the laughing cat
mattLast week I had the chance to grab lunch one day in Ybor with a friend at the Laughing Cat, an Italian restaurant on the corner of 8th Ave. and 15th St. (several doors down from the former TBBC location). While I’d never been to the Laughing Cat before, this friend was a fan and I’d also read that it offered a lunch buffet that was worth checking out.
According to Laughing Cat co-owner Franco LoRe, the name of his restaurant comes from the name of the cafe in Venice, Italy (”Il Gatto Cheride” in Italian) where he met girls as a younger man. The Laughing Cat is tucked into a relatively small corner space, but feels comfortable inside. We arrived towards the end of the lunch crowd for the day and both decided upon the lunch buffet. It seemed hard to go wrong at nine bucks per person; everyone else seemed to be doing the buffet too.
The buffet isn’t large, but offers several hot and cold Italian dishes, ranging from ravioli and pasta dishes, both in a vodka sauce, to mozzarella caprese (I’m a sucker for big fresh chunks of mozzarella) and a delicious salad filled with plump shrimp. The only mildly disappointing dish was meatballs in a red sauce that was almost gone when we got there. Again, this wasn’t a big buffet, but it was certainly of a higher quality than I expected and a real deal at nine bucks each.
The lunch buffet is only available during the work week. Service was fine last week for lunch, but I don’t know what the little place is like at night on the weekends when it gets busy. I’m also curious what ordering off the menu is like. I plan to add Laughing Cat to our rotation of Ybor restaurants that we like, which includes the original location of The Columbia, sandwich shop La Tropicana and the at-times-maligned Big City Tavern. I’ve previously panned for the most part my experiences with Samurai Blue and La Creperia. I haven’t tried Carmine’s, Acropolis or Bernini.
I’ll try to get off this new buffet mini-kick. So what’s your favorite Ybor restaurant?
Bottom-line: If you happen to be in Ybor for lunch during the work week, and you’re in the mood for homemade Italian cuisine, the Laughing Cat’s lunch buffet is worth giving a try.
Inspection Scorecard: Last Inspection: January 2007 violations - Critical (8), Non-Critical (2).
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March 6th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I still miss his old pizza place that he had for a couple of years across the street. Best pizza I have ever had.
March 6th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
DONT MISS OUT ON A DINNER!! THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVS IN TAMPA!
March 6th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I’ve never really seen it crowded at night. Usually more so at lunch. The buffet is neat because when something runs out, its likely that they’ll bring out something different to take its place. And that there arent a lot of options adds to the quality and freshness of whats up there. A great spot.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Dinner is fantastic. Simply fantastic. If you like the buffet, you’ll be blown away by the dinner menu. It’s a tad bit pricy (especially compared to lunch), but worth it.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
And I’ve had La Creperia 3 times, and each time was a great experience, FWIW.
March 7th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
A good experience at Le Creperia three times in a row? I want to like the place…but mixed experiences scared us away.
March 7th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I can see that Laughing Cat has some fans…someone, though, must have a mixed or poor experience to share?
I’m impressed no negative comments. Will try for dinner one of these days.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Matt - perhaps one of us experienced a run of good or bad luck.
As to a bad review of Laughing Cat - the one in Carrolwood was horrid, but I am pretty sure it closed. My wife and I went there on our anniversary one night simply because the Ybor location was closed, and we had our heart set on it. We figured it had to be just as good. WRONG. Full of sh*thead land-o-couchmobile families with screaming kids (nothing puts you in the mood like crying freaking kids and a barrage of “Timmy. Timmy. Timmy. Timmy, NO! Timmy? NO. TIMMY! Timmy? No, Timmy, NO!”), poor service and sub-par food. No thanks.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
LOL re the Cat’s former Carrolwood location.
We ran into a kiddie-thon (running around our table, bumping chairs into us, I was waiting for them to pull the wife’s hair
etc) at Cappy’s on Bay To Bay that, regardless of the food, almost has us learing of going back.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
learing = leary
We probably felt like learing at them, though
March 7th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Portions can be large, so you may want to pay the split fee of $4(well worth it cause they give you more). Or, just come with hardy appetites, and prepare to lug around take out boxes with you.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
good tip rick, thanks!
March 7th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
They have pumpkin soup at Bernini!
March 7th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Also, this crew of lawyer chicks from Atlanta came down to Tampa on the strength of my blog one weekend and they invited me to have dinner with them there.
It was - well, about as weird as anything can get.
I got a HUGE kick out of it, though, and the waiter was really nice about acting like everything was normal, even though you could totally tell he knew it wasn’t.
So go there next!
March 7th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
i cant say anything negative about the laughing cat. and thats saying something, for me. the food is very high quality, and you will leave full, to say the least. never been for dinner, but its always packed on fri nights, when i pass by.
as for other ybor eateries, i like the grub at the tampa bay brewing co. they try hard there, and the quality shines. of course, the beer is absolutely, positively second to none, esp old elephant foot. omg, what a beer! THE best.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I
March 9th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Weird. Apparently I got distracted yesterday. I think I said you can’t say enough good things about the food at BrewCo. Awesome burgers and calzones (try the mushroom with pesto!), a pile of meatloaf that will make you bulletproof and even great salads from when I’m watching my girlish figure.
Try the Jack the Quaffer Porter (hard to find porter on draft usually) or whatever is in the cask (unless it’s the IPA - who puts IPA on cask??).