Counter Culture — Restaurant in Tampa

UPDATE TO 2020 REVIEW: We used to absolutely love this place and have regularly dined here approximately once every other month since it opened. The creative and incredibly knowledgeable duo of Casey and Kieran were usually manning the bar like a well-oiled machine, and the kitchen staff was always on fire with Chef Adam calling out orders and everyone scrambling to accommodate... a delight to watch.

During the first half of 2023, everyone who made this place so consistently awesome disappeared one by one to the point of not a single face being familiar anymore. The cocktails are no longer consistent, nor are they even recognizable to the palate. The new bartenders don't seem to know what they are doing with all of these delightful tinctures and off-the-beaten-path spirits. The dishes no longer have the extra care that was always apparent... to be honest, some of the regular menu items we always have loved are hardly even edible anymore, as if the quality of ingredients has been drastically downgraded.

Management has also changed this year, and along with it, everything that made this place so fantastic.

ORIGINAL 2020 REVIEW: Unique preparations of unexpected combinations of fresh ingredients serves this dining establishment well. The menu doesn't particularly translate and comes across representative of a restaurant full of culinary linguists rather than chefs (unless you happen to be a culinary genius you won't know what 20% of the ingredients are without the assistance of Google), but each dish was a nice surprise. Dishes are thoughtfully created with flavors that play well together but are off the beaten path of combinations, which is quite refreshing.

The only complaint I have about the food is this: some bites are incredible as you get the opportunity to experience the full flavor profile with each ingredient intertwining for a delicious bite, but there is not enough of the "supporting actor" ingredients, leaving many bites with less than the full impact of the dish. To me, a dish is only as good as its least-perfect bite, so should not every bite be perfect? I found myself wanting a tad more of this or a splash more of that so I could love every bite as much as THE bite, but the kitchen is a bit too frugal with the added touches that really make a dish stand out.

The scratch cocktails are good- a couple very, very good- but once again, don't necessarily sound great on the menu.

I had to dock an overall star not only for the menu being unecessarily complex, but also for the cafeteia-style ambiance. The fluorescent lighting, terrazzo floors, and Ikea-looking furnishings leave much to be desired. This place lacks the serious dinner spot vibe that the fare deserves.

The most important part, however, is what you're eating and drinking and whether it meets expectations for the pricepoint set, and I do believe Counter Culture delivers. The service is also outstanding, and that can never be taken for granted. Though I give just 2 stars for the ambiance as well as the unnecessarily-complicated menu, I give 5 stars for service and 5 stars for food and drinks. Overall, Counter Culture is a big win in my Little Black Book of restaurants I...

Update: we gave this place another shot. Brunch with family. Service was absolutely unacceptable. Almost two hours to get our main courses and they were wrong. The management obviously haven’t sorted out the problems from last time. Stay away from this place. Poorly managed and massively disappointing.

I’d been wanting to try Counter Culture for a long time, so we booked Easter morning brunch. The service was a little overwhelmed; they were rather frazzled seating us and then it took a very long time in between our servers visits, a very long time for drinks, a very long time to order, and a very long time to get food. We were there a total of three hours, but only because of the pace. Maybe understandable on Easter.

Drinks were just ok. The mimosas were as expected. The two cocktails - Dan on a Bike and the Dickel Fritz - were watery and didn’t really live up to the descriptions on the menu.

We ordered some biscuits and sourdough toast to start. The toast came out without the biscuits and we had to ask again, then it was another 10 minutes to get the biscuits. Both were a good snack.

I ordered the three course Easter brunch - first course was zucchini griddle cakes with a salmon rilette, strawberry compote and asparagus. Interesting combination of flavors and it looked beautiful, but it was just OK. That first course came after the toast and before the biscuits, and before drink refills, so I was sitting there waiting for my guests to have something to eat and drink with me. My second course came with the entrees ordered by my guests. Mine was a short rib and potato hash served with eggs en brioche, and I had ordered the egg over hard as I really do not like runny yolks. Unfortunately they did not make this modification, so I had to ask for the dish to be remade. To be clear, I asked them to remake the dish rather than just cooking the egg further. My guests had stuffed French toast which they liked and traditional breakfast which was good too. But then they were done by the time my dish returned. And unfortunately, the kitchen did not remake my dish- I could tell it was the same short rib pieces and the egg had simply been put on the flat top. Now the egg was rubbery and the brioche was burnt. The short rib was tough and chewy like jerky. I ate two bites.

My third course was a carrot-misu, supposed to be a play on carrot cake tiramisu. The carrot cake parts were very dry and the marscapone was bland. We each tried a bite and left the rest.

All in all, I think the restaurant was in over its head today, trying to accommodate too many guests with perhaps too few staff. The menu looks great on paper, but it was really underwhelming. To their credit, the management removed the three course brunch from our bill. But unfortunately I left quite hungry and went home to make myself a sandwich for Easter. I don’t think I’ll be back for brunch, although I’m still interested to try dinner sometime. I just hope they’re better prepared...

Management please do better!!!

A lovely group of eight professional business owning ladies and myself came here for brunch to celebrate a special birthday and we left disappointed, hungry and upset.

First, we were sat outside by the parking lot, some shade but no fans….when asked for fans we said there weren’t any available…that’s ok …we understood there was no available seating inside so we were determined to still have a good time despite the heat and seating arrangements.

While placing our first drink orders we were told one of servers was in training so we tried to be friendly and patient…but now I believe maybe they were being trained on what not to do with customers.

We sat down at 12:53pm … it was 1:31pm and we hadn’t had received our first drink order!!! It took over 51 minutes for us to get our first order but only after several of us actually stood up and went straight up to the bar to see what was happening.

I personally had ordered a peroni beer… How can a beer and a few other drinks take an hour!? Completely unacceptable regardless of how busy a place is…what was even crazier was that it wasn’t even the right beer…after one hour I got served the wrong beer, warm and in a glass… when I said I could distinguish that it wasn’t the right beer and asked them to please serve the right one in the bottle so I could see it …they said “the Peroni beers weren’t available/cold enough yet” and that’s why it had taken so long and they didn’t have more bottles and urged me to get a different drink!!! Alright… why didn’t they said that while I waited patiently for over 50 minutes?…regardless I didn’t get another alcoholic drink I was already upset and wanted my food, but food was even worse…the prices were extremely high but I was at least hoping it would be worth it… Here comes the grossest and most expensive omelette I’ve had in my 20 years living in Tampa. A visibly raw, egg white omelette, dripping in oil and grease with absolutely no seasoning with “fresh burrata, tomatoes and avocado” !!! hmmmm I guess the burrata was the nasty liquid running inside with the egg whites and butter/oil … oh and the avocado was not ripe….the two pitiful, horribly cut pieces of GREEN inedible avocado with part of the skin still on them …what a joke you guys! I didn’t touch the dish after the first bite….Left it for everyone to see I was upset at it. Nobody even came to ask me was was wrong with it… not a single server…nada…they actually made it a point to ignore us even more after the first drink complaints…management could have come to the table to speak to any of us since we were all clearly upset and dissatisfied but there was absolutely no attention given to us at all. Guess this was the first and...