mise en place

took our son here for his 21st birthday, food and service very good, house speciality lamb entree wasgoodbut over cooked (more medium than medium rare) but still tasty . nice relaxed atmosphere for more a la carte restaurant.

pretty plating, as you will see from the photos, but that's about it. if this dinner were a race, and all the dishes were runners, then they would all have broken their legs and torn their acls just feet in front of the finish line. by this, i mean they were all headed in the right direction, but all lacked something to really set them apart and put them over the top. i like this type of dining, but in my opinion the menu was too big and just felt like there was too much going on. it showed in the end as nothing was really stupendous, but all was just okay. our service wasgoodat first, but sort of fizzled out towards the end of the meal. overall not worth the price tag in the end.

really good.. they had really nice and attentive service. the food was greatly detailed and made forgoodtasting buds. everything was neat and clean. excellent in every little thing.

great food..service not so much..... excellent food, attention to detail is amazing! light well prepared and appropriately sized entrees.

everyone in our party order the grilled red snapper (2 ordered “zahtar”), some with skin on and some with skin off. the skin is charred off and helps the fish maintain moisture. the sides were great, brocolini and grits.

the only area for improvement is the 18% gratuity on parties of “5” or more. come on, five people does not constitute a large party. it would be nice for the diners to be able to exercise discretion and tip as service merits. our server seemed put out by some of our detailed questions (related to health/religious dietary restrictions), forgot some of our appetizers, did not recommend/suggest any sides (we quickly realized we needed them when our entrees arrived) and was generally non-attentive (on a slow night). i can only speculate he lacked motivation (for his $55 tip). we asked how large the appetizers where and he stated “it is a matter of perspective” and offered very little to explain portion sizes. this is somewhat puzzling in that he forgot to put one of our appetizers in and said we would begoodwith three for the entire party (when two appetizers arrived).

all in all an amazing experience because of the food. definitely go and order the soft shell crab appetizer.

amazing food and service!. my husband and i dined here on friday night. we sat at a high top in the bar and ordered a variety of first and second courses. the lobster mac and cheese was to die for, and our server/bartender, nate, was the best! he went out of his way to accommodate our requests and ensured we had a great experience. i am never disappointed by mise en place. thegoodand service are second to none!

very good. we went for a birthday dinner. we ordered the tasting menu with the wine pairing. it was verygoodfood, probably one of the better meals i've had in tampa bay, which i find to be severely lacking in this particular genre. the service was fine, although the head waiter did have to slow our server down at one point (we got out of a 5 course meal in 2 hours!). the final course was a pear tart of sorts. generally, that sort of thing wasn't my or my so's cup of tea, but it was phenomenal. that, i think, was the moment i decided the restaurant blew me away, they served us something neither of us ever would have tried and generally don't like and we both cleaned our plates. the execution and the flavor profiles are brilliant. its expensive, but that's to be expected. i would definitely go again.

excellent. had dinner here with some work colleagues recently. menu required quite a bit of reading & deciphering, but man, the food was delicious! some in our party "got blitzed" and raved about every dish brought out, from first plate to dessert. i opted for the butternut squash salad - outside my "usual" fare, but delicious - and the free range chicken, which was excellent as well. the dulce de leche pot de creme was the perfect end to my meal. i don't drink, so i can't comment on the wine selection, but everything else was great - service wasgoodand timing was spot on.

expecting more!. i had been here in the past for business lunches and decided to go for dinner. surprisingly, the only dinner specials were soups. we had the french onion soup which was about average for any deli. we then had the foie gras appetizer which was tasty but a very small portion for the cost. it was maybe three bites. for entrees we had the rack of lamb and a snapper dish that were quite good. a big disappointment was the chef's dessert selection. we were recommended to get their chocolate cake. it must have been sitting around for quite a while due to it's dryness. two bites later we were done. we had no less than four different waiters during the course of the meal. for the price of this meal,goodservice with refilled cocktails and iced teas would have been expected. i understand that a larger party arrived after us that took all of their efforts, but really! when you spend in excess of $200 on a meal for two you should at least getgoodservice!

the service was great , but the food was a disapointment. this is the 3rd time i have been there and i won't ask my dates to take me here again. there was sediment in my wine, the soft shell crab was deepfried into a sogie mess, the oysters were big but dank in flavor. my main course the scalop dish was cooked in so many flavors the dish tasted more muddled and not very fresh. my stomach hurt and all i wanted to do was get home. notgoodplace to take a hot date.


-----28 sep, 2009-----

overated messie plate