Restaurant Diversity in The Bubble
 

I am moving to TV in a few months from Colorado, and can’t wait! I am the biggest cheerleader for TV here in Colorado, encouraging all my friends who are approaching retirement to book a lifestyle visit. There is one thing I’m going to miss when I move however. TV lacks the restaurant diversity I am used to. I eat out most meals (breakfast and dinner), and enjoy locally owned and ethnic restaurants. I completely stay away from fast food and any chain restaurants. I am an admitted “foodie” and also a pretty good cook myself. During my lifestyle visit, I checked out all the highest rated restaurants based on Yelp reviews. I thought Harvest/Blue Fin/Chop house were all “OK”, as well as Thai Ruby. The Mexican and Chinese places were awful. (We have excellent Mexican here in the West). For the TV being so large, where are the Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Greek, Cuban, Cajun, German restaurants? Where are the French bistros and Spanish tapas places? I was surprised how “meat and potatoes” and chain-restaurant heavy TV is. I guess I will need to drive to Orlando weekly for some restaurant diversity, or I will be cooking more at home myself. Please don’t think I am bashing the TV in anyway -I can’t want to move in a few months, but I will miss my restaurants.

Being a restaurateur is a very hard job, I think you would agree that the best places are run by people with a passion for what they do, restaurants in large population centers have a lot of talented competition, The Villages has a lot going for it but it is still a small town economic market, I don't think many of the restaurants here would do well in one of those larger metropolitan areas. I am not a foodie but the the economic facts limit what can be offered, I miss the wide selection offered in my home town of Chicago

On a regular basis we venture out of the bubble for restaurants.

Mexican-------------Brisas del Mar, 441 in Lady Lake and San Jose on 27 in Leesburg
Chinese------------- Koyame, Bamboo Bistro and for take out Sunrise Asian, all in TV
Indian-----------------Amrit Palace in Ocala and Shiva in Mt. Dora
Vietnamese--------Pho Sai gon corner of 301 and 466
Greek------------------Takis on 441
German---------------Bavarian House in Mt. Dora
Spanish Tapas-----Used to be in Brownwood but went belly up
Cuban, Korean, Cajun and French----haven't been to any locally

Thank You for these suggestions, looks like many are outside of TV, which I don’t mind - maybe I had a misconception of riding to all these types of restaurants by golf cart within the bubble.

There was a tapas restaurant in a great location in Brownwood. It was terribly run and far removed from what you would expect. Hopefully, another one will open locally, as they are very popular in other places.

Agree and you definitely will need to take a road trip(further south in TV will be longer) to get to more diversified restaurants in this area. A lot of chains in TV. R

Failed to mention, getting a good pizza. Most pizza in TV is cooked on conveyor belt and not a real pizza oven

we moved here from wyoming in 2009. family back in denver, we go there often and enjoy the many restaurants they have to offer. we go to several within the villages, they work, but we often go outside the bubble as there is a wider variety of places to choose from. the villages for us is a wonderful place to live, just understand it is not where you come from. once you are here, you can sample and choose your favorites within the villages, or outside. welcome.

You weren't here long enough to try them all. My cousin came to visit from New Mexico where he has lived for over 50 years and told me that the Mexican restaurant in the Wildwood plaza was as good as any that he frequents back home. There was a German restaurant, closed down, there was a Polish restaurant, closed down, and a lot of the restaurants are on the outer edges of TV as within the squares rents are very high. I don't know what section you are moving to but if you are far north or far south going out to eat via golf car, unless you have a lot of time, is pretty much out of the question now because of the distance involved. One you're here you'll find plenty of restaurants that will appeal to you. A lot of new breakfast/lunch restaurants opened over the last year or so and more on the way. Out of 140,000 people I'm sure you are not the only, as you say, Foodie in TV as a matter of fact they probably have a club for those of you that cannot be satisfied locally. For the majority, no need to leave here.

Will disagree with Takis. People tell us only good place to get good Greek food is in Tarpon springs over an hour away.

Tarpon Springs is definitely the place for Greek. But it’s almost 2 hours away and Takis is reasonably good

7It's all about population. You are not going to get the diversity of restaurants here that you get at, for example Philadelphia ( where I'm from). In Philly, there are around 2 million people living, for example, within 15 miles of where I lived. Here there are maybe 200k at this point, at most.

My wife and I ate at Thai Ruby a few times and didn't like it, but we haven't ate there in 7 years so I don't know what it's like today.
Our favorite restaurants are the hot salad bar at Earth Fare, Legacy restaurant at Lopez, and Terra del sol.

Be prepared to do a lot of cooking.

Could be the NYer in me but my good to favorite is Gyros and Takis did not come close to cutting it. Asked the owner when she came around asking about our meal and she claimed that villagers did not care for it in the traditional way.

Also serves Italian which we understand is pretty good but have not tried it.

I live in center city Phila - I walk to restaurants run by some of the finest chefs, Steven Starr (I’ll probably eat at a Starr restaurant tonight), George Perrier, I am going to a Marc Vetri restaurant next week. We eat our A LOT.

I don’t mind the places in the “Bubble”.

There have to be over 100 in the Bubble - some are good/some are bad. The good ones become bad and the bad ones turn around.

Move here, go out and eat and enjoy.

I'm not a foodie so I miss the pizza, beefs, and gyros back there.