Psomi — Restaurant in Tampa

I hate to do this, but PSOMI was a TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE! We brunch every weekend in the SoHo/Seminole Heights area. Psomi has been on our list, but it was by far the worst and only bad brunch experience to date. Delays, Unattentive Staff, Poor/Slow Service, etc... We made a reservation last week, for 10 ppl for my sisters bday for 1pm Saturday. We arrived 25 mins before our reservation to check in, w/a final total of 7 ppl, due to last minute cancellations. We went to the bar to order some drinks while we waited. There was a small line. When we got to the counter, It took at least 5 mins before any of the staff even acknowledged us. While she spoke with us, she kept being interrupted, and responding to, customers and other staff. I ordered a drink that rang up as $6, it was $12 on the menu. I spoke up about it, as I wanted to make sure I had ordered correctly. Someone came to correct it and I was charged $12. I feel like they should've honored that price due to their system error and my honesty to fix it for the future purchases, but they laughed when I made reference to it. But it's $6, no big deal. We sat and waited for our drinks and table to be ready. We were not seated at our table until nearly 1:15 pm. We had never been to Psomi before and did not know there was indoor & outdoor seating. We were never given an option of which we preferred, which they definitely should have due to the weather. It was overcast, cold 63° and breezy. This is something they do even at far less classy places. They seated us outside. There was a heat lamp at one end of the table which warmed the person closest to it, when there was no breeze. We asked if we could change to an inside table since some of our group was not dressed for the weather and we didn't plan to be outside. We pointed to a large table which had just cleared inside. Instead the server offered to bring a 2nd heat lamp to sit at the opposite end of the table. Which he did, but again not helpful in the breeze and only warmed the 1 person sitting on that end. Our server took our drink order and left. He brought the drinks back at 1:27 pm, 12 mins after we ordered, and minus 1 tea a friend had ordered. He left again. A couple was then seated next to our table. He came and took their orders prompt;y. One of our group flagged him down to ask if we could order too, we had been seated for over 15 mins now. We ordered. He told my friend he would return with his tea. He came back with the couples drinks. 10 mins later, he gave my friend his tea. It took 40+ mins post order for that tea to hit our table - 1:55pm!!! The couple next to us was served. If you're following, they were seated after us, ordered before us, and received their food and drinks all before the 40 mins it took just for our friend to get his tea, and we still had no food! The server finally returned with our food at 1:59 pm!!! I have exact times because as a Google contributor I take photos, with time and date stamps, of the drinks/food. Because it was so cold and the wait so long, 2 of our group refused to order food, just to speed the process and leave. So they just had a couple drinks. While we were eating, one friend ordered a 2nd beer, an IPA. We saw the bartender come out and say something to our server a few moments post drink order. 12 mins after she ordered it, the bartender himself came to our table and told her they were out of all IPA's and offered her alternatives. Which she accepted. We wondered if he had relayed that message to our server who didn't find it important enough to share.... It was so cold and breezy that the food cooled very quickly. I was so cold and aggravated that I only took a few bites and we asked for boxes. 2 of our group were long time servers and mentioned that our service was probably not as important to our server because he was already guaranteed gratuity due to the size of our party. I really hope that was not the case. Regardless of his timing he did seem nice, he was never rude, just unattentive,...

Regarding the Greek Chic salad , I was very disappointed. The salad is described on the menu as: organic roasted chicken, mixed seasonal greens, heart of palm, sprouts, red onion, feta cheese w/ a Dijon vinaigrette. I asked if the chicken was white meat, the waiter couldn’t answer my question. I told the waiter, I only want white meat and I asked for the chicken on the side. When the food arrived, the chicken was mostly dark meat, and the portion was very small. I’m always watching my weight, I weigh my protein daily and log it in a food app. I can easily look at protein and pretty much know how many ounces of protein there is. There was approximately 2 ounces of chicken, I’m being generous by stating it was 2 ounces. There was 3 thin slices of heart of palm, 2 thin slices of red onion and very few sprouts, I felt like I was eating a large bowl of lettuce leaves. The mixed greens were generous . So I asked the waiter for additional onion and heart of palm, I showed the waiter how little there was. The waiter said, that’s how the chef prepares it. The waiter got the manager involved and the manger said, that’s how the chef prepares it; I did not ask to see the manager. In any case, the waiter brings out a small amount of red onion and heart of palm, only later to find out, I was up charged $5.50. The salad is $24, so with the up charge it was $29.50. Even with the additional red onion and heart of palm, it was inadequate for the size of the salad; with a small amount of chicken. As I said, it’s a generous amount of mixed greens but hardly anything is in the salad except feta cheese . I asked the waiter about the up charge, I was told everything is an up-charge if one adds anything. I told the waiter in an objective manner I was disappointed with the up charge. He didn’t offer to take it off, instead he got his manager involved. The manager came over and said, everything is an up charge if you ask to add anything but she would take off the $5.50.

I felt the waiter should have been able to make the executive decision to bring the salad back to the kitchen and ask the “chef” to make it right, but it’s not how they operate. And if that wasn’t an option, once the waiter saw the salad, he should have brought out the ingredients without the up charge. Instead, the manager had to come to my table twice, because the tables are close together, patrons on each side of me were looking to seeing what was going on. While I appreciate the manager’s attention, it could have been handled differently, in my opinion.

As the waiter and the manager clearly stated, this is how the chef makes the salad . I won’t be...

It's great to have food that has a light touch and an even balance of flavors. Everything here from the Pomegranate Citrus Fizz to the Baklava Coffee Cake; Sweet (but not too sweet) and moist, and everything in between had clear, clean, fresh flavors.

We had the Greek Dip as one of our mains. The au jus for the dip tasted like a great French Onion Soup. I could have had a bowl of it. The chicken was done perfectly and the baguette was crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Perfect! All bread made daily on premise I was told.

The Lamb Pita was very good. It was a little light on the tzatziki for me. I asked for a side to add. The lamb did not have an overpowering "lamb" taste. It was very subtle but very savory. The pita was excellent. I could have just had a few of these all by themselves.

As an app we had the favosalata (yellow split pea puree). The surprise of this dish was the crispy capers as a topping. The pita wedges seemed a little inconsistent. Some wedges were a little too oily for me. Also a couple of them were slightly more chewy than I prefer. I would have liked them to be more like the big pita that I had with my lamb.

Morgan, our server, was professional, personable and extremely knowledgeable about the food. And the entire staff from bussers to the folks who brought stuff to the table were excellent as well. I asked several different people about the food (i.e. how was the kalamata aoili made, what's in the bread basket, etc.) Everyone, even if they were just dropping off water, provided a knowledgeable answer. No one said that they didn't know. It shows a great effort by the owner that they seem to have made sure that the entire staff knows what's going on with the food

The sweepers. Ah, the sweepers. Immediately after someone was done with their meal and left the table, folks would come in with a broom and dustpan and thoroughly, I mean really thoroughly sweep the area under the table. This seems to be a place that pays attention to every aspect of the dining experience.

Snap impressions... Cordato with olive oil splash; velvety. Cafe Americano; bold espresso flavor up front. Panacotta; Creamy fresh, cookie crumble bonus.

Great overall value for dollar spent. We'll be back and we're starting with the bread basket and a...