This 'Gem Of Spanish Restaurants' Really Is!

If you know anything at all about Florida you probably know about a place that calls itself "the gem of Spanish restaurants."
Now, plenty of restuarants have big followings. And lots of restaurants use superlatives to boost their image and spike their advertising.
But in this case the proof is in the longevity, the consistency, the customer loyalty and ultimately, the food.
Columbia Spanish Restaurant has been around since 1905 and it's still family owned and operated. It all started with a corner cafe opened by a Cuban immigrant in Tampa. He named the place Columbia because he liked the words to a song about his new homeland, "Columbia, Gem Of The Ocean."
Now, you can find Columbia restaurants in Tampa (Ybor City and Riverwalk), St. Petersburg, Celebration (near Orlando), Clearwater Beach, St. Augustine and on beautiful St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota.
We lunched at the Sarasota location and we loved it.
We tried the Spanish bean soup, the traditional Havana club sandwich and the famous 1905 salad. The soup was thick, rich and savory with rice at the bottom, black beans brimming to the top and a thin coating of fresh chopped onion floating along the surface. The crusty sandwich was made on Columbia's legendary Cuban bread. It included turkey, bacon, ham, swiss cheese and mayo with plantain chips. The ham was fresh and succulent and the ingredients (along with crisp lettuce) harmonized beautifully. The salad contained many of the same ingredients as the sandwich. No wonder this restaurant was selected by USA Today as "one of the 10 best places to make a meal of a salad." The salad is tossed tableside and the cheese is grated right in front of you. It's a bountiful salad with big chunks of iceberg lettuce, julienne of baked ham, Romano cheese, beefsteak tomatoes and the Columbia's fragrant garlic dressing. If a salad can be comfort food, this is it.
Two of you can enjoy a memorable, distinctive lunch here for about forty bucks.
The dinners are also legendary and the menu is extensive with many favorites such as tapas, paella and flan. The wine list is extensive and the sangria is legendary.
Of course, Columbia is always crowded. The Sarasota location often has a waiting list and the place can be loud and hectic. But the food is so good, the service so prompt and efficient and the whole experience so convivial that you'll hardly notice the hustle and bustle.
If you're anywhere near one of Columbia's eight locations in north or central Florida, be sure to stop by.