Here are a few quick tips that you I’ll give you an inside track on a few of this Tampa local’s favorite haunts.

Mr. Dunderbak’s near USF is a fun, delicious, German beer garden with fantastic beer and amazing sandwiches. It’s a great place for a big group but you need to hit the timing right. Call them to coordinate. Tell them Lionel said to ask for a container of every kind of mustard for your dinner. In the past they’ve brought me as many as 13. It’s a tradition my sister and I started there when we were little. I’ve done it ever since. It’s fun, and they have amazing mustards.

Bern’s Steakhouse is Tampa’s signature restaurant. Ask for the tour and accept your waiter’s offer to make a reservation for you in the dessert room upstairs after dinner. The Bern’s blend is the leftover wine from bottles that aren’t depleted during the evening. All the reds go into one carafe. All the whites in another. The results are original blends that change taste from glass to glass that are interesting and affordable.

Thai Islands on Davis Islands is my favorite Tampa Thai food place.

The reuben at Molly Malone’s pub on Davis Islands is fantastic.

There are many great Cuban Sandwiches in Tampa, La Segunda, Carmine’s (make sure to ask for Carmine’s to double press it – for some reason they rarely press it enough without direction), West Tampa Sandwich Shop, and many more. My favorite, by far is from Moreno’s Bakery in Brandon, FL

I will write more on all of these places in the future.

Please share your favorite restaurants and opinions here, too.

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