Dining out has never been a larger part of our life than it is today. Where once a meal out was a luxury unless your name was Vanderbilt or Rockefeller, eating out has become a regular occurrence for most people and is an essential part of our social life. In Tampa alone there are more than 849 main restaurants as well as a host of mom and pop restaurants, sandwich bars, coffee shops and lunchtime sandwich stops.
No two restaurants are ever the same. Even chain restaurants which may have identical menus will have a different ambience, different staff and a unique location. Also our dining habits now incorporate a wide choice of international cuisine. In Tampa you will find restaurants offering American, Asian, Brazilian, Caribbean, Cuban, Ethiopian, Greek, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Pakistani, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, in fact almost every letter of the alphabet is represented in the many international choices.
The advantage of all these choices and offerings is that healthy competition raises standards and lowers prices. Restaurants which serve inferior food will quickly go out of business. It is a matter of survival of the fittest in this competitive industry. Competition is good for the customer in that the prices matter too. If you can get the same meal elsewhere for less, diners will drift to the lower priced location. An excellent guide to a restaurant is how long it has been established and whether it has remained in the hands of the original owner. Choose a restaurant with a full car park and you know it has got all the right ingredients for an excellent meal. This is particularly true if you are choosing a Chinese buffet-style restaurant. Busy buffets mean there is plenty of choice and the food is hot and fresh.
Tampa offers a wide choice of restaurants to suit all wallets. Popular chain restaurants are well represented in the city from MacDonald’s and Wendy’s to Red Lobster and Outback. With a chain restaurant you know exactly what you will get and how much it will cost. Service may be conveyor-belt style but it is predictable. More individual locations such as owner-chef Italian restaurants inevitably put a little more pride into their enterprise. After all, failure is not an option when the investment is your own money. Menus may be far more individual and unique and daily specials are usually offered to promote a seasonal fish or vegetable. Service is also more personal as owners seek to convert new clients into regular diners. It is all win-win for the customers.
There is also a market in Tampa for high class gourmet eateries, especially steak houses. For those who enjoy fine dining, these restaurants give you what you pay for – gratifying, professional waiter service, often greeting regulars by name; superb choice steaks and seafood which has been prepared over several weeks in the case of steaks and quality side dishes. High end restaurants also stock a wider choice of wines with a correspondingly higher price tag, but generally you get what you pay for.
Tampa has a big advantage being a year-round resort for vacationers. Inevitably it is the tourists who will eat out every night and consequently Tampa has far more choice and quantity of restaurants than similar sized cities which do not have such an influx of visitors. This steady stream of tourists and families who dine out possibly twice a day are what drives the restaurants market, particularly along the coast. It also gives the local residents in Tampa a much broader choice of dining venues at competitive prices.