Santos Kitchen + Lounge — Restaurant in Tampa

I honestly don’t even know where to start, I’m so disappointed in our experience here. I reached out about 3 weeks in advance to plan a birthday party for my wife and spoke with Magda. She told me for a party our size (12 at the time of booking) that our only option was a 4 course pre-fix menu for $75 a person that would also include a free round of shots and 20% off bottles. The reservation required a deposit of $35 per person which I happily paid. I explained we wanted indoor seeing and that my wife had a shellfish allergy. Day of the party, I reached out and confirmed we were all set. Magda said everything was set! Unfortunately that couldn’t have been further from the truth. We showed up and they tried to sit us outside, luckily they quickly pivoted when I mentioned we were supposed to be inside. Our waitress then indicated she had no idea about anything Magda sold us on. She called the manager and essentially they were completely unprepared. They tried to offer us 2 courses for the same price instead of 4, which wasn’t going to happen. The manager refused to refund my deposit and allow us to just order and pay normally. We finally settled on allowing us to just order off the regular menu and deducting the deposit from the final menu. I wish this was the only issue but it just escalated from here. You would think for the prices that the food would be at least decent but it was awful. Our silverware was a step above plastic, the soda was flat, and water glasses came out dirty. I ordered their chips and guacamole with caviar and the chips were stale. I told the waitress and she said “I would offer to get you more but they are probably all stale”. My brother ordered a glass of $20 cab and when he took a sip, it was cheap carbonated sweet wine. When he told the waitress she said “yeah this isn’t the place for wine” and he said no I think you just gave me the wrong one and he pointed at the menu to show her the one he had ordered to which she said “yeah we don’t have that so they just poured you what we had”…… The menu was lackluster so we all ordered either the lamb chops or tacos. The lamb chops were beyond well done and so coated in seasoning that it was inedible. The chicken tacos tasted slimy like it was canned shredded chicken. The pork completely packed seasoning and the “mushroom” tacos literally were nasty canned mushrooms thrown on a taco. When we expressed our disappointment to the waitress she said “yeah I know I wish I could go back there and cook myself”. To top it off, they had the audacity to charge me a $35 admin fee for “party planning” even though nobody had any idea of our party when we arrived. They market this “Tulum” experience but the environment was lackluster. We were practically the only people there, the music wasn’t good, and there was none of the entertainment they market on social media and it was a Friday night. The manager even showed up at 9pm and didn’t bother to come over to our table and acknowledge us or the issues we had. Unfortunately, you can’t go cheap when creating an “upscale” restaurant and lounge in Tampa, it won’t last. Save your money and go to the hundreds of other places Tampa...

This was quite possibly the worst experience that I've ever had dining in a restaurant. I will start with the good things that are saving it from being a one star review. The staff was quick to acknowledge their mistakes and remove things from the bill or comping items for the table. When you make a reservation for a birthday they will give all members of the party a free shot. On to the bad.

Reservation: this was the second time that I have made a reservation at this restaurant. The first time was in January 2024 for a close friends birthday. I called to confirm the reservation beforehand and they told me that they had our table ready. Upon our arrival they told us they didn't have any reservations for the day. The second time was is May 2024, also for a birthday. The reservation was for 15 which they claimed they could accommodate. When we arrived there were 15 chairs shoved at a table that at best could comfortably seat 8, maybe 10 at the most. They then rearranged it for us, but the fit was TIGHT. If you have a special occasion and want to make a reservation, this is not the place to do it.

Service: the service was very conflicting. As mentioned before our reservation was for 15. I have worked in service and I know that when there is a reservation this large you would typically schedule someone who is going to take this one table. When we were there there was only one server for the whole restaurant, inside and out. He was a lovely young man and he was a great help, but due to him having approximately 25 people to serve he was struggling. It took about an hour for our orders to be taken. Rather than helping the poor waiter who was clearly struggling the manager simply stood by and observed. He simply sat at a table and tapped away at his laptop instead of managing the restaurant.

Food: There were only 2 people in the kitchen so all of the food came out at different times. By the time the last dish came out the rest of the table had already finished their meals. The food was not worth the price and the presentation was not the best. The "plates" that they use are wooden charcuterie boards. The boards are flat so anything wet that was used in the tacos was spilling off the plate and into my lap. It was messy and not that tasty.

Atmosphere: the worst part of the who dining experience was the atmosphere. The restaurant was far smaller than they somehow make it appear on social media. It was so dark that we had to use our flashlights on our phones to look at the menu. They even eventually made the restaurant even darker. The music was insanely loud. I could not hear someone sitting right next to me. We had to YELL to the point that we started to lose our voices. Imagine a club, but make it darker and the music is remixes or R&B classics but with a lot of drums.

I think that a lot of the issues stem from poor managing. From not having enough people on staff to mishandling reservations.

TLDR: bad atmosphere, bad, management, mediocre and expensive...

For weeks I had been exposed to the Santos Lounge instagram marketing campaign so when it came to making plans for Halloween weekend it was a no brainer for me. It was advertised as 5 djs, a fire show and a $1000 best costume contest for a $25 ticket a person. Definitely not worth the hype and the cover charge. The atmosphere of the place was OK and the drinks were over priced. Nothing we ordered was amazing. The music was decent, but lacked variety between all the DJs. The only highlight of the night was the fire show. We decided to stick it out as we wanted to take part in the costume contest. Time passed and no announcements were made for the contest so I decided to ask the hostess that was sitting around. Her response to me was she was not sure if the contest had already happened or when it was going to happen. Naturally this upset, my husband and I, but we decided to give them more time. With no signs of them announcing the costume contest, my husband went indoors and asked the DJ. Naturally, you would think the DJ would know when this costume contest would be happening. Again we received a similar answer. No, the costume contest has not happened and not sure anything about it. You should go talk to the manager Magda, he said. From there my husband located another group of employees and received the same answer/confused looks. I want to note that at this point its 2:30 AM. The bar is supposed to close at 3 AM. Magda response to us was that the costume contest took place at 1 AM inside. So this upset us even more as we were there at that time and no announcement or attempt to gather people that were dressed up was made. When asked who won the costume contest she responded the guy with the little lights. What kind of costume is that? Also, for a venue that uses Instagram as a tactic to bring customers in don’t you think they would have posted a picture of the winner of the contest for content? Personally I think they either forgot about the contest, or was hoping no one mentioned it as the turnout of the event was not what they expected. We are pretty positive that the manager just lied and if not, they did a terrible job at spreading the word regarding the contest since none of the employees knew about it. Overall, I think this was very misleading and false advertisement. It is evident that the manager and staff don’t know what’s going on. It’s a shame because it’s a great concept, but if it keeps being ran this way I don’t see this place...