Sparrow St Pete — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

I WAS WRONG...

We saw the balcony from the street and I thought this would be an ideal place for my wife's birthday dinner with six of our closest friends. Two weekends before her birthday, we went in person to speak with the manager and make a reservation with seating for six on the outdoor balcony for dinner on her special night. The manager was not available, but the lovely hostess took down our information and assured us we would be accommodated for outdoor seating on the balcony.

I was wrong…

We showed up with our party of six at 6:15 on a Friday evening and we were promptly ushered to a dark, uncomfortable indoor lounge type setup right next to the toilets and and under a loudspeaker blaring EDM. Like a full on European disco at 6:15.

So we approached the hostess and asked for our promised seat outside since we had made the reservation in person. I thought they would realize their mistake and make it right.

I was wrong...

After waiting there for 15 minutes while they checked their records, they finally said we could sit at a bar table outside until a larger table became available. It was a cocktail table the size of a large pizza made to seat 3 people. So we all squeezed in and sat there thinking we would have a cocktail until the table opened up.

I was wrong...

We ordered two beers and a bottle of wine and waited 45 minutes to get our drinks. After a glass of wine, we were hoping our table would come open and we could order food

I was wrong...

An hour and a half in, we went ahead and ordered what we could fit on our minuscule cocktail table.

After another inexplicable long hiatus from our waitress, they brought out Applebee's style fried rice, some burgers, and lobster Mac and cheese. Since there wasn't enough space on the table, two of us had to balance plates on our lap and eat like we were at a lower Alabama fish fry. I thought the lobster Mac and cheese had a strong fish odor but it would be ok to eat since I was so hungry at that point.

I was wrong (read on if you dare)

I was so embarrassed this was my wife's birthday and thought the experience could not be any worse

I was wrong...

The waitress finally sauntered back as we were apologizing to our friends and then refused to separate our checks. When my one female friend, who was upset already from the experience, demanded she split the check, the waitress said “you will get one check and you will pay it”. They then got into an argument and the waitress stuck her finger in my friend's face.

The manager came over, and I thought he would do something to compensate us for our humiliation

I was wrong...

He did nothing but say he would deal with the hostess that ruined our reservation and the waitress who was horrific.

I was so humiliated at that point I picked up dinner for most of my guests and profusely apologized. We left and tried to have a drink somewhere else thinking i could salvage what was left of my wife's birthday.

I was wrong...

We walked down the street to Dirty Laundry and ordered cocktails. As I walked in, I felt some stomach pain and hoped it was just gas.

I was wrong...

Please don't put yourself through what we did. If you want to go to this place and enjoy the view, order a drink or two...

Came here yesterday evening shortly after checking in to stay at the Moxy hotel.

My partner and I were hoping to start our Easter weekend with some food and enjoy the rooftop views as we were hungry from our 4 hour drive to St Petersburg.

First impressions, the restaurant looked chic, but that’s the only nice thing as the rest of our of experience was truly disappointing.

When asked to be seated, the host said that none of the tables were available as we didn’t have a reservation, so we were happy to be seated at the bar where they said it was first come first serve seating.

Upon being seated, we ordered the tartare and the chicken skewers. The staff member who took our order suggested we opt out of the chicken skewers as she said they are quite dry and recommended we get the Korean style chicken tenders instead it was more juicy.

We appreciated the suggestion and her candid feedback about the skewers and proceeded with ordering the tenders instead (a higher price point item than the skewers).

The food came out quite quickly and it was extremely disappointing. The tartare was basically a paste and didn’t feel fresh at all. The most criminal thing about it was the chicken tenders. Please see attached photo - the chicken tenders were RAW on the inside and somehow very burnt on the outside which is likely due to using old oil 👀

By the time we noticed the chicken was raw, my partner and I had already eaten some of chicken (which was flavorless) and there was nothing “Korean” whatsoever about it other than some pickled red cabbage that was served with it.

We notified the staff member who took our order immediately and all she did was take the tenders off our bill. Recall - this was the dish that she suggested we order instead of the “dry” chicken skewers. There wasn’t much of an apology from the server and there was no escalation to a manager to check in with us or apologize to us.

No effort was made to rectify or improve our experience here. Now my partner and I have had an upset stomach all day and it has ruined our weekend trip to visit and explore St. Petersburg.

This was absolutely unacceptable. I did not “Karen” in the moment because we were hoping the staff would have done a better job acknowledging and resolving the issue.

Food safety here is clearly an issue. Come here at your own risk and only come if you want to potentially get sick and ruin your...

Where do I start? Quite a shocking and disappointing experience.

We sat down and no one approached us. Waited 15 minutes. We asked the host to get our server.

Server finally came, she was clearly weeded, no introduction, no name. Just took our drink order which I had to repeat a couple times because you can’t hear anything over the loud music.

We finally got our drinks, no limes, which I repeated 3 times, if not more. Flagged down the host, got some limes.

We were ready to order, by then we had been seated for 30 minutes. Flagged down our server, she glanced and kept walking. She finally came back, took our order.

The Brussels sprouts did come out pretty fast.

We ordered more drinks, probably took another 10-15 minutes. My drink came watered down from sitting but I did get limes this time. My friend never got her glass of wine.

1 sushi roll finally came out probably took 30 minutes. I sat there waiting for my friends sushi roll. And waited and waited. We asked the server if it was coming. They finally brought out the wrong sushi roll. We were tired of complaining.

We asked for the check. To my surprise, and I am fully aware that I ordered top shelf tequila, but I did not expect my 2 drinks to be $69 EACH. Yes, $138 for just my 2 drinks. We asked the server to confirm the price. To which she said I’ll get the manager and walked away.

Manager came and confirmed the prices. Said that’s what they charge at all their locations. The manager did remove the sushi rolls and wine from the bill. And did provide a discount for the overpriced tequila.

Still very disappointed. Restaurant business isn’t easy but this level of bad service and overpricing is not acceptable. Not to mention none of the food was good, the sushi rolls were room temp.

Overall this is a gimmicky place trying to seem upscale but there really wasn’t anything upscale about it. No dress code, people were in flip flops and barely any clothes.

Unfortunately will...