Big Easy Bar — Restaurant in Tampa

STOP!! Read the one star reviews before going to the Big Easy Bar. The reviews are not wrong. To begin with: The 20% auto grat for orders over $100 is for the awful servers. They know that they’re automatically getting the 20% tip even though they don’t deserve a 5% grat. The owners must know this, so they require that you give them 20%. They are not worth it. At All! We had 3 different servers on the day we were there. I still had to walk to the bar 3 times for refills. I also had to walk to the bar to get spoons and dressing. I should have received the 20% grat myself. I did half the work! Also, If I had thought about it, we would have split the bill to avoid the auto grat. Be sure to consider this! Now, the food: NO! Just NO! Be sure to arrive here with a full belly and buy a drink at the bar! Do NOT come here hungry!!!! Do not come here expecting to get any food that remotely tastes like a Cajun bar/restaurant. It’s not going to happen. Crab Rangoon Dip: awful, no flavor. The only thing you taste is sweet. No crab flavor. No Rangoon flavor. Nothing! Don’t bother. Gumbo is my favorite….. but this place ruined it for me. There wasn’t anything flavor in this dish. Not sure where their recipe came from but it couldn’t have been New Orleans. If they would just use a box mix like Zararain’s, it would be a huge hit!! Now, the Jambalaya, nope! Ewww! Awful. What area of Louisiana did this recipe come from? Minnesota? It certainly wasn’t Cajun! Hell, try a recipe from “Tasty”! There are videos everywhere! We also got the Bacon, Jalapeño, loaded fries. Don’t do it. The mozzarella cheese peeled right off of the fries. The bacon & jalapeño were just dropped on the top of the fries. Not baked in, not cooked at all. Crispy bacon that was pre cooked and raw jalapeño dropped on top of mozzarella that was possibly microwaved melted on to French fries. Imagine a plain fry, a raw jalapeño, a piece of bacon with cold mozzarella. No seasoning. No flavor. Now chew it all together. Blah. I had to get ranch dressing to dip. We paid way too much for this order. The service was awful. I can not express how bad it was. I really wanted the beignets but I didn’t want them to ruin that for me too. I’ll make my own at home! Ultimately the decision is yours. But I really do not recommend this place for food or service. At least until they get schooled on Louisiana/Cajun recipes and southern hospitality! **One last thing: We had an 18 yo boy who ate just about everything on the table. He doesn’t care about taste, he adds ketchup to everything. He’s hungry! He eats! So at least we didn’t waste everything. He definitely did not eat...

Guys and gals. This place is just bad. Seriously, terrible. Don’t support local business who could care less about your service!

A group of 8 of us went there for a going away party with a reservation. I’ll just list the embarrassing number of occurrences: -no record of reservation -brought myself and my fiancé water upon arrival, we were first there of the group. After that, not ONE person came to ask us what we needed to drink. Or eat. The rest of the night. -we had to walk to the bar to order anything and everything. Let me be clear about this: a waiter was walking by…we stopped him to ask if he could take an order…he stated we had to walk to the bar to order….essentially follow him to the bar to tell him the order there. We were about 10 feet from the bar. -we needed plates and silverware for our food, none were brought. Upon walking to the bar to ask, he then handed me the 9 plates and silverware to carry myself from the bar. He was clearly too busy to be a proper waiter. -our bill: $25 and change for literally a side salad (which they called an entree) with a piece of chicken, and an order of fries. No alcohol. No other drinks. -I could seriously go on and on. It was just ridiculous. -on separate occasions, we walked to the bar to order…got the bartender / waitresses attention…who then looked at us and proceeded to walk away. Not a word was said, and not an order was placed. She had red hair and glasses. Seriously….it was almost comical!

Don’t go. Sorry to be brutally honest! But it...

The food is meh. I’ve had better Cajun elsewhere. That, however, wasn’t the main issue. We walked in, and it seemed like a pretty cool place. It was open sitting, so we found a table and sat down. We scanned the code to see the menu and decided what to order. At about ten mins into sitting at our table, we began to look around for anyone that looked like a server. A male at one of the other tables was up and excitedly telling a story to a group of guests; guessing this was the server, we continued to wait for him to come to our table. At about 15-20 mins into waiting for him to finish his story, I started to think maybe we were supposed to order from the bar. My husband went to ask, and the tender motioned to our mystery storyteller. Assuming he was finally told we were there, he was at our table within minutes in a “let me move really fast to make up for not seeing you” manner. It wasn't busy, so maybe he thought he had time to be lax. However, the bartender did see and talk to us and could have gotten his attention, so the pair is like the blind leading the blind. It didn't get better. Our app came out after the main dish; we sat for a long time after eating before he came back, and when we asked for to-go boxes, he didn't think this to mean we might also want our check, so we had to wait a bit longer for that. I know it sounds like I'm a person who can't wait, which isn't the case. There are just better places, and no need to waste your...