Harborside Grill

Great food and awesome staff! We work on Harbor Island and come here at least once a week!

Finally got here, as should any local Unilocaler who respects simple, good food and Tampa’s rich heritage of eateries. This is the sole remaining eating place along the shrimp docks on the 22^nd Street Causeway, about a mile west of the US 41 intersection. It serves breakfast and lunch only, mostly for workers at the shipyards and local industries. Menu is all the standard breakfast options with several breakfast sandwiches to grab and go. Lunch menu is mostly sandwiches with lots of hearty sides, like cabbage or mac and cheese. The house specialities are devil crab and stuffed potatoes… and I have never had better in Tampa… delectable meaty crab with crispy crust, and the meat filling in the potato was very well-​seasoned ground beef. Also tried pork and fish sandwiches — –best flavored roast pork, requiring no condiments. Ample portions letting us take home enough for dinner at very reasonable prices. Received efficient, friendly servce despite arriving at closing time… and no rush for us to eat… instead and offer to give us all remaining iced tea for the road, rather than dump it out. Will remember to drop in to try other sandwiches when passing by the general alrea.

I need to start this review with this place looks like a hole in the wall but once you get past that it is FLAVOR PARIDISE!!!
A co-​worker and I were discussing where the best cuban sandwich was that we had eaten. Mine was previously Larry’s Deli in Land O Lakes until today when i had one of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time.
The cuban here is traditional and the pork is what did it for me. They press it on there flat top grill to seal in the flavor. I also got one of there home made stuffed potatoes and it is by far one of the best i have found around Tampa.
The service was very good and you could tell its family owned and that they take a lot of pride in there food. I can’t wait to bring the wife here to try there devil crabs and maybe get an early breakfast.

Great place for a quick and inexpensive lunch… fried chicken is great, and the quesadilla is awesome!

Deep fried stuffed potato. When you take mashed potatoes, form them into a ball stuffed with ground beef and cheese, you coat the ball with breading and you deep fry it, you are as close to food Nirvana as you can get. And it’s not as easy as it sounds. Not everyone can get the mixture just right. And different ethnic groups give these delicacies their own little flavor. But if you crave the biggest, most deliciously fried stuffed potato, check out Harborside Grill.
Harborside Grill is NOT your traditional restaurant. It is more of a «hole in the wall» type place frequented by marine laborers, coast guard recruits, and folks looking for a good meal at a better price. Be warned, though. It is not much to look at, inside or out, so if you are put off by places that don’t look like Outback, look elsewhere. But you will miss out on one of the hidden gems of Tampa Bay. This is definitely a «local knowledge» place (mariners will know this reference).
They post a menu on a whiteboard, and the food is usually greasy, fried, full of butter or gravy. And once in a while that is not a bad thing. Their menu has breakfast items like pancakes, and lunch items like sandwiches, and burgers. But the true gem of the place is the deep fried stuffed potato. They know how to cook it just right to make sure it’s cooked all the way through without burning it, which is a minor miracle given how big the thing is.
Service is not exactly top notch, and if you go right at noon you’ll run into the laborer crowd that absolutely LOVES this joint. It gets packed! And for good reason.
This place is not for everyone. The atmosphere may be a bit rough for some, and there is NOTHING healthy on the menu. But for those of us who love deep fried or greasy anything, gravy, butter, and cheese, and have VERY strong stomachs, I’d recommend visiting Harborside Grill. At least once. :)