Safety Harbor’s Tides Market among Michelin Guide’s new recommended restaurants

No new stars were born last night at the unveiling of the 2025 Florida Michelin Guide, but Pinellas had a lot to hang its hat on in its first year of eligibility for the prestigious dining publication.

The guide put five of the county’s restaurants on its recommended list, meaning that inspectors think a chef is using quality ingredients for well cooked dishes. “…simply a good meal,” Michael Ellis, International Director of the Michelin (stylized in all-caps) Guide books, explained.

Tides Market—located at 305 Main St.—is the lone Safety Harbor restaurant to earn the designation, and joins St. Pete hotspots IL Ritorno, Sushi Sho Rexley and pan-Asian steakhouse Fortu who also got nods from the guide.

Michelin inspectors, who’ve been dining anonymously in Pinellas for months since Visit St. Pete-Clearwater entered into a $90,000-a-year, two-year contract with the guide, lauded the bustling seafood market and full-service restaurant founded by wife-and-husband Mary Kate and Jon Walker.

“From the sourcing to the execution, great care is taken with every step. The menu is large and shows off a Southern edge (fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese pop up throughout). Kick things off with oysters Bienville, a plate of broiled oysters topped with butter breadcrumbs, house andouille, shrimp, and parmesan, then tuck in to a Po’boy,” they wrote. “You can order one with shrimp or the classic oyster, but one stuffed with fried grouper bites is a worthy order.They’re open all day and offer brunch on the weekends.”

Tampa is still the only place to get a Michelin-star meal in the Bay area though, with five of the city’s concepts retaining their stars at last night’s ceremonies. Three more Tampa spots—Gorkhali Kitchen, Psomi, and Rooster & the Till—all retained their Big Gourmand designations, too,

Here’s a list of Tampa Bay restaurants that appear in the 2025 Michelin Guide:

Michelin Star

• Ebbe
• Kōsen
• Koya
• Lilac
• Rocca

Bib Gourmand

• Gorkhali Kitchen
• Psomi
• Rooster & the Till

Recommended

• Bistro BT
• Cousin Vinny’s Sandwich Co.
• Bern’s Steak House
• Big Ray’s Fish Camp
• Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar
• Fisk
• Flaming Mountain
• Fortu
• Haven
• IL Ritorno
• Mad Dogs & Englishmen
• Mise en Place
• Noble Rice
• Olivia
• The Pearl
• Ponte
• Predalina
• Restaurant BT
• Steelbach
• Streetlight Taco
• Supernatural Food & Wine
• Sushi Sho Rexley
• The Tides Market
• Timpano
• Yummy House

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This article appears in Apr 17-23, 2025.