anise global gastrobar

anise, should have gone to taps. at first glace the décor is very impressive. the rest was uninspired from there. lunch on saturday had about 5 people in the dining room. the waiter was vacant at best with service and tea re-fills. we ordered an appetizer of the truffle tater tots. the tater tots were not made at the restaurant, but rather frozen. (you can tell by the fact that all of the tots were identical). the sauce on the side was supposed to be truffle infused, but all i tasted was a hint of cucumber in the yogurt. then, my favorite part, the delivery of our main courses took place over 7-9 minutes. when i asked, why the delay, and the piecemeal service the apathetic waiter, and hostess said that the kitchen does not have much room, and the courses could not be completed at one time. now, let's think about that, here is a "tasting" menu, that can not complete three dishes at one time. remember, there were only 5 diners there. with that logic, how could the "chef" handle 20-30 patrons on a busy night. but what about my meal?the cellophane noodles were overwhelmed by a bottled sauce, and the chicken was dry. when we explained our dissatisfaction with the meal, the apathetic waiter, and hostess simply ignored our complaints. we paid the bill, and left with a thought that if we are going to spend $50 to $60 dollars for three (not a great expense, but still), i would have been better off at p.f. changs.

gastrofific. great preshow menu for a fast bite! unusual and very tasty.

new york pisco sour. a drink

great service and the food was really good. i can't wait to go back and check out the sunday brunch!

i love your bunz!!!!!!;-)

a great experience. sat outside on a beautiful evening.

truffled tater tots were very good. good to share. who doesn't like a good tot?

the duck confit tacos, however, were off the hizzy. well balanced flavorable of sweet and sour.

service was fine. though i sat outside, i was inside for a moment, and it did look like a good "happening" vibe in there. ultra cool people at the bar ;-). i may not have gotten the "full experience" on the sidewalk.....

go back = certainly.

i've eaten at anise on several occasions and the one thing that sticks out to me are the sticky buns...oh yea hun...i don't want none unless its anise's sticky buns. these things are amazing but don't just take my word for it. stop by on ladies night or during happy hour and try for yourself.

half the tables were empty, but the service was slow and not very attentive. our party was done eating and my wife's meal still was not served. how hard is mac and cheese? food was average, nothing special. very disappointing considering other things available downtown.

amazing cocktails, great mix of food. perfect for date night or just girls night. service was slow at first but it got better, there late night menu is somewhat short but lunch and dinner is amazing

great food, even better atmosphere, and katherine may have been better than both! definitely have the “stinky” buns and then go for whatever sounds good!

we really enjoyed the chinese bbq pork sticky buns, the seafood ramen, and the thai burger. bartender carlos was excellent - friendly service and attentive to our needs. i tried the girl next door cocktail and it was perfect.

grabbed an early dinner here with the wife. happy hour so enjoyed the cocktails. waitress was great and we loved the bunz. the bowls and duck confit tacos were also very good, will definitely be back

this place was the bomb! my boyfriend and i are in town for a work trip. we walked in a made a joke about how in a year of dating we never sit at a table; so they gave us a great table! pair that with a good beer selection and some damn good red curry chicken; you've got a good time!

bad service!!   forced to pay a tip. and food was not prepared as we requested

on august 7th i met 5 of my friends for brunch. their were only 3 other tables with customers in the entire restaurant. and there were no patrons at the bar either. (that should tell you something)

although there were not many customers, i waited almost 15 minutes for the waitress to come over to take my drink order.
she had no personality and hardly said a word. i ordered a bloody mary to drink. she came over and placed a tall glass with 5 ice cubes and clear liquid in front of me. i thought the ice cubes had melted. i asked her what it was. she advised me it was for the "bloody mary bar" and pointed near the door. it was my vodka. if i had not asked she would have said nothing.

i went to the so called bloody mary bar. there were two carafes of tomato juice on the table not in ice. i would think it should have been kept on ice so it would not spoil so i consider that a potential health risk. it made me wonder if they are doing that out where the customers can see what health risks are they taking in the kitchen where we cannot see? there were a few dishes with olives and peppers. some were empty. for a restaurant that had no customers you would think they could keep them full. there was no celery which i usually like. but i made a drink.

after more time past, she finally came and took our orders. again she hardly spoke, she would just look at you when it was your turn to speak. after ordering, the waitress brought out the appetizers others had ordered one at a time. i did not think much about it until it was time for the main courses.

the main courses were brought out one at a time with a long gap of time in between. now, i was brought up and my friends were to, to wait until everyone has their food before eating. because of the long time between each plate so we could not do that. eggs do not stay hot long.

after four others got their food there was another long gap of time and i still had not gotten mine. so i asked where our food was. her reply was "we serve tapas style." i guess the restaurant really does not know what that means. here is a definition of tapas style "tapas are as a wide variety of small plates, finger foods, and appetizers. the entire meal consists of these smaller dishes that are shared around the table, encouraging guests to order many of the different dishes."
i think she needs to understand that eggs benedict is not a small plate that can be shared. nor my rice bowl. if they want to serve tapas style they need to have a menu with small plates to share not individual meals.

after finally getting the last two meals neither of ours was cooked the way we asked. my friend specially asked for her egg yolk to be hard because she has digestive problems when it is not. well, the yolk was not hard. the waitress never came back to check if everything was ok. so both of us ate the food the way it came out because we figured we would have to wait a long time to get it corrected and most of our friends were almost done with the meals served so much earlier than ours.

here is the real kicker. when she brought our bills there was an automatic 20% tip on the bill.
when i asked if i could reduce it she said no, it is management policy. i do not recall seeing that anywhere on the menu. i am usually a very good tipper, tipping more than 20% at times because that is how i put myself through college but she did not deserve even 20%. i could see having to wait as long as we did if the restaurant was busy but it was not. i can't image how bad it would be if the tables were full.

it took 2 hours to be served. that was ridiculous.

i do not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

arguably the best night of food i've ever had, every bite was spectacular. i got actual goosebumps while eating the smores. my buddy and i are in agreement that this was the best dining yet in tampa.