Positano Ristorante Italiano by Bachi's — Restaurant in Palm Harbor

I had a hard time giving them even 2 stars. Our server was the only thing that got them to 2 stars. A very nice elderly man that was good, but not great. 50 years of dining in thousands of great restaurants around the world and yes, I believe I’m more than qualified to make this accurate review and rating. 3 of the 8 seafood selections had Basa/ Swai as the first ingredient $21 for one and $24 for the other two. The only other fin fish on their menu was a Norwegian salmon filet $24. If you google Norwegian Salmon you will get a lot of links that are not kind to it. Some are scary. Should I just stop now and you look for another restaurant? Many knowledgeable people would and move on from this point. Basa/ Swai is the cheapest fish that you can buy from ($2-$3 LB) any wholesaler. It’s the fish many restaurants got caught with passing for grouper sandwiches (breaded and fried) a few years back. Why? Grouper prices were very high and the government bans fishing 2 months a year. Sneaky restaurants continued selling the Basa/ Swai by simply putting a disclaimer on their menu that says Grouper Sandwich, when available. Check out Wikipedia - Environmental and health concerns on Basa. 5 stars not even close. I could go on for hours about how bad this restaurant is. Outdated, small rooms, uncomfortable small chairs, dirty bathrooms that need painting, walls that are cheap stained paneling, baseboard and doors with scratches everywhere, no music in the tiny room we were seated in, one speaker in the ceiling that was not on or working. We were jammed in next to a very loud senior party of 12. In a room that was smaller than my bedroom, maybe 13’, 14’ square. No good restaurateur would put anyone next to such a large party in such a small room. Can we move to one of the 5 empty tables out front? No, they are all reserved. My wife and son were 30” away across the table and I could not hear them talk, it was that loud. There was a 3’ x 5’ Tapestry on the wall that looked like a simple throw rug as part of their horrible décor. The carpet was awful looking and outdated. We get our menus from the nice server and it was a very cheep do it yourself clear plastic multi page slide in envelope style. The only cheaper way is to just hand us the paper inside. Dirty with crumbs and finger prints between each page. We came for the live music that they advertise. Asked our nice server will we be able to hear the music once started? He laughed and politely answered no, not even the people in that room up front that was maybe 2 times the size of our jammed tiny room. A double vodka and tonic served in a small rocks glass, just another example of how bad this is. The food was below average at best. No one in our party had anything good to say about their food and we all have eaten in some of the finest restaurants Tampa Bay and around the world. $20 for a dried-out piece of chicken and 20 cents worth of pasta. I asked our nice server why the extra $2 for a Caesar salad than a house salad, just curious if there was something special about it. No good answer and said if you want anchovies it’s even more?? Their sign out front says Fine Italian Dining. Sorry, it’s not even close. Check out their website and the Parties & Events tab. You will get a good idea of my review from the awful looking picture. To the owners, not once did a manager, owner or bus boy come into the terrible tiny room to check on us. A good operator would have noticed our table with empty glasses and plates even when we got up to leave. A big No No. A five-star restaurant would never operate like this. Gut this old tired restaurant, tear down the walls, open it up and start over with a reputable consultant. Don’t go until they do.

Local Level 5 Google Reviewer –...

This is for Brent Kiespies that posted a message yesterday. I NEVER do this but I felt I needed to added more details to your comment and it has nothing to do with that you left no tip. First you came in on a Saturday night which is a busy night and before you gave me your order, you wanted to complain about the 16 year old boy that tried his best to take your order. No one starts "perfect" at their job. We should be encouraging these young children instead of criticizing them. Your son is still young but as a teenage mother I know first hand the depression these kids went through since covid and still trying to feel normal or accepted. You were even upset they misspelled scampi. I am assuming based off the timeframes and percentage you are mentioning, math is not your strong suit. You brought uno cards. Playing uno does not indicate I need a quick bite so I can get my 7 year old to bed. The scale (in this case, the monitor) does not lie. Within 26 minutes, you got your drinks (the lime was missing which I got right away), you got our amazing warm bread with the best oil made by Positano's, then you got your appetizer, once you were done with that, I took the plates away and said I was coming with your salads (which you rolled your eyes when you ordered the caeser salad because it is an upgrade). Then I was told by the host you wanted your check. I had to throw out the salads and get a manager remove your entry from the bill and print out your check in 26 minutes total. I feel you came in mad so you can go on here and be negative. The people around you were fine until you spoke to them. The nice couple that left had 2 drinks each, 2 appetizers at different times, hot bread & oil, salad and soup and their food was ready and I was in the process of bringing it out, but they wanted to leave and pay for the things they had. when those items were deleted from their tab it was a total of exactly 1 hour from when their order was taken. They told me they were in no rush as I kept checking on them and so I was a little surprised they wanted to leave. We were dealing with kitchen workers out sick and no show. Anyone that has or is working in a restaurant business understand that in a fine Italian restaurant where things are made fresh and not precooked a total of your seating time can be 1 1/2 hours on a weekend. The owner was back in the kitchen helping cook the food and running to the front to make pizzas. The whole crew are harding working people that help each other to make things as pleasant has possible for our guests. I hope you have a nice day and pray that when your son is 16 years old and working at his first job that people will be kind and...

On our first time here everything was fantastic, service was good, and food was delicious. It was only natural that we take our daughter here on her birthday. What a disappointing and terrible decision. Not only was the food a big miss, but service was terrible. The Server only came by while making her rounds to all the tables. We ordered some appetizers and she asked about the entres. I asked the server to just put in the appetizer order right away as my daughter was starving. She was not feeling well and needed some food but the server went straight to the next table to take their order. Later she brought a pitcher of water over and filled my wife and daughter's water glasses, but only their two water glasses while my water glass was almost completely empty she just skipped right past my glass but then made her round directly to the next table and gave them water. We had to ask two people for butter, and it took 20 minutes to get it! The appetizer special was justvawful, the breading on the shrimp just slid right off and some of the shrimp wasn't cooked enough. Hardly any dressing on the Ceasar Salad, it was so dry! It was such an entirely different experience from both the front and back of the house from only just a couple of weeks ago. So time for dessert and we order and at least they brought a candle. Then the check comes, and there's a charge for a birthday gelato and a credit for the birthday gelato. Most places would give the birthday child a free dessert of their choice, but if not, at least they would tell you if they do something at all. To say well that's all they do would be fine if at least you would have told us before ordering. No mention of anything except to put it on the check!!! Way to bump up the bill by 7 dollars but lose a customer in the process. But it isn't the 7 dollars as I would have ordered whatever she wanted and paid for it wothout a problem. Except it would have been proper to at least tell us. We wouldn't have even known about the Birthday Gelato if we didn't question what was on the check! Birthday Gelato 3.50 on the bill discount -3.50 on the bill, No mention of the gelato No gelato on the table And...