The Soho Backyard — Restaurant in Tampa

I would give less than one star but I cannot. I had gone in on a sunday afternoon, when it was not busy at all, and was greeted and gave my order. I was given my drinks and had ordered only appetizers with two fully capable grown men working the slow bar. Unfortunately, my caesar salad that I had ordered as a pre meal, I saw sitting in the cooks window, we made eye contact and the cook notified me that it was my caesar salad. I went over and took MY salad Id been waiting no less than 15-20 min for, only to be heckled publically by the bartender on duty that looked like a bad Patrick Swayze stand in from the movie Point Break and his plaid wearing cohort we'll call Carlton. After arguing back and forth for a few moments about whether or not the food was mine, interjecting, "If you thought it was someone else's why didnt you go and check to see whose it was the whole 15 min. I saw you looking at it in the cooks window?" Upset by the whole ordeal I decided to just walk out. I had spent plenty money in this establishment on many previous occassions, and while I will say that the parties involved were not familiar faces, I would like to add that when I called in to complain of such idiocracies as getting heckled for grabbing your own caesar salad that you saw sitting in the window for more than 15 minutes, I was told that I was speaking to the GM, who claimed to have been sitting in the bar and to have seen the whole thing. WOW! Really? You sat there and watched this horrible display of even mediocre service while the bartenders that were supposed to be delivering my meal were, meanwhile, using their time to hollar at women instead of getting my food, and then the same people want to heckle me when I grab my food and do their job for them. I have never had a problem with this establishment and, in fact, have recommended it to many other friends and family, but due to today's mistreatment and ostrasization and flat out disgusting service, I will only further negatively speak on this establishment. Your choice of daytime bartenders is subpar at best. I will do everything in my power to deter patrons from having to endure such negative treatment as I did. Soho Backyard seems to be referring to their treatment of their patrons, "Come here, get treated like a dog in...

Everything got off to the wrong foot from the start. We walked into the place, and we weren’t greeted so we assumed it was a seat yourself situation. After ten minutes of waiting, I got up to go see if there were any employees working and a woman working behind the bar cut me off and said she’d be bringing out the menus when I asked for one and then asked (in case it was my own mistake) whether we were supposed to wait to be seated. When we decided to order some appetizers, she informed us of a variety of items that they were already “out” of...on a Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Usually, it’s a sign that it isn’t worth sticking around when a restaurant is out of too many things. But we did decide to stay because I’d seen the pictures online and the good reviews. Our table ordered drinks, black bean burgers, and regular burgers. The menu description of the burgers either offers a pretzel bun or a brioche bun depending on the contents...what we got as “buns” were stale, disgusting pieces of toast that were too dry for a bird to eat. The appetizers were abysmally small in plates that were the size of a teacup saucer. Here’s the best part, our bill for 1 cocktail, 1 beer, 2 tiny apps, 1 black bean burger, and 1 regular burger was: $70 including the tip, which was about 12% considering how terrible the service was. I don’t understand why every single plate was missing some aspect that was promised in the description, whether it was the truffle aioli or the type of bun. This is literally the worst restaurant I have ever eaten at in Tampa, and I try a NEW place either once or twice a week. I haven’t previously been let down by the places in SoHo, but this place was...

We came in about 6:30 on a Sunday evening. It wasn’t too busy and we found seats at the bar right away. The bartender came over pretty quickly to offer menus. They were out of both of our first beer choices, but we easily went with backup selections in a moment.

My wife ordered the Honey Garlic Duck Wings and a Caesar Salad, while I got a Chicken Parmesan Slider and a Caesar Salad. The wings and slider came out first and our bartender apologized that the salads were delayed. It really wasn’t an issue.

The duck wings, all drumsticks, we’re well prepared. Very crispy without any greasiness our oiliness that you may expect with duck. The honey garlic was pleasant, just the right amount of sticky and not overwhelmingly garlicky. It could have done with just a touch of sriracha.

The chicken Parmesan slider was delicious, with a nice balance of white meat chicken, breading, sauce, and cheese. It was served on a few greens, which looked nice but wasn’t really necessary. I would definitely get it again.

The Caesar salads were good, but both of our salads had a small amount of brown and black lettuce. It was easy to eat around and we didn’t mention it. It wouldn’t keep me from coming back unless it was a repeated issue.

We specifically came in looking for a new restaurant and beer bar to replace our old home-town favorite. After recently relocating to Tampa, this seemed like a good place to start. The craft beer selection was fair, but we agreed we’d go with whiskey next time as there were several things we we unfamiliar with. Overall, we would...