1905 Salad and Cuban sandwich before a Delta flight
In the Main Terminal’s Airside E, Columbia Café brings the century-old Ybor City Columbia Restaurant into the airport, right by Delta, Frontier, and Air Canada gates. This is a sit-down, post-security spot at E where you can get real Spanish-Cuban plates and mojitos instead of generic bar food.
Menus run classic: the 1905 Salad, pressed Cuban sandwich, black bean soup, and sangria are the headliners, with a 1905-and-Cuban combo that regulars talk about constantly. Expect $$ pricing that runs higher than the downtown Columbia for slightly smaller portions, but still reasonable for a proper plate inside TPA.
They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner according to multiple reviews, so you can get a hot meal even on an early Delta departure from Airside E. Exact hours shift with flight banks, but if you’re around evening push (17:00–20:00), assume the kitchen is going and the bar is full.
Service pace is the trade-off. When several E-gates are boarding at once, waits can stretch 20–30 minutes for a table and another 20 for food. A TripAdvisor regular calls this their “default dinner” when flying out of E, but only when they build in extra time ahead of a 2–3 hour flight block.
Seating splits between a small bar and perimeter tables open to terminal noise. A few diners complain that the outer tables feel exposed to announcements and rolling bags from the nearby E-gates, so it’s less relaxed than the original Ybor dining rooms on 7th Avenue.
What regulars do: they show up an hour earlier than normal for Delta flights, grab a bar stool if one of the 8–10 seats is free, and run the 1905 Salad + Cuban + sangria play. Practical tip: if your boarding time is under 45 minutes away, skip a full sit-down and order the Cuban sandwich to go instead.