Mangroves Bar & Grill

While staying at the Marriott Waterside Hotel during a recent business trip to Tampa, I knew that our small group wanted to try dining at one of the local restaurant that specialized in unique offerings of fresh seafood but had no idea where to go. Thankfully, after spending a half of an hour schlepping through the Yellow pages endless offerings of ?fried? or ?all you can eat? seafood restaurants; I asked the hotel concierge for his suggestion and was recommended Mangroves located down in the SOHO district of Hyde Park.\r \r As New Yorkers we were intrigued as to what the ?SOHO district of Hyde Park? in Tampa offered and decided to give it a try. On a side note, although I did not know it at the time, but this would prove to be the best dining experience during my stay in Tampa.\r \r After catching a cab to the restaurant, we made our way inside and after a few moments of taking in the exquisite decor, I immediately knew that I was in the right spot. This place is classy. \r \r Once we were seated I asked about any house specialties or unique creations. To which the server replied that the chef had a real talent for making sushi rolls that were like nothing else around and that specifically that we should try the Volcano roll. I decided why not, and ordered one. To say that I knew what to expect would have in no way done justice to how incredible this roll turned out to be!\r \r This Volcano was nothing like I had ever had and the presentation was stunning. The roll was filled with fresh tuna, cream cheese, and asparagus, wrapped in seaweed & rice, topped with avocado and was cut into bite size pieces that were arranged on the plate in a circle which was filled with steaming scallops and sea bass that had been baked in a spicy mayo. WOW! What a creation. This roll was so good that we ordered another one and enjoyed every bite of that one as well.\r \r Without a doubt, Mangroves will be one of the first places on my list the next time I am in town.\r \r T. Reed \r more

Dave and Mario are not only two of the best bartenders in town, the are SUPER HOT!!!! Go check them out ladies ( and some gents)!! You will not be disappointed with their superb service or hottness, no joke!! They have an amazing martini list, one of my favorites is the dirty margarita martini. The food is great too. I went for Valentines day and had Alaskan King Crab legs and Sea Bass-DELICIOUS !!!!! This is a great place to bring a date, it is very romantic for dinner, and at night there is a great looking crowd. I have also celebrated birthdays there, and it has always been a blast!! Pros: Bartenders!!! more

I planned my best friend's 40th birthday upstairs and it was perfect. The owner and manager helped me plan the party and helped me select the food and how to set it up. It looked beautiful the food was delicious, I got so many compliments on the food and service. The birthday girl was surprised and had a wonderful time. Thank you Mangroves! more

Made reservations for my anniversary, and our experience was fantastic from the momenet we arrived to the end of the night with drinks outside. Dave our server, knew it was our anniversay and gave us some champagne with raspberries. Kara loved that. Our service was exceptional and the food out of this world. Started with crab cakes and short ribs. Dinner we had snapper and lamb both great. I will continue to come back. more

I must say it is impressive when you waiter tells you that they are sorry that they are out of tuna because when it was delivered the chef refused it because it was not up to his standerd grade. I was disappointed that I could not eat any tuna but it also reassured me that Mangroves does only cook you top quality food. My very frienly waiter talked me in to the sushi roll of the day for our appetizer with the gag grouper?...melt in my mouth amazing, best roll I have ever eaten. For our dinner we had the snapper and the fish of the day once again the gag grouper? I could not get enough of this fresh fish that the waiter said just was caught the day before. The sauce was so good, rosemary and basil oil. My boyfriend really enjoyed the chimichuri? snapper too. The restaurant and bar has a very warm feeling nice colors and beautifully designed, very chic! more

Me and 5 of my friends came down from NY last Friday. We had mistakenly made dinner reservations for Saturday night. I call the resturant early Friday hopping I can change my reservation to Friday. I spoke to Tony and he quickly said, just tell me what you want and I'll make it happen. Tony then asked if we would you be staying for late night. I told him I did'nt know that mangroves turned intoo a late night club. He assured me that it was the hottest spot to be on a Friday and Saturday. Being we had never been to manrgoves I decided to take his word, and asked if he would be waitng on us, his response was if you ask me to. When we arrive (late) Joey the manager showed us to our VIP table set us up with our menu's for late night food. Tony shortly followed and instead of acting like a waiter, he sat right down like he was part of our party. Little did we know the night Tony had instore for us. We ordred a bottle of Goose and ton's of awsome food. Tony not only brought our food quickly (throught the mad crowd of people) our table was constantly spotless, our drinks always full. He even went as far as introducing us to some hot chicks that we chilled with through out the night. I told tony that if he ever moves back to NY he's got a job in my nightclub. Whenever we come back to tampa, Mangroves and Tony will be our first choice. Rock on Mangroves. Pros: Service by Tony more

The new Mangroves is ultra cool, & very stlyish. The food is delicious, the service was ok, our server did what he had to do to get by. When we arrived our party of 4 was seated in a large booth that was very cozy. We were starving and wanted to order right away and our server just seemed to take his time getting our drinks & apps first. It was a longer experience than we anticipated, we saw tables after us get their food first. I can only assume our server did not put the order in right away or forgot to. He was just slow. The manger must have noticed that we were looking around and asked us how we were doing. He was very nice and bought us a bottle of wine when we told him our server was not on his game. When the food arrived the plates looked like a piece of art. We ate the scallops, tuna sear, crab cakes & spinach salad for the first couse all perfect. The second course we ordered filet, ribeye, snapper and chicken all delicious as well. The lobster ravioli with the ribeye is just out of this world. We will definatley be back! Pros: food & atmosphere Cons: slow server more

Mangroves is just brilliant, the food is picture perfect and is so tasty. We had a lovely British waiter that was so helpful in helping us make our choices, we felt at home. We dined upstairs at a nice table overlooking the beautiful glass colored bar. For starters we had the ceviche & the spinach salad, both were divine. We ate the ribeye with the bone in, it had so much flavor and was cooked to perfection and the salmon for our main course. For dessert we skipped the sweets and had the imported fruit and cheese platter which was far too large, we only snacked on it but was a wonderful selection. The martinis were fab as well. more

i read the article on mangroves yesterday, i had never even heard of mangroves before, but the photos were so beautiful that it made me want to see the rest of the place. my friend and i went for dinner, the article did not do this place justice. i was stunned when i walked in with how beautiful it was. we sat in a big private booth that would be perfect for a romatic date and ate a great meal of seabass & ahi. we saved room for the twix dessert, the chef suggested it when he came by the table...i know i must have gained 5 pounds with that alone.....it was soooo good!!! i loved it so much that I made reservations for mothers day before i left. Pros: decor, food, peach bellini Cons: the dipping oil had too much garlic for my taste more

I just love going to Mangroves, it is a place very colse to my heart. Not only is the restaurant absolutly beautiful but the food is delicious and the staff is always friendly. I had my sit down rehearsal dinner for 80 several years ago and my baby showers here. My friends and family raved about the food and the service. I have owned a hair salon in South Tampa for 16 years and have referred many clients and friends to Mangroves for events and dinner and I will continue to do so....Tracy Amos Pros: food, service, ambience Cons: not open for lunch more

Yes, Mangroves has been open for 12yrs, BUT it's not the first time they have received complaints on service, management and even the owners wife or the owner herself! I've been a patron of Mangroves since the depressing blue decor and the horrible food days! I've seen many reviews in the paper over the years, some good and some bad! One thing is for sure, if they didn't have the ""hook up"" for the late night, the beautiful restaurant would probably never survive! So a little advice for the friendly staff of Mangroves, if your gonna be a night club then due so, but if you wanna be restaurant take notes from Bern's and learn how to run your business in a professional manner! There is never a need for insulting a guest ,weather they are right or wrong! You should be a better person and never had let the situatiuon boil to the point that it did! Maybe a management training program would be sufficiant and just maybe you can get the ""owners wife"" to attend! Remeber, a team is only as good as it's leader! So as a professional bartender, try saying something not so insulting in the future, because all your doing is lowering yourself down to their level! Thanks for all the great drinks and I hope you can get pass this! Pros: GREAT looking ladies! Cons: valet, owners wife more

as an employee of mangroves I feel the need to add my 2 cents.. I was working the night of this wedding reception and feel the young ladies comments aren't accurate. I understand that wedding receptions can get rowdy but consideration has to be given to the other guests. the women this lady referred to is the owner, not the owners wife , and has an obligation to make the dining experience of her guests a pleasant one. this party was loud and obnoxious and was yelling obscenities to where every person in the building heard it. of coarse the owner is going to ask you to quiet down. this young lady and her party were asked politely several times before they were asked to leave. I think had the owner known what this party had in mind, she would've never booked it. I think also the party should've considered a more appropriate location. like maybe what the other gentleman said. skippers. she did buy the entire restaurant a bottle of wine for their inconvienence. the owner also never was rude or impolite. the ""white trash"" comment came from me and I said the party was acting trashy and needed to leave. again this was after her party was yelling out obscenities and making rude gestures. grown people shouldn't be reminded how to act. the owner was 100% in the right by asking a disruptive and rude party to leave. mangroves has been in business for 12 years and is not going to let one party ruin their reputation. ive been working at mangroves for 5 years this month and never seen a display of rude and tacky behavior Pros: great bartenders more

i went to mangroves for the first time this past saturday. ive heard so much about the food and wanted to try it out. i must say that it was one of the best meals ive ever had. i had the filet and my wife had the seabass and both were perfect. we had a glass of wine with dinner and an after dinner martini which was also perfect. towards the end of our evening there were some loud kids upstairs that were be extemely loud and vulger, which as a parent i didnt appreciate. by the looks of these people they shouldve went to skippers. the owner was quick to ask them to leave and after some drunken banter from the unruley guests, they left. after the squabble, the owner personally went to every table and aplogized for the disturbance and bought every table a bottle of wine. she was absolutely a class act and me and my family appreciate the service and i recommend mangroves to everyone!! more

Well, I booked my wedding reception @ Mangrove's South Tampa location. I had dinner and open bar upstairs 5-9. Everyone was there by the time my hubby and I arrived. Then the food was served about 6:20. About 7:15 I was ready to throw my bouquet; the owners wife, the manager on duty told me I wasn't allowed to throw the bouquet, and she didn't want my garter thrown either. The crowd was getting too noisy, and we needed to tone things down. Well, after reminding her that this was a WEDDING RECEPTION, with more than 60 invitations, which not all showed up, you should expect some noise. Anyhow, about 30 minutes later, the manager comes over to us again and tells us we are being out of control, and on the virge of kicking us out on my wedding day. My husband comes to the rescue and has the idea of moving the now smaller party outside- we need to say bye to our guests and end the evening calmly and not be thrown out- she agreed but then........here is the worst ever...........the manager...aka...the owner's wife....calls me and everyone else there ""white trash"". Now, as the owner's wife, she should know that isn't how you handle any situation. Actually, you are throwing all business ethics out the window, which is not very smart. I have never been so disrespected by anyone before. We used discression to try and divert from any problem occuring, and her poor experience in a rowdy crowd was unacceptable! \r \r Don't ever dine there. The food is just okay, and you can be treated better in over 100 restaraunts in Tampa. Use this guide to help you find what you are looking for, because I promise this is not the place. Pros: The bartenders were all polite Cons: the management and other service was unacceptable behavior more

Our eating experience at Mangroves Northdale was delightful and the service exceptional. The atmosphere is very calming and the decor is pleasing to the eye. Our favorite appetizers were the beef short ribs as well as the brie. Our dinner selections were also delicious. I chose the seabass which is one of the most delightful, mouth pleasing dishes I have ever eaten. My husband had the blackened ribeye and the flavor was good. He felt that it was slightly overcooked. The server offered to have it replaced but it wasn't that much overcooked. Overall we would highly recommend Mangroves Northdale. If our service was this good when they are so new, we can expect nothing but perfection in the future. more

I love coming hear for the appetizer and bottle of wine. the music is great on Friday nights if you want to stay for the bar scene. more

SERVICE HORRIBLE!!!! FOOD NO FLAVOR!!!!! DRINKS AVERAGE!!!!MANAGEMENT GET A CLUE!!!!! WE WILL NEVER RETURN WILL ALSO SPREAD THE WORD T EVERYONE IN NORTHDALE HOW RUDE YOU PEOPLE ARE more

I just had an amazing dinner at Mangroves Northdale!! I had been waiting anxiously for the restaurant to open since I live in Carrollwood and I am surrounded by all the corporate restaurant chains. I was very impressed how beautifully decorated and sophisticated it looked! Very classy-especially with all the candles everywhere you look. It was so hard to choose from the menu b/c everything sounded amazing. My girlfriends and I shared some appetizers...loved the tuna tartare, brie and crab cakes!!! For my entree I had the seabass which melted in my mouth and my friends had the chicken roulade , scallops and steak which all were yummy as well! We were in a booth which was so cool, we couldn't believe that we hung out for 4 hrs!! Definately plan on coming back as my new hangout-no longer need to drive to south tampa to feel like I am in the suburbs. more

burger server better meat than this place. hey chef learn how to cook a steak to a prpoer temo. on a scale of 1 to 10 i would give mangroves a -2 more

This was my first time here & I came with 6 friends to celebrate my birthday. They arranged for us to be in this private room with curtains. We ate several appetizers and lots of martinis. The staff was great, we all had seperate checks, birthday cake, & they even helped me to the car with my gifts. Dave our main server went beyond the call of duty... This is a fun place with a good vibe & nice food. Pros: martinis Cons: They were out of the fresh peaches for my martini more