Marketplace on Manhattan has recently opened in South Tampa and is a great alternative to those many fast food restaurants trying to slowly deplenish your nutrition. At first, I wasn’t too excited to review this restaurant because it is known for it’s healthy food, but I actually enjoyed what I got.

From the outside, the exterior is very enticing with its fake grass and cute light fixture. Inside, I was very impressed with how clean everything was. There are a lot of seating options and a large checkout counter with a vast variety of food and dessert options to choose from. The set-up of the restaurant is very modern and refreshing. They are also dog friendly which is always a plus.

If you look up Marketplace on Manhattan, only a Facebook page will pop up, not a menu. If you want the menu, you have to look up Intelligent Gourmet because this is the business that owns Marketplace on Manhattan. Their weekday hours are 10am-7pm and on Sundays they are only open from 10am-3pm. These hours are a bit inconvenient because some people may have to rush there right after work with only an hour to spare

It seems that this place is heavily a lunch option, although they do prepare meals that you can pick up and take home—they just aren’t heated up. I went right after practice and was rushing to get there before it closed. I asked the chef herself what she recommended for my first time. She suggested the chicken piccata with green beans, spaghetti squash lasagna, 3-layer peanut butter chocolate cake and the lemon raspberry cupcake.

Let me start by saying, the chicken piccatta was delicious. It has very vibrant flavor with a crispy yet smooth texture. The capers added a nice salty pop of flavor to the chicken and really complemented the chicken well. Not only was the chicken good but the presentation was also very adequate. I was able to really taste the lemon flavor. The onions were diced which was something that I liked because I’m not a big fan of when onions are stringed. I anticipated the green beans would be something that I didn’t enjoy, but I was proven wrong. They were nice and crunchy and were filled with flavor from the chicken broth left from the piccata.

I wasn’t satisfied with the spaghetti squash lasagna. As a disclaimer, I do not like squash. I was impressed by the presentation being that squash isn’t a very appealing vegetable. The tomato sauce was full of taste and the amount of food was more than enough, but overall, it wasn’t my favorite thing that I tried but if you like squash, this is definitely the choice for you.

After all this healthy food, I felt obligated to try the desserts. I started off with the 3-layer peanut butter chocolate cake. This cake did not disappoint. I was very impressed with the smooth peanut butter flavor and rich chocolate coating.  Next up was the lemon raspberry cupcake. This moist cupcake was packed with sweet yet savory taste. From the delicious raspberry frosting to the cool lemon cake, it’s a must-try. The amazing thing about these sweet treats is that they are all gluten free.

In all, I was very overtaken by my appeal to the food. I didn’t expect healthy food to be so good. Based off of the food that is produced, it’s obvious they’re trying to change the stereotype of healthy food and I admire that.