YaYa Southern Cuisine — Restaurant in Tampa

My sister and I went by for a late lunch. Turns out they do a lot of takeout, which is understandable because the place is small. We wanted to dine in and they served us on real dinnerware, on a charger for goodness sakes, pretty glasses for our drinks, ceramic bowls for our sides of greens, green beans and potato salad. All delicious.

YaYa, what do you season your vegetables with? OMG! We both had the fried Basa with saffron rice (yellow rice) and the servings were generous and delicious. The owner YaYa offered to let us try their cornbreads! One is more traditional- soft, slightly sweet, moist and delicious. The second was a huge surprise with a slight taste of something like a spice cake I once had! It was AMAZING! My sister said they should sell it as a feature item, and I agree!

Other guests raved about the smothered turkey wings and oxtails, two dishes I really love, so I'll be back to have those! Count on it!

Go there! Get some takeout, but go sometime to sit and have your food served so you can enjoy clients coming in, chatting as they wait for their takeout and participate in the back and forth conversational banter. The owner came out and talked with us. Some of her adult children work there and everyone was very friendly and accommodating.

No pictures, sorry. My face was in my plate...

A while back, I was searching for a soul food spot and YaYa Souther Cuisine came up. I called and spoke with the owner and she informed me that they weren't opened yet but will be in a few months and asked me for my name and email address so that she can let me know when they will have their grand opening. While talking, it turns out that they are from Montclair NJ and I'm from East Orange, NJ, so this was perfect for me to support a business of people from back home. This past Friday I found out that my barber had moved and it was about 15 minutes from YaYa's, so I decided to go check them out. Let me tell you something, the food is on point! I ordered three turkey wing dinners, two with Mac and Collard greens and the other with Mac and Cabbage. The ride back home was really hard because the food smelled soooooo good. The food was fresh with great flavor and a nice portion, although I thought I was getting two turkey wings but the one was sufficient enough....lol. I would recommend YaYa's to everyone who is looking for some good food and especially some good SOUL food. I live in Wesley Chapel which is about 35 minute away but its worth the...

Native Floridian visiting from GA. We were greeted by a very sweet young man named Kristen. He made the visit worth it all! Awesome customer service! I gave them four stars instead of five because in my opinion it was very pricey. I wouldn't have minded paying for what I knew I was paying ahead of ordering. I expected to pay around $40-$50, nope for me and my mother's two dinners, two cakes and two drinks was a wee bit shy of $70. I was asked if we want a drink, and being told my options, I chose the YaYa drink. It was almost $10, that wasn't worth it. My least favorite thing. A slice of cake was $six and some change. I could've went to the supermarket and got a whole cake. Now let's talk about the food. The food was very good. I enjoyed my food and so did my mother. Would Mother got chicken fried chicken (4 wings) I got fried shrimp (cooked to perfection)I recommend YaYa Southern Cuisine or would I return? ABSOLUTELY!!! I DO RECOMMEND THAT YOU ASK FOR A MENU WITH PRICING! I sure do wish them great success. (Sorry for any grammatical errors, or misspelled words, to tiree to get up and get...