Now for dinner. Mmm Sushi.

Restaurant: Sushi By Design
Location: Tierra Verde, St. Petersburg, FL
Price: Won't Bust the Bank

Hello again. Tonight we went to Sushi By Design in lovely Tierra Verde. Lulu has been talking about this restaurant for quite some time saying that I have got to try the sushi and believe me, if anyone knows sushi, it's Lulu. The two of us walked in and I was shocked at how small the place was. For those that are wanting to go and have sushi with a bunch of friends, this might not be the place for you. There was only 5 tables and a few chairs by the sushi bar. It was very quiet and we were the only ones in the place other than the owner and the waitress. Lulu had told me that the restaurant was packed the last time she went there so maybe it was just a slow night.

We had ordered two miso soups, a spicy tuna salad, two special rolls (the "Pink Lady" which sounds too much like a sex toy, and the "Caterpillar" roll), and a roll that we designed which consisted of eel, pineapple, mango, avocado, and eel sauce. The Pink Lady had salmon on the inside, tuna wrapped on the outside, asparagus, cucumber, and a special designer sauce. The Caterpillar roll had crab salad, cucumber, asparagus, topped with avocado, and eel sauce.

Honestly, we enjoyed everything except the miso soup. Lately we've been having bad luck with the miso soup. It's either too salty, or they're trying to make it something more spectacular than it has to be. This one tasted like it was pre-packaged, one of those powdered ones. However, the rest of the food was excellent and we both would recommend this restaurant. The spicy tuna salad was excellent. The portion size was quite large. We split it and were content. The salad dressing was spicy and tasted like it had some sriracha and sesame seed oil and contained the perfect amount of spice which didn't linger in our mouths. We liked how they used different sauces on the rolls along with the various seasonings. It was classic sushi with a twist.

It was so good that we decided to have dessert. The dessert was a tempura brownie placed on top of a pineapple topped with whipped cream and strawberries which was drizzled with caramel. Oooohweeeeee, it was chocolatey mushy goodness in a fried dough.

Lulu and I give Sushi By Design 4 out of 5 forks.

Hello bloggers.

Hello, welcome to our blog. This is a very straight-forward blog about food reviews in the Tampa Bay Metro Area all the way down to lovely South Florida. I (Lee Paton) will be doing a majority of the South Florida food reviews and Lulu will be reviewing Tampa Bay area restaurants. In case you are wondering, we are not food critics, nor would we want to be food critics. God knows how many restaurants are in their pockets anyways. A good review here, a good review there. But no one ever has the heart to say how fucking terrible it is. It's usually the jealous and slanderous fellow neighborhood restaurant owners who talk a whole lot of shit about the place so it's kind of hard to take those reviews seriously as well. So just to be fair, we're no "experts" but we know a great deal about good food. Lulu has a family who enjoys the occasional night on the town. They go out to eat, have a nice bottle of wine, and enjoy the atmosphere. My parents are the same way. Growing up in an all-Italian family, my parents enjoy the same things. If you ever needed a suggestion on wine, my father is the man you need to see. Italian food? My mother has got it in the bag. So we know what good food tastes like. Anyway, on to our first review.


Restaurant: Sea Horse Restaurant
Location: St. Pete Beach (Pass-a-Grille), FL
Price: Penny Pincher
I would like to talk about our breakfast that we had at Sea Horse Restaurant. The reviews online said that it was a good restaurant but the reviews were almost too good to be true; one person stated that all of the restaurants on St. Pete Beach were terrible except for this place. Could these have been true? Was Sea Horse really a great neighborhood eatery or was it disguised as a horrible tourist death trap? We decided to find out. We came at a time when they were serving only breakfast so perhaps our review would be a little bit different had it been the lunch menu. It was packed so we were expecting good things. Our waitress was very nice and the service was speedy. We received our food roughly five minutes after we ordered. I ordered a glass of orange juice and Lulu asked for iced tea and she stated that it was a damn good iced tea. Shortly after receiving our drinks, Lulu ordered the biscuits and gravy along with some scrambled eggs with cheese. I ordered the French toast with a side of bacon (Nothing special). One would think, "That's pretty simple. How can you fuck that up?" but let me just say, it is very possible at this restaurant. The eggs that Lulu had ordered were dry. Absolutely no flavor what-so-ever. It was one of those salt and pepper jobs and even after all that salt and pepper, it still was tasting pretty bad. However, the biscuits and gravy were very good. My French toast was a little upsetting. They gave me three pieces of white bread that they grilled and I had to put the butter and powdered sugar on myself. My French toast tasted good but that was only because I pretty much made it myself. The bacon that they gave me was a joke. Bacon? More like Fakin'. The slices were rail thin. I mean so thin, it was like that scene in Goodfellas where Pauly was slicing the garlic with the razor. I was pissed at that because it was $3.25 for a side of bacon. So all in all, it seems like this is a touristy place that people go to and have breakfast and lunch, maybe spend a few dollars on some subpar food. I was kind of surprised that there were so many good reviews of this restaurant.

Lulu and I would have to say that we would not recommend eating here and we give Seahorse Restaurant two forks down.