Food in my future

I’ve been hearing good things about a few casual newcomers to the area. Wow Wings (4195 34th St S., St. Petersburg, 727/864-0999) is serving good, well, you know. And over at 4900 Park Blvd. N in Pinellas Park (727/548-0700), Quick Q BBQ is serving purportedly great wood-smoked ribs, beans, collards and pulled pork. Just ten days old, Greek-Town Grille (1230 Cleveland St., Clearwater, 727/230-6850) is turning out classic Greek dishes in a gargantuan dining room with outdoor patio. The menu has lots of my faves (kataifi, pastitsio, those intensely lemony Greek potatoes), so I aim to try it as soon as they’re really up and running.

Of course, some of these I’ve heard about through readers, and I gotta say some of you people have been sending me on wild goose chases. I heard good things about the breakfasts at Hungry Bear Cafe (229 62nd Ave N., St. Petersburg, 727/329-6124), that they had a great range of Benedict options and so forth. After a morning’s investigation, they’re not so hot, the poached eggs rock hard and the hollandaise suspiciously like a mix. And then I’d heard from a number of readers about ABC Chinese Seafood Restaurant (2705 54th Ave. N., St. Petersburg, 727/522-1888), which I visited last week. Eh, I say. Whole steamed fish in ginger scallion sauce, salt and pepper tofu, etc.—the dishes were pleasant enough, but I’ve had better versions at Yummy House or China Yuan in Tampa, and it was extremely difficult to flag down servers. It's one of those Hong Kong-style seafood houses with the wall of fish tanks ("Look, Mommy, that one's cute. Let's eat him!"), but they seem to steer non-Asian customers to the safe stuff.