TASTE Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Tampa

This place is phenomenal. First of all the food is fantastic. Usually hotel restaurants are a let down, only there to allow for a quick bite after a long day of travel or to grab a couple of drinks. Most of the time the food is sub par and is passable in a pinch. Taste on the other hand is so good that me and my friends chose to go there almost every night because the food and service was just that good. One of the most impressive things this restaurant does is blend flavors that you wouldn’t expect to go well with each other and make them taste great. The burger with bean aïoli was fantastic the sweet onions complemented it perfectly. Their French fries are also Alecto fluffy and crunchy but not to salty either. The real star on the menu is their different nachos. While the chicken nachos are pretty good coming in a big portion, the ahi tuna nachos are by far the best thing on the menu. They way they blend flavors from the parmesan cheese to the tuna or the bed of guacamole. It is nothing short of amazing and a must try item. Everything on the menu is fairly priced for what you get. Where some may see a double digit price tag for nachos others will see that an entire tuna steak was sliced up and put over nachos reassuring them that their money is well spent. Last but certainly not least is the service and with the amazing staff it is impossible to forget the great experiences me and my friends had. Gary the bartender and our waiter who makes fantastic drinks made sure to always leave us laughing and enjoying our time there. The one and only Chef Andre made sure to say hi when he could which really added a nice personal touch to our time at the restaurant. If you are in the area Taste at the Embassy Suites is a must...

Tampa Bay Restaurant Week - Taste The food was amazing! A 3 course prix fixe menu for $38. Taste is inside the Embassy Suites in downtown Tampa. To the right of the lobby when you enter. It's very casual and unrushed at 5pm. The bar staff were friendly but forgetful. The Kitchen staff was attentive, pre-emptive and had a flair for presentation. The Buratta was ambrosial, tying all the ingredients together in a delectable bow. The Delmonico Steak was a flavor parade, sweet, savory and complex w/ tiny maraschino type cherries providing tiny bursts of bright tangy essence. The Brulee Cheesecske was a visual attraction. A phenomenal flavor concert combining aged bourbon, pistachio crostini and the blueberry compote to a brulee flavored cheesecake. Exquisite! Very clean bar ambiance with plenty of natural light and outdoor covered seating. Parking is directly across the street for $2 an hour, huge plus. This is not a restaurant environment, tables are low or high but nothing in the usual table height. I ended up at the bar. A good place to kill time, get your drink on and eat. Close to where the Tampa Bay Lightning...

We chose TASTE as the only reasonably close spot that was open for dinner that included a nice fish meal and a steak meal. We ordered both kinds of meals off a special menu they added. The service here was AWFUL. We were seated right away by a woman pointing and saying find a table where you'd like. Then she promptly ignored us after this time. Another friendly non-English speaking woman delivered us waters a few moments later but could offer no other help. After more than 5 mins we finally realized the first woman was not coming back so I went to the host stand and located menus for ourselves. The food had a beautiful presentation. the Mahi Mahi was so flavorful but terribly overcooked. The corn succotash it sat upon tasted like dirt. The steak meal was, eh, also. It was served with fries that looked tasty but were not hot and a bit soggy from the container that were served in. We were checked on 1 time when nearly finished which is when I requested our check. The first waters we recieved were the only drinks we ever got for the duration of the meal. Beautiful atmosphere! TERRIBLE service and mediocre...