Tampa Bay's Top 100 Restaurants: sandwiches

Restaurant critic Laura Reiley dined out for nearly 200 meals this past year. We think that makes her more than qualified to tell you some of the best places to eat in Tampa Bay. As we roll out her Top 100 Restaurants over the next few days, here are her picks for sandwich spots. What? Your fave isn't listed? Let us know in the comments section.

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Best hamburger
A hotly contested category, no doubt, but I’m throwing down. In order of excellence, it's Square One and Tampa Bay Brewing, both in Tampa, with El Cap in St. Petersburg a distant third, but it makes it out of deference to longtime owner Steve Bonfili, who died last May at age 91.  The El Cap burger is fairly small, with a nondescript bun, but it acquires its je ne sais quoi from the restaurant's well-worn baseball memorabilia. Bill Shumate and Joanie Corneil’s Square One offers nine basic burger types (including Meyer Angus beef, Kobe, sashimi tuna, portobello) with a whole passel of toppers (teriyaki ginger sauce, roasted black bean and corn salsa) and three types of buns. Since moving to its new Centro Ybor crib, Tampa Bay Brewing has a lot to distract one from the suds: Kobe sliders, a froufrou burger topped with baked goat cheese and roasted red pepper, and the brewer’s choice with melted blue cheese and crispy fried onion strings.
Square One Burgers, 3701 N Henderson Blvd., Tampa; (813) 414-0101, square1burgers.com 
Tampa Bay Brewing Company, 1600 E Eighth Ave., Tampa; (813) 247-1422, tampabaybrewingcompany.com 
El Cap, 3500 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg; (727) 521-1314      

Best Cuban sandwich
I haven't tasted it yet, but I’m so impressed with his resolve that I’m going to go ahead and call it. Richard Gonzmart of the Columbia restaurants is a man on a mission: to recreate the great Cuban sandwich his great-grandfather and grandfather produced back in the heyday of Ybor City. He’s importing salami from Italy. He’s bought an outlandishly expensive steam convection oven to roast pork without a loss of moisture. He’s worried about not tasting enough caramelization on the glazed ham. The fruits of his labor have just gone on the menu and, as he says, "Heads will roll if I cannot produce the best Cuban in the world!" Those in the know have also directed my attentions to Brocato’s Sandwich Shop. Crowded at lunch, it indeed offers an excellent Cuban, generous on the meats, pressed aggressively. But my attentions also wandered to this Tampa landmark's very good deviled crab and the eats-like-a-meal stuffed potato.
Columbia Restaurant, 2117 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City, other locations also; (813) 248-4961, columbiarestaurant.com 
Brocato's Sandwich Shop, 5021 E Columbus Drive, Tampa; (813) 248-9977

Best grouper sandwich
Two years after the St. Petersburg Times exposed fake grouper in Tampa Bay restaurants, many establishments have decided to punt. Fine, they say, we'll serve a more circumspect "fish sandwich" instead. Dockside Dave's Grill is still doing it right. Snowy white locally caught grouper — battered and fried and served with drippy red tomato, crisp lettuce, a few rounds of white onion and a fairly soft roll — is worth sticking to your guns about. Add in a sassy order of onion rings. Walt'z Fish Shak has a similar commitment to the real deal — scamp, black grouper, they’ll tell you exactly what’s on hand. 
Dockside Dave's, 14701 Gulf Blvd., Madeira Beach; (727) 392-9399, docksidedavesgrill.com 
Walt'z Fish Shak, 224 Boardwalk Place E, Madeira Beach; (727) 395-0732

Comments

[SOG]

How can you pick the Columbia when you have never tasted their cuban sandwich?

[Jimbo]

I'm shocked and appalled at your shrinking credibility, Laura. First, the two "advertorials" for the mundane Datz, and secondly, your above grouper review. Ouch! I'm losing faith.

[Mark Smith]

Green Iguana Burgers are the Very best in Tampa. Square One is a Foo Foo burger that in no way can compete. Your tasting gal needs to get out more often.

[Mark Smith]

Sounds like the girl who is out doing the tasting is to busy trying to maintain her status with certain restaurant operators and not being a true food critic which should stay anonymous.