GenX Tavern — Restaurant in Tampa

I've been wanting to come here for some time finally had the opportunity to and to say disappointed is an understatement. Arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon There was a decent crowd wouldn't call it overly crowdy but definitely had people sitting at the bar and at four tables.

The server came to take our order never introduced herself nor at any point in time did she ask us if we wanted drinks. I politely said can you please give us a minute we've never been here before and we're still looking over the menu. She looked at me cross-eyed and walked away.

This was extremely surprising because I would have at least expected her to offer suggestions on what some of the local favorites are ask if we were interested in appetizer ask can I get you something to drink got absolutely nothing.

After about 10 minutes of sitting around had to wave the server down and ask her if we can put in an order for appetizers as she took our order and turned to walk away I said please can we also order some drinks.

We ordered the cheese curds and the guacamole, queso and pico de gallo chips and dip.

The cheese curds were outstanding, what they called guacamole was simply smashed avocados I did not see any onion cilantro peppers or tomatoes in what they call guacamole. The pico de gallo was dry as if they drained all the juice.

After another 10 minutes of sitting and waiting the server finally returned and asked to take our order.

It took close to 25 minutes before we got our food and to say the least the food was lukewarm.

By the time we finished our lunch and ask for the bill The server came back and presented a total when we went to pay the bill we noticed the total was higher than what the server stated after doing a double take we noticed that the server took it upon herself to add a 25% tip to the bill.

To say the least I was in shock!

Aside from the food it is a very cool place brings back a lot of memories from the '80s and I hope this was just a single bad experience and not something consistent with the service.

Definitely need to look into the wait staff I understand that people have a bad day but I have to tell you this was just a terrible experience at no point during the entire time we were there did this person smile try to engage nothing.

At this point I would have to give it at least a few months before I try and go back...

People on here like to grill you a new one so I’m going to try to give some constructive criticism in the review.

Service The hostess was Clueless (pun intended) on wait times. Perhaps it was a shift change but first she wasn’t able to give us an estimated wait time for our table, then told us a short time I think it was 15/20 minutes, then called right away to say the table was ready. Waitress was nice and doing the best that she could. We were a party of a party of 7 and NOWHERE ANYWHERE it says that TWENTY PERCENT gratuity is automatically added to your party.

Food We were seated around 8PM and handed “The Late Night” menus because that’s the menu they were on then. Most other places you think that menu would start at MAYBE 10PM. Ok fine, it’s busy. We ordered the Fried Ravioli, a cheeseburger, and a buffalo chicken sandwich. I didn’t time it but the food felt it took longer than the 15-20 minute industry standard. We were able to grab a board game to play while we waited. The fried ravioli was good. Cheeseburger was average and the chicken sandwich was good. The waffle fries were probably the best part about the entrees. After our meal we wanted to order them, but they were out of the Dunkaroos, perhaps their signature item and the one thing we really wanted to try. Rough.

Drinks Adult Capri Suns taste great and are served cold. Great idea. Also ordered a Pump Up The Jam and that was great as well. Drink prices are typical for what you would find in Downtown Tampa cocktails.

Atmosphere Neon colors everywhere and 80s/90s props in window cases; it looks fantastic. Music is great but it’s loud. Like, REAL loud. Like, you can’t hear someone who is more than one person away from you loud. I’m all for pumping up the jams but turn the volume down on said jams. People have to be able to hear one another. And your staff has to be able to hear us. Bathrooms were clean.

We’re on the fence about returning again. My wife will not, I may try to go back with some friends. Dave, please please listen to what your customers are saying. You have a really cool concept on your hands, and it could be something...

We really wanted to love this place but even for a grand opening, which can be hectic and stressful for new businesses, there was too much wrong to overlook it all.

The good: The food and drink are creative The bar is cool The deocrations and memorabilia are fun The concept is cool

The bad: The place is extremely noisy It is also super hot in there, no air flow The food took an extremely long time to come out even when it wasn't busy really The order was wrong and overdone

Like I said, we really wanted to love this place. We get openings are tough and stressful but there seemed to be a complete lack of training across the board. We don't blame the waitresses and we aren't angry at them but if sucks when you order something and you have to convince the waitresses and the cooks that your meal comes with certain things per the menu and they constantly tell you that you're wrong. Neither the waitresses or the cooks know what is on your burger. That's not a good start and it's not fun arguing about it and trying to convince someone to look at a menu so we could prove it does come with it. Plus it took a good 50 minutes for us to get the wrong meal which was really overdone. Also, the adult Capri Suns are fun but ours were just cooler than room temperature which isn't very refreshing in a very hot building. I gave three stars in hopes that it's a grande opening issue. But I definitely think there needs to be better training. Also, they kept bringing our food and drinks to the wrong table a few tables away the entire time. So between the heat, noise, arguing about our order,which ended up being really overdone, it was a pretty...