J. Alexander's Restaurant — Restaurant in Tampa

My wife & I met here in 7/2006. We have returned often to the same booth where we met. It's the 2nd level & 2nd booth from the right.

Now that you have returned to being"J Alexander's". Food prices are significantly higher yet the food itself wasn't worth the price as it was consistently.

Service: Mediocre even though you're listed $$$.

Nathan, our Waiter(I asked his name instead of him introducing himself as most servers do) didn't offer to take a picture(s) of us all celebrating the Birthday we came here for. Another server put one candle in the Carrot Cake slice served only after we reminded him.

*I told the hostess it was my wife's Birthday before seating us asking if the Restaurant did anything for celebrations? She replied, *"They can bring out a dessert, but you'll be charged for it. I will make a note". We *were charged $9.00 for 1 slice of Carrot Cake without being given a dessert menu for choices.

An overfilled water glass resulted in a puddle. Staff pouring the water had to have seen it when it occurred, but didn't dry the table. We were handed a cloth napkin to soak it up ourselves after we asked for it to be done. Isn't that called table service?

I waited tables years ago for 10 yrs (before working 33 yrs as a nurse). Whenever there were senior couples, as the 3 of us are now, a lower tip was often stereotypically expected. If that was the case this afternoon with Nathan, he thought wrong. We will always tip fairly. To be honest the 20%tip given was a stretch today for the first time ever.

Even though the memories of meeting here for years have been nostalgic we decided tonight that we won't be coming back here again. This is truly a bittersweet ending for us at 74 yo.

From 2006 until it changed to "Redlands" the people that waited on us were more attentive,personable, and experienced. The overall food quality & ambience was well worth the price.

Yes, J Alexanders has their name back, but their reputation of consistent quality of serving great food here in Tampa is in the past. I have perused the pattern of declining reviews compared to JAlexanders when earned their * reputation.

Also noticed the (owner) often commented when

Celebrating my husband's bday at Redlands was the worst part of his day. We were beyond excited to try this place since it is a J Alexander. The one in Orlando closed and I surprised him with Redlands. Us and 2 other couples, drove over 2 hrs to be there and it was a huge disappointment. It is not even close to what we knew to be J Alexander's. The outside of the restaurant is unkept and run down. When we were sat at our table the hostess was nice, waiters were nice too. We placed our drink orders and waited 20min for them to come out or for anyone to check on us. At this point we had not placed dinner orders. When the drinks came out they were all wrong. Meanwhile my friend's martini hadn't come out yet. Her husband walks to the bar and tells them, and they apologize. 20min later, still no martini, so he goes to the bar again and they apologize. The martini comes out and it's still wrong. We decide to move past it. On another drink order, they were out of strawberries for strawberry margaritas, and then, casa migos. It was a mess!!!!!!!!! When our food came out, we were hopeful. Extra food was being brought out that we didn't order. The staff had no clue what food went to what table. The steak was horrible 😫. The salads were swimming in oil. The food was blah at best. I'm sure my friends will give more details on their experience in their reviews. We didn't see our waiter very much, or any staff for that matter. Our reservation was at 430pm Saturday 8/21, and the restaurant was not busy at all. I was so embarrassed that I asked our friends to drive so far for this. When the bill came, the waiter asked if we were celebrating a birthday because our cake was in a box on our table. I said no, we are not going to cut the cake here. He realized there was a cake on our table at the end of our service???? He giggled because he knew how bad our experience was.. We all agreed we did not want to spend any more of his special day there. We paid, and took our cake elsewhere to finish our celebration. Not being familiar with Tampa, I planned on staying at the restaurant after dinner, eating cake, drinking and laughing with our party. It's a shame but we will...

I suppose a first time for anything. Not our first time here, normally everything is very good, its why we came back. The restaurant was busy, the parking lot was packed. All great to see, after the year we have all had.

We had reservations, seated immediately, ordered drinks. That was as good as it gets. We both ordered the "Steak & Fries" probably the cheapest steak on the menu @ $28.00 At almost an hour our sever comes over & admits our ticket had been lost in the kitchen. The table next to us a table of 8 came in way after us, they had food flowing.

Then the manager comes over to apologize, offers to get us something, some type of appetizer. I decline, thinking it would end up coming with the steak & fries. I asked for some bread. Delivered back to us 4 large chunks of bread, with a slice of butter. No plates for us to put it on. So were supposed to use the table as a plate ?

Finally after an hour our meals arrive. The steak, I asked for med rare. Not even close. Medium at best. Unfortunately as tough as shoe leather. Plus full of gristle. Basically inedible. Both steaks were the same.

When asked how were things going.........I politely told the server, we just couldn't eat this.

We were offered desert, we took home the chocolate cake & ice cream.

Our meal was taken off the check, You couldn't call it a meal. We were charged for the drinks. To make up for a terrible experience you think they would of comped the drinks.

The chocolate cake at home was also a disaster, just didn't taste right. We both threw it away.

First time I left a restaurant hungry.

Maybe we should of had the $42.00 steak with all the trimmings at extra cost.

The table of 8 had a grand ol time, food flowing like a banquet, the aroma's wafting over...........

Not sure what happened, maybe they thought we were cheap, so it didn't matter if we got served late.

Regardless, the food was a disaster, the lack of plates for bread was a disaster.

We have probably eaten here at least a dozen times, its why we came back. Maybe not anymore, not the only...