Cafe Don Jose

The place was not that busy. So it was nice and quite. Well evidently quite in the kitchen too. Took 45 minutes to get out two sandwiches. Late back to work! $ 37 for two sandwiches is a rip! And not even an apology! This was my first visit and my last! I even emailed them about my experience and NADA! Never even responded. So they are not really into customer service! Save your money. Go to Taco Bell!

Yummy ceviches!!! Awesome service! Great prices! I love the multiple options for Ceviches, if you want to try them all their is an option to try them all in a smaller sized. Went there with a group and everyone enjoyed their meals and was happy I randomly picked this place for our team lunch. No complaints about service and our server was very timely and helpful. I’m a little surprised how empty the place was cause the food is really good and I have added it to one of my lunch spots for work.

We visited Don Jose on 12÷05÷15 because a friend’s request for her birthday was to have dinner there. I knew a bit about the place since a St. Pete restauranteur used to be a partner. Turns out that he’s no longer one. It’s now solely owned by a very arrogant gentleman (Manny?). We sat at the bar waiting for our table to be ready for a good 25 min. while the place was practically empty. We were finally seated after I asked and our table turns out was ready all along. I ordered some ham croquettes (croquetas) for the table. These were nothing more than dough balls with a few pieces of ham. Nothing that looked or taste like a real «croqueta». Most of us ordered chicken or fish «a la Rusa». Unfortunately the breading was lacking flavor, was soggy and the protein was topped with what amounted to egg salad. All the disappointment with the food was not enough to ruin the evening. What really put us over the edge was the fact that we had 3 different servers through the course of a couple hours. They kept disappearing and I kept seeing this «pitbull» looking guy back and forth with a glass of wine and noticing that the customers were seating unattended but did nothing about it. I finally got up and asked him if he was the owner. He responded positively and told him about our bad experience. He offered to serve us free coffee with our dessert. Really? Sir, it’s more important that you care about your business than offering a free cup of coffee or parking a fancy car at the door of the restaurant. None of those will make anyone come back. We wasted a few hundred $$$ that night and will NEVER be back. Sorry, there’s too many good restaurants to have to put up with this arrogant attitude, poor service and bad food.

Solid, fresh & on time service. We came in recommended from our suites hotel, and they were on the money. The food and the service was awesome to say the least. We ordered apps DQ Puffs, crab cakes and scargot tell u what, they were hot and tasty some thing I’ve haven’t experience on my many buss trips around the U S of A really. The table ordered paella salteado (check spell) Toledo and Seafood casserole. Good, So much flavor and presentiation, good package. From my experience dinning in chains restaurants and others, you do not hear thank you and my pleasure when a consumer (us) ordered something. We feel Café Don Jose treats consumers like good friends, we talked about it during our meal. An we all agree WE had a quality meal and service for the money spent. We felt were not just another number like most places When back in the Bay Area, we wil do the CDJ l GO TRUMP. we loved restaurant!

Great time and great food at Café Don Jose with an excellent server, Krista. Highly recommended! !!

My aunt wanted us to try Café Don Jose but it just wasnt hitting any marks. Bland food, Croquettas were like hush puppies, and the server laughed when we asked her to remove the Sangria and kept saying you guys are funny. I dont drink but my family said it had powdered cinnamon and wouldnt touch it.
I just dont want to be too negative so I will leave it at this =/

A coworker and I were training in Tampa and decided to try this place. I’m so glad we did. We went for a late happy hour and dinner and we were so pleased. The place wasn’t packed so we sat at the bar to relax. The regulars were so friendly and Dominique the bartender was lovely. We had tapas since they were on special do we got to try a little bit of everything. It was all amazing!

Solid Spanish food. Great yellow rice and peas. Always a fantastic fish special to enjoy. I would frequently bring business guests to eat lunch here and it was never a disappointing experience. Good prices and prompt service. If you are looking for a white cloth up scale lunch experience, this is the place to go.

Café Don Jose has grown up. I haven’t been there in years and it used to be located in a small strip center on the West side of 5^th Street, in Temple Terrace. Now it has moved North of Fletcher, and has a it’s own large building on the East side of 5^th Stree.
The last meal I had in the old location was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten, with a fabulous salad made tableside.
Since this was a long time ago & a very fond memory, I tried to recreate the experience. The new restaurant is just as quaint, just on a larger scale. Brick deco & wrought iron bars with fairly bascic, clone type of paintings. It could be considered a romantic ambiance or quaint & casual.
The night I was there, there was no flamingo dancer or Spanish guitars or singing, just offbeat type of music, that did not seem to match the restaurant. Due to the steak ideas in my mind, I eventually ordered a steak, house salad & stuffed baked potato.
Let me start by saying that it feel so short, on all fronts of my expectations. I gotta give part of the blame to me, for ordering a steak (& not a flank steak) in a Spanish restaurant. The steak was thin, chewy & overcooked. The stuffed potato tasted like it had been frozen or totally over whipped & very bland. The salad was terrific & fresh & the house dressing was light and a great accompaniment to the entire meal.
My fellow dinner got the chicken & yellow rice. Another miss. It was a huge bowl of yellow rice (I mean several cups of rice), with some fairly moist chicken pieces in it. You can find this dish, some better, some worse at almost any Spanish restaurant that has a hot line set up for lunch or dinner, for a fraction of the price.
On all the meals, I feel they were way overpriced for what we received. Even the fried plantains were tough and difficult to eat. The service was quite good & I wish I had gone with one of the servers entrée selections.
The Sangria, though quite tasty, was not the best I have had in Tampa. Overall I had the bar set high & they just didn’t deliver. I don’t think I would return, but if I did I would stick to seafood.
What’s a girl to do? We all have memories that will never be matched or surpassed.

Excellent choices and service.
This Spanish restaurant was very nice from the time we arrived through an enjoyable dinner. The waiter was just the right amount of attentiveness and the food was especially good.
Salads, seafood and chicken were all excellent.
Also props to the manager, who apologized for the wait when we arrived — even though the «wait“‘was less than a minute.
Would definitely eat here again.

The prices are high, the food is mediocre, and the beer selection is poor. (2 different drafts, one of which is Bud Light) Nothing was bad here. I’m just having a hard time justifying any reason to come back.

I went to Café Don Jose Wednesday, March 11^th, with my dinner club. We had a group of 9 people and were seated in a comfortable room seemingly designated for larger parties. Apparently they have a violinist/​singer combo and a flamenco dancer on the weekends. I think either of those additions would have added to the experience.
I decided to have their red sangria with my meal. It was delicious and spicy, with a delicate hint of cinnamon. Not too overly strong or boozy, but definitely not watered down.
For a starter, I chose the Don Quixote Puffs: chorizo, manchego cheese, and onions in little pockets of puffed pastry. They were savory and surprisingly not too heavy. The chorizo, never subtle did not take over the dish, which I found pleasing.
For dinner, I went with the camarones rellenos (stuffed shrimp) and maduros (sweet fried plantains) as a side. The dish was basically breaded and fried shrimp stacked double-​decker style filled with a lobster and shrimp stuffing, topped with a creamy bechamel. If the dish sounds heavy, that’s because it was! It was tasty though and filling. I ended up taking one one of the shrimp and half of the maduros to have for lunch the next day.
As per usual, I passed on dessert. =(
Overall, I would give the restaurant a rating of 3.5 stars. We only had one server, Michelle, but she was always around when we needed her for drink refills, etc. Even with a semi-​large party, our food arrived in a satisfactory period of time. I wouldn’t be opposed for going there again… when the flamenco dancer’s there!

This was our first visit to CDJ. We had a free tapas coupon and we are new to the area, so we thought we would give them a try. Our first impression walking through the door was a very good one. We arrived 15 min before lunch ended but were greeted openly. Unfortunately our waitress seemed unhappy and her service was non-​existent other than to enter our order in the system. I suspect this isn’t the first time she has given bad service. We will be back BC of two things: the food was tasty AND there was another server, very nice Spanish speaking man, who adopted our orphaned table.
Thus far the prices aren’t commensurate with the food quality/​quantity, BUT we suspect there are some gems on the menu that will be worth coming back to discover. Today our choices were Beef Empanadas, Chorizo Pastry Puffs, and Truffle Fries.

We enjoyed our meal, service was excellent, prices a little high. My husband had Trout LaRussa and I had Ropa Viera. Presentation on both was nice, flavors good.
We will return on special date nights or events due to prices.

Have known and heard about this place for a long time. Finally gave it a try and lets just say that we left slightly disappointed.
The ambience inside is nice. Dimly lit and has a somewhat Spanish feel (which obviously it should have). It was sort of odd they were playing jazz music on the satellite radio but halfway during our dinner a gentleman started playing Spanish guitar/​music which was a nice and unique touch. And he didn’t play too loud which eased or dinner conversation experience.
I’ve heard great things about their Sangria (which you can either get red or white). And even their menu states that it’s the best in Tampa Bay. Well, although it was quite good — even having cinnamon with apple and lemon slices in the pitcher — I don’t think it’s the best in town. Reasonably priced. Maybe in the top 5 in the Tampa Bay area. Still really good though
But my main gripe about this place is the pricing for the quality of food you get. I got the chicken and yellow rice dinner. The chicken was decent. Was tender but could have been more tender and tastier. You get a fair share but could have added more. The rice was good but again I’ve had better. But here’s the thing — the platter was $ 18.99! Are you kidding me?! Way overpriced for the quality and amount you get. My girlfriend got the paella. And that too was sort of overpriced. It was a medium sized plate. Had a lot of seafood including a lobster tail and the same rice that my chicken and yellow rice came with. But the mussels and other seafood items were decent; meaning, nothing to write home about.
Our waiter and host were friendly, nice, and informative.
Although Café Don Jose is a little overrated, I would still come back. Just won’t really be raving about it to people
3.5 stars out of 5

I’ve been a few times but thus far have only ordered the paella, so my review is basically just a paella review. To give you a frame of reference, my favorite paella anywhere is from Columbia in Ybor, but not eating it on site, I think it tastes even better as a to go order where everything gets to marinate even longer on the drive home. Eating it at the restaurant is #2, and Café Don Jose’s paella is my #3. I’ve had it all around the country at other places and haven’t had a paella yet that would bump those out of my top three.
Their paella has lobster as a unique ingredient but it’s a little half tail so don’t expect to be getting a lobster meal for the price of paella. It also has an asparagus stem on top, so if you’re in the anti-​asparagus club, you should make sure to order it without that or you may get some residual taste even after moving it out of the way. The clams and mussels are very fresh tasting and the calamari is cooked to the correct amount so it’s not too chewy and not too soft. There are green olives in the dish so if you don’t like those, you can also order it without that. The rice has been cooked properly each time I’ve had it. It’s really just a great all around paella with only Columbia’s being better in my book.
Booze-​wise, they have liquor, a great home made sangria and one light beer from Spain on tap (to accompany a normal beer selection).
Service-​wise, we’ve been treated well on each visit; no consistency problems.

Went for a lunch of Tapas… to introduce my girlfriend to the cuisine. We had the Ceviche Sampler, which was delicious… although I thought the portions were a little less than generous. The Albondigas, very tasty, and the sauce was yummy! Crab Cakes… very very good… and a nice size. The Don Quixote puffs seemed like an interesting combo… so I ordered those also. Very good! The chorizo in them was excellent… highly recommended. Alas, we didn’t indulge in the Sangria, or any wine (GF is allergic to the tannins)… but they did appear to have some decent choices. Normally we do not do deserts (I prefer to make them for us) but we did try the Tres Leches cake… and it was very well done! Delicious, moist and well presented (my GF’s new favorite!) Service was very good (Christa?) and all personnel were attentive and polite. We will be back!

Poor service and dry, bland ribeye. Two points to deduct stars. Other servers seemed great just not mine. Food was over all good. I loved the twice baked potato. I might try it again but I’m mostly on the fence.

I gave it a good review last time.
This time I got a large Caesar salad, to go.
HORRIBLE!
I understand that in Florida, they don’t make traditional Caesar salads.
I knew well enough to ask for bacon to be added, but did not even bother with anchovies or anchovy paste.
They charges me $ 9.50 for this nothing salad!
That is the same price they charged me for the Calamari! — How is that?!
Also, I’ve never seen such cruddy croutons.
They were the size of mini-​marshmallows, and had no flavor.
Not again.

Arrived for lunch and what a treat. They have daily lunch specials and today, you could order from any of them. My Ropa Rojas was exquisitely flavored. It was served with a side salad that was not expected. Fresh, a lot I ingredients and oh, so good? The brown bread was warm from the oven
The roast pork was wonderful and the waiter did everything to satisfy the customers taste. Wow. I’d go here again!