Beirut Cafe

St. Petersburg : 5281 Park St. N, St. Petersburg, 33709

Hana Lakkis has been making Lebanese pastries for decades in Pennsylvania, and is now filling a bakery display case here with baklawa, maamoul and nammoura. But before dessert, her husband, Fisal Houssein, offers up shawarma, kabobs and falafel for lunch and dinner. Try the stuffed cabbage with  …

Byblos Cafe

Editor's pick

South Tampa : 2832 S MacDill Ave., Tampa, 33629

The local rebirth of Middle Eastern cuisine gets its most stylish display thanks to smart Lebanese entrepreneurs. Yogurt, grape leaves and kibbe are deliciously fresh. Stay late and finish with intoxicating bellydancing or a dreamy draw on the water pipe (hookah).

Cedar Market

St. Petersburg : 6531 54th Ave. N, St. Petersburg, 33709

Nabil Chehab and his family have run a Middle Eastern market at this spot for six years, with a previous location before that. The market smells complicated, of licoricey fennel seeds, musty burlap sacks of dried fava beans and fruity Chiclets with swirly Arabic writing on the back. More than ha …

Dooners

Downtown St. Petersburg : 21 Third St N, St. Petersburg, 33701

The core of the Dooners menu is a trio of spits, one with a classic beef/lamb doner mold, one of chicken (made more healthful with all white meat, no poultry skin or fat) and another of turkey. These are sliced and either zipped into naan pockets with white and red cabbage, tomato, cuke, red oni …

Fresh Bites

Westchase : 11665 Countryway Blvd., Tampa, 33626

Lebanese cuisine using organic ingredients, grass-fed Niman Ranch beef and lamb, all-natural chicken.

Gengiz Khan Restaurant

MacDill Area : 6102 S MacDill Ave. # C, Tampa, 33611

Green Land Restaurant

Tampa : 10817 N 56th St., Tampa, 33617

Meze 119

Downtown St. Petersburg : 119 Second St. N, St. Petersburg, 33701

Meze 119 is billed as "authentic Middle Eastern food with modern flair." That it is. What it may take the unobservant diner a while to figure out, though, is that it's 100 percent vegetarian. It's not that owner Dean Hershkowitz is being coy. It's as he says: "A lot of the food we …

Mirage Restaurant

Clearwater : 2284 Gulf to Bay Blvd., Clearwater, 33765

The most dynamically flavored dishes don't seem to appear on the weekday lunch buffet; thus a dinner visit is in order (caution: belly dancing Friday and Saturday evenings). Two of the most famous Persian dishes, fesenjan and shirin polo, are elegantly rendered at Mirage. The former is chicken b …

Morae's Persian Cafe

Tampa : 1441 E Fletcher Ave. # 123, Tampa, 33612

Petra Restaurant

Tampa : 4812 E Busch Blvd. # E, Tampa, 33617

For sheer falafel splendor, visit Petra, which also houses a friendly Middle Eastern grocery (good pickles and hummus). The sandwich is a fair-priced $3.49, three crunchy spheres drizzled with tahini and tucked into pita.

Pita Shack

Sarasota beaches : 5214 Ocean Blvd., Sarasota, 34242

In Siesta Key Village.

Teatro on Seventh

Ybor City : 1600 E Eighth Ave. Suite C-201, Tampa, 33605

Teatro inherited one of the most attractive restaurant spaces in Tampa. Perched atop Centro Ybor, the Big Easy runs through its veins. Wrought-iron balconies flank it, 20-foot windows showcasing the charms of La Septima below. The kitchen has fashioned a concept that capitalizes on the historic  …