Good Fortune St. Pete — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

Good Fortune, oh how lucky I am to have stumbled upon this gem! If I were a single man, I'd practically set up camp here and make it my permanent residence. The food is delicious, the ambiance is out of this world, and the service is top-notch. But let's talk about the value... If it weren't for the exceptional service, I might have dropped a low-rating bomb, but this place is just too cool to resist.

Rumor has it that the person behind Good Fortune is also connected to Fo-Cheezy. If that's true, I raise my chopsticks in salute! Well done, sir or madam, for creating a portfolio of unbelievably cool places to satisfy our hunger. Good Fortune stands out from the crowd in so many ways.

The location has a bit of an underground vibe, not quite a basement (do basements even exist in Florida?), but you do have to make your way down a wide flight of stairs to enter the restaurant. And boy, oh boy, once you step inside, prepare to have your eyes dazzled by the bar. It's like the genius decorator incorporated a Japanese Cherry Blossom Tree into its structure. The pink leaves clash beautifully with the dimly lit, neon-glown atmosphere, creating a Vegas-esque experience that will leave you starry-eyed.

To the left, you'll find a sushi bar, but we'll get to that later. Opposite the sushi bar, there's a black-and-white mural with an anime/comic vibe that's so masterfully done, you'll question whether it's actually painted or just a figment of your imagination. The combination of ambient outdoor lights and neon décor works wonders on this wall, making it a muse to all artists and giving you that "what are you doing with your walls at home?" feeling.

Now, let's venture to the wall on the right side of the entry. It's adorned with a mural of what appears to be a Geisha grinding out a record on a turntable. Yes, another cool mural! Even the walk to the bathroom is a visual treat, thanks to the neon street lights and signs. For a moment, you'll feel like you're strolling through the backstreets of Akihabara.

But enough about the décor, let's talk about the food! This was my second visit, and the culinary experience was mind-blowing. The plating alone could compete with any episode of Top Chef, and the taste matches the visual spectacle. Both of my visits were equally amazing, but this time around, I brought my whole family, and I was the one picking up the bill for six people.

Now, here's where things get interesting. You know that saying about Asian food leaving you hungry? Well, it hit home this time. The final bill just didn't match up with the portions we saw on our plates. When you're forking over the cash, you start scrutinizing the value. Needless to say, Good Fortune won't be the go-to choice when I holler out to the fam, "Pick a restaurant!" The value just isn't there.

You see, everyone in my family can cook. We're all quite talented in the kitchen. So when we discuss "good food and value" as a unit, we start comparing and searching for places that offer similar dishes at a more wallet-friendly price. And let me tell you, we found plenty of comparisons. Enough for me to reluctantly view Good Fortune as more of a cool place to eat than a family-friendly spot.

But hey, if you're looking for an experience, I highly recommend checking out Good Fortune at least once. If you're more focused on value and proportions, there are other equally fantastic restaurants to...

I have to preface this with the fact that I seldom write reviews, but I truly haven't felt this level of frustration with another establishment. We were a group of 6 with reservations scheduled well in advance on a Saturday night (8:30pm). We had high hopes for a pleasant dining experience, especially since we were celebrating a birthday. Unfortunately, our evening was marred by a series of disappointments that left us feeling undervalued as customers.

Firstly, despite arriving on time for our reservation, we were made to wait as the table reserved for us was "about to close out". That's fine, it happens. Reservations run over (albeit their fine print on OpenTable states parties of certain amounts are limited to certain durations). 6 of us stood by the bar and ordered drinks. 15 minutes pass. 20 minutes pass. Then 30. I was angry at this point. During this time, the staff repeatedly assured us that they were preparing a table for us, but no visible effort was made to accommodate our group. This was not only frustrating but also misleading. I was enraged when 45 minutes after our scheduled reservation time, the table we were waiting for was getting a cake. Moreover, the manager's attempt to rectify the situation by offering a round of drinks did little to compensate for the overall poor service and the fact that our group was continuously neglected. I told him what we want is a table after all this waiting, to which he replied, "I'm getting you $100 worth of drinks." It felt like a superficial gesture rather than a genuine effort to improve our experience. At 9:25pm, nearly an entire hour later, one of the other managers came over to us and asked, "Are you guys ready?" WOW. What a nasty thing to ask. I replied, "No, are YOU ready?" We were finally being seated.

The service throughout the night did not improve. Our server seemed disinterested, didn't put in our drink orders until someone had to tell her we're still waiting on drinks, failing to acknowledge the birthday we were celebrating, even though we ordered a bottle of champagne and cake specifically for that purpose. This lack of attention to detail and personal touch significantly diminished the celebratory mood of our evening.

The restaurant was busy but there were smaller tables that were empty - they definitely could've been put together to accommodate us. I didn't want to stay but our options were limited, especially during a busy Pride weekend. The visible lack of care and coordination among the staff suggested a deeper issue with the management and operation of the establishment.

Regrettably, this experience has left us with no desire to return. It's a shame since we've all dined here before and would praise it often, recommending it to others. We had hoped for a memorable evening but were instead met with frustration and disappointment. It is crucial for hospitality businesses to ensure that they can manage special occasions and peak times without compromising on the quality of service and...

I’ve been here quite a few times and if you’re the only person here it’s great. However, we came here on a Saturday night for my daughter’s birthday. They had booked the karaoke room and were told they wouldn’t need a reservation for a table for dinner prior. That turned out to be not true. The manager seemed to take pleasure in telling us how booked they were but putting us outside was her pulling strings for us. We sat outside on a tiny little patio for 20-25 minutes without so much as a glance from a server. I walked up to the host stand where the servers were congregating to tell them we hadn’t been served just to watch all of them scatter when I simply said we hadn’t seen our server yet. Finally a server just coming on shift named Evan came back and took care of us stating he saw us looking unhappy and decided to take us. Evan was great throughout the entire dinner in which we experienced floating things in my drink, out of stock menu items that we weren’t Informed of until 15 min after the order was placed as well as an offensive amount of sesame seeds on everything. Two of the three fried rice dishes came out burnt to a point of stinking up the table. After sending them back I asked poor Evan who was along for the ride with us at this point to talk to the manager. The manager greeted me with an attitude immediately. After telling her we had to wait 20 minutes to see our server she informed us that it was our fault we didn’t have a reservation. After I explained we waited 20 min after being sat she said they were busy. After I explained that we had reserved the karaoke room and were told we wouldn’t need a reservation for dinner she said she would find out who said that. Super helpful. I told her about floating wrappers in drinks and burnt food and 86d items on an extremely tiny menu she told me that she would not be comping the dinner. I informed her I never asked for the meal to be comped I wanted to state to management the dissatisfaction we had with the back of the house. She said she would take off the burnt food and provide a few free drinks in the karaoke room. Which she did however I still ended up paying 40$ for a sushi roll and two non alcoholic drinks somehow. I chalked it up as a loss and moved on to the karaoke room. The karaoke room by itself was a fantastic experience and the only reason I give this place three stars. Our bartender was amazing and entertaining and took great care of us. The drink tree that was provided in compensation for the poor dining experience was good from what I hear. It would seem removing the extremely jagged manager from the scenario made this night much better. I worked in the service industry for years and understand things happen and I don’t expect my boots licked for mistakes. I do however expect a bit of respect as a paying customer when I try to have an adult discussion with the person who is the primary representative of this...