PB&J Bistro & Café — Restaurant in Florida

Potential for greatness, but I have mixed feelings and reviews. The service is great, the making a reservation online -not that great. The apps and my coffee were great, the dinner entrees not so great. The atmosphere was nice but not very kid friendly imo which is fine it’s just more of a grown up experience.

The vibe was mellow and sultry I can see what they are going for with a speakeasy nostalgia mixed with a post modern jukebox sense of style. The polished look overall is appealing but the entrees really missed the mark in my opinion. I was a bit underwhelmed with the ok portions that seemed not so generous, the house made papardelle was congealed together and over dressed with micro greens piled high - with a slew of severely overcooked squash and zucchini hiding underneath, with 4 sad looking over-cooked gulf shrimp. The pomodoro was much too thin and lacked in flavor- I would say that’s a hard pass. The “shorty” short rib plate was also very sad on portion, dry, and not fork tender. Where’s the sauce ? And to quote the famous 80’s phrase “where’s the beef?” The polenta was also sad & lacking in flavor profile and texture was much too dense. The micro greens were also a bit overkill. There is a sense of wanting to be polished and fancy but it felt like an overcompensation for the lack of quality and depth, maybe a bit more attention to detail is required from the kitchen not just in presentation or quality but the time management could use an adjustment in improvement also. It took much too long for apps to arrive and then the entrees were not paced far enough and then dessert took longer than expected too.

With all this criticism there were some very pleasant items like the crab cakes and the oat milk lavender latte which was #chefskiss delish! Our server and hostess were remarkably sweet and didn’t leave dirty dishes on our table which we greatly appreciate. The soup was interesting with a smoky flavor which I’m not sure if I quite enjoyed or not. The beet salad was interesting as well I think I would prefer to omit the tomatoes and maybe add a different element like candied walnuts or truffle oil or roasted pistachios. The crème brûlée was decent but the crust texture you would expect was not brûléed properly and it just turned gloopy, I was left unsatisfied with the lack of a good cracking. They definitely need to work on their kitchen element and timing but hopefully they will do good things in the near future. I will give them another chance but as of now I stand with 3 stars.

Side note : for whatever the reason the ladies room was ungodly hot like no ventilation or a/c made for an uncomfortable private moment. There is cool art work to look at in the hallway though so there is that.

(Family Friendly Service! Try the ALMOND TEA! So different and refreshing!) - original post from their...

Took my wife here with our scheduled reservation at 6:45 for dinner on a Friday night (03/01/2025). We love supporting local businesses and were excited to come here to maybe add it to our list of regular date night spots. Food was great - something new for our pallets to try across the menu. The ricotta dip was great, short ribs and chicken were good too... Albeit they would have been better if the food was hot when we got to our table.

Our waitress really ruined our first experience here unfortunately. She was the younger one with the glasses, dark hair and ponytail. From the time we sat down to the time we finally left was 2 hours! It took her about 15 minutes to get us drinks, at which point she took our appetizer order. Another 20 minutes later after serving other guests she came to our table to tell us she made an "oopsie" and rang in the wrong appetizer. To which she apologized once and said that she would bring in the correct one right away. 15 minutes later we finally got our appetizer and she returned to take our main course order.... After that we waited another 45 minutes with no word from her until 5 minutes before our meal arrived at our table. She said that she had a bunch of two tops, and the kitchen had served the larger tables first.... And that our food would be up soon.

Finally, she came to our table an hour and a half after we arrived with our main course. She warned my wife that the plate was very hot and to be careful. We were starving by now and anxious to get something in our stomach so we dug right in. Unfortunately my chicken was room temperature and my wife's short ribs were only slightly warmer than that. It would be one thing if she was having a bad night or struggling in another area, but to warn us our food is hot only to find it as room temperature is just not good service. Our drinks were refilled once after they sat empty for 10 mins as well.

I hope sincerely she was just having a bad night and that isn't how she serves people on a...

I heard a lot of buzz about this place opening and maybe my hopes were set too high. The waitress was friendly, although she wasn't very attentive to our refill situation. I'm a big water drinker and my glass was left empty several times. I wanted to add that the server delivered the appetizers without offering to refill my glass of water. This also happened when the entrees arrived. The owner, as well came by to greet us, all while my glass remained empty. Perhaps bringing pitchers of water would be beneficial if waiters are not able to stay on top of things. I eventually had to ask twice for a refill, but I feel I shouldn't have to since an empty glass is very apparent.The appetizers are very limited and not filling whatsoever. When the entree came, I was disappointed. It was made for a person on a limited calorie diet I assume. In addition to that, some of the options on the menu were not available. We were told since its the end of the week (we came on a Saturday), they are all out. In my opinion, Friday and Saturday are the biggest nights to eat out, so ensuring you have all items available is a must, especially with such a limited menu. Some people look at menus before they go to restaurants and know what they will order. Being out of items is one thing, but claiming that the reason is because its the end of the week is inexcusable. That left us with trying to figure out what to order last minute. We left very unfulfilled and...