Food Network + Cooking Channel's Ali Khan returns to St. Pete FL from season 5 of Cheap Eats and goes big at Il Ritorno, one of his all time fav Italian Restaurants.

The Vitals: the spot: Red Mesa Mercado 1100 First Ave N St. Petersburg FL 33705 the eats: Chile Relleno Burrito with Pork Colorado,   the bucks: $7.95 the full nelson: The best Bang for your Burrito Buck outside of Mexico Considering this is my third post on the food scene in St. Petersburg FL, I think it is safe to say that I am pretty impressed with the food down there. If you saw Cheap Eats St. Petersburg, you might remember the ...

When Cheap Eats wrapped the shoot in St. Petersburg, I walked away surprised and impressed with the level of cooking happening there. Once dubbed “God’s Waiting room”, St. Petersburg has transformed from a retirement haven to a destination city on Florida’s Gulf coast. Sometimes on Cheap Eats, we feature restaurants that serve up deals despite offering a menu that upon first glance would be way out of our budget. Enter Red Mesa Cantina, whose sprawling three story set up(in an old ...

If I had to describe Cheap Eats St. Petersburg in just one word it would be this: surprising. Outside of Miami(where we did an episode of Cheap Eats in Season One) and a summer family trip to Destin in my tender Wonder Years, my knowledge of Florida eats is pretty darn minimal. Take away the heavy Cuban and Caribbean culinary influence in Miami and one might correctly assume that Southern fare becomes a big part of the edible mosaic. But ...