Annex 400 Beach — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

Second time visiting this place. First time was awesome. After Hurricane Irma and they had food and coffee. Lady at the register was a sweetie.

This time (Easter lunch time), I decided to stop in after a jog outside. Man at the register was a sweetie too. Ordered a cold coffee and gluten free egg wrap. It was delicious. Clean and cool inside.

When my food was ready, the owner called my name and I went to him to get my food. He was just rude. Handed me my food, I said thank you. He said nothing. I felt like I was in his way.

There were no forks in the utensil bin, so I asked for a fork. The owner (who was behind the counter doing the cooking) rudely said to go to the other side of the register and there is fork dispenser there. I apologized for not knowing that.

I went to the other side of the register, and the dispenser was also empty. I told the man at the register, and he kindly told me to come back around to the bin and he'd give me a fork, which he did. I can understand utensils being empty, as its Easter and they were busy. But I don't understand the rudeness from the owner.

While I sat there eating, I observed how absolutely miserable the owner was. As he's cooking, he's complaining left and right, about this and that. He handed other people their food with a smile and said "Thank you, let me know if you need anything."

Not sure if I received this absolutely impolite treatment because he was upset at something else, or because he was working on Easter, or because I was a colored girl coming in with my workout clothes and ordering food. What a way to start Easter. Never felt so...

I live right around the corner, so have been getting breakfast and other items in a pinch since they opened a few years ago. Food is average at best, the service sub par and prices are far too high considering the product, but I have always put up w the former out of sheer convenience. However, enough is enough and based on a recent experience I will never step foot in The Annex again.

I purchased a phone charger cable and within days it had stopped working. I took it in and was shocked when they told me that they would not exchange it for me without a receipt. I plead my case but they insisted that it's the owner's policy and I had no recourse wo a receipt. I have seen these people once a week for 2 years - they know me - and the cord still had the tag on it, yet they would not exchange the item. I understand that businesses have policies, but at some point they need to be reasonable and take care of their customers. Still shocked that I was turned away and never happier to have a better reason to avoid the worst restaurant on Beach Drive.

Do yourself and those that live nearby a favor and don't support ownership with policies and prices that alienate loyal local customers. For those that care, The Annex is part of the St. Pete Hospitality Group which owns several other...

Do not order via delivery (ubereats, etc...)! Today (11/5/17) I ordered a french dip with au jus (labeled as a "Picnic Box" by the restaurant) and the mixed berry smoothie from Annex 400 Beach, delivery via Ubereats. My french dip "picnic box" arrived partially wrapped in a sheet of parchment paper inside a plastic grocery bag. There was no au jus and the sandwich was all soggy from having been wrapped in plastic during delivery. It was fit only for the trash. The berry smoothie was OK, and arrived in reasonable condition, but they didn't bother to include a straw. This made it extremely difficult to enjoy.

I called the restaurant directly to inquire about these issues and received zero satisfaction. In fact the gentleman who took my call was mildly rude. He was clearly not impressed with my complaints. He offered zero explanation or apology for the missing au jus. As for the condition of my "picnic box" sandwich, he said only that the restaurant doesn't use take-out containers, just plastic grocery bags for their delivery orders. And according to him, the missing straw was the Uber driver's fault. He was basically a totally jerk about the whole thing and offered me nothing. Hence...