Allswell opened at Waterside Place in the summer of 2025, and it has quietly become one of our regular spots. It comes from Tory Delaney and Darren Shore, a husband-and-wife team who ran restaurants in New York City before moving to Lakewood Ranch, including The Malt House in Manhattan. That pedigree shows.
The pitch is simple: a gastropub with a scratch kitchen, elevated tavern food, and a serious cocktail program, all a short walk from the water. We have been multiple times now, with and without our daughter, and it delivers every visit. Fair warning: this review covers a lot of the menu. That is what happens when you keep going back.
Ambiance
The room is the first thing you notice. Allswell leans into a 1930s saloon feel, with dark green paneling, a coffered wood ceiling, globe pendant lights, and a back bar that climbs the wall, lined with mirrored cubbies stacked with whiskey and glassware. It photographs like a set piece and functions like a neighborhood bar. Big windows keep it bright during the day, and the whole thing warms up at night when the chandeliers take over.
It also threads a needle that most restaurants miss. The bar side feels like a proper cocktail bar. The dining side works for a family dinner on a Tuesday. Our daughter gets a kids’ menu with a word search and tic-tac-toe; I get a smoked old-fashioned, and nobody feels out of place. The service matches the room. Every visit has been friendly, attentive, and quick without being rushed. That consistency is why we keep coming back.
Menu
The menu reads like bar food and eats like something more ambitious. We have worked through a good chunk of it.
Starters
The Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls come out crisp and packed, with a carrot and celery slaw and a buffalo bleu dip that covers the wing experience without the napkin casualties.
The Scotch Egg is Berkshire pork sausage around a hard-cooked egg with an English mustard aioli, and it is a proper one, fried deep golden with the sausage seasoned enough to stand on its own.
The Roasted Fish Dip arrives as a chilled scoop with cucumber slices and charred crostini, lighter than most Florida fish dips and better for it.
The French Onion Soup is built on bone broth with a house crouton and a full cheese lid, broiled until it goes bronze at the edges.
The Steak Tip Poutine buries hand cut fries under steak tips, house breaded cheese curds, and a rich pan gravy.
The Carne Asada Tartar is the sleeper: chopped steak with a salted yolk, frisรฉe, poblano aioli, and tortilla crisps for scooping.
And the Wild Mushroom Toast stacks roasted mushrooms, ricotta, arugula, and charred lemon on grilled crostini. There is not a filler starter in the bunch.
Mains
The Allswell Burger is the headliner: double smash patties, American cheese, applewood smoked bacon, diced onion, and bread and butter pickles on a glossy bun, with hand cut tallow fries and an arugula salad on the side. It is a top tier smash burger, full stop.
The Fish & Chips is battered in Allswell’s own ale and comes with tavern slaw, a pickled caper remoulade, and those same tallow fries.
The Southern Chicken Sandwich goes blackened and grilled rather than fried, then makes up the difference with pimento cheese, smoked guajillo pepper aioli, and a fried green tomatillo crunch.
The Pan Seared Scottish Salmon is the group’s composed plate, with wilted greens, red onion, roast potatoes, and a mustard-dill sauce.
My wife is partial to the Mezcali Salad, a nod to the owners’ Mexican restaurant back in New York: heirloom tomato, grilled corn, avocado, black beans, tortilla crunch, and charred onion crema, plus grilled chicken.
Worth Flagging
One night the special was a surf and turf with filet and shrimp over mashed potatoes with broccolini. It was amazing. If it is on the board when you go, stop reading the menu.
Drinks
The Smoked Old Fashioned is the move: Woodford Reserve, Cherry Heering, spiced cherry bitters, and actual oak wood smoke. It shows up smelling like a campfire in a good suit.
Kids
Our daughter’s standing order is the Country Style Chicken Tenders with hand-cut fries and a Strawberry Boba Lemonade. The tenders are real chicken with a proper crust, not the frozen kind, and the lemonade layers from red to gold like a sunset. She approves. Repeatedly.
Overall Experience
Allswell is still relatively new, but it does not operate like it. The room is beautiful, the service is fantastic, and the kitchen executes bar food with real technique. It handles date night and family dinner with equal ease, which is a rarer skill than it sounds. We have been saying this enough times with confidence: this is one of the best additions to Waterside Place, and it is worth the visit whether you live in Lakewood Ranch or you are making the drive.
