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.
3 spots
Charann's Tavern
A tavern on Memorial Highway known for its cheesesteak. Its own site says it has more than 20 TVs and a patio, and it runs a football Sunday wings and pitcher deal.
Pal Campo Restaurant
Pal Campo is the Tampa room of a four-restaurant Florida family operation cooking Puerto Rican food, sitting on Anderson Road in Town 'n' Country. The menu is the island's standards done properly: mofongo, arroz mamposteao, stuffed churrasco, chuletas kan kan, with sangria, pina coladas and mojitos behind it. Its own site says the traditions are 'deeply rooted ... from our home land of Puerto Rico' and sells its own house coffee, Cafe Nenito, described as 100 percent Boricua. The Tampa location lists Best of Tampa Bay wins for Best Puerto Rican Restaurant in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Thinh An Kitchen, Tofu & Bakery
Thinh An makes its own tofu fresh every day, which is the thing to know about it: it is a tofu producer with a Vietnamese kitchen and a bakery attached, in a plaza on Waters Avenue in Town 'n' Country. Creative Loafing's chef-sourced guide to Tampa Bay's Asian kitchens and markets lists it as a homemade tofu maker that has been at it since 2016. The catering menu is built around that, with customisable tofu and vegetarian choices for weddings and parties, and the restaurant runs a happy hour Monday through Thursday from 2 to 5pm. It closes on Tuesdays and opens at 9am the rest of the week, which makes it one of the few kitchens on this side of town serving a Vietnamese breakfast.
What these spots are known for
The same over 50 spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
Origin Stories
Who built this and why?
Neighborhood Institutions
What has been here forever?
Rooftops and Patios
Can we sit outside?
Big Groups
Will they seat twelve of us?
Private Dining and Buyouts
Can we take a room?
In the MICHELIN Guide
Who has the inspectors paying attention?
Historic Rooms
What was this building before?
Vegan and Plant-Based
Where can I eat with no asterisks?
Community Quotes
Recommendations from real Tampanians, always attributed to whoever wrote them.
Nobody’s shared a over 50 recommendation yet. Be the first.
Run one of these rooms?
Every Tampa spot here already has a free profile going, put together from what you publish publicly. If we have you filed wrong, or we are missing what you most want to be known for, tell us.