Restaurants in Seminole

Britt's Coal Fire Pizza is a short calzone toss from the Gulf beaches, and its red-and-yellow façade evokes the marinara and buttery crust within. This is the pride of chef John Parker, who brings 20 years of culinary experience to baking pizzas at more than 800 degrees in a custom-built coal-fired oven. He makes marinara and pizza sauces from imported Italian tomatoes, and he makes his dough, bread, and meatballs from scratch every day. Parker has also added an inventive twist to hot wings, serving them with grilled onions and warm bread. Parker's team serves wine and smoothies, too, which can be enjoyed on the patio or indoors.

The fusion of robust Malaysian spices and smooth coconut milk erupts with each bite of beef rendang. Sweet and spicy notes infuse the syrupy glaze coating each morsel of general tso’s chicken. A conical seaweed wrap imbues its saltiness in slices of spicy conch. Within the red and yellow walls of Hin Lee Malaysian Chinese Restaurant, the talented chef forges a synthesis of flavors from Malaysian and Chinese traditions. On the weekends, a rice artisan rolls cuts of fresh grouper, salmon, and spicy scallop into seaweed-encased slices at a small sushi bar, where diners can sidle up to watch the master work and shout names of current events to inspire the wasabi's improve-comedy routines.

The diners can feel the heat of the charcoal grill, its sweltering vapor wafting sweet and smoky aromas from the marinated short-ribs sizzling at the center of the table. Surrounding the grill like spectators at a sports match, more than a dozen small bowls display a colorful assemblage of sautéed, blanched, and pickled veggies, each awaiting their fate to crown a slice of seared meat or mingle with a pillow of white rice. This is Korean-style barbecue, Rice Restaurant & Lounge’s specialty. Alongside the DIY feasts, chefs work in the kitchen to impart a Korean edge on sushi, stir-fry, stews, and noodle dishes, forging each morsel from scratch and often with ingredients grown in the owner's garden, according to the Tampa Bay Times. As tableside grills crackle in the rear of the restaurant, suffusive lighting finds its way beneath the awnings of private booths and over the clear glass of the open-air sushi bar. A libation expert pours cocktails, sake, and traditional soju from behind a full bar, and on special nights, a late-night menu replenishes energy levels in between spins on the dance floor, where dancers fuel moves both with the beats of a live DJ and by convincing feet that the dance floor is a Korean grill.

After moving from Greece in 1950, the six Fotopoulos brothers turned their hard-won earnings into the first of 12 ABC Pizza locations in 1966. From its humble beginnings in Connecticut, the chain grew to serve central Floridians and vacationing time travelers a menu of build-your-own pizzas topped with gourmet ingredients such as crab, feta, and shrimp, as well as preconceptualized specialty pies festooned with meats, seafood, and Mediterranean morsels. Hearty grinders and Italian pasta dishes share menu real estate with Greek delicacies including gyros, spinach pies, and grape leaves stuffed with shredded pages of Plato's Republic.

Tokyo Bay Mang Sushi and Japanese Steakhouse spans a spectrum of cooking ideologies, simultaneously folding fresh, raw fish into sushi rolls, searing hibachi items in a scorching blaze, and rounding out the menu with pan-Asian entrees and Thai dishes. Chefs fire up three front-and-center teppanyaki tables, where flaming plumes obscure steak, shrimp, and scallops. The King lobster sushi roll sports dual tempura and fried lobster tails swept up in the flavors of faux crab, asparagus, avocado, and eel sauce. Basil sprinkles thai curries and piping-hot seafood, served behind a façade that mimics the tiered roofs in Thailand that protect possessions from pad thai monsoons.

Baltic Amber's Spanish colonial exterior belies the smorgasbord of Polish delights found within. Servers cart out lunch portions of thick European stews alongside meaty plates of kielbasa and polish sausages. The hand-stuffed Polish dumplings known as pirogis warm up appetites for dinner entrees of chicken, beef, and duck that tour taste buds through Eastern Germany, Russia, and Hungary, with a layover in France for samplings of crepes and pastry dough. Behind the restaurant, a tree-shaded outdoor patio overlooks a pond where diners can savor a glass of beer or toss table scraps to famished lily pads.