1983
South MacDill restaurant, bar and arcade from a Tampa hospitality group. Publishes Bucs and Gators schedules, NFL and college football all season, and Premier League on weekends. Says it has 80 TVs.
220 East
220 East sits on Davis Boulevard in the small village strip at the top of Davis Islands, and its own site calls it a locally owned American kitchen 24 years strong. The menu runs wider than most neighbourhood rooms: shrimp and grits, a hand-cut New York strip, pizzas including a dill-pickle one the site tells you to trust it on, and a weekend brunch with chicken and waffles. Its Cuban sandwich is built on Cuban bread from La Segunda, which it names on the menu. Several dishes are marked GF on the menu itself.
7th + Grove
7th + Grove sits on East Seventh Avenue in Ybor City and describes itself as the flagship of the 7th + Grove Hospitality group. The cooking is Southern comfort food crossed with Guyanese flavours, served with what the site calls creatively crafted cocktails, and the room runs late on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It is one of the Ybor rooms Creative Loafing Tampa Bay lists among Tampa Bay's restaurants, and it leans into events... a Saturday day party with hookahs and small bites, NFL Sundays, private parties and catering.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Al's Finger Licking Good Bar-B-Que & Soul Food
Al's cooks Tennessee-style barbecue in Ybor City, dry-rubbed ribs smoked over wood with a tomato-based sauce, and it has won best barbecue in Tampa more times than anyone bothers to count. The food is family food in the literal sense, with dishes on the menu named for the people they came from ... Uncle John's smoked sausage, Aunt Nita's black eyed peas, Sparky's pulled pork, Mazie's serve-it-up yellow rice and chicken. The business started as a concession stand in 2003 and became a sit-down restaurant in 2009, and it now runs barbecue and soul food out of one address on East Seventh Avenue after folding the two shops together.
BellyUp! Tampa / Over 50
Over 50 Tampa
Nobody publishes the noise level, and it is the thing that decides the night.
Good places to eat and drink in Tampa, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
6 spots
220 East
220 East sits on Davis Boulevard in the small village strip at the top of Davis Islands, and its own site calls it a locally owned American kitchen 24 years strong. The menu runs wider than most neighbourhood rooms: shrimp and grits, a hand-cut New York strip, pizzas including a dill-pickle one the site tells you to trust it on, and a weekend brunch with chicken and waffles. Its Cuban sandwich is built on Cuban bread from La Segunda, which it names on the menu. Several dishes are marked GF on the menu itself.
Bernini of Ybor
Bernini has been on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 17th Street in Ybor City for more than thirty years, cooking Italian food with a Gulf accent ... pistachio crusted grouper, eggplant in house made pomodoro, crispy duck with a chianti demi-glace. Owner Jason Fernandez is a fourth generation Tampa native who runs the Historic Hospitality group in Ybor City and got his first restaurant lessons from his neighbour Adela Gonzmart of the Columbia. His great-grandfather Jesus Fernandez tended bar in Tampa in the early 1900s. Fernandez went away to work with Ella Brennan at Commander's Palace in New Orleans and later with Wolfgang Puck before coming home to Ybor.
Coco Lov
Coco Lov is a family-run dessert shop on South MacDill built around coconut milk, dates and sea moss. The ice cream, cheesecakes, chocolate mousse, smoothies and bowls are plant-based, gluten-free and dairy-free, with no refined sugar. The current Tampa Instagram bio publishes daily hours, and the official menu lists the Tampa address and the ingredients for each dessert.
Grassroots Kava House
Grassroots is a kava house on East 6th Avenue in Ybor City serving Vanuatu kava, locally roasted coffee, kratom, herbal teas, kombucha and hand-crafted natural sodas. It is built for sitting still: free wifi for remote work, a shelf of board games, and a room that runs from morning coffee through to a late hangout. Its own words for the place are that every visit feels like home, and that it is more than a cafe. The kitchen side is small, and the food that is there is deliberately vegan and gluten free friendly.
HaleLife Bakery & Bistro
HaleLife is a bakery and bistro on South Dale Mabry Highway whose whole kitchen is built around food restrictions rather than around a diet trend. Its own South Tampa page states the rule plainly: 100% Gluten-Free, Vegan, & Allergy Friendly. The kitchen is dedicated free from gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts other than coconut, and shellfish, traced down to the manufacturer, and the company says it has had no reported reactions since opening in 2017. The board runs to beignets, cinnamon rolls, donuts, breakfast tacos, pizza and cakes. USA Today named it a top gluten free bakery in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Plant Life
Plant Life is a plant-based, gluten-free kitchen on Henderson Boulevard serving breakfast, bowls, sandwiches and prepared meals. It also supplies food at Urban Jungalow on West Cass Street, where its menu sits beside SOHO Juice Co. That relationship matters because Tampa guides often list the brands as separate restaurants without telling you that two of them can be found inside the same North Hyde Park cafe.
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The same over 50 spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
Origin Stories
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Rooftops and Patios
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Private Dining and Buyouts
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In the MICHELIN Guide
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Historic Rooms
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