Restaurant Review: Cherry’s Bar and Grill

While on the way to Bat Boy on Friday, we stopped in at Cherry’s Bar and Grill (214 East Bearss Avenue, Tampa, FL 33613, (813) 269-0205), the Tampa Branch of a Florida chain of six restaurants in the Cherry’s family. Opening in 1994, Cherry’s offers the casual dining experience of a sit down family restaurant with liquor and beer options comparable to a sports bar.

Since they do full liquor, Kara ordered a margarita. It was a strong drink, so kudos for the value. It wasn’t half bad tasting either.

The food is typical bar food, whatever can be deep fried or thrown together quickly. This leads to relatively quick service and the food is alright, but nothing I’d marvel over. Since I had a coupon from the Entertainment Book for Buy One Get One Entrees, Kara and I ended up getting a Buffalo Wrap and a Patty Melt, both with fries.

The patty melt wasn’t bad. It was stacked pretty thick, still greasy and filled with the sauteed onions that make a patty melt so delicious. This was pretty fulfilling.

The wrap, on the other hand, was kind of weak. There was very little actual chicken in the wrap. A bed of lettuce provided most of the volume, small slivers of chicken particles doused in sauce made up the rest. The sauce was good, somewhere around a Frank’s Red Hot in flavor.

The fries were sub-par. Not only were they flavorless, but they were cold inside and gooey. Some were better than others, but as a whole the fries I definitely could have done without.

The atmosphere reminded me a lot of a 1950 diner. Neon lights lit up the bar. Black, white and red colors were used throughout, giving it that fun soda shop feel.

I am curious to try their wings and their half pound burgers, so I’ll make another trip to report at some later date.

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