717 South

So, I’ve had several adequate experiences here, but I can’t rave about the food. The service and the drinks are above par and I would definitely come back for say a happy hour or the like. Dinner was not to my liking, but the ambiance and décor make up for it. This is a good spot for after work drinks or hanging with your girls or homies!

Best things on the menu: brussel sprouts and duck breast. Happy hours weekdays before 7 with $ 5 apps. Pleasant service. I always look forward to coming here.

717 South has a great happy hour. The fish tacos are excellent and the calamari is really good too. The place is very upscale inside. The staff takes good care of the customers. 717 South also has a good looking clientele-​just sayin’.

One of my personal favorites located in South Tampa directly off Howard. Amazing food put together by a great chef and kitchen staff. Environment is always booming with good vibes, warmth and comfort. You will find a great crowd at 717 any day of the week no matter what the occasion. Make sure to indulge in their delectable dinner and dessert choices.

Today 717 got bumped down the list on places I love to eat. I’m very disappointed.
Our sever was very sweet, and initially gave a great impression, but in the end we were not satisfied. My husband had the Caesar salad and lasagna. I had a bite of each and they were good. He thought both were ok. Prior to ordering, my husband asked about the size of the lasagna and she said it was huge. It wasn’t huge. It was wide, but it was short, so basically is was a normal piece of lasagna. He ate the whole thing even after eating the Caesar salad. I had the warm spinach salad, which is delicious. The let down was that I added salmon, which was NOT good. Very bland… No flavor at all, which really surprised me for this restaurant. Because the sever didn’t come back until I was one bite away from being done with the salmon I didn’t have the opportunity to tell her sooner that it wasn’t good. It didn’t taste bad, it just didn’t taste like anything. I told the server that the salmon wasn’t good, it was very bland, and that I was disappointed with it. She said she would tell «them «. I don’t know who «them «is, but apparently they didn’t care that I was disappointed with the salmon. No one came over, no one apologized, and when she brought the check I had still been charged for it. Not what I would expect from this restaurant. We paid the bill and left.
So, fail for three reasons: Not good salmon, took too long to see if we were happy with our meals, and no one gave a crap that a customer said they were disappointed. Not Ok.

On a recent Friday evening, I ventured down to South Tampa for dinner, and had a great meal at 717 South. The restaurant is located on South Howard Avenue, just south of Swann, and they have plenty of free spaces to park (which is very rare in South Tampa). There’s a little alley way between the restaurant and the Starbucks next door, and that leads back to a spacious parking area.
The restaurant is very elegant with it’s 1920’s art deco paintings, wood trim, high ceilings, a large bar area, and an open kitchen. The lighting is subdued, and the crowd was dressed for dinner and a night out on the town. The bar was filled with people who were either enjoying their drinks, or waiting for a table to open on this busy weekend night.
I was seated along the wall in the dining room, and it was a bit dark — a candle on the table, or a pinpoint light overhead would have definitely helped. Thankfully I was able to use the light from my cellphone to read the menu, and my server was right there to answer questions.
The wine list is fantastic, with several hundred bottles from which to choose, and I had fun perusing the different selections. My server, Anthony, guided me through all of my dinner choices, and made some great suggestions, including a recommendation for my wine by the glass — a fabulous Castle Rock Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Washington state. The wine paired well with the heavier flavors of my meal.
I started with a cup of their creamy crab bisque, which was loaded with lump crabmeat. Very rich and tasty! My entrée was the 12-​ounce hand-​cut New York strip, grilled medium, and served with a kumquat and tamarind compound butter, crispy fried onion strings, house-​cured bacon mac and cheese, and sautéed Swiss chard. YUM!!!
717 South’s menu is filled with fresh and local ingredients, including hormone-​free chicken and when possible, seafood that is harvested in a sustainable fashion. They wood fire all of the in-​house hand-​cut steaks. They serve pastas and risottos, Asian pot roast, Szechwan duck breast, pistachio-​crusted lamb, and smoked pork Delmonico, in addition to a great selection of steaks and seafood. They offer authentic Italian dishes, exotic seafood from the Pacific Rim, and all of their great wood-​fired specialties.
This is a wonderful dinner date restaurant, or a place to celebrate a big business deal. it is not at all pretentious, and the servers are terrific, but I suggest that you save your cargo shorts and flip flops for a different restaurant on South Howard. By the way, if you enjoy 717 South, their sister restaurant (Ava) is located right across Howard Avenue.

During a business lunch meeting, I ordered food to go, never received it, but it was on the bill I had already paid out. They swore they would void it and refund me, but instead charged me yet again for it. I’ve been back in person twice and this is still not resolved. Basically I’ve paid twice for food I didn’t receive. While the food quality there is usually good, the server was incredibly slow and the manager made a promise to fix his mistake but never did. As a result of so many things gone wrong with this last visit, our group that regularly meets there has already scheduled our next meeting for a different place.

Love this place! Great atmosphere, service and even better food. Lots of good items on this menu. The bacon appetizer and the pork chop entrée are two of my faves. Break up the pork dishes with a yummy house salad and you won’t be disappointed. Great for groups or a night out.

It has been a few years since I initially went to 717 and decided to give it another try recently for dinner and drinks. They are on OpenTable for ease of making a reservation, however, our table was not ready when we showed up for an 8pm Saturday evening reservation. We sat at the bar and had some drinks. The bar staff was very friendly and attentive. I tried the South Tampa Socialite which had a mix of various liquors and was quite strong, but good. It took approximately 30 minutes to finally get to our table.
Our server was great and let us have as much time as we needed to look over the menu and was never in a hurry to make us move along. We got some Pesto Bread along with the Calamari appetizer we ordered and both were quite satisfying given the lateness of the dinner hour. She had some great suggestions about the menu and I decided to try the Chilean Sea Bass, which did not disappoint. Overall, I will have to make sure to not let so much time go by again before visiting 717 again for a drink or meal.

I went to 717 with my fiancé this evening with an open mind. I had read previous negative reviews about it but I have an assistant who raved about it so I wanted to give it a try.
The good: all the food that we had we enjoyed. We started with the crab bisque as an appetizer, ordered the hanger steak and mushroom risotto with chicken for our entrees and the chocolate torte for dessert. I have no complaints about any of them.
The bad: cocktails. We ordered the SoHo Socialite, Pretty in Pink and Cucumber Basil Gimlett. All three were ok but vastly overpriced for what they were. I would suggest Ciros or Edge if you want to pay that much for a cocktail you will enjoy far more.
The ugly: our service. Now before I bash our server, I will say that it appeared that not all the service was bad. There were two tables seated right by our table around the same time who had a different server. They both received their food on time and left about 30 – 40 minutes before we did. We had the misfortune of drawing the server who ignored us for long stretches of the night and forgot to bring us the bread that every other table received. When we asked her about it, she tried to make up a poor excuse instead of owning up to her mistake. There are servers who make mistakes, servers who have off nights and servers who are just bad at their job and this one seemed to be in the latter category. It was very unfortunate bc it spoiled an otherwise pleasant meal.
If you are willing to roll the dice with this place, you might end up enjoying your night. Unfortunately for us, we rolled a snake eyes and that’s why they get two stars from me.

Four stars for the fantastic grilled calamari for our appetizer, and the complimentary garlic bread with the dipping sauce, yum! My boyfriend loved his filet. I ordered the Chicken Serrano, and I loved the chicken, but not so much a fan of the walnut quinoa or the cauliflower sides, I think it was just to many different flavors on one plate. My boyfriend enjoyed them though! I tasted his macaroni and cheese and I would definitely get that as a side instead next time! We will definitely go back, we enjoyed ourselves and then atmosphere.

I have been here several times and never been disappointed. The food is always creative and fresh. Today I asked if they could make their crab cake entrée into an appetizer and of course the obliged. The cake was meaty and virtually all crab, no filler, crispy on the outside and moist inside. Then I had the BLT made with juicy l, shaved NY Strip and thick bacon, lettuce and tomato on a garlic bread panini. This was paired with an onion/​leek soup with a few croutons. Spectacular and light. Finished off the meal with a lava cake. Yum! Stuffed and satisfied. Service is well above par and very accommodating.

This is a nice place with excellent foods and great wine choice. The choice of food is pretty wide so everyone can find something to enjoy. I have their special of pork chop and it was not bad, although slightly under cooked. My colleagues had snappers and the crab cakes, and we’re really impressed.
One thing that I would recommend is to make reservation, since it does get crowded during the dinner hour!

We had a great dinner here, great service. We started with a few appetizers, the bacon/​cheese plate. Really enjoyed the bacon on that. We also got the calamari, very good.
i enjoyed the complimentary bread and sauce, surprisingly very good.
I ordered the lamb special which was good but I should have asked for the lam cooked more.
Overall though, great experience and I would go back.

At first I thought this place served authentic Pennsylvanian food (717 area code) so I was a little disappointed to learn that the name simply indicates the location of the restaurant (717 South Howard).
Food is good. It BETTER be. $ 17 burger, $ 17 pasta, $ 18 risotto (extra $ 5 to add chicken, extra $ 10 to add shrimp). The duck burger was excellent — much flavor in every bite. Free bread is very good. It comes with marinara sauce and cheese.
It gets pretty loud inside so it wouldn’t be a ideal location for a romantic dinner. 717 has a fun, hip vibe so come with friends/​coworkers.

Yeap 3 stars!
Beautiful restaurant nestled in the heart of south Tampa, on Howard Ave across from Ava. Lots of parking available in the back of the restaurant. Loved the décor, warm colors and paintings hung all over the restaurant.
We started the meal with their bread course, it was very good. The bread was really good and surprising how much went into making that loaf? Inner layer of the bread was baked with pesto?. Came with a side of marinara sauce topped with a scoop of ricotta cheese mixture. Very yummy!
The rest of our food was ok, nothing too special.
We started with a large house salad, our awesome waitress split the salad into 3 servings (super sweet). Spring mix with carrots, radishes, grape tomatoes, dressed lightly with vinaigrette.
For entrees:
* Macadamia nut chicken: chicken was coated with crushed macadamia nuts drizzled with a cream sauce. Came with a side of broccoli and jalapeño sweet potato mash. It was small serving of food, not sure if it’s worth $ 18
* baked farfalle: bow tie pasta with sausage, lots of cheese, basil, marinara sauce. My mom loved it.
* stuffed chicken breast: stuffed with chorizo. Served with baked cauliflower and quinoa salad. It was decent.
We ended the nite with chocolate torte, very chocolatey and similar to flourless chocolate cake. Very good.
Overall, it was a ok meal. Our server was outstanding. Thanks Brittany for everything.

My boyfriend and I came here for dinner on Thursday and they were quite busy. We probably should have made a reservation as there was no seating available expect at the bar. Service here was extremely SLOW that night but our waitress was really nice and attentive. It took over 30 minutes for our dinner to come out after our soup and salad.
I had the Kale salad which I would recommend if you really like Kale. I’ve never had Kale in a salad and I just didn’t like the rough texture. The Mushroom Risotto was pretty good and had lots of pieces of fresh mushrooms, but I thought it was overpriced. The Duck Burger is excellent! It was something I’ve never had before. I really liked the sauteed onions and the white balsamic & gorgonzola vinaigrette. I would come back for dinner but only if I had a lot of time to spend.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
This is a somewhat unique restaurant. The décor and ambiance is great … they run an Art Deco theme throughout, which I enjoy. The front of the place was noisy and bustling but the back is pretty quiet.
Alex was my server, she is a treasure. Truly good service is memorable, she’s good.
The food was outstanding. I came rather hungry and gorged myself on bread (which is such bad form!) then had a salad.
This is not a restaurant for calorie counters.
I enjoyed bacon mac and cheeze with a NY strip steak. Cooked perfectly rare.
All very well done (no, uhh pun, intended).
Highly recommended.

Had an excellent dinner here tonight. The restaurant if visually quite striking, with the Art Deco prints and wall dividers. Interestingly, the front of the restaurant is far noisier than the booths /​tables in the back, so if you want a quieter more secluded meal, sit in the back (there is a large private dining room there as well for large groups).
We started with the bread which was outstanding, followed by Chilled wedge salad and a warm spinach salad with goat cheese which tasted extremely fresh, brought out in really interesting plates. The spinach was brought out in a parm bowl.
For entrees we had the New York Strip which was perfectly cooked medium rare with bacon mac N cheese which was one of the best meals Ive had in about a year! The wife had Snapper with crab and a risotto cake and swiss chard. Also lick the plate good!
But the real hit of the night was Alex our server! She was outstanding even being an FSU fan! She is literally the best server I have had the pleasure of meeting. Give this girl a promotion!!! Hey, Alex GO GATORS!!! lol
No room for deserts, plus they really didn’t look that interesting.
After dinner stopped by the bar for a quick drink. Some good wines by the glass for $ 5.
All-​in-​all, an outstanding dinner with great service (Alex) and can’t wait to return to try something else.

Great, gluttonous, glorious food. A little forgotten about with all the new places popping up in Soho, but this place should remain a staple in South Tampa.
They are all about the flavors — Rich sauces, heavy pasta dishes, decadent desserts, unique appetizers. Don’t come here if you’re calorie counting. Come here for a great meal in a lively environment. Like the roaring 20s, you’ll find art deco prints, lively conversations at the bar, an open bustling kitchen, and a bit of an upscale atmosphere.
Unlike the other Soho restaurants, 717 actually has a parking lot without valet. They share it with Starbucks, so there’s no guarantee you’ll find a space. Photos are posted with descriptions. I highly recommend the brussel sprouts and chocolate cake if you are a chocoholic.