Favorite Resturants In The Villages
 

DW and I are coming for a Lifestyle Visit at the end of August can you please share your favorite resturant in and around The Villages, thank you?

Piesanos for pizza

Roberto’s for pizza, good Italian & lunch specials.
Pho Saigon for Vietnamese

You are going to get a lot of replies. Everyone has their favorite. Pick some type of food you like and go to that style of restaurant. You will do fine.

The first place we go when we are back is Piesano’s.



Really, many places are good. But you might run into one or two places where you will have a service hiccup - they happen everywhere.

You will also see lot’s of posts that there are NO good places to eat. There are some we don’t go back to. Or we give them a 6 month break because of a bad experience.

The county department of health is pretty good, you will hear of restaurants being closed for violations.

OP, there are numerous restaurants within TV (available by golf cart) and just outside TV by car. Almost every “chain” you can think about. If you are like my wife and I, we like to go to local owned restaurants when in new places. The country clubs are owned by the Developer but leased out to locals. You can get to them by golf cart. Nancy Lopez Legacy is our favorite Country Club restaurant.

Just outside TV are some nice places. On State Route 44 and inside Continental Country club is “The Oaks” a very nice locally leased restaurant.

Our favorite BQ ribs place is Oakwood Grill (locally owned) in Lady Lake on US 441. Baby back ribs that fall off the bone.

For seafood. Blue Fin on the Square at Brownwood. Of course, available by golf cart.

Just to name a few.

Sakura for sushi

Sakura for Japanese

Nappolino for Italian

Thanks for this link! Good stuff as to all the restaurants available to choose from.

Good Luck.
Food inside the bubble is very underwhelming at best. My biggest complaint about moving here would be the quality of the food. I never knew how good I had it back north. If you travel outside of The Villages to Leesburg or Ocala, you can find some nice places but lose the ability of getting there on a cart which is half the enjoyment of going out for my wife and me.

Ha! Good luck. Asking a community of 100k+ residents their favorite restaurant will get you 10k different responses.

Depending where you are from will determine how enamored you are with the village restaurants. Me, not so much.

Last Month's Thread
 

Almost 100 posts................same question.........

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ght=Resturants

Out of the bubble World Equestrian Center in Ocala is a nice experience with Stirrup’s as well as Mark’s Prime on the square in downtown Ocala. Buy The Villages GPS app as it has listings of most restaurants in the area. Enjoy!

OP it’s too hard for any of us to give you an idea of restaurants that you will like considering we don’t really know your want and needs, or allergies.

I will tell you, however, the many restaurants that are listed in posts not a fan, so my preference to leave the bubble.Our restaurants are basically a lot of chains and very few mom and Pop restaurants.

FMK does have some decent restaurants. You will get a paper every day there will be many ads, some coupons because it’s summer read the paper, and head out.

That’s the fun of coming for the first time finding new adventures, it also will help you with the bigger question.

Do I want to live here?

Mezzaluna in Colony Plaza, for Italian.

Many good restaurants in and near the Villages depending on your tastes. Explores and ask neighbors.

Oaks has very good brisket

This type of question might be more suitable for Google / Yelp.

"Best xxx restaurant near The Villages FL." , where xxx is the type of food that you would like. Not only will you tend to see ratings based on a broader population, but you will also typically see where they are and often a link to the restaurant's web page or a menu.

This is great. We haven't had a thread of restaurants in at least 3 or 4 days.

A quick search will show there have only been +/- 210 threads on restaurants in 2024. Barely 1 a day.

Rose Plantation, Chop House

Far and Away the Rose Plantation
 

Love the Rose Plantation!

They are the ones with the world famous bread/biscuits thing, right?

Takis
 

Best pizza and Greek salad in it outside if the villages. Located in Leesburg

Dining in and arount The Villages
 

Everyone has an opinion, especially re where to eat. Take this suggestion: go to this website:

The Villages Gourmet Club Restaurant Review Site

You can selected the type of food you wish,:pepper2: near or far. The listing for a restaurant will give you their menu, prices and ratings by diners who have eaten there.

If only their Greek food was good

You’re asking an opinion? personal tastes might not match your?

IMO after you’ve been here awhile and can cook home will be your favorite restaurant.:highfive: Now if can’t Cook good luck!:ho:

Prima
 

Prima Italian Steakhouse in Brownwood Square


QUOTE=Pajazz28;2360419]DW and I are coming for a Lifestyle Visit at the end of August can you please share your favorite resturant in and around The Villages, thank you?[/QUOTE]

They have rolls with a garlicy dressing. Last time rolls on one plate, the garlic on another. Very good

Mission BBQ has the best brisket I’ve had in a long time.

Marks Prime in Ocala

You might to break down recommendations by price.

Under $50 for 2.

Under $100 for 2

Over $100 for 2.

I avoid carbs so only eat pizza a couple times a year for a cheat treat. But when I do, its Sammy Joe’s at the Mulberry Plaza.

Their "Greek salad" is nothing even close to being good. It's shredded iceburg lettuce with domestic mild feta cheese crumbs (not crumbled, but crumbs), little strips of ham, a couple of kalamata olives with the pits still in them, a diced pepperoncini, a couple of tomatoes, and a vinaigrette dressing. You can ask for anchovies but it doesn't come with them automatically. You shred lettuce to make subs, not salads. And the feta cheese should be pungent, salty, in small diced chunks or thick crumbles, not tiny tidbits like panko bread crumbs. The dressing shouldn't have vinegar in it at all, greek dressing is olive oil and lemon juice. You don't put ham in a greek salad. That's just - not a greek salad at all. It's a bread-less hoagie.

Their red sauce is a meat sauce, and it's a good sauce, but they serve dishes with italian names and greek lasagna should be called pastitsio, not lasagna. Theirs is absolutely a greek dish, and is absolutely not an Italian lasagna. For italian lasagna, it's horrible. For greek pastitsio, it's very tasty and well-made.

They need to not try to be something else, and focus on being greek. And for god's sake don't sell meatball subs. They're bread subs with meat in them. Really bad.

I'll vote for the Coney Island Drive-In, in Wildwood. Cheap and tasty. A dog and fries was < $10.

Restaurants
 

Best Pizza; Napolinos on 301

It’s because they, like most restaurants, source their food from Sysco. The food items arrive already processed, and pre-sliced or cut up. All these types of restaurants do back in their “kitchen” is open up the individual plastic bags of pre-made and cut up food items, and arrange them on a plate or heat up and add the Sysco-made sauce packet to the protein or pasta item. That is why so many restaurants taste like each other, cause they are sourcing their food items from the same place. It’s hard nowadays to find a truly mom-and-pop place that doesn’t buy their food from Sysco or a similar vendor.

you know its chicken beaks and feathers right???

Wonder how many of the restaurants we frequent actually do the cooking from scratch?