Sometimes it’s the silly little things that amuse us to no end.  Something that just catches you off guard and makes you giggle.  We went over to Athens in downtown Safety Harbor for breakfast and they had the Popeye omelette on their specials board.  What does Popeye love?  Spinach and Olive.  Loren had to order it just because it made us giggle.

Along with the spinach and olives, it also had bacon in it, everything’s better with bacon, right?  He really enjoyed the omelette.  I went for the blueberry pancakes and eggs over easy.

The pancakes were very tasty, but I forgot just how hot blueberries can get and burned my tongue on the first bite.  The eggs were perfectly cooked as well.  Our waitress was a little frazzled this morning, but other than that, it was a very enjoyable $15 breakfast.

Athens Restaurant
226 Main St
Safety Harbor, FL
727-726-3471

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We went back to Woodstock on 5th tonight in Safety Harbor.  They were really busy and we ended up at one of the high top tables right next to the kitchen.  It was really uncomfortable sitting on bar stools, the table was small and we could see & hear everything going on in and around the kitchen.  I just felt cramped and crowded.  We started off with the white bean chili again and Loren got a salad.

They also served it with pita bread and apple butter this time, which they didn’t the last.  The chili was thinner this time, which was good.  It was really thick the first time we had it.  It seemed to have a lot more chicken in it as well.  For his entree, Loren got the Molly Hatchet, which was a grilled swordfish.

It was served with arugula and a spicy tomato puree, but Loren didn’t think it was spicy at all.  He wasn’t a big fan of the arugula, but said the swordfish was cooked perfectly.  I went for the Janis Joplin.

This was a seared salmon on top of spinach, zucchini, corn, & red peppers.  It also came with a potato pancake that was really dense and flavorless.  I didn’t care for the tomato vinaigrette on it either.  Too much vinegar and was way too sour for me.   The salmon was perfectly cooked though.

Overall, I just found the experience to be very uncomfortable.  There seems to be a lot of people working there which made it feel even more crowded in such a small space.  Though we both enjoyed the fish, the items served alongside didn’t impress.  Total bill with a drink was $54.

Woodstock on 5th
155 5th Ave N
Safety Harbor, FL
727-797-4444

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We went for a quick lunch at Athen’s in downtown Safety Harbor today.  Luckily, we got there before the crowd because it was standing room only by the time we left.  Loren got a Greek Salad with chicken and I got a gyro.

He said the chicken was flavorful and tender.  My gyro was good, but I think I would have liked a little lettuce on it.  It needed a little crunch since I get it without the onions.  Total bill with a drink was $17.

Athens Restaurant
226 Main St
Safety Harbor, FL
727-726-3471

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Service
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Woodstock on 5th recently opened up in the space where Crepeology used to be in Safety Harbor.  It’s a really small building and I’m amazed at the quality of food they were able to put out of that tiny kitchen.  There aren’t a lot of tables, but there is a patio out back and they had live music tonight.  The whole restaurant and staff are decked out in a 60′s music theme and the menu items are all named after musicians and bands of the era.  We started off with some of the white chili.

When it came to the table, we both thought it looked like a bowl of cheese queso dip.  And to be honest, it would have gone great with some tortilla chips.  It was very thick, creamy, and cheesy. It had a nice flavor to it, just a hint of heat and overall very tasty.   For his entree, Loren ordered the “Grateful Dead”.

It was two tri tip grilled steaks with potatoes and green beans.  The steak was cooked a perfect medium, seasoned wonderfully, and was very tender.  I ate some of it because it was actually too much food.  Drop the price a little and just serve one steak and it still would have been enough for an entree.   I ordered the “Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young”.

It was a pappardelle pasta with wild mushrooms.  One bite and I was hooked.  The cream sauce was amazing.  The only thing I really didn’t like were the wild mushrooms.  Some of them were really tough and chewy.  The pasta was cooked perfectly and I licked every last bite of that sauce off the plate.  We also decided to try the desserts.  We got the citrus cake and a strawberry mousse tart.

They don’t make the desserts in house, but instead get them from a local bakery.  Loren really liked the citrus cake.  It was moist and had a wonderful orange flavor.  I found the crust on the tart to be a little hard, but the strawberry mousse filling was tasty.

Overall, the food was amazing; however, other aspects of the experience weren’t as great.   It did take a while to get our food, but, it was definitely fresh and homemade.  They have a very young and inexperienced wait staff.  They were very sweet and pleasant with bubbly personalities, but seemed a bit over their head when it came to actually keeping up with their tables.  The other thing we found annoying was that the door to the patio is in the small dining room, so there was a constant opening & closing of the door as people went in & out.

They post their weekly menu specials on their website and also serve breakfast & lunch.  We’ll probably go back again as the food really was delicious.  Total bill with a drink was $61.

Woodstock on 5th
155 5th Ave N
Safety Harbor, FL
727-797-4444

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Always on the lookout for new places to eat, we ended up at Southern Fresh in downtown Safety Harbor for dinner tonight.  They’re in the building across from the post office that used to house Brady’s BBQ, then Lulu’s.  It’s a small space inside, but way too cold to eat outside tonight, though their patio area is very nice with a fire pit out front.  The menu isn’t very big, though everything we tried was pretty tasty.

Loren started out with the BLT soup.

His first reaction was that it was a soup that tasted like a sandwich.  He was really surprised and pleased with the taste.  The combination of tomato, bacon, shallots, and romaine was completely reminiscent of a BLT sandwich.  He’d definitely order it again.   Everything is made fresh here, so there was a bit of a wait for our entrees.  Loren got the salmon salad.

The salmon was cooked well and he liked the capers in the salad which added a unique little salty twist to the dish.  He said it all mixed well with the candied lemon zest on top.  I went for the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and roasted veggies.

The chicken was perfectly cooked.  Nice & crispy on the outside and moist and delicious inside.  My only criticism is that it could have used more seasoning.  I found it to be just a little on the bland side.  The mashed potatoes were peppery and could have really used some gravy.  The veggies were a mix of carrots, brussel sprouts, onions, and zucchini.  They had two desserts available tonight, so we got one of each.

The strawberry shortcake was on a sponge cake and had a fresh, not-too-sweet strawberry sauce on it.  Loren scarfed the entire thing.  I happily enjoyed my banana pudding.  Overall, it was a very enjoyable meal.  Total bill with a drink was $43.

Southern Fresh
122 3rd Ave N
Safety Harbor, FL
727-216-6341

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We were late heading out the door for dinner tonight, so wanted to find some place that wasn’t loud and didn’t have a wait.  We ended up at Taverna Skara in Safety Harbor.  We skipped the appetizers tonight and went straight for the entrees.  Loren got the Yemista, which was a stuffed pepper and stuffed tomato.

He really enjoyed this dish.  They were both very flavorful, filled with rice, ground beef and herbs.  The pepper wasn’t spicy at all, in fact, he said it was almost sweet.  He cleared his entire plate.  I went for the gyro platter.

The platter came with fries, side salad, pita and tzatziki sauce.  The gyro meat was good.  It wasn’t greasy at all.  I would have preferred the pita pieces to have been sliced larger.  I like to roll up the gyro in the pita and it was just difficult with the smaller sliced pieces.  I was most disappointed in the salad.  It wasn’t dressed at all.  There was oil & vinegar on the table, but I guess I just assume that if I’m in a Greek restaurant, that there’s going to be Greek dressing on the salad.  Last time we were here, they started us off with pita and olives, but that didn’t happen this time.   Total bill with a drink was $31.

Taverna Skara
2454 McMullen Booth Rd
Clearwater, FL
727-726-9000

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We were going to a movie later this morning, so decided to get breakfast instead of going out for lunch afterward.  We drove into downtown Safety Harbor and settled in at Athens Restaurant.  We got there at just the right time too.  Right after we sat down the place got mobbed with customers.  Loren went for an omelette and grits and some OJ.

The omelette was perfectly cooked and he enjoyed the grits.  I went for some french toast, scrambled eggs and home fries.

At first glance, I thought they had put my scrambled eggs inside the french toast, but I quickly realized that was just the edges of the cooked egg batter that the french toast was dipped in.  The french toast was light & fluffy and both the eggs and potatoes were cooked well.  For $15, it was a quick, tasty, inexpensive breakfast.

Athens Restaurant
226 Main St
Safety Harbor, FL
727-726-3471

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We were looking for a quick dinner before heading out to a concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall, so we stopped in to the Beef O’Bradys on McMullen Booth & Enterprise.  It’s impossible to hear yourself think in this restaurant.  Guess it’s more about yelling at the TV’s than actually talking to the person you’re with and we weren’t even in the bar area.

Loren tried the Santa Fe Salad.

He said it was ok.  I’d have been all about eating the bowl, but I don’t think he even ate any of it.  I went for a boneless basket with a side of onion rings.

The onion rings were a disappointment.  They weren’t crunchy at all.  The chicken wasn’t as tender as I’d have liked it to be, but there was definitely more than I could eat in the basket.  The spicy sauce for the onion rings was way too spicy for me.  It seemed to take a really long time to get our food too.  Total bill with a drink was $25.

Beef O’Bradys
2471 N McMullen Booth Rd
Safety Harbor, FL
727-614-9717

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When we were at Sabai Thai last night we noticed that a new Greek restaurant just opened up next door called Taverna Skara.  It’s a light and airy looking restaurant and they weren’t busy at all when we got there.  They brought pita and olives to the table while we looked at the menus.

Loren said the olives were really good and I enjoyed the pita, though I would have liked something to dip it in.  We decided to try the fried calamari for an appetizer.

This was a mixed bag of tender and chewy pieces of calamari.  It seemed as though the pieces that kept their coating were fairly tender, but other pieces ended up being overcooked.  The dish definitely needed salt and I didn’t like the way it was served in the cone.  It made it very hard to get pieces out and dripped oil and crumbs all over the table.

For his entrée, Loren got the pork souvlaki platter.

It had pork, rice, pita, Greek salad and tzatziki sauce.  He enjoyed it and ended up with way more pita and rice than he could eat.  The tzatziki sauce had an interesting flavor to it.  I can’t quite put my finger on what was different about it, but there was something.  I tried the pastitsio.

This was a very good version of the dish.  The flavors were all there, the pasta was tender and the béchamel sauce was creamy and had good flavor.   My only criticism was that they melted some cheese on top that formed a hard crust.  I just didn’t care for that.  I also would have liked if it had been served with a small Greek salad.   Most of the other entrees on the menu were served with a side or salad, so it seemed odd that the items on the Traditional Greek Entree list were not.

Service was very attentive, almost too attentive, but I’m guessing it’s because they’re new and there weren’t too many customers in the restaurant.   Overall, the food was good and we’ll probably be back again to try some other dishes.   Total bill with a drink was $43.

Taverna Skara
2454 McMullen Booth Rd
Clearwater, FL
727-726-9000

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Our first visit to Sabai Thai was all about sushi, so we decided to try their Thai offerings today.  I really liked the dumplings last time, so we had to get another order of those.

They’re very dense, but full of flavor.  I could eat a plate full of them and be quite contented.  The food comes out really fast here.  I’m not sure if it’s because there weren’t very many customers or the kitchen is just on super speed.  Loren got the ginger chicken.

He said it was very good, but didn’t have any heat to it even though he ordered it medium spicy.   He said the reason he normally orders this dish is because it comes with lots of fresh veggies.   I went for the Pad Lad Na.

The flavors were very mellow, but that’s pretty much what I expect from this dish.  I would have liked the broccoli to have been cooked a little more, but overall, it was tasty.  There was definitely a lot more sauce in this version than what I’ve gotten at other places.  It was almost like eating a noodle soup.  We both ended up with leftovers.  Total bill with a drink was $28.

Sabai Thai Cuisine
2454 McMullen Booth Road
Clearwater, FL
(727) 330-7630

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I’m on vacation all week and we’ve been craving cheeseburgers, so headed over to Athens in downtown Safety Harbor.

A mushroom cheeseburger with fries for me and a bacon cheeseburger with a side of chicken noodle soup for Loren.

He really liked the soup and we both devoured the burgers.  They’re just fresh, simple, inexpensive, and tasty.   Total bill with a drink was $16.

Athens Restaurant
226 Main St
Safety Harbor, FL
727-726-3471

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A new seafood restaurant recently opened up in Safety Harbor.  The Nantucket Bucket is located on 2nd Street S, just off of Main Street.  Their indoor seating was full when we got there, so we sat out on the back patio.  As we walked back there we noticed the kitchen was in what looked like a trailer to the left of the building.  There were plenty of long tables on the patio and we were seated on one end while another couple was at the other end.  This wasn’t really an issue, but as the place filled up, there was a family of four seated between us and it felt a bit crowded to me.  I’m just not a fan of community seating, I prefer having my own table.

We started off with some potato bites (tater tots) and lobster based corn chowder.

The key word here is lobster based, meaning there wasn’t actually any lobster pieces in the chowder.  In fact, the only thing in the chowder was corn.  It tasted like frozen corn to me which has a texture I’m not fond of.  The chowder itself was ok; rather peppery, but the amount of corn in it was ridiculous. I can’t imagine anyone being able to consume that much corn in one sitting.  It really needed some other vegetables to alleviate the monotony of the dish.

The tater tots were good; but in all fairness, it’s hard to mess up a tater tot.   Loren said the cheese sauce was pretty bad.  Basically canned cheese sauce with canned jalapenos on top.  For his entrée, Loren ordered the house salad with blackened mahi on top.

The salad was huge, but he said the menu indicated it should have had bacon on it and it didn’t.  He liked the mahi and said it was cooked well, but he didn’t finish the salad.  He also had to wait for the salad dressing since the waiter didn’t ask him which kind he wanted when he took the order.  I decided to try the lobster roll and lobster based mac & cheese.

Let me start off by saying I’m originally from a fishing family in New England and we had fresh lobster quite frequently right off the boat.  There is very little that needs to be done with lobster in order to make it delicious.  A lobster roll, in my opinion, needs just a little bit of mayo, some salt & pepper and you’re done.  Maybe a little celery or lettuce for crunch.  I don’t know what they did to this lobster roll but it was quite inedible.  The only word I can use to describe the taste is briny.  It just got more and more unpleasant to eat with every bite and after just a few bites, I gave up completely.  Loren tasted a chunk of the lobster and didn’t think it was bad, but then took another bite and tasted exactly what I did.   The mac & cheese suffered the same fate.  It had that same briny flavor to it.  It was also a rather waxy mac & cheese versus a creamy version.  Even the coleslaw had way too much vinegar in it.

When our waiter came back to our table and saw my uneaten meal, he asked if I wanted a box.  I said no because it wasn’t very good.  He cleared our plates and an experienced server would have mentioned something to the manager.  That didn’t happen in this case.  He brought the check and that was it.  Granted, this place has only been opened a few weeks, but there was absolutely nothing about the experience that would make me go back again.  Total bill with a drink was $41.

Nantucket Bucket
519 2nd Street South
Safety Harbor, FL
727-724-2933

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We decided to give Bella Kouzina another try, but unfortunately, this visit wasn’t any better than the last.  It started with the fried calamari.

We order calamari almost every place that has it on the menu, so I think I’m a pretty good judge of how it should taste.  This was just beyond chewy and had no flavor whatsoever.  When the waitress stopped by and asked how it was, I told her it was chewy.  She looked at me and said, “But, it’s calamari.”   I’m guessing she’s just never had calamari cooked the right way before.  She took it back to the kitchen and we heard someone say “drop another order of calamari”.  Since nothing else was said as to cooking it differently, we ended up sending the second batch back as well & they took it off our check.  The waitress said they must have just gotten a bad shipment.  Personally, we both thought they just didn’t have the oil at the right temperature, so it was getting overcooked.  But, on to the soups.

Loren got the clam chowder and I got the pasta fagioli.  His had a decent flavor, but it wasn’t thick and creamy.  My first bite tasted like baked beans and each subsequent bite had sort of a metallic taste when it hit my tongue.  Loren said he could taste what I was tasting as well.  The bread, however, was the highlight of the meal for me.

Loren ordered the salmon Cleopatra which had artichokes, celery and mushrooms in a white wine lemon sauce.

He said it was ok.  At first, he didn’t like the sauce on it. I tasted it and thought it  just tasted like olive oil with a little bit of lemon in it. His dish also came with pasta.  He said it was overcooked and the sauce wasn’t great.   I decided to try the pastitsio.

Again, this is a dish I order at most Greek restaurants, so I expect certain flavors.  This one didn’t deliver.  Instead of being cooked as one large dish and portioned out, it looks like an individual serving was made.  The pasta wasn’t drained properly, so there was water in the bottom of the bowl.  The meat filling had no flavor and the pasta sauce was tart.  It hadn’t cooked anywhere near long enough to develop any decent flavors.  This was a pretty disappointing meal for $29.

Bella Kouzina
3101 SR 580
Safety Harbor, FL
(727) 797–2667

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Thinking Hurricane Isaac was headed our way, we went to downtown Safety Harbor for a quick lunch at Athens.

A couple of burgers, some fries and onion rings and we were good to go for the rest of the afternoon.  Total bill with a drink was $15.

Athens Restaurant
226 Main St
Safety Harbor, FL
727-726-3471

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BBQ was on the menu for dinner so we headed to downtown Safety Harbor and Brady’s Backyard BBQ.  Loren’s a fan of the riblets, so he got those with some garlic red potatoes and greens.

He said the riblets were good, but he didn’t like the potatoes.  I liked them, though.  I ordered the brisket with a side of cornbread pudding, a try of potato salad, and some mac & cheese that they had on the menu tonight.

I like really tender and juicy bbq meats and the brisket just didn’t do it for me.  I found it dry.  Loren liked it though, so he ended up with most of it for lunch tomorrow.  The cornbread pudding and potato salad are always delish, but I also found the mac & cheese to be a bit on the dry side too.  It had good flavors and the wait staff were raving about it, but I just prefer mine a bit creamier.  Total bill with a drink was $30.

Brady’s Backyard BBQ
340 Main Street
Safety Harbor, FL
727-712-3727

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A new Beef O’Brady’s opened up on Enterprise recently so we checked it out for dinner today.  It still smelled like new paint and the music was a bit too loud, but otherwise, the experience was pretty good.  Loren went for an O’Brady Burger with fries.

He said it was juicy and had a pretty good flavor to it.  The fries were crunchy and quite yummy.  I went for a patty melt and added some grilled mushrooms to it plus a side of onion rings.

I was happy with the burger.  Just like Loren’s, it had good flavor but the sour dough bread was toasted a bit unevenly.  The onion rings were really good.  We both devoured those.  They had a great crunch and flavor. Total bill with a drink was $23.

Beef O’Bradys
2471 N McMullen Booth Rd
Safety Harbor, FL
727-614-9717

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Time for too much sushi as usual.  This time around it was back to Ocean Blue in Safety Harbor.  Loren wanted a salad and I wanted some egg rolls to start off with.

Now, you would think that we’d order less sushi since we got an appetizer, but sadly, that wasn’t the case.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, the Super Crunchy is my most favorite sushi roll around.  Everything else was fresh & tasty as well.  I really like the no rice cucumber roll too.  I think what we both like most about this place is that they don’t drench all the rolls in mayo or sauces.  They let the fish be the star. $60 later and we had to roll ourselves back out to the car.

Ocean Blue Sushi Bar & Kaiko Japanese Restaurant
2475 McMullen Booth Road
Clearwater, FL
727-953-9828

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Panos Kouzina has changed owners and they’ve renamed it Bella Kouzina.  It looks the same inside and the menus haven’t been changed yet, but there was definitely a difference in the food.

We both decided on the clam chowder to go with our entrees.

The chowder was pretty good.  Not quite as creamy as other places, but it had a good flavor to it.  The bread was tasty.  I seem to remember it being a lot more garlicy here before though.  For his entree, Loren got the Pork Medallions.

He said the pork were very tender and tasty.  The dish was served with rice, but he sort of wished it was served with a vegetable as well to round out the meal.  I ordered the chicken marsala with a side of fettucine alfredo.

My plate was very plain looking.  The marsala sauce was very thin and looked like chicken stock, though it absolutely tasted like marsala.  It had a nice sweet flavor, though I’d just never seem a marsala dish that looked that color before.  (Here’s a photo of the last time I ordered it)  The chicken was ok, though, very plain.  It didn’t even have any sort of breading on it whatsoever.   They also hit on a pet peeve of mine by not giving us steak knives to cut our food.  I’m sorry, but butter knives just don’t cut it, literally.

Surprisingly, Loren liked the taste of the fettucine alfredo more than I did.  There was just something off about it.  I don’t know if it was the type of cheese in it or if they added some additional herbs.  All I know is that it just didn’t do it for me.

Unfortunately, our waitress ignored our table quite a bit.  We were done eating long before she ever stopped by again.  And once she brought us boxes for our leftovers, she disappeared again.  The owner ended up clearing the dishes off our table.  We didn’t even get asked if we wanted dessert.  Total bill was $30 with a drink.

Bella Kouzina
3101 SR 580
Safety Harbor, FL
(727) 797–2667

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We ate dinner at Panos Kouzina tonight and found out the restaurant has been sold to the guy who used to own Alberto’s in Oldsmar.  Tonight was the original owner Nick’s last night in the restaurant.  He came over and chatted with us for a while when he noticed me taking photos and said he’d been reading my blog.

Tonight we tried the Mediterranean hand tossed pizza.

It was really good with a very fresh taste to it.  It had chicken, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, feta, and garlic.  I’m usually a fan of a deep dish crust pizza, but I enjoyed the hand tossed crust on this one.   The last time we had pizza here we both got personal pizzas and the crust seemed a lot thinner on that one.

Since we’re not sure what’s going to change with the new owner, I figured I better get a piece of the chocolate cake while it’s still there.

It’s got the fudgey goodness.  It’s such a thick, rich yummy chocolate cake.  Total bill was $23.  The name of the restaurant will likely change in the next few months so we’ll have to go back and check it out under the new owner.

Panos Kouzina
3101 SR 580
Safety Harbor, FL
(727) 797–2667

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It’s been a while since we’ve eaten dinner at the Whistle Stop Grill in Safety Harbor and next time I need to make sure we ask for a table away from the bar.  I didn’t realize they allowed people to smoke back there and by the end of our meal, it was getting a little hard to breathe and the folks at the bar were a bit loud.

Other than that though, the food was pretty good.  We both opted for burgers tonight.  Loren got the bacon cheeseburger and I got the angus burger with mushrooms and onions.

The burgers were both seasoned well and the sweet potato fries were tasty.  Loren liked the homemade chips as well.  Total bill with a drink was $22.

Whistlestop Grill
915 Main St
Safety Harbor, FL
727-726-1956

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