Unfortunately we returned to Ponte and had an awful experience. The waiter ruined our entire experience! Everyone has a bad day but when you’re a paying customer you don’t deserve to be ignored then treated in an aggressive manner.
Amazing food and more amazing service! We dined here on Sunday and had a reservation for 8 PM and I didn’t even realize they closed at nine! The waitress was awesome and never made us feel rushed. In fact, she even brought the chef out to meet us who was also wonderful! This is one of my new favorites for sure.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Rose Santos
I cannot say enough good things about this place, everything is amazing. It can be a little expensive, I would recommend for special occasions. Our bill for 2 was $340, with appetizer, entree, dessert and a bottle of wine ($56 dollar bottle, nothing expensive).
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Darla Freeman
Hands down, Michelin award well deserved. It's great having an elegant restaurant in Tampa. I loved everything about it from the food to the service!!
Emily Medina
From start to finish, our dinner was absolutely phenomenal. The complimentary amuse-bouche set the tone, and from the bread service to the very last bite, we thoroughly enjoyed every element of the meal. Our server was pleasant, attentive, and thoughtful, with great attention to detail throughout the evening. Every aspect of the experience felt intentional and elevated. Truly a memorable dining experience—we can’t wait to return!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
jules rules
Excellent!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Christina J
Everything was absolutely perfect. I had a solo dinner at the bar and the bartenders were so attentive and fun to chat with. The food and drinks were immaculate! I have zero bad things to say.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Danilsa Gonzalez
We celebrated our anniversary at Ponte and had a truly wonderful experience. The atmosphere was elegant and inviting, perfect for a special evening. Our waitress, Rachel, was absolutely amazing—attentive, kind, and genuinely sweet. She made sure everything was perfect from start to finish. The food was delicious, the service was outstanding, and we couldn’t have asked for a better night. Thank you, Ponte, for making our anniversary so memorable!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Pamela Jepsen
We had an early dinner and it was perfect. The food was amazing and our server, Rachel, made the experience the best. I highly recommend Ponte.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jerry Henry
Mis en buche ,exquisite...steak and scallops and the drinks well done this experience will be hard to beat a must in Tampa Bay
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Robin Wagner
I will start by saying we are Foodie's and we were looking forward to celebrating our 44th Anniversary but disappointed in more ways than one. When making the reservation on Resy, we requested a special table for our Wednesday evening celebration. Resy did not have any means to upload a photo to coincide with the description we added for the table we desired. Ponte's website had contact info for assistance with an email where I sent photos with our reservation request made on Resy. Reservations were made and email was sent a month prior to our visit. Did not receive any acknowledgement from my email so sent a follow up asking for confirmation. This should have been a red flag to cancel after another no response but since we have always had requests on reservations honored, I thought this was just an oversight and was already taken care of internally. On arrival, we were kindly greeted with Happy Anniversary and escorted past the table requested to another table. There were two ladies seated at the table we desired, so nothing could be done about it at that point so we moved forward and on with dinner.
The other disappointment was most definitely the food, especially given the price. Please know we certainly don't mind a high price when justified. Our appetizers of the mushroom soup and lobster dumplings were very good, but although the bread tray was impressive looking, it fell flat in taste and freshness. We have also had much better Cesar salads. The Brussels side was very over salted that accompanied our meal. My husband has had many Beef Wellington dishes. The steak seemed even smaller than advertised and was poorly cooked. The presentation was unbalanced and minuscule as well. He did really give kudos to the accompanied sauce with it though. I got the aged Bone in Filet and it was very unevenly cooked and by itself had no seasoning flavor. It was not even near warm when it was served as the truffle butter did not even attempt to melt on top of it. The butter did at least help with added taste to some of the edible parts of the steak. The plate presentation of it was awful. Why even put an unappetizing tomato on the side? Chopping up fine parsley and sprinkling it around the plate would have at least helped in appearance. The bright sides of the experience was our server Joe and the ding room ambiance. Joe was very professional and attentive. We appreciated the Champagne Toast on arrival and the welcome card at the table. The complimentary desert chocolate and almond cookie was appreciated too.
We did get a follow up email the next day atter our dinner of what seemed standard to thank us for dining and hope to choose them for dining again in the future. I promptly responded to this email on Thursday with my info and forwarded my two previous emails. You would have thought that at a minimum this could have prompted some common courtesy to be given some kind of acknowledged response. Again, NO response to what is now a third email! IMHO, this is particularly shameful and arrogant of sorts since their website advertises a contact link for customer assistance. I made a point in the third follow up email I sent that generally being non responsive as our most significant issue here. Any humility on their part would have been better than nothing at all, which is where we are at several days later.
As mentioned, we have gladly warranted high priced meals in our past, but Ponte overall did not meet standards to justify this with our experience. Again, the significant issue that doesn't sit well and the MOST bothersome is the overt unprofessional business practice to have NO desire to reach out to a consumer after several correspondences. For that reason alone, we would never recommend or patronize Ponte again.
Service was incredible. Food was delicious and the presentation was beautiful. Ambiance was also great. Would definitely recommend for a nice upscale dinner.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Robert Tyson
The last time I ate at Ponte was 2 years ago. On a whim, we decided to give them another go eating in the lounge without a reservation. We were able to get sat almost immediately.
Service at Ponte was excellent and the staff was attentive, but I have to be honest about a couple of things that really took away from the experience. The lounge is extremely loud, it felt more like a bar than a fine dining space. Some acoustic padding or sound management would make a huge difference.
The bigger issue for me was the Beef Wellington. Before ordering, I asked how big it was and was told 9oz, which made sense for the $85 price. When it came out, it was clearly closer to 5oz. I mentioned this right away to my server, but she stayed silent and didn’t offer anything to address the disconnect. That really left me feeling dismissed and quite honestly for the price, a stain on an otherwise excellent experience.
The dish itself tasted ok, but had I known it was going to be that small, I would’ve gone with the 9oz filet for nearly half the price to get more protein. It’s frustrating because I did enjoy the meal, but I left feeling misled and won’t be returning again.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 5
Leigh Samanowitz
Amazing cocktails. We went for my birthday and my favorite cocktail is the Sazerac and their bartender made me a special sazerac and it was incredible. Definitely makes my top 5!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jessica Reinecker
When I say this was one of the best dining experiences we've had, I am not exaggerating. We frequent high end restaurants such as Rocca and Oystercatchers and I can honestly say this restaurant was top of the line. Every dish was exquisite and the service was top notch. We spent over 100 a person but it was worth every penny. We will be back soon and often.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Heidi Gigante
2nd visit here and it was just as amazing as the first. Natalie was our server and she was fantastic. Cocktails, appetizers, entrees, dessert, and wine were phenomenal. We look forward to another visit.
Unfortunately we returned to Ponte and had an awful experience. The waiter ruined our entire experience! Everyone has a bad day but when you’re a paying customer you don’t deserve to be ignored then treated in an aggressive manner.
Amazing food and more amazing service! We dined here on Sunday and had a reservation for 8 PM and I didn’t even realize they closed at nine! The waitress was awesome and never made us feel rushed. In fact, she even brought the chef out to meet us who was also wonderful! This is one of my new favorites for sure.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
I cannot say enough good things about this place, everything is amazing. It can be a little expensive, I would recommend for special occasions. Our bill for 2 was $340, with appetizer, entree, dessert and a bottle of wine ($56 dollar bottle, nothing expensive).
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Hands down, Michelin award well deserved. It's great having an elegant restaurant in Tampa. I loved everything about it from the food to the service!!
From start to finish, our dinner was absolutely phenomenal. The complimentary amuse-bouche set the tone, and from the bread service to the very last bite, we thoroughly enjoyed every element of the meal. Our server was pleasant, attentive, and thoughtful, with great attention to detail throughout the evening. Every aspect of the experience felt intentional and elevated. Truly a memorable dining experience—we can’t wait to return!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Excellent!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Everything was absolutely perfect. I had a solo dinner at the bar and the bartenders were so attentive and fun to chat with. The food and drinks were immaculate! I have zero bad things to say.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We celebrated our anniversary at Ponte and had a truly wonderful experience. The atmosphere was elegant and inviting, perfect for a special evening. Our waitress, Rachel, was absolutely amazing—attentive, kind, and genuinely sweet. She made sure everything was perfect from start to finish. The food was delicious, the service was outstanding, and we couldn’t have asked for a better night. Thank you, Ponte, for making our anniversary so memorable!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
We had an early dinner and it was perfect. The food was amazing and our server, Rachel, made the experience the best. I highly recommend Ponte.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Mis en buche ,exquisite...steak and scallops and the drinks well done this experience will be hard to beat a must in Tampa Bay
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
I will start by saying we are Foodie's and we were looking forward to celebrating our 44th Anniversary but disappointed in more ways than one. When making the reservation on Resy, we requested a special table for our Wednesday evening celebration. Resy did not have any means to upload a photo to coincide with the description we added for the table we desired. Ponte's website had contact info for assistance with an email where I sent photos with our reservation request made on Resy. Reservations were made and email was sent a month prior to our visit. Did not receive any acknowledgement from my email so sent a follow up asking for confirmation. This should have been a red flag to cancel after another no response but since we have always had requests on reservations honored, I thought this was just an oversight and was already taken care of internally. On arrival, we were kindly greeted with Happy Anniversary and escorted past the table requested to another table. There were two ladies seated at the table we desired, so nothing could be done about it at that point so we moved forward and on with dinner.
The other disappointment was most definitely the food, especially given the price. Please know we certainly don't mind a high price when justified. Our appetizers of the mushroom soup and lobster dumplings were very good, but although the bread tray was impressive looking, it fell flat in taste and freshness. We have also had much better Cesar salads. The Brussels side was very over salted that accompanied our meal. My husband has had many Beef Wellington dishes. The steak seemed even smaller than advertised and was poorly cooked. The presentation was unbalanced and minuscule as well. He did really give kudos to the accompanied sauce with it though. I got the aged Bone in Filet and it was very unevenly cooked and by itself had no seasoning flavor. It was not even near warm when it was served as the truffle butter did not even attempt to melt on top of it. The butter did at least help with added taste to some of the edible parts of the steak. The plate presentation of it was awful. Why even put an unappetizing tomato on the side? Chopping up fine parsley and sprinkling it around the plate would have at least helped in appearance. The bright sides of the experience was our server Joe and the ding room ambiance. Joe was very professional and attentive. We appreciated the Champagne Toast on arrival and the welcome card at the table. The complimentary desert chocolate and almond cookie was appreciated too.
We did get a follow up email the next day atter our dinner of what seemed standard to thank us for dining and hope to choose them for dining again in the future. I promptly responded to this email on Thursday with my info and forwarded my two previous emails. You would have thought that at a minimum this could have prompted some common courtesy to be given some kind of acknowledged response. Again, NO response to what is now a third email! IMHO, this is particularly shameful and arrogant of sorts since their website advertises a contact link for customer assistance. I made a point in the third follow up email I sent that generally being non responsive as our most significant issue here. Any humility on their part would have been better than nothing at all, which is where we are at several days later.
As mentioned, we have gladly warranted high priced meals in our past, but Ponte overall did not meet standards to justify this with our experience. Again, the significant issue that doesn't sit well and the MOST bothersome is the overt unprofessional business practice to have NO desire to reach out to a consumer after several correspondences. For that reason alone, we would never recommend or patronize Ponte again.
Restaurantji Recommends
Service was incredible. Food was delicious and the presentation was beautiful. Ambiance was also great. Would definitely recommend for a nice upscale dinner.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The last time I ate at Ponte was 2 years ago. On a whim, we decided to give them another go eating in the lounge without a reservation. We were able to get sat almost immediately.
Service at Ponte was excellent and the staff was attentive, but I have to be honest about a couple of things that really took away from the experience. The lounge is extremely loud, it felt more like a bar than a fine dining space. Some acoustic padding or sound management would make a huge difference.
The bigger issue for me was the Beef Wellington. Before ordering, I asked how big it was and was told 9oz, which made sense for the $85 price. When it came out, it was clearly closer to 5oz. I mentioned this right away to my server, but she stayed silent and didn’t offer anything to address the disconnect. That really left me feeling dismissed and quite honestly for the price, a stain on an otherwise excellent experience.
The dish itself tasted ok, but had I known it was going to be that small, I would’ve gone with the 9oz filet for nearly half the price to get more protein. It’s frustrating because I did enjoy the meal, but I left feeling misled and won’t be returning again.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 5
Amazing cocktails. We went for my birthday and my favorite cocktail is the Sazerac and their bartender made me a special sazerac and it was incredible. Definitely makes my top 5!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
When I say this was one of the best dining experiences we've had, I am not exaggerating. We frequent high end restaurants such as Rocca and Oystercatchers and I can honestly say this restaurant was top of the line. Every dish was exquisite and the service was top notch. We spent over 100 a person but it was worth every penny. We will be back soon and often.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
2nd visit here and it was just as amazing as the first. Natalie was our server and she was fantastic. Cocktails, appetizers, entrees, dessert, and wine were phenomenal. We look forward to another visit.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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