Maritana — Restaurant in Saint Pete Beach

Food portion sizes were ridiculously tiny in size. Service was slower than slow. Atmosphere was lacking. Food quality was mediocre at best.

We invited our friends visiting from New Hampshire to meet us at The Don Cesar for dinner. They were staying in Sarasota and we live in Tampa, so this was a good half way point. We had dined at the King Charles Dining Room on the top level of the Don Cesar hotel years ago and had remembered it to be outstanding. When we got to the hotel to our dismay we learned that the restaurant was no longer upstairs but now on the lower level. Compared to the old dining room with ocean views and the architectural beauty of the hotel, this new dining room had no windows to the outside, had no architectural details of the hotel incorporated, and very little that distinguished it as a fine dining experience.

The food service was extremely slow and the portion sizes were unacceptable too small. We sat down at 6:45pm and we didn't even get served bread until 7:20pm. The Stone Crab Legs for an appetizer which cost $15 each were extremely small, The very tiny salad that cost $12 that might have been 2 bite fulls didn't come out till 7:50pm. The main entree wasn't served until 8:30pm and the mashed potatoes on the plate were so non-existant that it looked like the leftover amount from someone else who had their plate bused from another table and given back to us after they'd already eaten from it. There were almost no vegetables, they looked so tiny they were more like a garnish. The Filet Mignon was over-cooked and about 1/3rd the size you'd receive at a place like Ruth's Chris or Flemmings. The waiter was apologic about the over-cooked meat and offered to send it back for a new one, but it was so late at that point we could not wait another 30-45 minutes to get another one. To their credit they did comp the meal that was over-cooked. However, it didn't make up for the fact that the dinner had taken almost 3 hours before we left and had been only served about 1/3 the amount of food you'd expect to receive especially for the high prices for each item.

Thank goodness the basket of bread they had brought out had filled us up a bit, because otherwise we would have left there starving instead of leaving there hungry as we did. The bread wasn't even freshly made.

To sum it up, in my 48 years of living this was worst dining experience we've ever had. Portions sizes too small, service too slow, atmosphere lacking, food quality mediocre at best, and just was un utter disappoint mostly because wanted to take our out of town friends some place special and it was exactly the opposite. We will never go...

My husband and I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary with dinner at Maritana. When making the reservation, the attendant asked if we would be celebrating anything and I told her yes, our wedding anniversary. Also mentioned that it was our wedding anniversary to the hostess when we arrived at the hotel as well as our server Rocco. No congratulations or acknowledgement was ever mentioned the entire evening from all staff that we encountered.

We had a short wait for our table so we made the decision to have a cocktail at the hotel bar. Female bartender asked us what we wanted and then immediately turned to the party of eight at the end of the bar to ask if they wanted another round. She never returned to us (in an appropriate time) to take our order…not a great start to the evening! We made the decision to leave and head back to the restaurant.

For our appetizer, eight oysters were ordered and six were presented. Both Massachusetts and Washington state oysters were tasteless. Being a native from Massachusetts, I am very familiar with the wonderful taste of oysters from that area and these were far from equivalent.

Small plate choice was soft shell craft, which was VERY salty.

My husband had the duck breast, presentation was lousy at best, and the duck breast was just sliced and not fanned over the spaetzle. The duck and spaetzle were positioned on the far side of the plate leaving mostly an empty plate with only the smear on the majority of the plate.

I ordered the linguine with shrimp, scallops and cream…BIG MISTAKE! The size of the shrimp were smaller than what you get in the frozen section of Walmart, the size of the scallops were A JOKE and the pasta was swimming in cream!!!

The dessert ordered was pistachio and raspberry choux that was nothing more than a filled Dunkin Donut Long John.

Errors were found on the dessert and after-dinner drink menu. Specifically, pricing for Louis XIII (100 for ½ ounce and 250 for ounce) and the price of one of the bottles of a dessert wine was incorrectly printed.

My husband has worked in the food & beverage and casino & hotel industries as a Manager, Food & Beverage Director and General Manager in the span of 40 years and is extremely familiar with how a fine dining establishment should be run and how meal presentation should be presented to guests. In conclusion, a restaurant of magnitude should be more epicurean and professionally run that we...

Bottom line up front - disappointing experience at a very overrated restaurant. I dont understand the rave reviews unless written by people with no knowledge of good food. We are guests at the Don Cesar on our honeymoon and decided to do fine dining at the "four star, diamond rated" Maritana Grille. First - the decor. NOT fine dining. Not horrible, clean and modern but not in any way romantic or "classy." Feels like an upscale diner or the place you go to for the free breakfast buffet at a nice hotel. Sadly the food matches the decor. We ordered the bread (paying for bread at this level of restaurant?), the roasted oysters, the garlic shrimp and the grilled octopus. The bread was really good, warm and chewy, came with some nice accompaniments including a delicious pear jam. The other appetizers were over priced and terribly bland at best. The octopus wasn't really a bad portion and it was perfectly tender, but cold and nearly flavorless. I ate half of it rather than wait on a new order - if they had reheated it in the microwave that would have been worse. The plate had an odd sauce on it that looked like a blob of battleship grey paint - didn't add anything and visually unappealing! The shrimp were just ok. Not bad but worth maybe six or seven dollars at a ham and egger seafood place. The oysters were terrible. Bland, oddly cooked, a strange and unsatisfying dish. Almost sent them back but, well, honeymoon. For main meals we ordered the duck breast and a bison rib eye and to be fair they were decent, good flavors and nicely cooked, but at premium steakhouse prices. The star of the evening was the side order of French fries, hot, crunchy but tender, perfectly salted, really among the top two or three pommes frites I've had anywhere. We skipped dessert. The service was friendly but a little inefficient- shouldn't take that long to get water refills among other minor issues so I cant really give high marks for that either. Summary- way over priced for what you get and NOT a romantic place - don't come here for date night. If you are staying at the Don Cesar and don't want to leave the hotel for dinner I suggest one of the casual restaurants or room service, but if you have extra cash and moderate expectations you can get a decent meal here if you generally avoid the appetizers. I wish I could have read my own review before dropping a few hundred bucks...