Frescos Southern Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Lakeland

I visited Frescos Restaurant to celebrate my sister's 20th birthday today , and I must say, it was an incredibly disappointing experience. From the moment we walked in, it was clear that the management and staff lacked professionalism and the ability to provide good service.

First of all, we had a reservation, but we were kept waiting for over 30 minutes past our reserved time. There was no explanation or apology from the staff, and when we finally got seated, the table was dirty and not properly set up. It was a special occasion for us, and this lack of attention to detail was extremely frustrating.

The service throughout the evening was abysmal. Our waiter was not only inattentive but also incredibly rude. She seemed more interested in chatting with colleagues than attending to our needs. We had to repeatedly ask for basic things like water refills and napkins. When we finally placed our order, it took an unreasonable amount of time for the food to arrive. To make matters worse, several dishes were served cold, and one of the orders was completely wrong. When we brought this to the attention of the waiter, she was dismissive, made sarcastic remarks, and did not offer any solutions or apologies. When the manager was contacted he met us with rude comments on having to fix our food and what a waste it was.

The quality of the food was another major letdown. Given the reputation of Frescos, we expected a high standard, but what we received was far from it. The dishes lacked flavor, and the presentation was sloppy. It was clear that little care was put into the preparation of our meals.

To top it all off, when we spoke to the manager about our concerns, he was unprofessional and dismissive. Instead of addressing our issues, he made excuses and offered no compensation or sincere apology. This level of poor management is unacceptable and ruined what should have been a joyous celebration. Not to mention they threatened to call the police when I gave pushback.

Overall, our experience at Frescos was one of the worst dining experiences we've ever had. The lack of professionalism, poor service, and especially the rude behavior of the server made it clear that customer satisfaction is not a priority for them. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a pleasant dining experience. Save your money and go somewhere that values its customers.

As for our waitress and the manager, all racists and need to be FIRED. Id have this place shut...

TLTR: The service and professionalism of the employees was abysmal. I was disrespected and spoken to rudely. Food was delicious though!

Pictured: chicken and waffles (very delicious) and bottomless Bellini (first extremely icey and watery Bellini!) Location and ambiance was perfect. However, the service was abysmal. Although this pictures a half full glass, after a few sips of my “Bellini” it was not as I expected and I requested a different beverage. My waitress notified me that I would be charged an additional bottomless price for changing my drink. I kindly accepted to keep my drink.

Our waitress brought the check out prior to our party finishing our meals and leaving. As such, my party and I requested another round for the table. We were notified that as the check was brought out we are unable to request another glass. We mentioned that this was not mentioned to our party before the waitress brought out the checks without us finishing our meals. I kindly mentioned this and she stated she would be happy to bring one out if we were okay with getting charged another $14. A member of my party requested to speak to a manager about the misunderstanding.

As the “manager” came to the table, we were unable to discuss our situation as we were talked over about the “company policy”. Unfortunately, this was my first visit here, nor do I work here, and was unaware of the mentioned company policy. As I calmly repeated to say I understand and I apologize for the misunderstanding, the manager began walking away and said, “do you want another round or not?!” I replied that it was okay and proceeded to leave.

As I left the restaurant and outside the establishment, I saw the “manager” serving food to a table and then taking out the trash. I am not positive if this “manager” was who he said he was as he did not introduce himself nor did he possess the professionalism of a manager.

It is safe to say I will not...

My husband and I walked in on Sunday afternoon, others were in front waiting for a table, so we stood to the side for a few until everyone was away and we walked up to the counter. Two girls in the front didn’t even look up to ask “how can I help you, OR “have you been helped yet, OR “how many.” I finally took a step forward and said “we have not been helped yet.” Oh, I didn’t see you standing there.” Cmon, we’re literally front and center right in front of you. We get it, every place is busy, especially downtown, however, if you have rude and nasty people that work for you at your establishment, it rubs customers the wrong way. It doesn’t pay to be nice to someone or really apologize that she didn’t see us. But it took the young blonde girl forever to look up, she was so focused on the tablet. We ended up putting our name in, when we walked out my husband said “let’s go somewhere else.” I immediately ended the waitlist on my phone and so we did, it rubbed us the wrong way. We ended up at Harry’s and a lovely first time visit. There is a restaurant on every corner in Lakeland, if we didn’t have good service here, we will gladly take our money elsewhere and have better service somewhere else.

EDIT: We went in at 12:30 PM on Sunday, July 27th. We were welcomed in by a young gentlemen that worked there & there were a couple customers in front of us so we waited in line. The first group got seated. We stood behind a taller slender woman that was behind the original group. Then, a small group walked in & got attended too and advised the girls up front that they would sit at the bar. The tall slender woman got her family’s place in line and went outside. Which left us, right in front of the desk. We literally stood there for a while right in front of the hostess station and did not get acknowledged. A new couple came in and was greeted and sat RIGHT AWAY as we’re still standing right in front of the...