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Dining review: Fun, funky Lodge is weirdly wonderful

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

The fun, inventive menu at The Lodge includes Strawberry Salad, Lasagna Pizza, Alaskan Sushi Roll and Buffalo & Beef Sliders.

By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 28, 2009

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TAMPA - First glance at this menu and you might get pretty spooked.

Sirloin burger spring rolls? Mac 'n' cheese pizza? Sushi stuffed with pulled pork or, yikes, hamburger and fries?

Sounds kind of icky, tastes pretty awesome.

"It's comfort food," our waitress tried to explain on our first visit to the Lodge Restaurant & Bar. "Weird comfort food."

Weird, but it works — and has for almost a year in a location on Howard Avenue that some say is cursed by the ghosts of failed restaurants past. Where others, including 42nd Street Bistro and Chateau SoHo, have failed, though, the Lodge seems to be succeeding.

Maybe that's because the owners draw on their proven track records — and menus — at other Howard Avenue ventures: Daily Eats, Lime, Water and Ciccio's & Tony's.

A chopped chicken salad and another with crisp romaine tossed with strawberries, red onions, cucumbers, walnuts and crumbled blue cheese in a strawberry vinaigrette will be familiar to those who frequent Restaurant Row.

Sliders cover the bases north and south with offerings ranging from Philly steaks to country-fried chicken. The latter, served with a cold lump of cheesy potatoes on one visit, wasn't as good as the former, which came with golden tater tots.

Mac 'n' Cheese pizza was nothing like we imagined — no bright yellow Kraft noodles slathered on Chef Boyardee dough. This was more like baked penne pasta with a thick crust. Good, but our slice needed more sauce.

There's traditional sushi for the purist. The tasty Florida with tuna, avocado, mango, crab and scallions rolled up in seaweed and rice and topped with a creamy mango sauce seemed like something you'd find at Water sushi restaurant.

But we haven't seen this before — baked almond-crusted salmon served TV dinner style (tray included) with small sides that are nothing like those frozen Swanson bricks — fresh green salad, honey drizzled sweet potato fries and broccoli cooked so perfectly you won't want cheese or even salt to mar its flavor.

We double-dared ourselves to order the scary sushi. The Wild West with blackened chicken, avocado, crispy onions, cilantro and fried plantains was topped with tortilla chips. It was plenty crunchy and unexpectedly delightful.

But it paled in comparison to the Little Piggy with its Asian sweet-and-spicy pulled pork, jicama, cilantro and scallions all rolled up in seaweed paper and rice with a creamy jalapeno aloli sauce. It packed a pungent punch that got even better when we dipped the roll in soy sauce.

On another visit, we went for the sirloin burger spring rolls with gooey pepper jack and Vermont cheddar cheeses. They tasted like crispy cheese burgers — perfect with a pitcher of sangria, but maybe even better as a late-night munchie.

We regretfully skipped the Hillsburger sushi, a roll with grilled hamburger, bacon, spicy French fries, onions, lettuce and cheddar cheese sauce. Instead we opted for a cheeseburger just to see if the Lodge could do conventional.

It came medium rare, though we weren't asked how we wanted it cooked, and a bit on the small side. There was lettuce and tomato. A bun.

We tried to jazz it up with some barbecue sauce and those delectable sweet potato fries. But after you've had pig sushi and fried cheeseburgers, a burger on a bun is just, well, ordinary.

And that seems to be the trick to the Lodge's treat. You can find the basics on this menu, but it's a lot more fun and flavorful to seek out the weird.

Lunch wasn't crowded. Nighttime sees a lot more business with a 30-something crowd drawn to wide open bar spaces and flat-screen TVs.

On a recent Saturday evening, we easily grabbed a booth without a wait, but it was just after 7:30 p.m. By 9:15 p.m., bouncers were carding at the door and our waitress told us it was about to get crazy.