Art C.
Yelp
We occasionally make our way up to Tampa. For this trip, my wife came up with this restaurant to try. The Tides is Michelin Recognized and in looking over their menu, reasonably priced. I think it was the first time either of us have visited Safety Harbor. Loved walking down Main St, where the restaurant and an ice cream place we stopped at later were located.
I'm afraid the restaurant did not live up to my rather lofty expectations. It seemed like a nice place to eat and shop, nothing stood out as special. I've since watched a video on their website and learned they do put in a lot of effort in both areas, so maybe I should have ordered better.
Let me run down the issues I had. It was noisy, could use sound dampeners. The décor was mostly artwork (I assume local) for sale. That's not a bad thing but is typical and I was expecting something that stood out more. We were there around 5pm so they still had hours of dinner time to go, yet they were already out of things. I started with their Caesar Salad, it was a disappointment. It had very little dressing, very little cheese, and to me the wrong lettuce. That's subjective. For my entrée I had their Shrimp Scampi, the 5 large shrimps had little flavor. My wife sampled the shrimp and agreed.
Things I liked were the vintage dinnerware. I really liked a sample of their Grouper Romesco my wife ordered. I liked the look of a Po' Boy sandwich I saw another table receive. I did like the pasta part of my Shrimp Scampi. Service was fine, I liked that. I liked the location along Main St, small town charm. I liked that we found a parking spot and it didn't cost money.
Tides has about 15 tables inside where we ate, some seating outside along Main St, and more seating in an area out back. Even arriving early we did have a few minute wait for a table, popular places are good places. They do not accept reservations for small parties.