Global A’fare

Great place to have some apps at. My only complaint is that I wish they had a gluten free menu. There is a few gluten free items on their menu but you have to search for them and really inquire. Their complementary bread is gluten free.

Places like this are trying to do something that isn’t easy. It’s hard to cook global food, from different cultures, with a high quality across the board. I had some incredible phở from a Vietnamese restaurant earlier in the week, and because I had such a great experience I figured I’d go with phở again.
Bad decision. It was really bad. Everything from the noodles to the beef and everything in between was just lacking. It didn’t taste anything like what I experienced from an authentic Vietnamese place. I sent it back, and thankfully the server removed it from the bill.
The Mac and cheese was pretty good though.

+ Nice ambiance, friendly staff
— Food is not that great.
1.Plantain Chorizo Soup– color/​presentation not appetizing. it had good flavor but the texture of the soup is odd.
2.Gouda Mac & Cheese– it was creamy and cheesy. It was serve hot and fresh but nothing really wow about it.
3. Mortadella Prosciutto Polpette– sauce was good. pasta a little bit overcooked, meatballs were dry.
4. Pastitio– pasta was overcooked. good flavor on the sauce
5. Fried Baklava Ala Mode– very good, not greasy. Good portion and presentation.

Love the open patio, and the sweet bartender. The menu was large and well very different. I just went for a few drinks, and liked what I saw. I’ll add more to my review once I try the food. If you like trying new foods I’d probably add this one to your list.

A group of 7 of us went last night. We are a group that routinely will try new restaurants and share all of our food.
We LOVED Global A’Fare!
Appetizers: We ordered oysters, fried zucchini sticks (the special), scotch eggs, mojo pork shank and Mortadella & Prosciutto Polpettine… and somewhere in there two bowls of crawfish came out. Italian Cheese Bread/​Ball thingys were brought complimentary as well.
I only had bites of the zucchini sticks, scotch eggs, pork shank, and the bread, but it was all delicious and I only heard compliments all around for all of the appetizers. I think oysters were ordered 2 or 3 times (we were there for quite awhile, 3 – 4 hours)
Entrees: 2 of us ordered Cioppino, 2 the filet, and 3 got the surf and turf volcano sushi special (½ crab and ½ szechuan beef/​cheddar cheese).
I ordered the Cioppino. It was really, really good! If you’ve had it in SFO/​Sausalito, it’s probably not as good as there, but it was still very good and extremely flavorful — I would say that the stew itself is better than what I’ve had there and there were still clams, crab, shrimp, and scallops in it. Absolutely delicious! I haven’t been to a restaurant that has served it in Tampa, so I was impressed.
I cannot comment personally on the surf and turf volcano sushi special or the filet as I did not try that, but everyone seemed happy and the portions were GIGANTIC! (I do think that people seemed to have enjoyed the crab much more than the szechuan beef sushi). A couple people ordered polenta and mac ‘n’ cheese as sides and, again, everyone seemed very happy with those, but I did not try them.
DRINKS/​DESSERTS: A couple people ordered dessert and after-​dinner drinks and also were quite pleased. We all had their house sangria (red), which was delicious.
Our server was amazing and very friendly and laughed right along with us and patiently answered all of our questions.
In the end, I think we would all recommend this place. We were all looking around wondering why more people weren’t there on a Saturday night.
So go! (o:

The server was a very sweet guy and had all good intentions but he obviously wasn’t trained at all — prb not his fault but so much wrong with service it affected the whole experience.
If you go for bites with drinks you won’t be disappointed. For dinner, they aren’t reddy yet.
Baked oysters were very good. Veg tacos were ok, add balsamic sauce on them. Shrimp, scallop, grits was messy and lacked flavor other than butter and cheese. Pork shanks is ok. Clam chowder also lacked flavor. Their flatbreads looked promising. Nice bar.

I was excited to try global afare from the moment i saw it when driving by on Kennedy recently. When I spotted a groupon a few days later, I bought it right away and couldn’t wait to go.
Wish I could be giving a 5 star review as many others have, but sadly my experience here was nowhere near «as good as it gets». I’ll start off with the highlights — the service and ambience is excellent — both are 4 star level. Upon arriving our server greeted us right away and brought us to a nice comfy booth. There’s also a nice outdoor patio area connected to the open air bar. The décor is modern, clean and the wood fire oven provides for great aroma.
Our server was on top of it for the most part from start to finish. He brought us delicious mint orange infused water as soon as we were seated, which was very light and refreshing. They advertise happy hour specials but he never explained those nor brought us a drink menu, that’s about the only thing that kept the service from being 5 stars. Besides that he was friendly, quick and had a great attitude.
Sadly the food was 1 star, maybe 2 at best. We started with the chicken skewers and eggplant parm apps. The skewers were described as sweet and spicy and they were indeed kicking. However the first bite I took was clearly undercooked and I spit it out for fear of eating raw chicken. That was a bad start. We asked our server to have it cooked a bit longer and it was better after that, but the bad first bite ruined it for me. The eggplant parm had good flavor but was not very hot temperature wise. Next we tried the sticky basmati rice balls with aioli dipping sauce. I had high hopes for this one but once again it was a total letdown. They were basically just a greasy fried ball of rice with no flavor, the sauce wasn’t impressive either. Totally overpriced at about $ 7 for a few small bites of rice. Finally, after seeing another table nearby had ordered the steak flatbread we decided to give it a shot. The bf wanted to order this one but I wasn’t too crazy about the idea. When it arrived at the table it was obvious it had been pre made and heated upon placing our order. The crust was stale and it was overloaded with onions. Might as well have called it an onion flatbread. It was not anywhere near piping hot, as it should have been if it was made fresh from the wood fire oven. At this point we were done being disappointed and did not order any entrees or dessert.
If it weren’t for the ambience and service being as good as they were, I would be giving 0 stars. Based on the food alone I will not be going back.
**Wow — 22 days after my review and I see « Unilocalers report this location has closed» Guess many other people also had a less than stellar experience!

Great experience for my first visit! Made reservations for 12 and was heated with our table ready outside. Great service. Great happy hour prices. Every single item we ordered was delicious. The rice balls, the Mac n Cheese, the Scottish egg, the egg rolls, I could go on for a while. I’ll def be back!

I really like this place… This place is in the SOHO area and my brother suggested it (he is from out of town)… Wasn’t sure why I never heard of it, then I saw it was new! A little slow (although it was tuesday) but it was great! My picky eating family loved it and our waiter was very attentive and courteous… We pretty much had every appetizer on the menu and let me tell you, you definitely get your monies worth… They do not skimp on the portions and the quality is fantastic… I definitely plan on coming back here soon :) Also, check in on Unilocal and you get a free APP! Can’t beat that!

Why 5 stars? Because it’s a great addition to the area!
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I really enjoyed Fire Bar & Grill, which was the business that occupied this space prior to Global A’fare. I admit, I did not visit Fire since it was brand new, but I had 2 – 3 really solid experiences there. I was sad to see them close down, but I think Global A’fare may be even better.
Full disclosure: we just wanted a healthy salad from Jersey Mike’s, but it was Easter, and JM’s was closed. Our fall back option, Firehouse, was also closed. It was at that point that I remembered that Global A’fare was high on my to-​do list, and luckily, they were open.
There was only two other tables occupied with customers, but I hope that’s due to the fact that it was about 2:30 on Easter Sunday. Global A’fare needs to outlive its predecessor!
I had a shrimp po boy, and despite it being a little light on the shrimp/​heavy on the bread, it was delicious. Our gouda mac n’ cheese was some of the best we’ve had in Tampa Bay! And the fries were thin cut and absolutely hit the freaking spot. Maybe it’s because we’ve been so healthy lately that fries gave me the sensation of going back to a great drug, or maybe it’s just because they were perfect. They even brought out two different kinds of BBQ sauces for dipping upon request — regular, and Korean BBQ. I enjoyed going back and forth with both!
My girlfriend loved her pizza. It was covered in olives, which I am not a fan of, but we scooped this off so that I could get a bite in. Great stuff!
I’ll definitely be back, and recommend you check them out!

We had several of the appetizers and the beet salad. It was all excellent. After driving by it for a long time we are glad we stopped in. There were several gluten-​free items, too.
We met the owner and the server was great.

Two stars because I just feel bad. The vibe and menu is all very confused. I don’t know what chef would think that a menu with this much variety would work. How do you focus your skills?
We accepted the Unilocal offer for a free appetizer and got the curry mussels. The sauce was okay but these were definitely frozen mussels. About four of them weren’t open and they didn’t taste fresh.
Server didn’t know anything about the beers, kept pushing the «blonde ale from St. Pete» which I insisted was the Beach Blonde from 3 daughters, to which she had no reaction.
For dinner, my roommate got pastitsio and I got the special flatbread, which was Thai Chicken. The pastitsio was very bland. Just nowhere near worth the price. The Thai Flatbread definitely had Purdue chicken strips on it, you know the kind that come in the plastic in the refrigerated section? They just tasted dirty. Also had big strips of jalapeño on it, which I thought were probably green peppers but was in for a surprise when I bit in; and I like spicy stuff!
It seems like everyone on here that likes this place is praising the spreads, so I’ll suggest maybe try those. There’s just so many other places I’d rather spend this much money on.

This is a cool looking new restaurant with friendly service, but the food isn’t great.
I like the idea of a multicultural menu, so I wanted to try Global A’fare out. I liked the outdoor eating area. I also thought there were a lot of good looking cocktails on the menu.
Our waiter was very nice and enthusiastic about the menu, but he wasn’t very good. He forgot or misheard some of our orders.
We started with the global tasting tour. We had the prosciutto, the hard salami and the tyrokafteri. The tyrokafteri was pretty good. I would pass on the meats. Both were extremely salty. I would call the prosciutto closer to baked ham than a cured delicacy.
For my main course, I tried the meatballs. The meatballs had the same super salty «prosciutto» in them, so they were insanely salty. The marinara sauce was bland. My husband had the pastitsio, which he did not like. Our friend had the limoncello chicken which he really enjoyed.
For dessert, we had the fried baklava with ice cream. That was not very good baklava.
The cocktails we had were pretty darned tasty. I recommend the cucumber and lime gimlet. The sangria was also very tasty.
I doubt I’ll return. The drinks are good, but too much of the food was mediocre.

The staff was excellent! Very attentive and great attitudes. The outdoor area is very relaxing. Definitely try the sangria’s! Best I’ve ever had!

Great new restaurant. (only been open for about 2 months now) Service was great. We arrived a little late, so wasn’t crowded. Seems the word of this place hasn’t really spread yet. They just started advertising, so hopefully the business will pick up for them. They have a moderate menu with lots of Small Plate options and also Dinner sized portions. There is also a Raw bar and a brick pizza oven. I had the Coconut Curry Mussels and a Small Eggplant Parmesan. For Dessert I had a Fried Baklava a la Mode… mmmm so good! Ann the Bartender was fantastic and very helpful with question about the menu. The only downfalls that I can think of is the restaurant is right on the street (Kennedy) so the loud traffic is a bit distracting if your out on the nice patio area and the beer selection seems a bit lacking. But we will definitely be back!

New great restaurant, I was surprised by the lack of people there. They have an extensive menu showcasing food from all over the world. Not to mention it was all clean eating and seemed to be mostly organic. My only reservation was the lack of beers on tap. I believe there were only 6 which, for an international restaurant, seems to be a bit dull. Either way, I hope they stay open. It’s worth checking out.

I am a steak lover. I have tried filet mignon at hundreds of restaurants all over the world. This was the worst filet I have ever eaten. The meat itself was actually of good quality. It was the preparation.
There was a ball of peppercorn coating one end of the filet, like chopped nuts piled high on top of an ice cream cone, and the rest of the filet was grey. No char marks, just dead grey. I was a little grossed out. I finally had to cut off the ball-​o-​peppercorn, because it was all I could taste.
The cream sauce was soupy, kind of like milk — dipping the steak into it was like pushing a grey hose into a splashing puddle of white.
We sat outside. Don’t, unless you are there for the «good food while watching sports» shtick. Motorcycles, hot rods, firetrucks, ambulances and police cars, with blaring sirens, raced down Kennedy for the length of our meal.
When I looked at the menu, there was a large kink on the bottom-​right 20% where the laminated page folded over on itself. The menu wasn’t thrown out or repaired, it was used. That same level of quality control seemed evident in the rest of our experience.
I enjoy supporting new places. Our server was nice, the portions were decent, but the overall quality of the dining experience and the preparation/​presentation of the food was not on par with other local restaurants.

Wife and I stopped in here for a late lunch. The food was excellent. I had the falafel wrap and she had the shrimp po-​boy. Both were excellent as were the naked tacos (which are really lettuce wraps). I also suggest the Brussel sprout side. The ambiance is a little bit industrial but this place is an excellent overall value and a place to which I will return

Awesome dining experience from the beginning to the end at this new restaurant. They have just been open for three weeks now, & I can’t wait to bring my friends and family.
When you first look at their menu, you will see that you are up for a selection of food from many different countries. Some examples of this are their cuban mojo pork shank, scotch egg, phở soup, greek salads, greek lasagna, Brazilian picanha, chicken with limoncello sauce, meatballs, eggplant parmesan, and Chilean salmon specials.
When you check in with the Unilocal app, you can get a free appetizer. We picked the steak, mushroom, a& cheese flatbread. They make flatbreads, & others entrees, & their baked oysters in their wood fired oven. The flatbread was alright, but needed something to kick it up a notch. We asked for balsamic glaze to drizzle on our flatbread, and that’s what made it perfect. The flatbread is a good size with about 6 triangle shaped slices. It could be shared with two or three people depending on your appetite, and whatever else you order.
Shari, our waitress was a breath of fresh air. She was very genuine & helpful with picking out our entrees. She first got me a berry martini which was a special I saw on the chalkboard by the bar. It was $ 5. I also asked how the sangria was, so she brought me a sample of the sangria. The sangria was not as sweet as I would have liked it, but I did like my berry martini. She described it like a berry gummi bear.
When we picked our entrée, Shari first told us about the specials. They are on the chalkboard also by the oyster bar, & wood fired oven. Some of the options included a southwest chicken flatbread, and filet mignon and salmon.
We did choose to pick the two specials. The filet mignon was served with Jack Daniels Crème sauce with fingerling potatoes and basmati rice. The salmon was served with a limoncello sauce along with mixed veggies including yellow squash, zucchini, and red peppers, with fingerling potatoes. They made the salmon in the wood fired oven, so it had the perfect crust on the salmon as well as the potatoes were crunchy outside and soft inside. Both of these entrees were perfectly seasoned, and had great flavor.
Afterwards, Shari let us know about the desserts. We said we would pass. She surprised us and brought us two samples of their dessert options including rice pudding with Lingonberries and an Italian chocolate caramel custard. These desserts were a perfect cherry on top.
This restaurant also has a full bar with a great selection of beer, wine, and mixed drinks. You can also sit by the bar to get that personal experience. You can sit outside with your dog. The outside decorations with bamboo are a nice touch.
All in all, service was exceptional. Shari, our waitress was super helpful, and the owner came around to check on us. We loved the atmosphere. Our food was delicious. Definitely a wonderful «Global A’Fare.» Without a doubt, we will be back!

First time, and won’t be the last to Global A’Fare’ with their great concept of global offerings, not just one… there’s Mediterranean, Spanish, Thai, it’s all over the place, a very well thought out global concept.
We started with the Global Tasting Board, a generous array of cheeses, spreads, meats, naan and lavash… the three of us had a party with it, the stand out to me was the skordalia, which I’ve never had the pleasure of, this was something to write home about. By the time it occurred to us to photograph the tasting board, it was almost gone, but Chef Dustin saved the day, he sent us photo, one of same and as you can see, it’s totally inviting…
The starter didn’t leave us much room for full entrees, so we ordered up some Blue Point oysters raw and roasted, the sweet ocean breeze arrived with the platter of raw oysters, indicating the freshness, big kudos for that alone. The roasted oysters with parmesan, limoncello butter and mignonette was equally as good. we left just enough room for the deep fried baklava with ice cream, this was the killer coda to one fine meal at a very new, up and upcoming dining establishment along the Kennedy corridor… Our server, Robin was on the ball, we wanted for nothing… totally on point. You won’t get any complaints from me. To Chris, we raise our glass to you, you run a great show… and thanks to Lisa for recommending Global A’Fare