Bernini of Ybor — Restaurant in Tampa

If I could give zero stars, I would. I contacted management regarding an unpleasant encounter with one of their hostesses, yet I received no response to my request for a call or email. It was, without a doubt, the most bizarre and uncomfortable experience I've ever had at a restaurant.

When my family and I arrived, we were initially greeted by a very pleasant hostess who informed us that, without a reservation, they could not accommodate our party of six. She explained that the (several) empty tables were reserved for guests arriving in an hour, which, though unusual, we understood. As we discussed our next steps, another hostess approached us in a much more abrupt and rude manner. She reiterated the same information, but this time with an air of disdain. She glared at my family and me as though we were beneath her. We acknowledged that we already understood, and as we turned to leave, she loudly and unprovoked exclaimed, "Period!"… we genuinely could not believe our ears. The sheer level of unprofessionalism and outright hostility from this individual was so shocking that, even now, I can hardly believe it happened. It was clear that she received gratification from treating us so poorly. When I attempted to ask her name twice, she completely ignored me, refusing even to look in my direction.

This incident took place on August 24, 2024, at 5:00 PM. The hostess in question was a female with dark hair, several facial piercings, and light-colored eyes. I sincerely hope management addresses this issue and takes the necessary steps to prevent any future guests from feeling the way we did.

P.S. You never know what someone is going through, BE KIND!!!! Especially if it is part of your job description in a customer service role.

Edit to reply to owner:

I understand that, as the owner and manager, it’s natural to want to defend your employees and provide explanations for their actions. However, I can assure you that whoever you spoke to has not been truthful in this case. While our initial interaction with the first hostess was pleasant, we were turned away entirely and told that we could not be served at all. We were very surprised and asked for clarification, especially since there were multiple empty tables. That’s when we were informed that those tables were being held for the reservations that would be coming in. As visitors from Boca, we’re familiar with dining throughout South Florida and fully appreciate the importance of reservations. We assured the hostess that we understood her position and began discussing alternative plans. Up until this point, there was no issue on either side.

Things only took a turn when the second hostess approached in a shockingly rude manner. Her aggressive and condescending attitude, which was unprovoked, escalated the situation unnecessarily. This behavior was random and bizarre, and it was only then that you can say things didn’t become “ideal” on my end. But, only because I requested twice for her to give me her name so that all of this could be brought to your attention. She clearly and very quickly realized she was wrong, that is why she didn’t acknowledge me or what I was requesting of her.

Please understand that I wouldn’t go through the trouble of reaching out to you, and then leaving a review with details of an interaction from over a month ago unless I felt strongly about the unprofessional conduct we experienced. Her sarcastic remark of “Period!” was entirely inappropriate to be said and heard of in a restaurant like yours. Especially for it to be as our backs turned to leave. As I said, I hope that no one else that steps into your restaurant ever has to be treated as poorly as myself and my...

Reservation for 4 at 8 pm on a Sunday night. Understandably this establishment closes at 9 on the night we dined out. Extensive wine menu, full of wonderful wine selections. Short cocktail menu, but great drinks and a full liquor bar. Took about fifteen minutes for two sangria's.

We were asked if we wanted to start with appetizers, but were informed that only two selections of the nine they offered were actually available. We opted for soup and salad instead. When salads arrived, we had to wait a few minutes to get cutlery and napkins in which to eat with. Salads were delicious, however, we were told the soup was Italian wedding soup, but we were DEFINITELY not served that kind of soup. Without warning, we were served some kind of seafood chowder, not the Italian wedding soup we had ordered, not even mentioning that there was chowder or that they were out. Thankfully, we aren't allergic to shellfish, because again, no warning that we were being served a replacement. When we questioned the server, he just replied very non-chalantly with "oh, we're out of that soup." We sent soup back.

We asked if they had bread for the table that we could eat with our salads, unfortunately, they were out of that too. Though the tables around us had bread baskets, they must've gotten the last of it.

We all ordered pizza, which was wonderful, but didn't even receive those for upwards of forty minutes after we ordered them. I get it, it takes time to make 4 personal pizzas. They were just as we ordered and delicious. Didn't even bother asking for dessert because it was almost ten pm by the time we finished, and we felt hurried to depart as staff was just standing around the bar waiting for us to leave. Establishment closed at 9.

All in all, experience was, for lack of a better word, meh. Our server didn't seem to care that we were there, we were never asked if we wanted another cocktail or drink from the bar, but he did refill our water. Though he was nice, his demeanor was just so-so.

Just a tip for the future, let your customers know you're serving them something that could've potentially caused an allergic reaction with the soup. Inform your guests that your basically out of everything on the menu before allowing us to order and continually be disappointed that what we wanted, you don't have available. Had we had known that basically everything we wanted was unavailable, we would've gone elsewhere.

It's a really cute eatery with interesting paintings on the walls, tables close to each other as traditional Italian dining should be. We miss the huge stone oven that used to be there, but we haven't been in awhile so we didn't realize it had been gone for a few years. Maybe we'll wait another few years and try again when they've had time to restock...

Long story short overpriced mediocre food.

I know this restaurant has a good reputation so I was excited about it, I took my time to try as many dishes as I could, so I'll take my time to write my honest review too:

-The appetizers were good, that's it (I tried mussels, bruschetta, eggplant, and lamb) I will recommend the mussels.

-The pizza was terrible, (just don't do it) the bread tasted sandy and the combination with the balsamic on the top just made it worse.

-The pasta quality was very bad, I cannot stress enough just how BAD the pasta was, just makes me wonder where do they get it from (Walmart?), or if it was old or overcooked. As for the sauces for the pasta (I tried 4), anything tomato was plain and I couldn't bring myself to eat it all, the carbonara was not bad but honestly how can you mess up butter, bacon and cream? For an ITALIAN restaurant I think there's nothing worse you can say. If it was any other kind of restaurant, I could ignore this but not for an Italian restaurant that mainly serves pasta.

The crispy duck was a little dry but very decent, the goat cheese inside was cold and that just made me wonder how is that possible... on the other hand the sides for it were just awful, the menu said "seasonal vegetables" and I got the plainest broccoli I've seen in a restaurant in my entire life, it looked and tasted straight from a Publix frozen bag just microwaved minutes ago. I was honestly kind of offended for a $30+ dish so I didn't eat it at all. Not even Ikea, broccoli is that plain. The mashed potatoes were salty and if I keep the comparison with Ikea, their cranberry sauce was twice as better than what I ate at Bernini's.

The desserts I think is what disappointed the most. The tiramisu just shocked me, let's ignore the fact that it did not looked like a tiramisu AT ALL (had way too much whipped cream, which I don't know about you but I've never seen a tiramisu with whipped cream before) it was like a child made it. I wish I'd taken a picture, it looked like a melting shortcake without the berries, I couldn't even taste the chocolate or the coffee, honestly I think I got an entirely different thing. The lava cake was so bad the server didn't even charge for it on their own (true story) so I don't need to say more.

Please eat somewhere else, the prices are very high for the quality food you're getting and the place it's not even that nice. That's the thing I hate the most, if the food was reasonable priced, I wouldn't be writing this review, but if you are going to be hypocritical and charge high end prices, you better keep your quality standard and be expecting to take heat from...