Madame Fortune Dessert + HiFi Parlour — Restaurant in Tampa

22nd ANNIVERSARY DINNER RUINED DUE TO HORRIBLE SERVICE. We arrived early and the hostess knew we were celebrating our anniversary and we were seated at the table in the rear next to the bathroom entrance (not a good way to start). Our server, Cheyenne, was also informed about what we were celebrating. Initially, communication with her was fine; she informed us of what was available and we decided on a couple of appetizers (sweet potato cornbread, curry chicken empanadas) and a cocktail pitcher. Between 10-20 min later she returns to get our entree orders (PepperPot and Seafood rice, side of collard greens and gouda mac & cheese) and also tells us the drink and apps will be out shortly. Things proceed to accelerate downhill from this point. -She makes multiple visits to our table repeating our order back to us incorrectly. -My wife takes notice of a couple that came in about 15 after us are now receiving their orders to includes drinks. -We start receiving some of our meal (1 entree, 1 side) with no sign of appetizers or drink; she repeated the wrong drink to us. -When we received the remainder of our meal, she informs us that they are still working on the app and drink; we had to correct her on our drink order, again. -Cheyenne made another trip to our table informing us about one of our apps (cornbread), completely disregarding the other (empanadas), and still stating that the bar is working on our drink. Yet we noticed other tables receiving cornbread. -After patiently enjoying what we could of our meal, Cheyenne comes to check on us. I asked her if she knew either of us, and her reply was no. I also asked her if she was having a bad day/evening, and she has a cheerful reply saying 'no, I today has been great for her.' With all the possible aggravating factors eliminated, I informed her that the service she has given us has been completely sub-standard. I also let her know that I wanted to tell her in person and not hear it from the supervisor/manager for the evening. I would not appreciate this on a random evening out, and to receive this horrible output from her on our anniversary dinner makes it even worse. She stated that she completely understood the frustration, but both my wife and I can see that is just was not registering how bad this experience was. We informed her that we were ready for the check so that we could not extend this night any longer. She offered to box our apps and take them off the bill, but we said we no longer wanted them, and we thought she understood that. She leaves and we think she is going to inform the manager of our dissatisfaction. She returns and to do a final rundown of what we ordered and starts but listing things we did not order (lambchops and brown stew chicken). After that correction, she runs down the bill and states it will be $128. I let her know that even though there is a built in service fee of 20%, what she gave us was not worth any of that but I will pay it if it got us out of there faster. She replied that she understood and she did not include the fee in that total. She then proceeds to go over every item with us and repeats the total but this time it is now $105. -We pay the bill, wait another approximately 10 min to receive boxes to put our food in and she returns with the boxed up apps that we told her we no longer wanted. -REVIEW OF FOOD: of the 7 items we ordered, we only received 4. Oxtail pepperpot was hit and miss; oxtails were great, rice and peas that came with it were disrespectfully not good. Seafood rice was great as was the smoked gouda mac & cheese. -REVIEW OF ESTABLISHMENT: good environment/ambiance and thankful that the music was just a singer and piano. Music was at a great level to allow for soft...

So I read a lot of the reviews and based on them, I almost canceled the reservation I had for the date night I planned for my boyfriend. Well, he convinced me to keep the reservation and I'm glad I did. We were both overall, pleasantly surprised.

ARRIVE ON TIME.

We were 13 minutes late for our reservation. At 15 minutes late, they will CANCEL your table. So please note -- as of our reservation date 2/25/2023 some of 7th Ave is blocked off and parking is a challenge, so give yourself an extra 15 to 20 minutes to work around the road closures and find parking. For ppl complaining that they had to wait for their table, I can see how this happens and can't really blame the restaurant. The space is extremely small, so if one party decides to linger too long, the restaurant is stuck being rude and asking them to leave or make the next party wait. It's a no win for them. So I wouldn't blame that on the restaurant. Some ppl have no concept of time and will sit at a table for 30 mins after they've paid, for no reason.

BRING A JACKET

The decor is well put together. The only two things I have to say about it were a) that our initial table was directly under an air shaft and the air was blowing directly down on me. Brrrrrr! But a booth became available and our waitress was nice enough to move us; and b) the booth was great except the seat has NO cushion. Can feel a little hard after sitting directly on plywood for an hour. Not ideal, but wasn't uncomfortable enough to complain either. Just be aware. So if you're cold natured, take a jacket. And don't expect the seat in a booth to be super plush.

FOOD

Ok so the cornbread appetizer was good, but the ceviche was not what I expect ceviche to be. It's more like a spread of guac on the bottom of the plate, topped with a flavorful corn salsa, then 2 large shrimp as a garnish on top of that. Beautiful presentation and tastes good, but not worth the $22 price. Other than that, the food was good. We passed on dessert sonI can't speak to that.

Gratuity (Tipping)

Please Note: A 20% "SERVICE CHARGE" aka tip, is automatically added to your bill. You can be a party of 2 or a party of 10, everyone gets charged 20%. I booked on Open Table and they never disclosed that. We would have tipped 20% or more anyway, but that can drastically change someone else's dinner budget so please make sure patrons know this before going.

Lastly, yes we liked it. Yes we'll go back. It's a great place for drinks too. The bar is first cone,...

I’m not sure if this is a good place to eat, but it certainly wasn’t last night. We did not have reservations so we were okay with the indicated 30 minute wait for our party of four. We ordered frozen margaritas which were very good, while waiting in the front pastry area. The 30 minute wait however, became 1 hour and 30 minutes. During our wait, we were told the kitchen was closing, but they allowed us to place our orders before we were seated. Upon being led thru the secret bookshelf into the dining area, we could not help but notice the significant amount of available tables. During our wait, we were made aware there was chair movement to accommodate other parties. Once seated, we then noticed they neglected to properly clean our table area, as the floor was filled with food droppings from the previous guests. Even though we ordered our food prior to being seated, there was still a significant wait before the food was ready. We remained patient in anticipation of a lovely meal. However, even worse than the wait… was when the food arrived. Most of us ordered the seafood cook up rice. Aside from the lobster that was stuck in the shell, you had to go on a scavenger hunt to find the missing shrimp, salmon and crab from the dish. When brought to their attention, YES! they did take away a plate from our table to examine. The hostess returned, and apologized stating they have a new cook and provided us with a side of 3 shrimps each to put in our rice lol. When one of my party members asked if something can be done regarding the level of service (such as a complimentary drink or discount off meals) the hostess told us NO!, because we did not have a reservation. Before leaving we were provided a lot of lip service about how busy and backed up they were because of the amount of reservations booked that day. Nonetheless, when you are providing a service to a customer (with or without) a reservation, that should not determine whether your service is exceptional or inefficient and lousy. Each day you open your doors your goal should be to practice taking pride in providing quality service to every single guest. Our dining experience was unfortunately filled with poor service, low-quality food, and an overall poor value. Would...