In an area rife with with chain restaurants and cheap eats, it's always nice to see a new local restaurant pop up in the Brandon-Valrico area. The Cheddar Biscuit, located at the intersection of Bloomingdale Rd. and Bell Shoals Blvd., is one of these newer local restaurants in this area.  While the Biscuit's independent spirit is admirable, the execution leaves much to be desired as I learned after a visit yesterday.

Walk into the Cheddar Biscuit and you're greeted with a playful, sleek, and modern atmosphere that feels a tad off when you realize they specialize in no-frills, down home southern cooking.  This is small potatoes, but kind of a testament the please-everyone mindset The Cheddar Biscuit seems to have.

The menu is huge, offering a dizzying variety of Southern-inspired cuisine ranging from fried chicken to pulled pork, pot roast, country fried steak, fish, and more.  For all intents and purposes, the fried chicken seems to be the main draw as a handful of fried chicken meals sit prominently displayed in the middle of their chalkboard menu.

On both visits to the Cheddar Biscuit, the wait period for a meal has been abnormally long despite their fast-casual order at the counter approach.  Even at the slow, 5 o'clock hour, the wait for one fried chicken meal took about 15 minutes; not devastatingly long, but far too much time for the approach they've chosen to take.

The disappointment, unfortunately, extended to the meal as well.  Both fried leg and thigh chicken pieces come wrapped in soggy, thin breading atop a a thin puddle of grease on the plate.  The chicken was cooked to a nice, juicy state, but the flavor is hardly adventurous, just a bland, safe interpretation of this often-mouthwatering Southern delicacy.

A side of baked beans, bolstered by stringy bits of pulled pork, did little to pull this meal out of the woods with its generic sweetness and lukewarm serving temperature.  Fries, the other of the two sides, were actually quite good.  Light and airy with a golden crunchy batter, Cheddar Biscuit fries are a nice touch and pretty indicative that this place could become a solid hit if they'd maybe just focus on a few items as opposed to casting the wide net over seemingly every Southern meal and accompaniment they can think of.

Overall, The Cheddar Biscuit has some kinks in need of dire ironing-out.  The potential is there, but for now, this Southern slice of fast-casual homestyle dining has left this diner pretty unfulfilled in this quest for great meals in Tampa.

Have you visited the Cheddar Biscuit?  Let us know your thoughts with a rating and review on the Cheddar Biscuit 813area business listing.