Columbia Restaurant

Today we made finding this place our mission and are we glad we did. First of all the building is beautiful. The service was exceptional, our waiter, Chris from the Philippines, was highly professional and the food was excellent. We had Sangria, Salad 1905, Salteado and Plato Cubano and everything was delicious. I would go there regularly if I lived here.

Στο κέντρο του ybor city βρίσκεται σε ένα όμορφο κσι διατηρητέο κτίριο το εν λόγω εστιστορ μπαρ.Νόστιμα και γευστικά τα πιάτα,καθως και εξαιρετικά κοκτέιλ .Αξίζει την επίσκεψη.

Ate here on a whim at an off time of day on a Monday and it was still super busy. They got us situated in a corner of a beautiful dining room within minutes. I had a great mojito, the kind you hope for when you order one somewhere else. We had seafood tapas and they were so good I want to leave the beach to drive back into Tampa right now. Would love to return and try a fish dinner or one of their paellas next visit.

This restaurant was recommended to us by friends who live in Tampa. In the fall of 2016 we spent six weeks in Spain touring the country and eating at many of the wonderful restaurants. This restaurant and the food they serve are truly authentic. When we arrived @ 12:00 for lunch, we were told there was a 30-45 minute wait so we headed to the huge, beautiful,dark-wood bar. We found two seats after the second trip around the bar. The wait staff was attentive, friendly and efficient and asked if we'd like to order lunch. Of course we said yes and a few minutes after our beers were delivered, a basket of yummy, warm fresh baked & crusty bread was delivered with small dish of butter. We ordered a three tapaeo sampler to share with great local dark beers from Coppertail Brewery called "Night Swim Porter," described as (&true to the description) dark & delicious, rich & toasty with a hint of chocolate. DH & I each had two, they were so good! We will be checking the stores here in FL to bring some Night Swim Porter home. For sure!Now back to the tapas. Calamari fries-fresh & cooked perfectly - nothing rubbery here!! BEST we've ever had! A very healthy portion; we had to share with a neighbor the portion was so good. Next tapa was two empanadas, fixed exactly as they should be & delicious. Third tapa was Shrimp & Crabmeat Alcachofas, a small baked casserole of shrimp, crabmeat and artichoke hearts topped with grated Romano cheese served with round soda crackers. The crackers were not so great so we slathered the rich ingredients onto the crusty bread - perfect!They have seven locations but the one here in Yabor City is the original. The restaurant celebrated the 100th anniversary back in 2005, with members of the 4th, 5th & 6th generations of family preparing & serving their guests along with some of their famous, long-time servers. Next door is a quaint gift shop with beautiful Spanish serving pieces, fresh spices & of course, the family cookbooks!This is truly a unique ( and delicious) experience. We highly recommend a visit!!

Oldest restaurant this is a must stop in Ybor. Fsu spot with many rooms. We like the bar area. Also, a space for dinner and flamingo dance show. Wonderful atmosphere. Tapas plate full mains and the best chopped salad in the area. Gets loud on the weekends but part of the fun. A local experience.

This is the third Columbia that we have visited in Florida & we just can't stay away from them! The food is classically Spanish and delightfully delicious! For me they Columbia salad is a classic the Canberra repeated several different ways with shrimp turkey or ham. My husbands favorite is the key lime pie with no obvious additives, which means it isn't bright green but that rather that golden yellow color from the juice that comes from real key limes! Don't mess the fabulous tiles on the exterior of this building; they are classic old Florida and provide a history of the area.

Been coming here for years. Never disappoints. Tapas are great for a light meal. Ybor City is a neat area that is easy to get to and find parking.

As a Spanish couple that food was far from good. We had better at a less expensive restaurant. :-((. Also very loud can't here your partner talking. Over over priced will not go back.

This place is one of the oldest and best restaurants in Tampa. All the food is fantastic. A very interesting place to eat with a lot of History . A great place and a must to see while in Tampa. The wait staff is fantastic. No better service anywhere . Make sure you stop in their store for a recipe book , plates and serving platters that are just beautiful. Thanks to The Family for keeping this place open.

I was expecting fine dining service. The waiters and hostess were nicely dressed and the decor had a very nice old Spanish charm. We waited a few minutes for our reserved table but were finally taken by the hostess who was very friendly. We had paid the extra $6 per person to see the flamenco show and so we were taken to the show dining room. Compared to all the other rooms I had seen this room was poorly decorated. The chairs looked like they had been taken from some 1980's hotel conference room and in general it looked a bit old and dirty. On top of that they have so many tables packed into that room I felt like we were in the way of the passing servers and the table next to us was so close to us they couldn't help but hear our entire conversation. Our waiter (Raul) came to our table almost as soon as we sat down and with very little introduction otherwise said that he would be back to take our drink orders. About 5-7 minutes later he came back to take our drink orders. Soon after he brought our drinks and said he would be back to take our food order. He seemed busy and distracted. About 20 minutes later, he finally returned to take our food order. He quickly walked off. About 5 minutes later he passed by and promised to bring us some bread to munch on while we waited. The bread took about another 15 minutes to arrive. By this time we were starving so we scarfed down the bread which was very dry and crumbled all over the table. Raul never once apologized for any of his tardiness. Finally about 10 minutes later our food arrived. My order was the chicken and shrimp combination dish with lobster bisque sauce. Immediately after they set it down the food had on extremely strong unappealing fishy smell to it. The flavor was just OK and the chicken was pretty tough. The portioning and presentation was very disappointing, definitely not something I would be willing to pay $20 for again. My husband ordered the New York strip and was also very disappointed by the lack of flavor and very lazy presentation. Not once did Raul come to check on us to see if we were enjoying our meal and we were so hungry by then we just ate what we had.He also never once came back to refill my water. After our empty plates had been sitting in front of me for several minutes he finally returned to take away our plates, again not bothering to ask us if we had enjoyed our meal. He returned several minutes later with the bill in hand and asked us if we wanted dessert. Although I was in the mood for something sweet I had a feeling we would be disappointed by our dessert as well so we passed. Our bill was $83, which was for our two entrees my husband's glass of sangria, the flamenco show fee and a bottled water which we never asked for but he charged us anyway. Unfortunately since our meal took so long we were already running late for our next reservation that evening so even though I would have loved to speak to a manager about our experience we just didn't have the time. Raul was friendly after we had paid the bill after asking him several times if he could take a quick picture of me and my husband he finally returned to do so. The flamenco show was entertaining and I enjoyed it. But certainly not worth more than $6. Most of the women dancers were good but the two male dancers looked as if they had just learned the dance steps and seemed very inexperienced and bored with their job. It was actually quite comical. And there was one older female dancer, who later introduced herself as the choreographer for the dance group, who was just not very good and a bit awkward to watch as she did her solos on stage. Overall a good show and we enjoyed it but those male dancers need to be replaced. Overall we had a very poor experience at The Columbia and had it not been for the show I would have left much more upset at the value of the place. The prices for the food are just too high for the type of service and atmosphere you get. I would not recommend this place unless you are willing to pay 5 star prices for 2 star service.