The Tampa Diner

Marek had just spent some time at his aunt BB’s house.

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I figured after the dog cage experience, he deserved some pancakes. We went driving down Busch Blvd and came across three of our favorite words, all in one place. “Tampa” and “Diner” and “pancakes.” That’s right. A diner in Tampa that has pancakes. Uh huh. We visited The Tampa Diner at 2901 E Busch Blvd on 26 June 2010.

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OK, so it’s in a motel. But it’s not “The Day’s In Corporate Breakfast Buffet,” so maybe it’s just a mom-n-pop partnership. Maybe.

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Can’t beat the parking here. Reminds me of back home.

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Marek asked why there was a lawn mower parked out front. I didn’t have a really plausible answer, so I made up some story about aliens with long grass who eat pancakes. We went in and played race cars.

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OK, so obviously those are more like dump trucks than race cars. But the coffee was OK. Though I’m going to have to admit that this is the only place in all of Tampa Bay Breakfasts’ territory where getting more coffee entailed the waitress coming with a tray, taking your cup away, and then coming back with it filled up. I don’t think I was getting a fresh cup each time, just a two-trip-top-off.

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We had a single breakfast and split it. And that’s a good thing. This is a lot of chow.

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The Tampa Diner is right across the street from Busch Gardens. So I’m figuring that 2 out of 5 breakfasts served at this diner see the light of day a second time. Probably on Skeikra. Note the tourists’ feet in the background.

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The pancakes were OK. The eggs seemed to have little bits of onion and peppers in them. Nice, though I hadn’t asked for that and found it pretty odd. Toast and home fries were included. Bacon was average issue. A lotta food, came in at around 11 bucks.

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Marek had a good idea for something fun after breakfast, so he was in a hurry. Let’s pay the bill and get out of here, dad!

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And he even brought back change. We’ll put that to good use later!

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The Tampa Diner seems to be a new venture in need of some fine tuning. Staff members were friendly but the location was very much motel restaurant. Food was OK, but with all that Tampa has to offer for breakfast, it could be aspiring to more. There was a lawnmower out front, which is actually a plus in my book. We give this Tampa Bay Breakfast a three pancake rating.

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