle Pizza

25. Mulligan’s Irish Pub

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Restaurants In Wesley Chapel

1. Dempsey’s Steak House — Until someone in Wesley Chapel comes up with a better bone-in cowboy ribeye steak, a better gourmet salad bar or a better atmosphere, Dempsey’s will continue to be #1 in Wesley Chapel for me.

2. City Grill — Owner Gerry Malynowsky and Chef Kasia have created a true winner (no pun intended) in Wesley Chapel. The hangar steak and fresh grouper (photo above) are top-notch and we love City Grill’s small plates, too.

3. D’Alessio Ristorante Italiano — Last year, Wesley Chapel had no restaurants serving homemade pasta. Today, there are two and both scored high on my scorecard. D’Alessio has some of the best penne a la vodka (photo, above), authentic pizza and veal parmigiana in the entire Tampa Bay area

4. Ciao! Italian Bistro — With new chef/owner Justin serving different variations of his homemade pasta every week at my Wesley Chapel Rotary Club meetings, Ciao! jumped up ten slots from last year.

5. Bonefish Grill

6. The Hungry Greek

7. La Prima Pizza

8. Cantina Laredo

9. Hibachi Express

10. Wolf’s Den

11. Best NY Pizza

12. Yamato Japanese Steakhouse

13. GrillSmith

14. Taste of Boston

15. NY NY Pizza

16. Vallarta’s (Village Market)

17. Fine Thai Express

18. 900º Woodfired Pizza

19. Café Fresco

20. Amici Pizza

21. PizzaMania

22. Outback Steak House

23. Quail Hollow Country Club

24. Bonsai Sushi

25. Ker’s WingHouse

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite NEW Restaurants In NT/WC

We had such a great crop of new restaurants this year that pretty much every place on the list below will continue to draw me in, as long as the quality of the food continues. If you still haven’t tried any of these, you’ve been missing out.

1. City Grill

2. D’Alessio’s Ristorante Italiano

3. Ciccio’s Cali

4. Sushi Raw

5. The Little Greek

6. Petra Mediterranean

7. Hibachi Express

8. Best NY Pizza

9. Casa Ramos

10. (tie) NY NY Pizza & Lanna Thai

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Chinese Food In NT/WC

A tough category because we have a lot of decent Chinese takeout restaurants, but not many great sit-down ones. Liang’s consistently has my favorite egg rolls and sautéed green beans in our area, Sushi Ko has the best spare ribs and great sushi, to boot, and Fushia has my favorite combination fried rice and spicy beef with Chinese broccoli.

1. Liang’s Bistro

2. Sushi Ko

3. Fushia Asian Bistro

4. China Taste

5. Ho Wok

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Sushi/ Japanese In NT/WC

This may be the toughest category for me this year because we just have so much great sushi. Newcomer Sushi Raw may eventually overtake Takara, but you really can’t go wrong with any of the places on this list.

1. Takara Sushi & Sake Lounge

2. Sushi Raw

3. Sushi Café

4. Sukhothai

5. Soho Sushi

6. Sushi Ko

7. Koizi Endless Hibachi Grill

8. Hibachi Express

9. Bonsai Sushi

10. (tie) Yamato & Kobe

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Thai Restaurants In NT/WC

Sukhothai beats out Thai Ruby by a hair every year because I can enjoy delicious sushi as a prelude to outstanding Thai entrées, but Thai Ruby has the best duck with ginger sauce and equally delicious fried rice — and Fine Thai Express in Wesley Chapel is owned by the same people, while Saffron (our only Indian restaurant) has the best sizzling lamb chops in our area.

1. Sukhothai

2. Thai Ruby

3. Fine Thai Express

4. Saffron Indian Cuisine

5. Lanna Thai

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Pizza Places In NT/WC

Another toughie. La Prima’s cheese pizza most reminds me of the pizza I loved in New York City, but NY NY has got a non-traditional “Grandma’s pizza” with dollops of a garlicky tomato sauce, 900º Woodfired has both excellent NY- and delicious woodfired Neapolitan style. Best NY (photo above) may be just a cut below the top three pizza-wise, but is such a great sit-down restaurant that it finished above NY NY in my list of overall Wesley Chapel favorites. And, I obviously still prefer NY-style places to any Chicago-style pizzerias.

1. La Prima Pizza

2. NY NY Pizza

3. 900º Woodfired Pizza

(Wiregrass)

4. Best NY Pizza (photo)

5. Taste of NY Pizza

6. Amici Pizza

7. Woodfired Pizza (Bearss Ave.)

8. Full Circle Pizza

9. Biagio’s II

10. (tie) PizzaMania & Cappy’s

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Steak Restaurants In NT/WC

No one can touch Dempsey’s, but the hangar steak from City Grill is a scrumptious newcomer at a great price. Stonewood is a little pricey compared with everyone except Dempsey’s, or it might have finished higher on the list.

1. Dempsey’s Steakhouse

2. City Grill

3. Texas Roadhouse

4. Stonewood Grill & Tavern

5.. Outback Steakhouse

6. Café Olé

7. GrillSmith

8. Quail Hollow CC

9. Bonefish Grill

10. Koizi Endless Hibachi Grill

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Hamburgers In NT/WC

Oakley’s continues to hold the top spot and I have to give Five Guys its due, too, especially for the money. You really can’t go wrong with Burger 21 (great selection), Peabody’s or Hunter’s Green Country Club either.

1. Oakley’s Grille (photo)

2. Five Guys Burgers & Fries

3. Burger 21

4. Peabody’s

5. Hunter’s Green Country Club

6. City Grill

7. Wolf’s Den

8. Red Robin

9. Stonewood Grill & Tavern

10. Mulligan’s Irish Pub

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Latin/ Mexican Food In NT/WC

It’s still hard to group “Latin” (or Cuban/Spanish food) with Mexican cuisine, because they’re all so different, but since we have limited numbers of each, I have to group them together. Obviously, Café Olé (my #1 overall in New Tampa) is my favorite in this category, but all of the Mexican and Cuban places on the list have good food, too.

1. Café Olé

2. La Cubanita Cafe

3. Cantina Laredo

4. Vallarta’s

5. Casa Ramos

6. Las Palmas Spanish Café

7. La Fuente (photo)

8. Latin Twist Café

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Greek/ Mediterranean Food In NT/WC

Acropolis continues to be the clear winner for me, but the other three on this list all have their outstanding attributes, including Little Greek’s steak kabobs, Hungry Greek’s gyros and Petra’s beef shawarma.

1. Acropolis Greek Taverna

2. The Little Greek

3. The Hungry Greek

4. Petra Mediterranean Grill

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Bars/Taverns In NT/WC

For eye candy rivaled only by the new WingHouse in Wesley Chapel and convenience to my office, plus the fact you can no longer smoke inside keeps Peabody’s at my number one spot. Beyond the scenic locales, my favorites all offer high-end, premium alcohol in a more upscale setting. Beer-only bars and smoking bars all finish lower on my list.

1. Peabody’s

2. Dempsey’s Too Lounge

3. Acropolis Greek Taverna

4. Cafe Ole

5. Ker’s WingHouse

6. Casa Ramos

7. PJ Dolan’s Irish Pub

8. Stonewood Grill & Tavern

9. Bonefish Grill

10. Toast Fine Wine & Cafe

11. Mulligan’s Irish Bar

12. Cantina Laredo

13. Tampa Palms Golf & CC

14. PrimeBar

15. Back 9 Cafe

16. City Grill

17. Hunter’s Green Country Club

18. GrillSmith

19. Skinny’s Sports Bar

20. (tie) The Brass Tap & Linkster’s Tap Room

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Ice Cream In NT/WC

With all of the frozen yogurt places now open in our area, I find it too hard to rank them because, in my opinion, they’re all too similar in taste, so it’s more a matter of which toppings they offer for me. But, I still prefer ice cream to frozen yogurt or gelato and I can (and do) enjoy an occasional cone or hot fudge sundae from all of the places on this list.

1. Bruster’s Real Ice Cream

2. Cold Stone Creamery

3. Baskin-Robbins

4. DQ

5. Twistee Treat

6. Sprinkles Ice Cream Parlor

 

Gary’s 2013 Favorite Coffee In NT/WC

1. Caffé Nove -(BBD, so. of Tampa Palms)

2. You Do The Dishes

3. Toast Fine Wine & Café

4. Season’s Fresh Café

5. Café 365

6. Barnie’s Coffee Company

7. Dolce Gelato & Crepes

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