Best Restaurants for Wine Lovers in Tampa
Wine restaurants on this list include four Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence awards and seven Award of Excellence awards. Bern’s Steak House in Historic Hyde Park holds the Grand Award and one of the world's largest private wine collections, with dry-aged steaks. Lilac in Gilchrist's A W Oak Grove, Haven in Historic Hyde Park, Columbia in Turman's East Ybor, and Meat Market Tampa in Historic Hyde Park hold Best of Award of Excellence.
Award of Excellence restaurants on this list include Boulon Brasserie & Bakery in Gilchrist's A W Oak Grove, Bouzy in Historic Hyde Park, Union New American in WestShore District, Bar Terroir in South Tampa, and Ulele in Armature Works / Riverwalk. Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar in New Suburb Beautiful and Charley's Steak House in Cypress Street, Tampa hold that award as well. Lilac's list is shaped around France, Italy, and Greece.
How this list is chosen: Restaurants holding a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award or rated as having an exceptional wine program, listed alphabetically. Updated October 8, 2026.
717 South
Exceptional wine program
On South Howard Avenue, one of Tampa's most reliably active dining corridors, 717 South occupies a position that rewards closer attention. The address places it alongside some of the city's more ambitious restaurants, and the SoHo neighbourhood context shapes both its competition and its clientele. Visitors looking for a focused dining experience in central Tampa will find it a considered option worth investigating before booking.
Bar Terroir
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Bar Terroir gives Tampa’s French dining conversation a provenance-led angle: not grand-room classicism, but the quieter question of where flavor comes from and how regional identity lands on the plate. With limited public detail on format, pricing, and chef leadership, the safer read is categorical: French technique filtered through a city better known for Gulf produce, Cuban history, and a fast-maturing restaurant scene.
Bern’s Steak House
Wine Spectator Grand Award · Exceptional wine program
Bern’s Steak House in Tampa pairs impeccably dry-aged steaks with one of America’s most lauded wine cellars—then whisks you to its famed Dessert Room for baked Alaska, house-roasted coffee, and live piano in vintage-luxe surrounds.
Bernini of Ybor
Exceptional wine program
On East 7th Avenue in Ybor City, Tampa's most historically layered neighbourhood, Bernini of Ybor occupies a setting shaped by the district's cigar-manufacturing past and its ongoing reinvention as a dining destination. The restaurant sits within a category of Tampa dining rooms where neighbourhood character carries as much weight as what arrives on the plate. For visitors working through the city's Italian-leaning options, it belongs on the shortlist alongside peers like Rocca.
Boulon Brasserie & Bakery
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Boulon Brasserie & Bakery anchors Tampa's Water Street district with a 200-plus-seat footprint and a beverage program serious enough to earn the Star Wine List #1 ranking in 2025. The format leans French brasserie, with the kind of brightly lit, high-ceilinged energy that suits both weekday lunch and a longer dinner. For Tampa, it sits in a category of its own on the wine side.
Bouzy
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
Bouzy occupies a considered niche in Tampa's Hyde Park dining corridor, where wine-forward concepts and shareable formats have gradually displaced the neighborhood's older casual-American defaults. Located at 1640 W Snow Ave, it sits within walking distance of several of the city's stronger dinner options, making it a natural anchor for an evening that moves across courses and venues.
Casa Santo Stefano
Exceptional wine program
Casa Santo Stefano occupies a residential address in Tampa's Ybor-adjacent corridor, bringing a European-inflected dining sensibility to one of the city's most historically layered neighbourhoods. The wine program anchors the experience, with curation that positions it firmly in Tampa's upper dining tier alongside peers like Lilac and Rocca. Reservations and current details are best confirmed directly, as the venue operates with a degree of quiet intentionality that resists easy categorisation.
Charley's Steak House
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
It occupies the upper end of Tampa's casual-formal dining spectrum, where serious beef and a considered cellar define the experience rather than contemporary flourishes.
Columbia
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
Florida's oldest restaurant, Columbia has anchored Tampa's Ybor City since 1905, earning a Michelin Plate in 2024 and consecutive Opinionated About Dining Casual North America rankings. The menu draws from Cuban and Spanish traditions built over more than a century, placing it in a different competitive tier than Tampa's newer fine-dining arrivals — a living document of the city's immigrant food heritage rather than a reaction to current culinary trends.
Council Oak Steaks & Seafood
Exceptional wine program
Council Oak Steaks & Seafood sits on Tampa's east side, earning recognition from Star Wine List as a White Star property in 2022. The program places it alongside Tampa's more serious dining addresses, with a format centered on the classic American steakhouse ritual — deliberate pacing, proper cuts, and a wine list that has drawn specialist editorial attention.
Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar on South Howard Avenue earns back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition (2024 and 2025) for a seasonal American menu that moves with the calendar rather than against it. A wine list spanning 140 selections with 1,500 bottles in inventory gives the program real depth for the mid-range price point. Operated by Mainsail Lodging & Development, it sits in Tampa's SoHo corridor among the city's more serious dining addresses.
Haven
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
Haven occupies a quiet stretch of South Tampa's Hyde Park-adjacent corridor, holding back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025 under chef Chad Johnson. The wine program, directed by Chris Belk, spans 700 selections across 4,000 bottles with particular depth in California, France, and Italy. Dinner at Haven draws a loyal local crowd that treats the room less like a special-occasion destination and more like a well-kept weekly habit.
Lilac
1 Michelin star · Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence · Exceptional wine program
Lilac brings John Fraser’s plant-forward Mediterranean language to Tampa’s Channelside dining corridor, with a prix fixe format and a serious wine program shaped around France, Italy, and Greece. The draw is not spectacle but control: seasonal Florida ingredients, olive-oil logic, polished hotel service, and a room built for a splurge dinner rather than casual grazing.
Malio's
Exceptional wine program
Malio's occupies a prominent address on North Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa, placing it among the city's established steakhouse-era dining institutions. The room signals occasion dining with the confidence of a place that has outlasted trends rather than chased them. For Tampa's waterfront business corridor, it functions as the default setting for deals closed over aged beef and serious wine lists.
Meat Market Tampa
Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
Meat Market Tampa is a modern steakhouse at 1606 W Snow Ave with craft cocktails, an extensive wine list, and leisurely pacing for lunch, brunch, or dinner.
Steelbach
Exceptional wine program
A Michelin Plate-recognised steakhouse in Tampa's Channel District, Steelbach operates out of the former Tampa Electrical Company building and centres its menu on meats grilled over mesquite and oak. The kitchen's sourcing arrangement with a local rancher — grass-fed, grain-finished cattle raised specifically for the restaurant — places it in a distinct tier among Tampa's steakhouses. Composed Southern plates round out a menu with real regional character.
Ulele
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Ulele brings Floridian and seafood cooking to a converted 1930s water works pumping station on Tampa's Hillsborough River, earning a Michelin Plate recognition in 2024. Chef Patrick Quackenbush leads the kitchen under the Gonzmart family, whose Columbia Restaurant legacy anchors Tampa's dining scene. With a 120-selection wine list and a two-course meal running $40–$65, it occupies the accessible end of Tampa's recognised dining tier.
Union New American
Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
Union New American occupies a distinct position among Tampa's higher-end dining rooms, where the New American format allows a kitchen to range freely across regional American traditions without committing to a single culinary identity. Positioned on North Westshore Boulevard in one of Tampa's most commercially active corridors, it draws a clientele that reads the room as seriously as the menu — a combination that places it in conversation with the city's other four-dollar-sign tables.
Planning restaurants for wine lovers in Tampa
- Which restaurant on this list holds the Wine Spectator Grand Award?
- Bern’s Steak House in Historic Hyde Park is the one restaurant on this list that holds the Wine Spectator Grand Award. It keeps one of the world's largest private wine collections, and the kitchen serves classic dry-aged steaks a la carte.
- Which restaurants on this list hold Best of Award of Excellence?
- Four restaurants on this list hold Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence. They are Lilac in Gilchrist's A W Oak Grove, Haven in Historic Hyde Park, Columbia in Turman's East Ybor, and Meat Market Tampa in Historic Hyde Park. Lilac's list is shaped around France, Italy, and Greece. Haven has 700 selections across 4,000 bottles, with depth in California, France, and Italy.
- Which neighborhood on this list has the most Wine Spectator awards?
- Historic Hyde Park has four Wine Spectator awards on this list. Bern’s Steak House holds the Grand Award and one of the world's largest private wine collections. Haven and Meat Market Tampa hold Best of Award of Excellence. Bouzy holds an Award of Excellence and pours Champagne with French-inspired small plates.