Tampa Is…?

My wife and I do very little in what could be considered a traditional way. Our first anniversary came this weekend (hold your applause, please), and while we had considered just acting as if it was just another weekend, we eventually decided to simply spend Saturday together, enjoying our fair city and surroundings. For us, that usually means food, and we enjoyed two great area restaurants; one an old favorite, the other a relative newcomer.

Don’t let the cheesy awning at St. Petersburg pan-Asian treat Pacific Wave scare you off - inside you’ll find classy decor and fantastic food. The sushi, though not as varied as in most sushi-only places, is reliably fresh. The draw for us is the “standard” seafood. Order the escolar, a great Hawaiian butterfish, if it’s available - we have and did.

Restaurant BT opened this April in Old Hyde Park Village after the wife chef/husband photographer business combo of B.T. Nguyen-Batley and Norman Batley closed their two popular restaurants, Yellow Door and Cafe BT. Cafe BT had been rated tops in food in the Bay area by the Zagat survey (sorry, you need to register to see the rankings). In a short time Restaurant BT has already reclaimed that top spot (tied with Beach Bistro ) with a 28 out of 30 rating. The menu will be familiar for any Yellow Door/Cafe BT fans - deceptively simple French-Vietnamese. Upon first impression the praise is much deserved.

These places made our weekend quite pleasant - I figure the least I can do is pass the word and hope it does the same for someone else.