Cafe Barbosso — Restaurant in Siesta Key

My boyfriend and I had dinner wednesday night and wasnt very impressed. Started off okay, then went down hill. We both started with a caesar salad, then I ordered the veggie pizza and my boyfriend ordered the buffalo chicken pizza. When the pizza was brought to the table, the sever set my pizza down in front of me and as he was doing so, he leaned forward and a few slices of my boyfriend's pizza slid off and on to my lap. Luckily I had my napkin on my lap, but pizza toppings and sauces (buffalo chicken pizza) got on my shirt, chair and floor. I went to the restroom to wash my shirt off. Looked like it wasnt going to stain. Well it did. ( I washed my shirt as soon as I got home) Not happy. The sever who delivered the pizza apologized and went to have another pizza made. Our server then stopped by and saw the slices of pizza on a plate and asked the pizza server what happened. He told her that he dropped the pizza and a new one was being made. She never asked if I was okay or what had happened. If anything she acted like nothing happened. I have been in the restaurant business for 20 years and if you are told something was dropped, let alone on your guest. You check with them and see what happened. She never did. Nor did a manager stop by after the incident. It might have been a sign when the pizza slid off the pizza pan, cause the pizza wasnt very good. The crust tasted like cardboard, so I just ate all the toppings. My boyfriends buffalo chicken was super dry and flat. He too didnt not like the crust. Didnt taste fresh at all. We got the rest of the pizza boxed up to go and on the way home stopped and gave it to some homeless people. We were looking forward to a nice meal since we have had people tell us how great it was. Well it wasnt for us. Or maybe pizza is not their thing. I mentioned to a couple employees that walked by that the floor might be slippery cause of the pizza sauces and pizza itself on the floor. It never got cleaned up. I ended up picking up the pizza pieces and wiping the floor so make sure no other guests would slip and fall. The only thing that was nice, was the artist's painting. I dont think we will...

Unfortunately our experience at Cafe Barbosso was not good. My husband and I went a few weeks ago with another couple. From the start the service was rough. Our server was triple sat with a huge party being one of the 3 tables. Knowing it was busy, we lowered our expectations. That did not help. It took a while to receive our beverages and to take our order.

Started with calamari, which was a disappointment as it came out raw. Very slimy and chewy. We asked one of the many staff members walking around to send someone over and no one came. We finally had a busser take our plate and finally our server came over where we could explain what happened. Food came out - 3 out of 4 meals were good. Veal Parm was great. The Chicken Francese was not chicken francese, the batter of the chicken was not authentic and was more breading than chicken, not to mention the pasta portion they gave was so small that you had to lift the chicken up to find it. Not worth the $32.00 price tag. Dessert was also a miss - the Creme Brule donut would have been great if you didn't pour all of this sauce on the donut where the crisp of the donut (purpose of the creme brule shell) was nonexistent.

Service continued to lack - waters empty, took forever to get our check and then even longer to pay. Our server was so overwhelmed and it seemed like a one man show, though when you looked around the restaurant, there were plenty of "manager-type" individuals walking around, talking to customers...just not us. Lots of other workers walking around looking busy, but were not.

We live right down the street and was hopeful to have found a new spot, but due to the quality of food vs. price and the fact that zero management seemed to care that we were there and having a rough experience was a...

We had dinner at the chef's table, which we have done several times in the past. We were with another couple (their first time). As always, the food was amazing and so unique. And it was so fun to chat with Chef Joe. We had a wonder meal and evening, that is until the bill arrived. The website indicated that 20% gratuity is automatically added, but it was not that night. Maybe because there were only 6 people at the table. The bill listed our meals, the corking fee (for our wine) and cost for water. My husband tipped 20% on that amount. After my husband signed bill, the waiter looked at it and said, "you shorted me $2.40". What?? I was very confused and thought we did something incorrect. But we tipped on the meal. I guess the waiter assumed we should have tipped on the meal plus tax. I know there is an ongoing debate on whether you should tip on the total or pre-tax, and from what I have read (I did a little research) was that is customary to tip on the pre-tax amount. However, whether you do or not, is really not the question. I do not think it was professional or appropriate for anyone to question our tipping philosophy. I have heard many stories from waiters who have received no tip, but not one of them said anything to the customer. It is a shame a great dinner had to end on a bit of...