A Day in my Life: Grace Restaurant with Offline Tampa Bay | Bright Like Sunshine Yellow Dress

 

Dress: SABO Alondra dress

Leather sandals: Zara, not recent

Tiffany's Lovestruck Pendant: here

Hair bows: C/O Ettika

Dining tonight for the first time with my membership to Offline Tampa Bay. 

Offline Tampa Bay is a restaurant membership which gives you access to some of thr greatest local spots and gives you money to dine. When I signed up I got my first month free as well as a discounted holiday rate.

I dined at Grace restaurant and was expecting to have a pretty great experience since I love this area and frequent it a lot. I had a reservation, and when we came in, we were greeted at the point near the door (there was a sign that said wait to be greeted or seated). However, the woman who greeted us was not only not friendly she seemed annoyed that we were there and acted like we were not welcome. This was all in her attitude. She did not say these things, but she would not make eye contact, she looked annoyed and almost questioning why we were there and to be honest our waitress was nicer, but I noticed a totally different person was delivering our food to our table during service. It could just be a coincidence. I am just going to say we were not the exact type of couple coming in to dine that was predominantly in there.

Decor wise, the restaurant is simple; It isn't fancy. I think, decor wise, the umbrellas on the ceiling are very cute, but after that, it's like the vibe ended,  totally. 

Food wise, the food was well seasoned. So, I will say that first off, I hate underseasoned food.  I have Celiacs Disease, and they have GF denotations on the menu, so I chose from there. I actually asked for the shrimp scampi with rice noodles, and that came out great, I just told our waitress to please make sure they cooked them in a separate pot and flagged it, and she did The taste and seasoning were great. I 100% did not mind the rice noodles, and I thought it was great. The seasoning was good on everything we had.

The starter was the lamb rolls, which was incredibly underwhelming. The amount of lamb they give you is a joke and it's priced at 22.00$. You can get a pound of organic  ground lamb from Whole Foods for 8.00$ (and I do) and yet, they are charging 22.00$ for 1 link the size of a breakfast sausage that was cut up! This is served on 6 or 7 pieces of Bibb lettuce with 3 slices of onion and some banana peppers. It's NOT worth 22.00$. Please avoid this dish if you go there. It's literally less than 3 ounces of lamb at the most.

Secondly, the sparking water... they are charging 8.00$ for a small bottle of San Pelligrino water, and even at high-end restaurants, the LARGE BOTTLE is 7 or 8.00$. This is way overpriced. We paid 16.00$ plus tax and tip on two small bottles of San Pelligrino water, which you can buy an entire case of these x2 for this price at the grocery store. Most restaurants serving this small bottle would charge 3.00$ for it, not 8.00$.

Cocktails: They were basic and underwhelming at 14.00$. They weren't mixed well and had no garnishes (the menu said there would be garnishes) and were not served in proper glasses. I ordered a cocktail, and it never arrived. When I asked for it again I got it and was charged (it should have been comped at that point because I waited about 25 minutes for it) and the kicker is that they charge a 3.00$ upcharge for Tito's vodka which isnt even tooshelf.

The stand-out dish was the Oso Buco. This was the only dish that was the best of the night. The second is the shrimp scampi. 

Overall, I like trying new restaurants, but I won't be coming back here. From the unwelcome vibes to the overpriced items, I feel I can do a lot better taking my money elsewhere. I felt like as a customer, I was not welcome at all, and the service was lacking. I was readily made to feel like I wasn't the demographic they were looking for from the moment I walked in. 

The Dewey has a better atmosphere and food and is steps away, and I have dined there twice. The Don Cesar has similar pricing but is actually fine dining. And might I add that parking is free at both of these other restaurants,  I had to pay 15.00$ for non-beach Street parking through Park Mobile.