Osphere Neighborhood Grill and Bar — Restaurant in Orlando

Food poisoning beware. Here’s an honest review on this restaurant, the food and the bad:

The bad:

-I ordered the Smoked Fettuccini, which in the menu is described as: Creamy smoked butter sauce and shaved parmesan. I added chicken to it. Be careful with the menu at this place. Results that the pasta’s sauce is made with bacon, even though it’s not disclosed anywhere in the menu. This is very irresponsible from the restaurant to sell an item that has pork in it and not disclose it. My partner and I shared this plate - they’re Muslim and I have sensitivity to pork. After my partner had a few bites and sensed the odd taste, we asked and the server confirmed that the dish does include pork (even though it’s NOT mentioned in the menu). This was quite the shock. Be careful and ask questions about every food item, god knows how or with what is cooked. —The plate of pasta was $16, and the bits of chicken (not that much) were another $6. It was a bit pricey for the quality. Not only you are eating a plate with deceiving ingredients, but the quality is not worth $22. -Waited about 45 min to be seated but the restaurant was relatively empty. I’m assuming this is related to the restaurant being understaffed. We also waited an hour to get our food (pasta and sushi). Again, this may be due to the place being understaffed during a long weekend

The good -the bathrooms are very clean -the rainbow roll was okay. Nothing extraordinary. -the chips were good, a bit overpriced, but good nonetheless. -the shrimp skewer was REALLY good. Definitely recommend if you like shrimp. -the server was polite, not the most attentive, but again it may have been due to the restaurant being understaffed.

Personally, I wouldn’t come back. The pork in the pasta really did it for me. I had the WORST stomach pain after - all because of the restaurant’s negligence because they decided not to mention that their dish has an ingredient (pork) that A LOT of people avoid due to health and/or...

I had the worst interaction with a GM EVER at this location… after realizing I was incorrectly charged on my bill (they added a $35 tip to my card when it was on my friend’s bill) I attempted to reach out to three different managers about the issue, leaving my information each time, and no one called me back.

On the third attempt. I asked for the GM, Denise, who happened to finally be there when I called. I re-explained the situation, and she said she wanted to simply refund me the tip. I asked her once again to please look at the signed slip to make sure it was charged correctly, because I couldn’t recall how much I should have split with my friend on the bill, and also didn’t wish to get refunded, just charged correctly.

She then proceeded to raise her voice. Accusing me I wanted a free meal, that I should just “work it out” with my friend… “aren’t you guys friend?! Can’t you guys figure it out?!”, then accused me of not speaking up sooner “why didn’t you say something that day if you’re bill was wrong?” When it was after they closed out the check days later, and added the tip, I realized it was incorrect.

I told her this is NOT how you run a business and it’s not MY responsibility to make sure your staff charged people correctly. They need to correct the mistake.

She eventually found my check, confirmed that it was charged incorrectly, apologized, and offered to return the tip for the inconvenience. I agreed, and thought that was the end of it.

Still to this day - a month later, I’ve yet to received a refund. But what should stand out is the LACK of professionalism and LACK of urgency to address an issue where a guest was charged incorrectly. As a prior bartender at many restaurants, this was always prioritized and escalated, and the burden was never on the guest to correct the issue. Or - accuse the guest before looking into it and confirming an error occurred within the restaurant.

Will not be returning due to...

I really wanted to love this place, but unfortunately i got to experience why they have such low reviews on google & yelp. I made birthday reservations for 3/3/23 at 8:30pm one week before the reservation itself. When i arrived at 8:30, they said they’d seat my party when a few people arrived (myself & 1 person from my 12top arrived first but moments later my party started arriving).. they were not busy at all, the host disappeared for a long period of time while 6/7 of us waited at the front. she then came back at 8:47 to inform me that my table was “being prepared”…🤔 what’s the point of making a reservation?? As we finally get seated, it takes about 10min for a server to come greet us. Then another 10min until she takes our drink orders. While Andrea was sweet, she was very slow moving. she also kind of annoyed me by starting with my brother to the left of me, while i’m seated at the head of the table for my birthday dinner, to take his order first. What is that about? The alcohol came out 5-7min prior to the non alcoholic beverages..? why? & even that took too long. she didn’t return for another long while to take our food orders. Our food didn’t reach our table until 9:43. We then were informed the kitchen & bar were closing at 10 and we would have to make our final selections. One of the steaks served made my friend sick, she was throwing up in the bathroom & had to be carried out by my brother. & she eats steaks pretty often, she even stated that has never happened to her.. come to your own conclusions on that one, but… anyway… I gave two stars because my sushi was delicious but i think they really deserve no stars at all for the awful service & nonchalant restaurant manager who was hanging out at the bar when i found him. I wouldn’t return to Osphere & wouldn’t recommend to anyone looking for a pleasant dining experience, unless this restaurant got a serious clean up of lazy servers & a less than mediocre...