Pepper Fool Presents Dining out In Florida!

Don Pablo's is really a nasty chain of bland food and all the restaurants on I-drive are pretty awful and only good for the tourists who just don't know any better. Might as well include Hooters since they have a "hot" wing sauce. LOL
From: Kym Cubero, kcubero@bigfoot.com
Date: 01/ January/ 2002

Jerkeys

Altamonte Springs

PANAMA CITY

Runaway Island

"On The Beach"

Good food, and they will bring you hot sauce (not Tabasco!) and they mix a pretty good Goombay Smash too!
From: Imildur@aol.com
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997

The Palapa

"On the bay next to Hathaways Bridge"

Its really just a big outdoor bar (including a raw bar) under a HUGE Palapa (palp frond roof). They serve grouper nuggets which are good, spicy but not what I would call hot. There are lots of other places, including several steak houses, but I have never been to those.
From: Imildur@aol.com
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997

ST. PETERSBURG

El Pass-O Cafe

1120 Pinellas Bayway S. #114. Tierre Verde, Fl. Phone is 727-867-6267

We cook alot of Tex-Mex style dinners as well as lots of Dave's original stuff. Our Grilled Shrimp with Creamy Chipolte Sauce won Best of the Bay Area award this year. We love to do seafood with interesting dishes. Tonight we have Grilled Tuna with Pico De Gallo and Carribean Pork stuffed with Dave's homemade chorizo and served with a ancho pepper honey glaze.
From: Judith Stone, madpepco@gte.net (Proprietor)
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999

Peppers on the Pier

"On The Beach"

a hot sauce shop in a big tourist location. Pricey, but nice folks. I was thrilled to find purple chile pepper lights to add to the collection to go on my husband's steam car.
From: Susan Byers, chilewmn@bluemarble.net
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999

Red Mesa

4912 4th St. N.

Excellent salsa, and the poor waiter hopped back and forth bringing me little dishes of fresh chiles from the kitchen. There were no vegetarian entrees to speak of but the chef happily prepared something for my friend and I. A little pricey---maybe I've just been in Indiana too long.
From: Susan Byers, chilewmn@bluemarble.net
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999

Saffron's

1700 Park St. N.

very much on the MILD side. This poor waiter had his work cut out for him as I wanted to try all their sauces. The jerk sauce was MILD MILD MILD. I passed, my friend loved it. My request for scotch bonnets drew a blank but he eventually brought me some fruity pepper mix that was very tasty. My dinner was very good although too MILD. Prices were good and I had one of the best drinks I've ever had in a restaurant. The service was very good too.
From: Susan Byers, chilewmn@bluemarble.net
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999

TAMPA

El Pass-O Cafe

Gulf Blvd

Dave fixed me up with his famous Shrimp in Creamy Chipoltle Sauce (Pure and absolute heavenly).. Rob had the Enchiladas, which was made with Daves own recipe for the filling. Dave and Judith added some habanero's to the dishes to meet our taste in heat . The Food was absolutely fabulous. The cream Chipoltle sauce will go down as one of the best meals Ive eaten that contained Chipoltle. The service and hospitality was great as well. They were very eager to have us try the sauces they make and ALL were very good. My Favorite was the Madder n Hell Sauce and the Green With Envy Sauce. We also tried some of new stuff they are coming up with and all were just as delicious. Highly Recommended lace to have some GREAT food and meet some super nice Chile-heads , They've ot a website but I do not recall exactly what the URL was. :-)
From: "Tom Cuneo", forsite@forsite.net
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999

Ibex Cafe

1809 W. Platt Street
Near downtown Tampa

This place will light you up! It's African food. It's served on this "injera" a flat piece of sourdough/fermented bread. They put the food and sauce on top and you eat with your hands, tearing off pieces of the bread to dip in the food.
From: Kym Cubero, kcubero@bigfoot.com
Date: 01/ January/ 2002

The wonderful vegetable stews (called "wots") and beef and chicken dishes are served with injera, a large crepe made of a special type of millet flour called teff. A piece of injera is broken off and used to scoop the food into your mouth, where the incredible infusion of spices will surprise and delight you -- ginger, mustard seeds, white pepper, thyme, nutmeg and more. Some of the essential spices of Ethiopian cooking include Berbere, a combination of powered red pepper with a dozen spices, fragrant cardamom and basil, and fenugreek, which has the aroma of celery. Coriander and turmeric are used in the vivid yellow dishes. Garlic and cumin impart strong, warm and aromatic flavor to richer foods. From: Bridget McCrea, A Back-Door Culinary Tour Of Tampa, Florida
Posted on: Lodging.Com
Date: ???

Peppers

Gulf Blvd

EXCELLENT Food and service. Our Waitress went well out of her way to get us some Hot Sauce that was around our high heat level. The Garlic-oil-herbs that they serve with the fresh baked bread was wonderful in it's own right. I had the Fish Kabob with stuffed shrimp . Rob had the surf and turf, he said his steak was excellent as well. I highly recommend this place to anyone travelling in the area for a great meal.
From: "Tom Cuneo", forsite@forsite.net
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999

Salt Rock Grill

Gulf Blvd

Thai AM

Gulf Blvd

The food was pretty good here as well , although not as good as we expected after having eaten at the other places first hehe( guess expectations run high after you've eaten at places like El PassO Cafe and Salt Rock)... The lady who waited on us was more than happy to spice things up though for us, and although it wasn't habanero hot, I did have "the great sweat" running when we left. I had the spicy shrimp and asked them to make it Thai Hot. It was a good meal, Rob had the Curry Beef but was slightly disappointed as it was more like a coconut milk stew rather than a strong curry flavor.
From: "Tom Cuneo", forsite@forsite.net
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999

More Information on Dining in Florida
The Orlando Sentinel's recommendations are at:
Orlandosentinel (Click on dining, then "Foodie Awards")

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