American Social – Tampa

by South Florida Eats · Published February 6, 2022 · Updated February 6, 2022

If you are looking for a fun place to eat with a great atmosphere and water views in downtown Tampa, then look no further than American Social. A few of my co-workers and I needed a place for a quick lunch before a meeting. Several places we wanted to try did not open until later for dinner, but American Social was one of the places we could get to with a quick walk from our hotel, and that would allow us enough time to get back for our meeting and not be late.

The restaurant itself is located inside the Westin Tampa Waterside Hotel and easily accessible from any hotels and other businesses in the local area by the arena.

The Restaurant:

This location happens to be the largest in the American Social family. There are four other locations, but Tampa is comprised of over 15,000 sq ft of waterfront property for their bar and restaurant. Technically there are four full-service bar areas, a raw bar, intimate dining room, outdoor dining on the patio, and private event space.

If you have a boat, there is a dock that you can pull up to, but finding space might be an issue, and there could be mooring fees there. American Social serves Brunch on the weekends, lunch, dinner, and of course, a wide selection of drinks and cocktails. They also have an enjoyable Taco Tuesday and Burger Mondays.

Looking to stay in, then why not order your food to go with the popular delivery apps and stay home or in your hotel room.

American Social calls its appetizers social bites. There is a selection of only six, Goat Cheese Croquettes, Deviled Eggs, Fried Brussel Sprouts, Soft-Baked Pretzel, Hummus, and AvocadoToast with Egg.

I ordered the Soft Baked Pretzel for the table. The dish was served with four pretzel sticks that reminded me of breadsticks in Tuscany. The pretzels were accompanied by beer cheese and honey mustard. I have to say I preferred the beer cheese over the honey mustard, but most of the table thought they were both excellent.

First, up for our lunches, two of my colleagues chose the Mahi Tacos. The American Social menu says that they are Blackened Mahi, Roasted Corn, Poppy Seed Slaw, Spicy Mayo, Pickled Peppers, Flour Tortilla. However, Sheila and Alan’s tacos included canned corn, not roasted. While not a deal-breaker, and they both agreed that their tacos were very good, it would have been better if they had the roasted corn in them. Another thing they commented on was that they were a little bit dry. The poppy seed slaw was more of a cabbage salad without much dressing or condiment base to give it moistness.

Rochelle and Stephanie chose to enjoy the Turkey Club. The sandwich was served on sourdough bread and made up of Roasted Turkey, Swiss, Bacon, Avocado, Tomato, Lettuce, Chimichurri Aioli. They both agreed that the combination provided nice flavors and was an enjoyable lunch.

Brian chose to go healthy and have the Chicken Cobb Salad. Americal Social makes this with Grilled or Fried Chicken, Corn, Bacon, Egg, Grape Tomatoes, Avocado, Romaine, Crumbled Blue Cheese, Buttermilk Ranch. He had ordered it with blackened chicken, but it came out grilled, as you can see from the photo. This did not stop him from enjoying his lunch, and he ate just about every bite.

Lastly, there was my lunch. I chose the Maple Bourbon Meatballs. Beef & Pork Blend made into average size meatballs, Knob Creek Maple Bourbon Glaze, Smoked Gouda Charred Corn Grits, Petite Salad, Citrus Zest. While there were only about four or five meatballs, this was a very filling meal. I could only eat half of the grits that accompanied my meal. The flavors blended together in perfect harmony and would make anyone come back for more.

We all agreed that the sizes of the plates sounded like they would be small, but they were pretty big. We could order half of what we did and shared, still walking away feeling satisfied.