Indigenous Restaurant — Restaurant in Sarasota

TLDR; sit outside and focus on the main course. Let's start with the great:

Red Snapper with bacon braided green beans, buttermilk cornbread puree, pickled nectarines & mustard seeds: new take on classic southern flavors. The fish was cooked perfectly, and the sides were flavorful, but not overpowering. Everything was seasoned perfectly and well balanced. There was always a new combination of flavors to try, and they really complimented each other. The puree could have been hotter.

Iberico Pork chop with Dijon hollandaise, caramelized brown sugar (on the chop), back on & broccolini potato hash: Familiar flavors jazzed up with a perfect sauce and high quality meat. Pork chop was about 30 seconds over and hash could have been hotter - but the flavors were perfect and the brulee on the pork chop was memorable.

Parmesan Beignets: Wouldn't get this again. They were mostly air on the inside and topped with a ton of honey, which overpowered the salt from the Parmesan on top. The fry was less beignets and more fritter, plus the texture inside was not quite right.

Pickled Florida Blueberries with Captain Crunch Berry shortbread and whipped lemon cheesecake: This dessert was one of the worst I've ever ordered at any restaurant and would not recommend it. Blueberries didn't have the burst you get when they are super fresh. Cheesecake was super sweet and heavy. The cake was dense and dry. And the bottom was wet with blueberries that didn't really taste of anything. Presentation was really clunky, and we didn't bother finishing it.

Service: Front desk and bussers served with a smile and gave the restaurant a nice welcoming feel. Our waiter felt like he was rushing, didn't explain any of the dishes beyond the plate sizes, didn't check in, gave no recommendations after asking if we had been to the restaurant before, and overall just didn't seem to care. Asked for sweet tea to be given iced tea with brown sugar, which doesn't dissolve. Took 30 mins to get the appetizer. Card was swiped for the wrong check after being given the right check, which was rectified after we watched him and another waiter chat for 5 minutes from our table. Overall not what you'd expect for a meal that cost $150+ for 2.

I'd give it another chance because the mains were SO GOOD. Everything else was really sub par, and no one asked us how anything was except for a friendly busser. Definitely not what I was expecting for a neighborhood restaurant, so maybe this was just...

We have been coming to Indigenous for over 10 years. Our experience one night ago was very disappointing. We had a reservation and arrived on time. We waited at the host stand for some time while the hosts toiled over where to put our party of 4, while many tables were sitting empty.

Our server was very disinterested and not engaging. The room was drafty and we requested that the overhead fan be turned down a bit. The server said no because the room would get warm once.the other 2 tables filled.up. It never warmed up even after the other tables were filled.

We have always loved the beignets, but the ones served this evening were greasy and flavorless. While the wild mushroom soup was delicious, the entrees were really underwhelming for what this local ingredient retaurant strives to achieve and what they have delivered in the past.

My friend and I ordered the seared scallops with roasted potatoes with "everglade" spices for $39. What a disappointment. We received 5 small scallops in a watery, mushy breadcrumb and butter "soup" with several small potatoes in the mix. Visually, you could not tell the little potatoes from the scallops. Flavor profile read garlic and butter, not the proprietary everglades spice the server described. Way overpriced for the 5 small scallops and little potatoes.

My husband ordered the pork chop with the broccolini, bacon and fingerling potato hash. The server said the hash was his favorite. The hash was an odd combination and not good.

We waited a long time for our entrees and the server never came to check on our food...he was quite indifferent. Overall, just so sad for a place we have loved for so long.

Hate to say it, but we won't be back. There are too many other wonderful places to dine in Sarasota at this price point that continually deliver great cuisine...

Sadly one can't give 0 or minus starts. We were so excited to finally eat at this place. We came here for my friend's birthday and where asked to wait outside for our table to be done. Our reservation was for 7:30pm and while waiting the server brought us drinks and a food menu. By 8pm we definitely started getting hungry and asked to at least be served a couple appetizers to hold us over. Around 8:15 we finally got seated without ever being served the appetizers we ordered. We waited another 10-15min and finally asked for someone to please take our order (we hadn't gotten any appetizers we ordered by that point). When I finally asked our server who seemed to have plenty of time to chat with people at the bar of that was the level of service he provided to every guest he and I quote said "no, just to you guys". I obviously got up but the other 5 ladies in my party weren't as fed up and reconfirmed what he had just said, to which he once again repeated that it was just us and not everyone he ignores. The particular server in question had a gray shirt and long hair plus a gray mask. (I'm sure there are not a lot of inside servers fitting that description working there.) We obviously were very offended and left. Yes they comped the wine we had for waiting pretty much an hour for our table which we know wasn't the restaurants fault. But for the waiter to plain out ignore us and then be rude and offensive was very uncalled for. We are disappointed in indigenous and their staff because even when we asked to talk to a manager they didn't seem overly concerned. There were a few other customers commenting to us on the horrible service they've experienced which is so unfortunate for such...