Flambé

Ok so here is the deal… I’m picky with food like real picky. Epically with meatloaf. Well I had mamas meatloaf and it was to die for. This place has a great atmosphere and good service. Also check out the drink specials.

Great location and a very nice looking place with good seating and plenty of room. My son and I went for a late lunch on a Sunday and the place was not busy but seemed inviting. Service was friendly but slow and the kitchen was exceptionally slow considering how few people were there. We ordered calamari and gator tail appetizera. Calamari was well cooked but not seasoned at all but the gator was very tasty.
For lunch I ordered the Butter Chicken and my son ordered the burger. Burger came out with all the toppings (not what was ordered) and my plate came out mildly jacked as well. Not a huge deal but after waiting as long as we did with no crowd it seemed odd. Food was ok but not worth another visit.

Ok came in told to ask for dinner for 2 on sign. Then told only reservations. But to add insult to injury when ordered happy hour off menu told that had not printed new menu yet and would not honor the menu given. Stay away

Just hope you get Chad as your server.
Amazeballs meatloaf tower and plantains… what more could you want. Also, their deals are BOMB! 2 for 1 rum drinks?! HELLO MAI TAIS!

We visited last night. Granted it was a Sunday evening but the place was dead. There were guests at two other tables yet it took our waitress ten minutes to even come over and greet us and take our drink order. It’s not like she was so busy she didn’t have time. I’m not sure if they have an abbreviated menu on Sunday but there was nothing good to choose from. Their craft beer taps weren’t working so we ended up having a miller lite (yuck) some overpriced gator bites ($ 14 for a handful of «bites») and left. It was depressing, like a restaurant you would see on restaurant impossible or bar rescue. The place is located in such a neat spot, right on the water, it’s a shame they don’t take better advantage of this. It seemed like a lot of places were closed down on channelside. I would not be surprised if this place closes soon. We should have gone to hooters.

stumbled on Flambé and sure glad we did! The Tropical Tacos with Coconut Rice was SO GOOD! A little spicy and on flour tortillas (which made me say, «hm? Why fish tacos on flour not corn!!!» But they were still good! Just very drippy! Bananas Foster was fun! It was a quiet evening next to the water. Service was super friendly! Sangria was good. HOLY CRAP DON’T GET THE BANANAS FOSTER! It was so burnt I left a charcoal taste in my sinuses! BLAH BLAH BLAH Sad way to end a good dinner.

Never received lunch with two other tables sitting. Servers said the kitchen was «backed up». No one was there so how is this possible? Will never return to this poor quality establishment.

I had a terrible experience on Friday ¹⁄₁₅. Our waiter was very slow and seldom checked on us, we were outside so I was hard to get anyone because he would disappear inside. My husband ordered a burger and me a turkey club, it took about an hour for our food, mine was incorrect and our fries were cold. In that hour the waiter was unable to bring us silverware or napkins. When we asked to speak to a manager a man stumbled over to our table and was so drunk he was slurring his words, at 5:30pm. He even ran into a wall when going to check another tables complaint. We are from out of town and were looking for a casual place that wasn’t hooters and were very disappointed!

This place provided one of the worst experiences I have had in Tampa. This is a shame because it has a nice view and is decently decorated. Then, from the start, service plummets downward. We order drinks (like beer… Like bottled freaking beer) and 20 minutes later they show up. I mean half of them show up. And she says the bartender got slammed. Ok so there’s maybe 5 table sat in the whole place and maybe 6 people standing at the bar awaiting a hockey game. Nobody in the building is slammed. Its probably the least busy place in channelside. Plus, they are beers… bottled… twist off caps… 4 of them. 20 mins for half, really?
Obviously they’re a slow place if they can’t handle 5 tables. Id be scared to see them actually busy. When our food comes out, there are two of our people who didn’t get food. After another 10 – 15 minutes she comes back and says oh, you two don’t have food? Then goes to the back to check and tells us they messed up tickets and just now gonna make the food. We said no, we will take the checks. Literally 30 minutes go by and we never see her (the waitress with 1 table all night). Another waiter, comes over and says sorry it’s taking her a while, «[we] keep moving around and it’s confusing her.» Not a single person switched seats.
So we ask for a manager… 20 minutes and no manager. The chef offered us «free shots of fireball.» This place is a joke honestly. Think I’m being hard? Half the people in our party have worked in restaurants and we never tip under 20% but this place was horrid.
Service 0 stars
Food 1 star
View 5 stars
Décor 3 stars

Worst meal ever. Lasagna was horrid and the butter chicken was flavorless. Waitress was avg

We truly enjoy seeing all our 4-​Legged Furry Friends at a great local venue in Channelside

In general the wait for food was pretty long even though the restaurant had very few customers. We got the alligator bites which tasted pretty good although I think one bite may have been a little undercooked as it was little pink. My dad and I got fish tacos while my brother got a burger. When the waitress finally brought us our food she told us that they were out of fries and tortillas which definitely put a damper on my fish tacos. The taco content itself was just ok but pretty underwhelming and my brother felt the same about his burger. Would not recommend!

Terrible. We were going to the lightning game and wanted to eat first. hooters, hablo taco, and wet willies were are packed and we saw this place wasnt, so we decided to give it try. our server was luke, he was really good. but the kitchen will run this place into the ground, food is awful. the first burger was burnt, i sent it back and the second was burnt on the outside but raw in the middle. not to mention, the food took over 35 minutes to recieve. places like this are why channelside struggles to keep customers.

Mediocre food, terrible service. Took forever for the waitress to come by and then she was rude… Place was also dirty even though it was empty. I would not come back here.

So I usually check-​in on Unilocal pretty much everywhere I go, and when a special pops up on my phone, it tells me this place is «Yelp Aware», an really wants to appeal to Unilocal users. And so it did here. A big 15% off screen popped up as I checked in. Here’s the thing: If you are going to offer Unilocal specials, you better be ready to honor it, right? At least let your wait staff know.
When we got to our table, I showed it to our waitress, and she started by telling me that it wasn’t valid, but she thought the manager would approve it. Not valid? It popped up, and didn’t show an expiration date, so I’m a little confused, but I didn’t wanna push it. Still, NOT a good way to start off an experience. Nonetheless, there is time for redemption, right?
We get our lunch. We are seated outside, and the place is really nice. Not sure why Channelside is struggling, since it is such a great location, but this looks like he kind of place I would love to come to regularly.
We get the menu.
Not sure what to expect from a place called «Flambé», but the menu seemed like it didn’t know what it wanted to be. Some greek, some wanna be Italian, and some just uninspiring stuff. It looked more like a coffee shop menu. Not impressed.
We had salad, Chicken Skewers, a Turkey and bacon sandwich, and some other stuff that was so blah, I cannot even remember. None of it, an I mean none of it was worth ever having again. OK, it fell flat.
Then the bill finally comes, and guess what! The 15% thing was not honored. Now I am a bit upset, but not the kind of person to really make a scene. Still, I inquisitively mentioned it, and she took the bill back. 15 minutes later she came back with the revised bill. I marked the offer as «used» on Unilocal,and she was very displeased that I had done so and felt I could not prove I had marked it… even though I showed her that I obviously marked it since it was no longer available to me.
If you guys are reading this, what’ the deal? Are you afraid of some kind of Unilocal abuse? I would NEVER have written this review if you had not put up the offer. I would never have written it if you just honored it. If you are going to make an offer like that, be VERY thankful to those that use it, since Unilocal is what got them in your door. This would have been 3 stars if not for the handling of that situation.

This place was mediocre, so would’ve gotten 3 stars for «adequate», but when combined with service issues gets only 2. Food around the table — burger, two orders of pasta, a side of veggies, a kids meal, and a soup/​salad combo was OK. I wouldn’t go here again before trying other things in the area, but I also wouldn’t pointedly refuse to eat there if a friend had a massive craving for some (bizarre) reason — it was bland /​boring /​bordering on overlooked, but not the worst thing ever. However, during a meal for 7, there were 4 service issues: something requested left out of pasta left in after all, a substitution on a side magically becoming two orders instead, MIA condiments, and a seemingly old burger bun. The wait staff was actually super nice, and didn’t charge us for the 2^nd entrée error (since it was the restaurant’s fault), but all in all we are very unlikely to repeat.

It was a Tuesday night after Christmas… It was very slow, like 2 other tables slow. We ate outside, staff was friendly. I had the butter. chicken… Delish!!!
They brought out kids pizza for our daughter right away! We started with the calamari, it was good, but not enough of the squid!
Overall good food and service

This gem of a restaurant was a good find after our visit to the Florida Aquarium (adjacent to the restaurant). Located right on the water Flambé has a good menu choice to suit everyone’s palate, and excellent food. Not cheap, but worth the money given the ambience, service, and sweeping views of the water. Lovely outdoor sitting, too. Flambé has favorite local craft brews (try the crème brûlée craft beer!), and an extensive wine list. I had a wonderful gin fizz that was one of their specialty drinks and it was a real treat to try something creative and different.

This was a Monday, around 3pm. Out front was a sign that said «$ 3 Drafts» and a couple of other happy hour deals from 11 – 7. Didn’t get a beer menu, so I asked the waitress what was on draft. She listed several and when I heard Hoegaarden I chose that. Got two. Got the bill. They were $ 7 apiece. I inquired. She told me they weren’t included in happy hour prices, just other drafts like Woodchuck and Magic Hat.
Here are my gripes with that: 1) Having some top shelf beers on happy hour and not others is an industry trick designed for this purpose, 2) it’s not the customer’s responsibility to ask which ones are/aren’t on happy hour — give me a menu, I’ll take care of the rest, and 3) the last time I paid $ 7 for a beer it was a hell of a lot better than Hoegaarden. Oh well. The waitress didn’t seem to care, and she didn’t say a word to us the rest of the time.
Their sweet chili calamari is mediocre, and the place was a ghost town. It was fun watching the cruise ship depart, but I could’ve done that for free. I won’t go back, not even to the plaza.

Calamari was great service wasn’t the best but our server did try. I guess they were stretched thin. Our order got confused and one of our appetizers came over an hour later when we were about to leave.

Highly disappointing. I had never heard of this place but a friend wanted to go there for her birthday. It’s a great location and right on the water with giant windows to look out. The place was completely empty when we got there, which is a huge sign of how much they must be struggling. Our hostess was nice enough. The server was great. The sangria tasted like fruit juice. Zero rum in it. The salmon tacos were tasty but were literally refrigerator cold.
Bottom line: great location, pretty good service, pretty bad food and drinks. Won’t be back.

Nice view, good drinks, disappointing food.
I really wanted to like flambé. I ever went here twice. The first was because we got a groupon, the second was because I liked the drinks and wanted to try something else. I was somewhat disappointed the first time, but very disappointed the second.
First time we started with the hummus plate. It wasn’t that bad. I wouldn’t say it was great, but it wasn’t terrible. The salad was decent too. What disappointed me was the fish on jasmine rice. I think it was bass, but since it is now off their menu I can’t say for sure. It was very salty, and I like things with salt. However, the coconut rice was delicious. We ended with the banana flambé, which was pretty good. The next time we came, I got the black bean burger. This is where is went downhill. The patty itself was almost inedible. I actually left some of it on my plate and I just ate the pretzel bun. Now, I don’t expect my veggie patty to taste like meat, but I expect it to taste better than that. Since the first time the food was passable and the second time it was bad, this is a place I wouldn’t give a third time.
However, if you are only coming here to drink, the drinks are pretty good. I got a sangrita, which is 20 oz of sangria/​margarita mix. It definitely does the trick. They also have $ 3 fireball shots if that is your thing. Funny enough they have $ 5 fireball shot plus pbr.
The view from this place is amazing. It is right on the water. Unfortunately, both times we came it was raining. I don’t know if the rain had anything to do with it, but this place was dead both times on a Friday night. That’s not good for business. It is a large restaurant and both times for a good chunk of time we were the only table in here.
There are better places to spend your money if you are looking for food. I would suggest elsewhere.

Sadly this fun little spot is in the middle of channelside. Which used to be a great place to hang out but most of the businesses bailed.
Our server was a fun guy who gave recommendations. And also gave us a tip if we checked in on fb then we could get a free small app. (Thank you server guy!) great happy hour prices and delicious food. Not one complaint from our table of 5. Drinks, apps, dinner for 4 and tip was just under $ 200.
We will def return if in the area!

Been coming here every few months with a group of friends the past two years. This used to be OPA Taverna. They broadened out the food somewhat and now serve Mediterranean food. Have had some of their fish dinners, hamburger and salads. Been here always for lunch which is their downtime. The place fills up during the night time.
Parking: most of the parking lots nearby. Nothing right near the restaurant. Walking distance is about 5 minutes.
Scenery: great view of the water. 5 stars
Service: our group averages around 18 people .We usually have 2 people working our group. They’ve been attentive, have gotten the dishes out mostly together. overall, I’ve had no problem with them. 4 stars
Food: The salads are well liked by the group. I had their Tomato Feta which was god. My last meal, their classic hamburger with fries were good as well. Fries were crisp and spiced the way I like them. The group, in general, enjoy the food. Felt prices were a little high. Other than that, we keep coming back. 4 stars
Have to go with 4 stars.
Coming back: sure, about once a month.

The people here were very nice and welcoming. Granted they don’t get much people coming in and out of their restaurant but they are at a seasonal location.
Anyways the food was amazing. Was scared to try the alligator bites but like the waiter said it’s just like tender chicken. It was fried perfectly and the breeding was interesting. The sauce it came wit just added to the flavor. The tuna ceviche was surprisingly good. I don’t like raw fish like that but the combination with the fresh chilled avocado and the spicy chipotle was great! It was really a delicious textural different temperatures dish.
Would come back if in the Tampa area again.