Ballyhoo Bar & Grill, Tampa, Florida Restaurant Details

Food:

Evan and Mike are the nicest and the coolest bartenders ever,Linda,The manager is very nice. I live down the street and walk up a lot..I love to sit on the covered patio or under one of the big umbrellas and smoke a cigar and enjoy a cold beer..I also love to listen to live music on Friday and Saturday evenings...I have been a Ballyhoo patron ever since they first opened for business back in February of 1998..I am so glad that they added the covered patio and the big umbrellas in the parking lot,And also the steps up to the covered patio were a great addition..I just wish that they had added them when they first opened for business and I also love the TV's on the covered patio,Especially during football season..Bekah is one of the nicest waitresses and is my personal favorite to have wait on me..I like all the employees,They even know me by name..I feel like Norm Peterson on Cheers whenever I walk in..Ballyhoo..The place where everybody knows your name.

Food:

I visited here earlier this week and I'm not sure what a lot of these negative reviews are talking about. I had AYCE crab legs, and the majority of them were great - especially for the price. The service was super friendly and incredibly attentive - even though our waitress was servicing at least 2 other parties of 8+ people. I don't remember her name, but she was definitely on top of things. I would definitely visit here again.

Food:

Underwhelming food and inattentive service. We tried Ballyhoo's twice thinking the crappy service and run of the mill food was just a fluke. It's not. You can get better food and better service at a Red Lobster. And save some money to boot.

Food:

The service is horrid and frankly, its probably the worst I've see in a while. We got there from the bike trail and after parking our bikes realized all 4 of the tikihuts and three of the outside high tops were empty (but needed to be cleaned). We walked up to the host and asked to be seated outside and she actually said they didn't have any tables outside. When we pointed out that there were 3 empty tables, she said it will take 15 min to clean! I think they were just the laziest staff I've seen.

In all honesty, they should really invest in some good staff because the food when you actually get it is not bad. We were there this past weekend and ordered two beers and a fish spread. We had our fish spread delivered in 10 minutes by the manager which was quite tasty.

After 20 minutes with no beer or water, and trying to chase our server down, we could not figure out what to do. I went to let the manager know that we'd like to cash out. I followed the Manager to the bar to cash where our server coincidentally sees us and asks the bartender for the beers... the bartender says "I told you 20 minutes ago that we are out of that beer!". I was shocked that the beer we ordered wasn't even available and it took her 20 min to remember that!

All up just dreadful service... good fish spread though.

Food:

Some of the worst food I have had. I am a local and use to go to this restaurant frequently when it was Crabby Bills and the food and atmosphere was excellent. I have visited Ballyhoo Grill two times now and both times the food was horrible. This is a seafood restaurant who is trying to apply a Greek style to all its food and it does not work. There is Cheese on EVERYTHING and even if you ask for no cheese it will still have cheese on it, they are obsessed with cheese. My wife got the Alfredo Shrimp dinner and it was just like pasta with cheese soup, it was so watery. I got a shrimp and scallop dinner and it was just horrible and of course had cheese sprinkled on everything, including my potato salad and coleslaw! The place is empty and it seems like the owners either don't care or just don't listen to their customers. I will never go back again.