Renzo's- Carrollwood — Restaurant in Florida

My title of my experience is called "The Hostess with Mostest" After getting my mother of 84 years old motivated to celebrate another blessed year of her life. My siblings and i decided to celebrate with the family at Renzos. We have been here other times and we all love the atmosphere and the food! As i was planning to reserve, i attempted to put my reservation through the Open Table app however the app did not accept a number of ppl to reserve but suggested i needed to contact the restaurant. On Friday, first thing at their opening time i contacted the restaurant and spoke to a gentlemen whom i thought understood my request to reserve for 11 ppl and got my information and my phone number and confirmed my reservations at 7:30pm. Yesterday as i was arriving with the birthday person at 7:30pm i get a call from my sister in law stating they did not find me on their list. I almost lost it since we had 3 elderly ppl in our party. My SIL puts one of the waiters on the phone and he states they do not make reservations for that many ppl. I told him i spoke with the gentlemen on the phone and confirmed my reservation and did not even mention that i couldn't reserve for that many ppl. With the waiter's statement i was livid at that point. I felt he wanted to disservice me and my family for a mistake one of his coworker's did. I quickly parked my car and left my mother in the car to confront the issue. As i came in i saw the madness. They were completely busy and they looked as if they short staffed. I waited a few minutes until Jessica (the hostess with the mostest) came to me and i explained the issue. I showed the Open Table app and showed her that i made my call and spoke to the gentlemen. She understood the issue and instead of the way the other waiter who i spoke to first commented, she took action to remedy the issue. We had to wait a few more minutes to get free tables to seat all of us. Jessica managed to do it! We all enjoyed a wonderful dinner and my mother enjoyed her 84th birthday surrounded by her loved ones. My mom loved that your staff sang to her happy birthday. It really means a lot to see her smile. As public servant myself, i observed as Jessica had to turn her hat from hostess, to waitress , to server. I completely commend Jessica on that stressful night. She serviced everyone without showing stress but only Professionalism. Thank you Jessica for solving this! And whoever is the owners of Renzo in carrollwood please give Jessica a raise or...

We dined here on Sept. 7. I reserved a table for 5:30 - to enjoy their happy specials - Tapas menu - as was shown on their website. It was my husbands birthday- which I noted on the reservation- and we wanted to try someplace new. We arrived at 5:20. There were two other tables seated - a party of 2 and of 1. We were asked if we had reservation....like we really needed them.... but "yes, we do". "Have a seat where ever you'd like". Upon being seated and given the menu, I asked about the Happy Hour menu with the Tapas discounted pricing. Our waiter - David - informed us that that menu is only for the St. Pete location. I was confused. It clearly shows on the website the Carrollwood menu/location. I wasn't going to argue. David had a hard time communicating with us as he spoke very broken English. We ordered 3 Tapas items. Tiradito of Ahi tuna (sliced so thin you could see through it- and very bland), Gambas ( sauteed shrimp which was obviously frozen - but the better of the items we ordered) and the Medallions ( which were supposed to be Filet medallions - again, total lack of flavor - and the presentation was on top of a huge plate of french fries). The only saving grace was the dipping sauce they served on the side, similar to Yummy sauce at a Japanese steakhouse. We were originally going to stay for dinner as well, but the total lack of flavor coupled by the pricing, we decided to dine elsewhere. Service was another issue. David was not very attentive, and I had a difficult time communicating with him to ask questions about the menu or if I needed something (like ketchup for the french fries.) I finally just gave up. As mentioned, it was my husbands birthday as noted on the reservation. Upon conclusion of our 'dinner', I thought something would have been done to recognize the occasion. Nope, nothing. We left totally dissatisfied. Please note: I called the restaurant several times to talk with the manager and left my name/number twice. I'd really rather speak with a manager than leave a bad review. But now after waiting 2+ weeks ... No one has ever returned my call. I live in a community whereby we have many friends. Needless to say, Renzos fell flat and has now lost out on many new potential customers. Long story short --- go someplace else. Don't waste...

I knew I should have left after we were seated at the wobbly table when all the other tables in the place were empty minus 2. The waitress who did not seem to understand English very well tried to rush us to order 3 times. Brought us water and soft drinks with 3 ice cubes. We told her we needed a minute so she didn't come back. We finally got to order and along with the Parrilla Solo Carne I ordered a salad. We also asked if they served bread and the answer was yes but it didn't show up. The 2 employees were having a good time at the other end of the room, laughing and joking while I waited for my salad, or a refill for my husband's drink. Finally I had to go ask. The other employee spoke English and told me he would bring my salad that was sitting there. I asked again about bread, he said they served it if it was asked for. I told him we did ask and he made an excuse about the girl's English. He brought us cold slices of bread, no butter or anything else. I only mention it was cold because he said he would heat some up to bring. Just as I was beginning my salad they started bringing out the entree. The sides were good but the meat was disappointing to look at. Thin dry slices on a little grill type platter thing. Everything was overcooked (we ordered Med Rare) and tough as shoe leather, very fatty and unseasoned. The Strip wasn't too bad, it was the best piece on there but about the quality I would expect from Denny's. Just to make things a bit more uncomfortable, when we went in the shades were all pulled so it was comfortably dim inside. While we were in the middle of the meal, the girl pulled up all the shades on the west facing windows so our eyes could be hit with the glare of the setting sun. She also smacked my glass with a plate while I had it in my hand, nearly stabbed me with a fork and kicked my chair as she was walking around. Do yourself a favor...