The Villages is #6 by this measure
 

The measurement for the 55+ crowd is rather odd, food. Restaurants, quality of chefs, food clubs and all things food related.

Link to realtor.com, below, works.

Pardon Our Interruption.

Although our restaurants are a factor the food clubs carried weight.

IMHO, there are very few outstanding restaurants here. My favorite is The Chop House. The rest of the restaurants are poor, fair, or average. Spoke with 2 couples last night who both could not name one decent place for pizza.

Great place to live but IMHO restaurant quality is below average

No great restaurants
 

There isn’t really any great cuisine inside the bubble. Most places serving in the villages serve food that tastes like reheated, reseasoned blah. Further it is a struggle to find any place that serves an aged steak, a crowned pork or even a great orange duck. I’m not asking for a good Washuko or even a Wagyu A5 in butter sauce, just some options that don’t seem like they come from Applebees Maybe the occasional something special. Trust me, you won’t find most great dishes inside the villages. If you want over seasoned, poorly prepared and rushed food though, they are here to serve you.

I guess they haven’t tried Sammy Joe’s. It’s a little hole in the wall place in the Mulberry Plaza, but they make a good grease wheel.

IMO Florida in general restaurants quality not that great. Second thing IMO it’s getting way overcrowded here. IMO what makes villages great is well planned out, amenities, and pretty safe, at least in my area.

IMO only pizza I found worth going back for Marco’s pepperoni as long as I don’t have to too often.

IMO Sammy joe’s pizza pretty good as long as you eat in, If takeout it get’s soggy pretty quick and I live just little over mile from Sammy Joe’s.

If ever there was a list of oxymorons, 'Restaurant and Pizza' are among the top ten.

I agree. It always has been so and now restaurant prices are astronomical and you have to wait for ages because they cannot find anyone to employ.

BUT THAT IS EVERYWHERE IN FLORIDA AND THE REST OF THE COUNTRY.

Piesanos is the best we’ve tried out here.

The Chop House, Bonefish, Tap House Social, Mission BBQ, IBBQ, and believe it or not, Olive Garden. All of these are really good, comparatively speaking.

Olive Garden? Soup and salad are good but the rest of the dishes here are mediocre at best. Many better Italian restaurants in and out of the bubble.

Agree 100%! And currently in 2024 the large pepperoni is only $10, and gives us two meals when we bring it home and add a salad.

We have always loved Olive Garden, and were so happy there was one here when we moved from SoCal, though we also love Roberto’s for Italian food. After two years here we have actually never eaten at any of the other places you mentioned.

Agreed