The Columbia Restaurant is one of the most famous restaurants in Florida and a genuine institution. Founded in 1905 by Casimiro Hernandez Sr. in the heart of Ybor City, it occupies an entire block on 7th Avenue, with fifteen dining rooms and space for over 1,700 guests. It is the oldest restaurant in Florida and the oldest Spanish restaurant in the United States — and it remains in business not on nostalgia alone but because the food is genuinely good.
The menu is Cuban-Spanish: the 1905 Salad (prepared tableside with garlic, olive oil, and Worcestershire), Cuban black beans, yellow rice, and roast pork are the signatures. The shrimp with yellow rice is excellent. Prices are moderate for what you get. The flamenco show runs nightly and is included in the dining experience without extra charge — authentic enough to be worth watching, not so polished as to feel staged.
Go for lunch to avoid the evening crowds, or book ahead for dinner. The building itself is worth seeing even if you do not eat — tile floors, wrought-iron chandeliers, walls of painted tile, and a courtyard garden that could be in Seville.