Sports & Game Day Tampa: Temple Terrace

Temple Terrace · russian, ukrainian, eastern european

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.

Temple Terrace · lebanese, middle eastern

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.

Temple Terrace · palestinian, middle eastern, bakery

Ramallah Market has anchored N 56th Street in Temple Terrace for years as a Middle Eastern grocery with its own in-store bakery, turning out knafeh, baklava and ma'amoul alongside fresh produce and spices. In May 2026 the family that runs it opened a cafe inside the shop called Sufrat Ramallah, which translates as the table of Ramallah, serving a full traditional Palestinian breakfast spread with ingredients imported from Palestine and homemade halal dishes. The coffee comes from Barakah Beans, an Orlando women-owned Arabic coffee brand, pouring pistachio and Dubai chocolate lattes. The market's own site describes the whole thing as 'a story of tradition, family, and delicious Middle Eastern flavors.'

Temple Terrace · mexican, sonoran, tacos

TacoSon cooks the food of Sonora, in northern Mexico, out of a small storefront on N 56th Street, and it opens at 7am six days a week, which is earlier than almost any taqueria in the city. Creative Loafing put it on its list of classic Tampa restaurants and described it as a family owned restaurant 'serving up authentic dishes inspired by life back in Sonora, Mexico.' The burrito panzon and the tres leches cake are the two things the restaurant puts on its own front page.