The Pub Tampa

I usually try to stay away from chain style restaurants for many reasons (bland food, mediocre service and unfortunately the beer isn’t always cold) but when I read about the Pub Tampa I thought I would give it a shot.  To me it doesn’t seem very “chainy” but there are locations in various states and other cities.  Here’s how it went:

Appearance:

This restaurants name holds true to its theme inside and out.  Upon arrival the outside area of The Pub looks reminiscent of an English style bar.  The inside had such décor as an old red London phone booth and a huge Union Jack on the ceiling.  There was plenty of seating around the establishment including the huge open bar although many seats were taken up.  The bathrooms were upstairs which seemed a little odd and out of the way but I could not complain about the cleanliness and up keep of them.  Upstairs there was even more seating and a sweet self serve bar that I will touch on later.

Atmosphere:

The Pub is located in the International Mall eatery section.  Accessible from the interstate it only took me 30 minutes or so from Riverview to arrive.  No reservations were needed and we had just a 15 minute wait during the lunch hour.  Although the mall area is somewhat known to be a more “classy” *cough, cough* expensive place, there were all walks of life sitting down eating and drinking.  The dress code from what I could tell was causal (I had on a Rays polo and jeans).  Adding the theme, servers and hostesses were all wearing plaid kilts and yes that included the men.  There are many other bars and restaurants within walking distance as well as the mall.  Parking was available with a valet option.

Service:

 When we put our names in the get a table the hostess seemed a little distracted but quickly took down our names and even asked if we would like to have our phones texted when our table was ready.  During our wait we found some room at the bar and had a drink from one of the many beers they had on tap.  The bartender had a good sense of humor as he carded us and commented on my nice haircut (on my ID I have hair but I keep it shaved now).  After we got the ok that our table was ready our server came up soon after and went over the menu with us explaining any thing we had questions on.  He was there every time we needed a re-fill and was good about keeping an eye on us without being a pest.  The appetizer and meals came out in a timely manner.  The only flub our server had was at the very end when he brought us the wrong check and although it was way cheaper than the bill we had accumulated I didn’t want to be a victim of karma so I notified our guy when he came back around.

Food & Drinks:

The Pub offers traditional “pub fare” as well as many other items including soups and salads.  There is a page consisting mainly of paninis and of course you can still order your favorite burgers and sides.  Since we were in the spirits of the English style restaurant we chose to order Sheppard’s pie and fish and chips as our main entrees.  While we waited on those we also ordered stuffed mushrooms to tide us over.  They came out quickly and definitely sated us until the main course came out.  The stuffed mushrooms seemed fresh and baked to a tasty cheesy perfection.  Soon after we devoured the app our main meals arrived.  Both were well prepared and served at a nice temperature as they must not have been sitting under a heat lamp waiting for us.  The fish had a nice battered breading to them and the portion was plentiful.  The shepards pie was a decent sized portion as well.  The veggies used in it tasted fresh and the seasoning was nice.  Now I would not boast that this was the best food I’ve ever tasted but it sure hit the spot and I wasn’t disappointed.  During our meal I ordered a litany of brews from a Small Batch 471 (a deliciously strong seasonal IPA) to Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch (another strong beer whose bark was worse than its bite).   The beer portion of the menu was broken down by countries, draughts and bottles.  If you couldn’t find a beer you enjoyed you didn’t search hard enough.  Beer prices ranged between 4 and 7 dollars while the food was around $10 to $15 a plate. 

                 

Extras:

 I mentioned before an upstairs that had a self serve beer wall.  This was the main point I wanted to travel to this place and check it out.  There are 20 taps divided into four sections each with an IPad above them displaying the information for each beer.  All we had to do was get an electronic card from the hostess upstairs (which actually took a little longer to find than we were anticipating) and swipe it in front of the pad to access the beer.  The whole system keeps track of how many ounces you pour and tabulates what your total is as you go.  You only want to try a little bit?  Just pour a few ounces.  Already know you like a beer?  Pour a full glass.  It is truly up to you how much and of what beer you will drink.  A lot of the beers as 34 cents an ounce and it was at this point that I was glad the restrooms were indeed located upstairs.  A few other extras were the upstairs and downstairs outside seating.  There were a few TV’s scattered through the place but it wasn’t a very heavily themed sports place so I wasn’t expecting too many.

Conclusion:

The Pub provided good service for being located in a slew of other eateries and bars.  As a beer enthusiast I was most excited for the selection and beer wall upstairs but wasn’t let down by the food or people.  Our meals were decent although one could argue a little bit over priced due to the area and the fringe things that may have drawn the patrons in.  I would definitely come here again maybe just to grab lunch or probably even just to knock back a few and try out a few more beers.  For more info check out their link I have provided in the Restaurant Sites section.  My overall experience was 4 out of 5 stars.

Comming Soon:

The Bungalow, Babe's Pizza & The Laughing Cat