Restaurant Notes

Recently, I moved to Riverview. It's near Brandon and not far outside of Tampa. I've been to a bunch of restaurants since I moved, but none of them were full post worthy. I would imagine you have tried some of them yourself.

• Crispers - It has a feeling like Panera or Atlanta Bread Company, but they bring the food to your table. It's not a bakery, but they do have cookies, shooter desserts, and a gelato station. I've been a bunch of times now and we like it. We took the kids and they really liked it also. We usually get the "Pick Two" special which allows you to get a salad and half a sandwich for $5.99. That's generally the perfect amount of food for me. The kids get a wooden nickle, so when they finish their lunch they get two mini cookies. The employees are not tipped, but if you leave one it will be donated to the United Way. TIP: The Tomato Bisque is very good. Smooth tomato taste that is followed by a warming spice blend.

• Mellow Mushroom -  The Mellow Mushroom is decorated exactly like it's name. There are huge mushrooms EVERYWHERE. I'm not going to lie. I liked it the design. I felt like I was Alice. The food was fairly priced.I know it is a pizza place, but I had the Tomato Bisque. To be honest, it was marinara in a bowl. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I would consider Tomato Bisque. The real story here is about the beer. They feature a wide variety to choose from including selections from Rogue Brewery, including Dead Guy Ale. (They get extra points for that.) I think next time we go I'll try the pizza. 

• ABC Pizza - I know everyone in Tampa Bay has tried it, except for me, but today I changed that. Sadia needed to eat and she planned to drink a glass of milk and a pain pill for lunch. I was not having any of that talk. (She's not anorexic, she has an impacted wisdom tooth.) I asked her what she wanted and she decided she wanted ABC Pizza's $2.99 Spaghetti lunch special. Another employee wanted the special and I decided on the $5.95 calzone and salad lunch special. When I went to pick up the food I was surprised at the amount of food they give you for $2.99. They give you what appears to be about 2 cups of spaghetti and sauce, two meatballs, and two pieces of garlic toast. Sadia and the other employee who I have not asked permission to list here said that the spaghetti was good, but they felt the sauce could use a slight amount of tweaking.

          My calzone was pretty good too. I didn't add anything to it, so it was just a cheese calzone, but I thought it was pretty good anyway. The crust seemed too hard at first, but when I actually ate it I had no complaints. It was good. The salad was very confusing. It starts out with about 1 cup of shredded lettuce. That is followed but one half slice of beef steak tomato, one half slice of cucumber, a sprinkle of Feta, and an olive. I ordered blue cheese dressing, but I got what appears to be their Greek dressing. I usually cringe at shredded lettuce because it tends to be bruised and browning, but this was fresh and crisp as if they had made it while I drove over. The best thing about the salad was the dressing. It was amazing. I didn't miss my blue cheese at all. I liked the freshness of the salad, but I would have made it with more tomato and cucumber. 
  
The restaurant we want to try next is Joel's Steakhouse in Valrico. Have any of you tried it? It looks interesting.