Grace Restaurant — Restaurant in Saint Pete Beach

I dined at Grace restaurant and was expecting to have a pretty great experience since I love this area and frequent it a lot. I had a reservation and when we came in we were greeted at the point near the door (there was a sign that said wait to be greeted or seated). However, the woman who greeted us was not only not friendly she seemed annoyed that we were there and acted like we were not welcome. This was all in her attitude. She did not say these things, but she would not make eye contact, she looked annoyed and almost questioning why we were there and to be honest our waitress was nicer, but I noticed a totally different person was delivering our food to our table during service. It could just be a coincidence. I am just going to say, we were not the exact type of couple coming in to dine that was predominantly in there.

Decor wise, the restaurant is simple; It isn't fancy. I think, decor wise, the umbrellas on the ceiling are very cute, but after that it's like the vibe ended, totally.

Food wise, the food was well seasoned. So, I will say that first off, I hate underseasoned food. I have Celiacs Disease and they have GF denotations on the menu so I chose from there. I actually asked for the shrimp scampi with rice noodles and that came out great, I just told our waitress to please make sure they cook them in a separate pot and flag it and she did. The taste and seasoning was great. I 100% did not mind the rice noodles and I thought it was great. The seasoning was good on everything we had.

The starter was the lamb rolls which was incredibly underwhelming. The amount of lamb they give you is a joke and it's priced at 21.00$. You can get a pound of organic ground lamb from Whole Foods for 8.00$ (and I do) and yet, they are charging 21.00$ for 1 link the size of a breakfast sausage that was cut up! This is served on 6 or 7 pieces of Bibb lettuce with 3 slices of onion and some banana peppers. NOT worth 21.00$ Please avoid this dish if you go there. It's literally less than 3 ounces of lamb at the most.

Secondly, the sparking water...they are charging 8.00$ for a small bottle of San Pelligrino water and even at high end restaurants the LARGE BOTTLE is 7 or 8.00$. This is way over priced. We paid 16.00$ plus tax and tip on two small bottles of San Pelligrino water which you can buy an entire case of these x2 for this price at the grocery store. Most restaurants serving this small bottle would charge 3.00$ for it, not 8.00$.

The stand out dish was the Oso Buco. This was the only dish that was the best of the night. Second being the shrimp scampi.

Cocktails: They were basic and underwhelming at 17.00$ They weren't mixed well and had no garnishes (the menu said there would be garnishes) and were not served in proper glasses. I ordered a cocktail and it never arrived, but it did appear they comped most of it and charged me only 2.00$ for it (what was that???).

Overall, I like trying new restaurants, but I won't be coming back here. From the unwelcome vibes to the overpriced items I feel I can do a lot better taking my money elsewhere. I felt like as a customer I was not welcome at all and the service was lacking. I was readily made to feel like I wasn't the demographic they were looking for from the moment I walked in.

The Dewey has a better atmosphere and food and is steps away and I have dined there twice. The Don Cesar has similar pricing, but is actually fine dining.

When it came time to pay they acted like they didn't know what Offline was or what the discount was and tried to only give us our discount on 1 meal. They acted funny about it and we were both Offline members. Then tried to play it off and say "it's new" and "a manager will come by to approve it", but no manager ever came by because I am thinking it was the same rude woman who greeted us and didn't look like she wanted us to be there in the first place. I wish I didn't have this interaction, but it...

My mom was visiting us from Canada for the 1st time in 3 years due to the pandemic. We spent a few hours at the beach and wanted to take her to a nice dinner on April 21st, 2022. For three of us, our bill was $139, and we had some dietary needs, that we clearly communicated with the waitress. My husband and I do not eat dairy, meat and most seafood. We ordered the Herb Roasted Cauliflower, Salt & Sugar Cured Heirloom Tomatoes (both very good), 2 orders of French Fries and we shared the Pan Roasted Sea Scallops. We asked the waitress if the scallops can be sautéed in olive oil, rather than butter and asked what can be replaced for the risotto since we don’t eat dairy. She said she can replace with fresh veges. We advised no dairy on the plate. When the scallops arrived, it had the risotto and black garlic butter. The scallops also tasted cold and bland. I had one of the scallops and my husband had half of the 2nd one to see if it was cold. In total, 5 scallops on the plate. The fresh veges had come out before the scallops but lacked flavor. The broccoli was steamed. The carrots were hard. Part of the vege dish had salt and pepper. Honestly the worst plate of veges I have had. It is not hard to make veges taste great, especially for vege lovers. So, the scallop plate was sent back. The scallop plate was returned back to us without the garlic butter and risotto and it had 3 ½ scallops from the original plate. They did not offer to do anything consider the experience we had. The waitress was embarrassed as most of this not her fault. It appears that the owner is also the chef and appears to be very inflexible when it comes to feedback and welcoming to dietary needs. The shrimp burger my mother ordered also lacked flavor. She went inside the restaurant and provided that feedback. Last July 4th, a friend had ordered the shrimp burger and I recall her saying it was not good, lacking flavor. It appears to be some shrimps molded into a burger and then grilled. It is not clear if the burger is seasoned at all. We will not give Grace St. Pete a chance again. I understand how hard it has been for restaurants during the pandemic, but common courtesy from restaurant owners to good paying customers is not...

We were given a gift card for dinner and after being told how it was one of the best dining experiences in the St Pete beach area, we were excited. To begin with, we got a cramped table and the inside of the restaurant was so noisy I thought I was in a football stadium. We could hear conversations of other people as they were so close to us so couldn’t help but hear their complaining about the noise. Then another table got up and walked out because of the noise. The server didn’t know that the wine I ordered didn’t come by the glass so we had to wait till he came back to tell us that and wait again till I got my house wine (which was great btw). He also could not answer a question about one their most popular appetizers he did not know what it was. We soon moved outside because of the noise. I ordered a Caesar salad to begin with - it tasted like absolutely nothing, no dressing just a plate of lettuce. Then I ordered a New York strip. 20 minutes later another server who was more confused than the first one brings out an ice cold filet mignon. I didn’t touch it since it wasn’t mine and 5 minutes later the server came to collect it realizing it was for someone else. 10 minutes later, they finally brought out the New York strip cold as well. I asked for another glass of red wine. While waiting for it, my food got even colder. My wife decided to go ask the bartender for my glass of wine as she saw me losing my patience. By the time the bartender brought it, I didn’t feel like eating. Manager apologized and offered to remake it but my wife already finished eating and I lost my appetite. We got a refund for the steak. In conclusion, it’s a nice concept place but they seriously need restaurant management skills which...