Raymond James Stadium
Make a Buccaneers or USF game a full day out. Plan a meal in West Tampa, then settle in at a TV stop in Tampa Heights or SoHo.
Benchmark International Arena
Make a Lightning game a full evening, with restaurants within a quarter mile of the arena and a hockey bar a few blocks away.
Suncoast Credit Union Field
Watch Sun FC pro women's soccer beside the Hillsborough River, then eat or drink at Stones Throw or Armature Works within a quarter mile.
Hattricks
Hattricks is the hockey bar of downtown Tampa, an Irish pub and sports room on South Franklin Street that has been there for years and fills before and after everything at the arena. Its own description is the number one spot for Lightning pregame parties, postgame celebrations, and any concert or event at the arena or the convention center. The posted closing time is honest about how that works: eleven in the morning until as late as three, according to volume.
BellyUp! Tampa / Sports
Sports & Game Day Tampa
Pro and college venues, nearby food and drinks, and places to watch on TV.
4 spots
Babushka's Temple Terrace
Babushka's started in 2018 because a Russian international student at USF noticed that Eastern European food was missing from a city that had almost every other cuisine, and talked his family into opening a restaurant. The name is the Russian word for grandmother, chosen because, as the restaurant puts it, 'in most families back in Eastern Europe, Babushka is usually a person who cooks the best food.' The kitchen runs borscht, pierogi, piroshki, sweet and savoury blinchiki and a homemade honey cake, and there is a kids' menu and a bar menu alongside the main one. The Temple Terrace room on N 56th Street is a short drive from the USF campus where the idea started.
Phoenix Lebanese Restaurant
Phoenix opened on N 56th Street in Temple Terrace in early 2025 cooking Lebanese breakfast and brunch, which is a rarer thing in Tampa than Lebanese dinner. The kitchen works saj bread on a domed griddle, thin and crisp, filled with cheese and topped with za'atar, and serves it with a house Mosaic Hummus; the same bread carries their Lebanese-style pizza. Balila, slow-cooked chickpeas with olive oil, lemon, garlic and cumin finished with pine nuts and parsley, is the heartiest thing on the menu, and the shakshuka is seasoned their own way. The owners make a point of the coffee: in Lebanon, they told That's So Tampa, offering a guest a freshly brewed cup is a ritual of friendship and respect, and they keep it.
Predalina
Predalina is a waterfront Mediterranean restaurant and lounge on East Cumberland Avenue in the Water Street district, a concept by Oxford Commons. It runs dinner, dessert, weekend brunch and a full cocktail and spirit-free drinks list, and it is one of the few MICHELIN-listed rooms in Tampa that stays open past midnight, to 1am on Friday and Saturday. It has been MICHELIN Recommended in both the 2025 and 2026 Florida selections.
The Pearl
The Pearl is a restaurant, tavern and oyster bar in the Water Street district, serving made-from-scratch entrees, shareable plates and seasonal oysters with a long cocktail and beer list. It runs lunch on weekdays, brunch at weekends and dinner seven days, with a weekday happy hour from 2pm to 5pm. Its own site records inclusion in the 2024 through 2026 MICHELIN Guide.
What these spots are known for
The same sports spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
Origin Stories
Who built this and why?
Big Groups
Will they seat twelve of us?
Rooftops and Patios
Can we sit outside?
Waterfront Dining
Can I eat next to the water?
Private Dining and Buyouts
Can we take a room?
Neighborhood Institutions
What has been here forever?
Late-Night Food
What is still open?
Vegan and Plant-Based
Where can I eat with no asterisks?
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