Restaurant BT — Restaurant in Tampa

I heard about this place from a friend of mine who said that he had come a few years back. So, this friend and myself came with our partners. Now, as a chef, I try not to be overly biased upon arrival. I didn't know what the price range was going to be, but upon looking at the menu, it came to the conclusion that this place was more suited for a date night price setting. While, this didn't really bother me, what did bother me was that it just doesn't match for what is being sold. Now, I'm not talking just about the food. I am also speaking of the overall ambiance. There is nothing in the room to absorb any sort of sound, so 4 tables make for an extremely loud and almost unbearable room. I was sitting no more than a foot away from my husband and could barely hear him. We were both having to pretty much yell if we wanted to speak to one another or our friends at the table. I am also a culinary Instructor and teach front of the house standards for all styles of restaurant service. While, overall the staff did well, I guess I'm being picky as to some steps that were missed. Maybe I began over thinking the concept of the restaurant, but I wouldn't mind a response. Now, back to the food. I trained under some French chefs after culinary school and well, my partner and I both got the Coq au Vin. While the chicken was actually nicely tender, the vegetables not overly cooked, but what truly makes this dish is the mounting and reduction of the sauce. Any great French Chef will tell you that the sauce is the key part of making a dish from blah to spectacular. While, there are some varieties of this optionally by using a roux or reducing the sauce until it has tightened and then mounted with a crap ton of butter which will make the sauce shine with excitement and become delightful. But, what I got was a very thin, pretty much water consistency which for me really ruined the dish that I know of as Coq au Vin. The biggest thing for me at the end of the day is that the dish was severely under seasoned. I ended up having to ask for some salt, which any Chef knows is a slap in the face to them because they should understand the palate of his or her customer. Sadly, I don't see myself coming back. From Chef to Chef, let's revisit these dishes some time on how...

Based upon the reviews I was expecting some fairly extraordinary food, and I was not disappointed. Everything we had was top notch. The complexity of the recipes and quality of the ingredients is definitely far above most Vietnamese restaurants I’ve been to.

At a recent lunch we worked our way through many appetizer courses, beginning with the fresh shrimp rolls and the mini crispy spring rolls. Both were elevated by the inclusion of very flavorful and fresh herbs.

Tuna Tai Chanh was a wonderful tuna tartare that was mixed with an unusually large amount of chopped fresh herbs that gave it a complex flavor, elevating it far about the tuna and sesame oil base.

We also tried two special. Pheasant pate was an excellent rough country style pate served with traditional French accompaniments of mustard, gherkins and chopped onions. Truffled burrata cheese was also nicely done, with a sort of pesto or chimichurri accompaniment.

For an entree I had the grilled pork banh mi. I’m a particular fan of that sandwich, and this one was as good as any I’ve had, with lots of fresh herbs, a savory soy marinade, and just the right amount of creamy mayonnaise.

I’m not sure I’d describe anything I had as “fusion” cuisine. Most of the dishes are gourmet Vietnamese, and the two specials we had were French, but I didn’t detect any fusing going on.

The wine list is reasonably priced and offers some nice choices. The Puligny Montrachet went well with the food, although not as well as the Chateau Carbonneau that we brought. The $30 corkage seemed a bit steep, but otherwise I thought the food pricing was very reasonable. I can only assume those complaining about the prices were expecting Vietnamese sandwich shop and the ingredients here mark this as a very fine dining restaurant that happens to...

Totally disappointed, you have better option.

TUNA TÁI CHANH Tuna Tatare - Dont have any toro part but only akami on it, akami gives the texture but not the flavour, also it is not a good quality akami. Plus too much sesame oil that covers all layers from other ingredients except fried shallot. Terrible seasoning and cheap akami.

BÒ TÁI CHANH Beef Tartare - as I know tartare should be hand-chopped, but they serve the grounded one, it more like a beef paste, no texture, no flavour. Beef paste with peanut makes the whole texture weird. The worsest beef tartare ever.

DUCK – DUCK – GOOSE Foie gras was undercooked, whole piece was still very soft and bloody inside, not cooked-pink. From the surface, there is no sign of "Seared", appearently the oil tempature is not high enough when they cook it. Duck confit - similar problem, low oil tempatrue cause the skin was soft and very oily, plus they did not cook it with duck fat. Duck should have rich flaour and this one does not taste like a duck at all, more like cheap microwaved duck leg. Applewood smoked duck risotto - There is NO applewood smoked duck only risotto with ginger, if you called it risotto. Its more like very thick congee because it was over-cooked and over-stired that you can see most of the rice was crushed. Totally disrespect to the customer when a fine dinning place serve bad qulity food like this.

I felt luck that we dont eat much.Because of the quality of food,we couldnt even finish two appetizers and one main dish. If you want to try some really good restaurant,...