Rooster & the Till — Restaurant in Tampa

Got the Chef’s tasting menu, was not a fan of many of the items we were served unfortunately. Many items seem to have buzzwords that people will jump at and purchase the tasting menu. There were items that included Iberian pork cubes with white refried beans. Much like Bush’s baked beans, there were only two or three noticeable cubes in the pork. The fish that was served with it was fantastic but otherwise felt out of place and pointless. This was my favorite menu item. The Waygu beef cheek was unappealing, it was very spiced for some reason and was overpowering, the meat was fatty, but resembled roast beef. The first menu item was pungent and also overpowering. The pistachio cream puffs were stale, dry, and flavorless and had no resemblance of pistachio other than being green. They had some cream and caviar for...whatever reason, making them very salty and overpowering whatever flavor the dessert was supposed to have before. The final dessert was alright, the brioche and gelato were good, but the rum sauce tasted like straight rum which I didn’t mind too much but my significant other would not touch. The skull island prawns were nothing to complain about, pretty decent menu item but wish they were bigger portions, I guess.I would also add that we were invited here by our friends and that they wanted to get this sampler, in order to do so, all party members must get the sampler. This is $115 per person, not including the 20% mandatory gratuity. I understand it can be a big undertaking for staff to create these menu items but I simply do not believe what we received was worth this amount of money. The only item I enjoyed was menu item #3, the fish with the #2 item being passable. The rest were off putting in one way or another. My final complaint would be the music. I would think that a pretty high end restaurant wouldn’t have loud, white noise in the background. We would have to yell to be able to understand each other and staff would need to bend down to tell us what we are eating. I may not have much fine dining experience but I know when something tastes good or bad. I don’t need fancy porks or waygu beef to be satisfied with my food, I would love to be presented with a traditional dish that has been elevated in a reasonable way. Many of these “exotic” items were served in such small portions that it’s hard to differentiate them from more common products. Sorry for the rant but I felt very frustrated with spending as Much as I did for a pretty disappointing experience. Staff were fantastic and friendly, my only issues were with the food...

PLEASE READ BEFORE GOING. Two people ordering the food experience with no drinks comes to 350$ and it felt like we spent more time trying to convince ourselves that the dishes were good than sitting and appreciating the food. Atmosphere and service was all amazing. For context we were told It’s a newer menu and I appreciate the Mexican/Puerto Rican influence that I see in it with aguachile, mole, or sofrito fused with certain Japanese flavors. THE DISHES: The better parts of the dinner were a sous vide duck which was tasty with mole, Wagyu tallow dessert was a delicious unique twist , and Tamale scarpinocc that sat in a wonderful poblano sofrito (just because there’s masa in the scarpinocc pasta I wouldn’t call it a tamale). Also the presentations for every dish was beautiful. WHY ITS ONLY 2 STARS: Half of the courses weren’t even good looking back on our meal: the red fish (which itself was good) was soaked in aguachile which was too sour from extensive yuzu juice and made it impossible to taste the pineapple , the quail was dry even when mixed with the squash “calabaza” , and the flan was OK and fell below our expectations. As a full time student I saved up money to take my father here for his birthday and it let us down. Not only that but in general a place such as this that has received such good reviews and awards is expected to make you appreciate each aspect of the carefully selected course. From some of the things we saw coming out of the kitchen from the a la carte menu I’m sure the chef is amazing and there’s great selections on THAT menu so what went wrong with the “food experience”????? NOTE: Is the current menu for the food experience worth it? Absolutely not, I recently also saved up to take my girlfriend to Lilac @ the edition which was a similar price and every single bite from the dishes they made for us there made you close your eyes and go DAMN this is what good food is. Rooster and the till will sadly be a meal easily forgotten, right after I was so disappointed from the food considering the money I forked out that I went to a hole in the wall that served street tacos and found the food there much more enjoyable. PLEASE keep in mind I can’t speak for their regular A la carte menu but when it comes to the “food experience” if you have 350$ to spend go ahead and try it out. Based off what I was presented and tasted I would say it’ll be better spent taking it to Lilac or...

Honest review of Rooster and the Till Restaurant:

Located at 6500 North Florida Ave. Rooster and the Till has been awarded the Bib Gourmand from Michelin! Since 1997, the best value for money restaurants – offering a three course meal at a reasonable price – have been pointed out using this award so I was excited to finally get reservations. The exterior of the restaurant is minimalistic, when I entered I quickly noticed the Square bar that encloses the culinary staff and bartenders. I sat at the Chefs counter which has high chairs that were comfortable. The staff were welcoming and very knowledgeable about the menu. My starter was their Asian take on Chicken and waffles with Miso, Yuza maple and caviar. This dish had soooo much flavor with a crispy piece of chicken over a soft waffle with a perfectly cooked crust. For my main I ordered the Prefix 3 course meal. My first course was a Wagyu beef tartare with charred pineapple and Chicharron Cracker. The tartare was great especially when you added a squeeze from the lime, the house made chicharron cracker was light, airy and a great crunch. My next course was the scallop tiradito with in season scallop, burnt tortilla mayo, Asian pear and Yuzu kosho (a Japanese condiment). This was one of my favorite dishes of the night, the scallop were perfectly seared, the mayo and yuzu kosho personified the dish to another level with the flavor profile. The next dish was Lechon, Moro rice, plantain puree, and sour orange jus. The lechon was everything you want a lechon to be, succulent , tender and rich with mojo flavor….the only thing it was missing was that crispy skin lechon is known for. The Moro rice was cooked well and had a good amount of black bean, but paired with plantain puree it was a dream. For dessert I finish the night with Nixtamalized Papya with in season papaya, roasted strawberry raspado, and plantain skin cajeta. This was the most unique dessert I have had in a while, it was surprisingly very good. The best I can describe it is a refreshing rice pudding with the rice being substituted for papaya. It was a unique flavor that ended the experience on a great note. All and all this is a great experience with a group, on a date or just indulging by yourself. I think you will be happy with your decision to share a moment in life with the fine folks at Rooster and Till. The only thing I regret is not coming...