Columbia Restaurant - Ybor City

always a favorite and consistently good. oddly very busy for a Tuesday night

Buen servicio , buena comida y un show de flamenco espectacular 🥰👍

Service was poor, people ahead of us were seated later and served first Same food One of our people had a salad only...that was served way before anyone elses meals...I feel it should have been served along with our meals. He was not asked before hand. I had salad/soup combo. Soup was not served until I asked for it. Then it seems so different than before. It was like it had not cooked long enough. Sorry for that. Server seemed a veteran so not sure where the screw up was.

Great food!

Great food, great ambience, great history. If you are in the area and have never eaten at Columbia it is a must!

The sangria was excellent. Service was outstanding and my Manchego Chicken was delicious! I even had enough leftover for a sandwich.

Every time we drive to southern Florida we make it a point to stop at the Columbia for lunch or dinner. We stopped today and the food and coffee didn’t disappoint, however our waitress did. Luisa unfortunately came across condescending and made the experience one we’d rather not repeat. Even though it wasn’t very busy, she wasn’t attentive to our table. It was apparent she was much more interested in her other tables and that’s why long caps in service occurred. It seems this has soured our tradition. We will visit the St Armands location if we go back.

EDR

As usual outstanding food and service!
Rhonda L

Fish was undercooked. Rice was cold. Plantains were either underripe or starting to rot.

The service was very good, restaurant is a bit lively, but fun. I tried the sampler, best empanada I've ever had, and I've tried a lot. The food was amazing, the bread pudding is a must. All around good food, good price. I would definitely drive the 1.5 hours to go again. We had a party of 5 and everyone, left very happy.

Excellent food, fun server, excellent entertainment. Food was expensive but worth it.

We asked to be in the Flamenco room for the show and Scott accommodated my request. Pedro our server/host was Awesome and for myself, the experience was one of many there over my lifetime that’s is Fantastic. My guest my new Special Girl in my life was very happy and enjoyed her time and this was her first time. She is actually from Colombia and loved the dancers, the setting, service and the food.

Thank you!

The atmosphere is amazing and we loved the fact that you can learn the history of the restaurant via wall art and small sculptures. The wait was longer than expected. Our reservation was for 8:30 but we weren't seated until 8:50. The food was at our table by 9:50, which is not terrible but not great either. The drinks were excellent. Our server (Alijandro) was great and very knowledgeable.

Excellent wait staff. Nice that the restaurant has a dress code so you can enjoy yourself.

Food and drinks are always good and this is the first time we added the flamenco dance to our reservation. Makes fora great evening.

Really great service AND food. Also got the Flamenco show.

We had a lovely dinner in an absolutely 5star setting, 5 star food along with 5star service. If you like music, the duo played in the bar area and were very good but if you need a quieter setting to facilitate conversation reserve the main dining area.

Great service from our waitress Kayla. Our anniversary was super special thanks to the treatment, delish food and ambience of this location.

Amazing meal and service!! Beautiful setting and atmosphere.

Great lunch, glad I made reservations! Good food, perfect amount of food, great time for my friends too.

Amazing food as always. Service was very slow. Maybe our waiter had too many tables but it took two hours for lunch.

Great! I wish I knew about the show room before though.

We arrived early for our reservation so we sat at the bar. The drinks were made nicely. When we were sat at our table, I was please as it was in the pretty front room. Unfortunately a server didn’t greet us for a good 5-10 minutes. When we did it was pretty cut and dry and straight to our order. We ordered tapas and our meals. The tapas took quite a while, but were good. We received a bread at the same time even though all other tables received prior. When our meals came out, they looked very appealing. My Palomilla was quite nice however my husbands pork was dry. We would have told someone but another server was who came when I asked for a box for my leftovers. We were looking forward to this from all the rave reviews but don’t feel it’s worth trying again.

My husband and I absolutely loved the food… We did the tapas sampler with the mushrooms, scallops and shrimp… Each one was so delicious… our waitress was really friendly and gave us time to enjoy our dinner as we usually go really slow when we eat… We will definitely be back!

Great food and service. The best ever

I made a Rez on open table, got a confirmation call from the Columbia the night before!, and we were 10 minutes ahead of our Rez time. and we were seated 15 minutes after our Rez time near the fountain in the airy indoor sunlit dining room. Servers arrived at our table in the method of the Columbia service tradition.
Soft drinks arrived. The cocktail didn’t for 20 minutes.
We ordered 3 1905 salads. One full, salad, one half salad with bean soup and one half salad with shrimp and gazpacho.
We waited until another 20 for our confused presentation. Bean soup and shrimp together, no gazpacho. Another server ran to get that, and we enjoyed the tasty meal. Another 30 to enjoy the food.
The plates weren’t bussed for another 15 and we wanted dessert. She had the check as she bussed the table. I did tell them when we checked in, it was an octogenarians birthday!
We were looking forward to our leisurely lunch, but didn’t anticipate 2 +hours. Multiple service people, manager, passed the dirty table and it was obvious we were not “well taken care of” by the server. I guess she had several tables, but we felt neglected. The to go drink helped me give service 2 stars. But I anticipated 1:15 total time spent here and the next activity time was shorter than was planned. Beautiful venue, tasty food. Servers need to team up more. Raise prices no tips raise wages. Everyone is responsible for the customer client experience.

The restaurant was amazing. Everything we ordered was perfect, servers were wonderful, and the ambiance was great. My only complaint is that OpenTable tells you to write if you want a reservation to the flamenco show in the comments, but the restaurant says that they only do those reservations via phone. So there is a bit of a disconnect between the restaurant and OpenTable.

Disappointing service and food. We sat for over 15 min before our waiter appeared. Then, it took another 15 min for draft beer to arrive--we should have gone to the bar ourselves.

We asked for two checks and the waiter didn't seem to have an issue with out request, but items were completely mixed up on the bills.

The food was average to bland--and it took over a half hour before starters arrived.

Sad to see a Tampa institution fall so far--I'm sure labor shortages are a factor.

Food and ambience were extra good. We were seated within 10 minutes of our reservation. The hostess was so-so, we didn't get a very warm welcome. The wait service started out astonishingly poor. We were seated for 20 whole minutes before we finally asked the waitress if we could order drinks. That was extra weird because that is usually what restaurants start people off with. After that point, though, everything was smooth and pleasant. I feel like the vegan options should be a bit cheaper. A plate of vegetable-only paella for $26 is a bit steep. The entrees with meat are what I would expect at a place like this.

Carlos was our server and he made the dining experience wonderful. The food. Is delicious and a good value

Our waitress brought waters and butter and took our order, then we didn’t see her again for 25 minutes. I had to tell two hostesses about it before our waitress returned to our table.

When I made my reservation I knew I didn’t want to sit in the bar area. Of course where did they put us, right, in the bar area. I have been to The Columbia many time but my guest has not and I wanted a nicer experience for her. The bar area is very noisy!
The waitress was excellent and the food also excellent but the ambiance was definitely lacking.

We love the salad and Cuban sandwich with a pitcher of champagne sangria.

The paella was said to be a large portion yet barely filled a salad plate. Service was slow and the food was barely warm when served.

The food, service and dancers made for a perfect night!

Great food and service was wonderful. Carlos was so helpful

Everything was perfect. Never disappointed at The Columbia.

Birthday for a friend

Paul delivered EXCELLENT service, the food was wildly phenomenal, and the atmosphere was impeccable. My strawberry gimlet was AMAZING! Too bad I can only give five stars… They deserve so much more!

Our waitress, Lesley, was terrific the food amazing and the atmosphere was charming! Definitely going again! Love the free parking.