Ava Tampa — Restaurant in Tampa

We arrived early on a Thursday night to celebrate my daughter's college graduation so as not to be part of sky weekend crowds. We were seated promptly and our server was quick to pop in thankfully as we were not given a wine/drink menu.

The ambiance is nice, it has that open kitchen, rustic feel with the pizza oven featured prominently as the center of attention. I order a glass of an Amarone, which proved to be tight and very woody. For appetizers we ordered the mussels, crispy pork belly and chef's selection cheese and meat charcuterie. A plate of house baked bread and olive oil arrived, as expected, ahead of the apps. The bread is rich, thick, and very doughy, cooked in the pizza oven. It's not bad, it's just heavy, which is ok ahead of a meal. However, the charcuterie and the mussels arrived with a generous helping of the same bread which them becomes very heavy before a meal. Perhaps the charcuterie could have used toast points made from the bread, or a variant of the bread that was less intimidating.

The charcuterie, itself, was fair but minimal in it's offering for $32 and lacked flair or finesse that the promise of house made often has. The mussels were served in a broth that was, itself, outstanding, but somehow the mussels themselves lacked that flavor except for those submerged in the broth. I feel like the mussels were baked, then thrown into a bowl with the sauce. The pork belly was very good, the hash it was served with gave it texture and depth and a sweetness to balance the saltines of the pork.

I ordered a Sangiovese, again overly oaked and not characteristic of the varietal. We had ordered a selection of entrees, a filet with greens and gnocchi, eggplant parm, lobster risotto, and fennel sausage cavatelli.

The filet was well prepared, the gnocchi tender and light, and the greens not overly prepared. The flavor was good. The eggplant was very well prepared, crisply finished without being burnt or greasy, the pasta was al dented and the sauce was well made; not acidic or overly sweetened. The lobster risotto was disappointing. The taste of the stock was more shrimp than it was lobster or even seafood. The consistency of the risotto was good, creamy and rich, but the stock and salt were overpowering.

The sausage cavatelli, with all the kindness I can muster, was reminiscent of Chef Boyardee meatballs and pasta of my poor, disadvantaged, youth. I love fennel sausage and I love cavatelli, and this dish missed both. The sausage was just the filling browned in a pan, offering a weak texture and poorly mixed ingredients. The cavatelli was dense and felt like gnocchi that was beaten into shape. The sauce was, in it's accompaniment, generic. It felt out of place.

For dessert we tasted the tiramisu and their selection of (gratuitous for the neighborhood) Buddy Brew coffee. It was fair.

Final impressions would be that I'm not sure that a $300,$400, or $500 dinner for 4 is where AVA should be. I get that it's an excellent location and they, undoubtedly, have good word of mouth based on that, the offering is still fairly generic and feels like it served Italian for the sake of saying it...

We were so incredibly disappointed with our event we hosted here, a massive letdown and I really do not recommend using them for any kind of event. Initially the manager was great, I called and spoke to him on the phone and he answered my questions and booked our bridal shower in the larger of the 2 rooms but asked we be out promptly on time as it was their larger room (understandable) since it was a Sunday – their busiest brunch day - and in the smaller room it wasn’t as big of a deal we could pay for the bottomless mimosas and a meal for each guest and stay longer (or so I assumed maybe I misinterpreted what he meant). I attempted over the following weeks to contact him again and was never able to. The phone rang to a full VM 24/7. A week before the shower we went there in person and were given his email. He responded to our email right away, and we decided to utilize the smaller room as we only had 10 guests, we wanted less of a time constraint and despite it being much smaller they had an extra table to the side of this room and they told us we could use it as the table in the event room only fit 8. Morning of we got there (given 30 min to set up) and the room was trashed from the night before, all the food and drinks covered the table. They cleaned it right away, and I asked for that smaller table as it was not in there, but they told us all their tables were in use, and they didn’t have enough chairs for us. We found 2 random ones by the bathrooms and just took them. So we had to tightly fit 10 people at a table for 8, and had this little alcove wine rack typw thing to put the cake, presents had to just go on the floor in a corner, it was a big inconvenience. We had been told by the manager they would have our personalized menus printed as well. I specifically said I was happy to order them, as they were very important and the ONE thing my sister (bride) said she loved as she saw them on an IG post from another event someone hosted there - he assured me there was no problem he would take care of it. No one printed them, and they said they couldn’t the morning of. A woman (I assume the manager on that morning) brought in crumbled paper ones with the items we decided on circled with a yellow hightlighter, they were stained with drinks from all their previous uses. It was really embarrassing. Then they informed the “bottomless mimosas” was only 2 hours on the dot and said we had to be gone. So we walked into a trashed room, had zero space to put anything as they didn’t have the extra table they promised, handed us crumbled stained menus with highlighter all over them, and still charged us every single penny. The woman did offer us a round of shots which seemed really odd at a 10am bridal shower. There was nothing special about the food and for 35/person I really regret picking that place. Save yourself the embarrassment if you’re hosting...

Not sure where to begin. Hands down worst service in Tampa.The staff was very short and unwelcoming. It’s a shame because their food is actually good. I went on a Saturday for brunch with my friends. We had a reservation but waited 15 minutes to be seated. Finally they sat us. We were a group of 6 and they put us in a booth that maybe sat 4 comfortably. When we asked to move, the hostess was rude about it and said that we couldn’t. There were multiple open tables. Finally, she agreed to put us at a different table. Our server was Bethany and she was pretty good. We ordered our food and it took a while, but that was to be expected with our large group. The problem started when we got our checks. We each paid separately. I showed my military ID to the server for the military discount. Once the checks came, we signed them, left our tips, took our cards and left. The next day I checked my credit card statement and saw that I was charged $12 and then it was refunded. I was then charged $40.11. My bill was $24. Clearly, whoever was imputing the charges made an error. I called the restaurant number listed on the site and it ended up being the owner, Michael’s number. It seemed like he was going to help me at first. I explained the situation and he assured me that he would take care of it and fix the charge and call me the next day. The following day, I heard nothing. I messaged him in the afternoon and asked if there was an update. He said that I had been given the wrong receipt when it was time to pay and that he couldn’t do anything about it because that was what I was supposed to be charged. That didn’t make sense because my meal with the discount would not have been $40. At this point I was confused as to whether the waitress didn’t know what the military discount was and charged me the $24. Regardless, I never signed a receipt authorizing the $40. I was very upset at this point and he said “Why do you think that $24 should be what you pay? Just curious.” Maybe because that was what the receipt I signed said and what I authorized Ava to charge my card?? I was fuming at this point. So I got in contact with my credit card company and explained the issue. They couldn’t believe that he was being uncooperative and told me that what they did was fraudulent. You can’t charge something different to someone’s card than what they approved. If there was an issue of the waitress giving me the wrong receipt, he should have noticed it in the system and called me about it to explain the situation. Extremely unprofessional and so rude. I will never be back or recommend this place to anyone because of their service...