The Foodie Labs — Restaurant in Saint Petersburg

TDLR: Totally worth it!! Dogs welcome. Come solo or with a group.

This place rules! We came in on a chilly slow night. Only the bistro 3951, JBs hot dogs, and Apululu was open. So what did we do? Try them all!

Foodie Labs is similar to a food court except you order from one location that has all the menus in one place. This way you're not limited to standing in line to try one thing, and then missing out on the other. It's a great concept and with the big glass windows overlooking the kitchen, you get to see how these businesses interact together.

Here was our order:

From JB's we got a classic chili dog with cheese, mustard, and ketchup. It was great. No frills and exactly what a chili dog should be. Easy and soft bun, great sabrett, good chili.

From Apululus, a Mexican/Cuban fusion, we got the ropa Viejo burrito with avocado salsa. I'm sure other things on the menu are great, but I cannot get over how awesome both the burrito and the salsa were.

From the Bistro, we got the grilled focaccia breadsticks that you dip in a tomato soupish dish topped with an herbed ricotta. It was divine. If you know your bread, then you know when focaccia is made right and this was it. The Chef's take on slicing the bread and then grilling it brought the flavors to another level. This was so good that even though we started with this dish, we set it aside and saved it till the end... So we thought.

We had a bonus dish of the Peruvian chocolate cake from the Bistro. I almost feel like it's a disservice to call this a chocolate cake because most people have an idea in their head of what cake is like, and this is not your typical run of the mill cake. This cake was layered with an absolute artistry approach to culinary. The bottom cake layer was neither bitter nor sweet- It was just the right vessel to act as the foundation for the rest of the cake. The next layer was an out of this world chocolate cream, followed by some sort of Peruvian fudge that made me have to stand up in disbelieve to how good it was. Then on top of those layers was another layer of the chocolate cream and then topped with some sort of dense molten layer of what reminded me of brownie batter. If you are the type of person who licks the bowl after making brownies, just imagine that goodness on top of a cake!

All three of these places knocked it out of the park. We felt the simplicity of the dog, bringing us back to simple days and sunshine, the culture of the Latin fusion with a perfect blend of flavors, and the culinary delight of less-is-best fused with texture knowledge. We could not have made a better decision in all of St Petersburg for tonight's dinner.

If there is one thing that we could change, and honestly this it was not a deal breaker, it's that the TVs were both blasting a different football game. I'm not going to try to speak for everyone in saying that it would be better to not have sports on, but maybe if the TVs were playing just the image of whatever they were playing, and there was some sort of music in the background, we could really engage in conversation over the food while playing table Jenga. Overall though, the food took us away from the distractionals.

After dinner, it was nice to walk around the warehouse arts district and see some of St Pete's best out...

Not a bad idea for a place but I'm frustrated at the setup.

Customers come in and then order from the available vendors at a kiosk in the front lobby. It's not a lot to assume that if the kiosk is advertising a vendor and lets you order food items from that vendor that the vendor is available, right? Well not our experience. We ordered from two vendors at the kiosk and received one order promptly and were waiting for the second to arrive.

We waited and went back to the pickup window and asked about the rest of our items. Well it turns out the vendor was not available that day. Figured I could get a refund right there, not the case. I called back later with my order number and was basically told in a roundabout way that I "might" be getting my money back in a week or so. Luckily it was not a large order, but it's amazing they don't have a plan for this and I highly doubt I was the only one running into this issue.

So all in all it is a neat place off the bike path, but I would absolutely stop by the pickup window before ordering to confirm which vendors are actually on site since you can't trust the kiosk to not eat your money...

The food was insanely bland. I got Moroccan Chicken Tajine. It’s pretty overpriced and underwhelming. This is definitely a place you eat at based on a very sleek and modern looking place and an interesting concept of what I think they’re shooting for an upscaled and high quality food court/cafeteria or fast food and then swear off of before you’re done with the food. I can only speak for Cybel and what I ate there, but with how bad it was and how I felt I was robbed with it being priced so high for such bad, exotic sounding food, I wouldn’t even want to come close to this area code again, let alone eat food from the same kitchen. I think you owe Morocco an apology. Just another generic St. Pete place that tries to be too cute and unique rather than just doing something simple in a very high quality and...