Tampa Pizza Restaurants: Searching for the Best

Being new to the Tampa area I get to have some fun trying out all my favorite cuisines and searching for a new specialty dish that I’ve never had before. So this week I’ve been checking out some Tampa pizza restaurants and here’s what I found.

San's Pizzeria (Westchase) on Urbanspoon

My quest for the top Tampa Pizza restaurants began with San’s Pizzeria, 13048 Race Track Rd. San’s has received some positive online reviews so we decided to take the drive over to Westchase on Tuesday evening to check them out. I’ve read that they were pretty busy on the weekend so we thought it would be a good idea to try them out on a slower night. As reported the staff is sociable and this is an enjoyable family restaurant that is very kid friendly. As far as Tampa pizza restaurants go, San’s has a full menu of pizzas and casts of all the usual suspects in its Italian Dinner Entrée selection. We enjoyed the fresh fried calamari even though the marinara sauce tasted like something out of a can. Now I don’t usually eat veal parmigiana unless I make it at home. Most food distributors deliver a quality piece of veal but most restaurants tend to over or under cook it leaving a rubbery or soft texture that makes me wish I had ordered a simple salad.

I know what you are thinking, why would I order veal while on a quest for the top Tampa pizza restaurants? Well I have this habit of asking the wait staff what they had for dinner before I order. If they give the dish a great review I usually follow suite and ask them to dish me up a plate. After a few questions about how the veal was prepared I decided to go for it. The veal was lightly breaded, it had a good texture, and most of all it tasted like veal. The veal plate came with a simple presentation and a good portion of pasta on the side. We also ordered the Margarita Pizza. The ingredients were fresh; the sauce did not overpower the great tasting olive oil and basil. After sampling the veal Margarita pizza at San’s it’s apparent that I’m well on my way to find the top Tampa pizza restaurants.

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Competition BBQ Secrets Book Review

bbqcompetitionsecretsribsWhile growing up in the South I ate my fair share of great BBQ. But many of my friends don’t know that I was a BBQ Pit Man at the Old Hickory House in Stone Mountain, Georgia while in High School.  Two old school BBQ Pit men named JuneBug and Lawrence spent many an afternoon passing down their very own trade secrets to me. So whenever my friends and family are in the mood for some real BBQ I employ many of the techniques that were passed down to me over 20 years ago. Watching and reading about BBQ competitions over the past few months has been getting me excited about BBQ again. I just moved back stateside after being gone for about 7 years.  So with the spring BBQ season closing in fast I decided to brush up on my BBQ skills before I decided to fire up my smoker or dare to enter a competition.

competitionbbqsecretsbook Competition BBQ Secrets by Bill Anderson is exactly the kind of book that I needed to update my BBQ skills.  Bill’s book is a very detailed education on the exact science of cooking championship ribs, pork butts, and chicken.  It’s a real education and well worth the read even if you are not interested in competitions.  He even goes into detail about brisket—which I’ve never actually cooked before.  The chapter on barbecue science was like going back to BBQ Grad School and was a much needed extension of what JuneBug and Lawrence taught me over 20 years ago at The Old Hickory House.  Bill’s book reviews every facet of BBQ—from choosing a Cooker and how your wood choice will impact your recipe, to the correct way to use finishing sauces and glazes.  In case you were wondering, yes we did use real Hickory wood at the Old Hickory House.  This book is a must have if you are considering hitting the BBQ competition circuit or just want to wow everyone at your next family get together.  One of the best features of this book is the extensive list of BBQ associations.  He even lists where you can find out about all the competitions.  Which is a great resource even if you aren’t interested in competing—heck someone’s got to eat all that BBQ.  Competition BBQ Secrets is available on Bill’s website as an e-book or hardcover—I choose the e-book option so I could get started using it right away.

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Tampa Chinese Food: Yummy House Satisfies

Even as a newcomer I had pronounced the Tampa Chinese food scene DOA.  I have many warm memories of sharing meals with my grandmother at China Wok II growing up in Atlanta.  Traveling every part of Asia for the past 7 years I have developed a somewhat more complex pallet, it was difficult at times to recognize many of the dishes prepared there if you are accustomed to the American adaptations.  But after spending so much time in Asia I really try not to hold the food in the states to the same standard as the authentic cuisine and I have had great success finding a local restaurants throughout the states that are reminiscent of my experiences eating Chinese food growing up in Atlanta.  When I got back to the states I just had to find a local Tampa Chinese food outlet that satisfied my urge for good old-fashioned Chinese food.  American Chinese that is, if there is or ever was such a thing.  However, a quick tour of what is available on the Tampa Chinese food scene has been below par when compared to other major US metropolises.  Then I tried Yummy House.

Yummy House on Urbanspoon

 Since arriving in Tampa a few months ago I’ve been disgruntled with the performance of 9 restaurants in this category.  In fact I recused myself from writing reviews on any Tampa Chinese restaurants in fear of being censured by local food writers.  However, this past weekend I decided to take another shot at finding some Tampa Chinese food worth writing about.  The fact that Yummy House, at 2202 West Waters, seems to outshine most online reviews was an indication of a good dining experience so I decided to take a small group to check out what YH had to offer.  YH has been my best experience with Tampa Chinese food because it’s just plain good Chinese food.  YH is the most exciting hopeful in the crowd so far to be place to satisfy my craving for some good Chinese food. 

 We were all pleasantly surprised with the service, food, and atmosphere of Yummy House.  The menu is a bit more complete than most of the other places I’ve ventured to recently; although that didn’t stop me from sticking to some basic dishes.  The pot stickers were hot and extra crispy, like I ordered them; even if they did come out after Seafood Chow Fun.  The XO sauce was much better than my earlier experiences with Tampa Chinese food but I’m still pretty sure they were using a commercial grade manufactured for the American market rather than making their own.  The S & P Calamari probably reflects the best calamari dish I’ve ever had in the states from a restaurant of this quality.  Calamari really has become trendy in the states since it’s become more readily available by commercial food distributors.  Ten years ago it was difficult to find good calamari, something I always attributed to the lack of supply.  The more refined diner might find YH a bit shallow in the ambiance department and the service was nothing to rant about but it outshines all of my other Tampa Chinese food experiences I’ve had over the past few months.  Next time I might even ask them if I can go back in the kitchen and share one of the XO sauce recipes I picked up in Hong Kong.

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New Favorite Tampa Mexican Restaurant: The Lime

If you are looking for a solid Tampa Mexican restaurant then let me tell you about one of my new favorites.  Can you say that a place is your favorite if you’ve only been there once?  Well…I can certainly say that The Lime, at 915 S. Howard St, is one cool place with a great atmosphere.  Stopped in last Wednesday with two of my buddies after work, we all agreed the food was fantastic and we had an awesome time.  There’s nothing like encountering a restaurant in a new town when they are having a girl’s night out special (ladies drink free martinis 9-10 on Wednesdays)—score.

Enough about girls’ night out—my wife does read this blog—and on to why I think this is my new favorite Tampa Mexican restaurant.  I tried a few bites of the Carnitas that Mateo ordered; the pork was tender and juicy with just the right amount of flavorful mojo.  The dish was served with black beans and sweet plantains—some of the best plantains I’ve been served in a restaurant for over a year.   I had the rotisserie fried skirt steak Lime fajitas.  The menu lists this as a Brazilian/Mexican fajita and it was a twist from what you would expect from the usual chain joints.  The dish was served with a lime marinade packed with flavor.  Or was it the lime from all the Coronas we were drinking…

The relaxed friendly atmosphere is another thing that makes this my favorite Tampa Mexican restaurant.  Our waitress helped us navigate through the menu, which is larger than what I would have expected, and it was pretty neat to compare Final Four brackets with her.  Who knows, we might be back at The Lime next week for Wii Bowling night—8-11 every Tuesday.

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