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Amazing, here for the first night of the new summer menu! Started out with the Crispy Beef appetizer, followed by the Spaghetti Squash dinner and a Po…
Vanessa H
State Street Eating House + Cocktails
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Since chef Christian is leaving it's on a downward spiral. Since Christian , And Kyle and many others have left due to the dirty business practices th…
Theojames102292
State Street Eating House + Cocktails
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Excellent food & service. We ate here twice. At first we were a bit uncomfortable having never been there but they opened the door and made us feel ve…
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State Street Eating House + Cocktails serves Seafood and Vegetarian. Incorrect or missing information? Make a report, or claim the restaurant if you own it!Details
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9 Reviews on “State Street Eating House + Cocktails”
Excellent food & service. We ate here twice. At first we were a bit uncomfortable having never been there but they opened the door and made us feel very welcome. They have a really creative menu with lot’s of choices with blackboard specials. Meatloaf was very good and the corvina fish special was excellent. Lot’s of good appetizers and sides (charred broccolini, etc…). Craft beer options and lot’s of wine choices. We had two really good meals. Definitely worth a try if you’ve never been here.
I came here for lunch. Best Reuben I can remember – soft toasted rye & in-house cured pastrami. The chopped salad with corn and blue cheese was phenomenal too. Very friendly staff. Not one complaint or concern! So good I’m tempted to return for dinner. :-DEven if not today, I’ll be back very soon. Highly reccomend.
BEST COCKTAILS. I love this place! they make the best drinks!
Like the food a lot, but have a lingering bad taste from a $5 shared plate charge when they did not split the plate.08 Feb, 2013Good clam chowder, tasty salad, delicious French fries, great bread and friendly attentive service
Rude people. Loved the bartender and his drink recommendation. Appetizers were amazing, but management and wait staff so rude that we left before ordering dinner. Will never return…..
State Street: Not State of the Art. Synopsis of review: Not ready for prime time — a few gems, disappointing service approach with caution.Were year-round Sarasota residents, and serious foodies, eating out 3-4 times a week. Reports on the State Street Eating House were good, so we went, taking out of town visitors with us.They dont take res for less than 6 people, but they do offer to let you call ahead for preferred seatingsimply call and let them know you are coming. Which we did, but no one answered the phone; we went to voicemail at 6:30 on a Tuesday night. And when we mentioned it to the hostess on arrival, no, she hadnt received the message and was simply puzzled that she hadnt heard the phone. It was the first of many puzzled looks we would receive during our lengthy dinner time. The menu, on line and in person, was enticing. Nice website, nice descriptionsmany things we wanted to try!Wine: decent list, pricing is OK. Cocktails. Good, but frustrating to watch people behind the bar wash dishes and dish with customers there while we waited 20+ minutes for a simple martini. Which was a less than full martini glass for $11 a bit expensive for the sizeobviously, using shots to measure their pours.Staffing was odd and disorganized. We had at least 4 different people that took drink and food orders, delivered food, stopped by the table, took requests and it seems that none of them talked to each other. The term disjointed and random is a kind description of the group service that the owner/chef explained with pride.But on to the food. Some good, some disconcerting.They had large plates, starters, snacks, sides, etc. Being an adventurous group, we put together things that appealed from various categories. The chopped butter lettuce salad was attractively presented, though primarily crisp romaine with lots of ribs; not one discernable leaf of tender butter lettuce. Did they think we wouldnt know the difference? It was fresh and enjoyable, though the dressing was nondescript.Fried okra with white truffle oil. Great concept. Delivered as whole fried okra, in a brown paper bag on a wooden slab It was saturated with grease to the point that you held the bag up and it literally dripped. And not with truffle oil. It lacked even the much-anticipated heavenly scent of truffle oil.House cured wild salmon gravlax. Sounded great. Arrived and was a deep red color. Texture was more mushy than firm. 2 people tasted it; we discussed the possible issue of food poisoning, and decided not to continue. We expressed concern and were informed that it was cured with beet juice (could that have been mentioned on the menu or by the server? It would definitely have affected our selection.) The server was sorry that it was not a preparation you preferred, and removed it. Though a rejected dish, it was not removed from the bill. Roasted sweet potato with goat butter was a hitboth people who ordered it liked it, a simple sweet potato served in the skin. American green beans, served still delicately crisp, also well received.Then, the house pickles. Served attractively in a 3-compartment dish. Can I just say that when I read pickles I do think of cucumbers being pickled? Of course, there are pickled many things, but the term by itself usually connotes cucumber pickles. Not a one in sight. There were pickled beets, some kind of bean, onions, and whole okra. Very strong vinegar taste, not unpleasant. But not a cuke in sight. So many optionslime pickles, butter pickles, dill, gherkins, etc etc. Again, the menu descriptions were misleading at best, delivering disappointment in more than one selection. A simple pickled offerings or some broader term would have sufficed to set different expectationsand have elicited a question. Caveat emptor.Onion rings crisp, tender, indeed exceptional, some of the best weve had here in Sarasota.Grilled fresh sardinesgreatly enjoyed by our guest, who rarely sees them on a menu. Hamburger. Server said it was a 6oz burger. It cooked down to what looked like a burger about inch thick, served on a flat bun, three times the size of the burger (the bun,1/2 of which had a burned bottom) The chef said it was Kobe beef (again, not on the menu; dont know where that came from.) But topped with strongly flavored, overpowering American cheese. Not a good pairing. And for the price ($13.50), it came with only condiments and pickled onions and cucumber strips on the burger, nothing else. Fortunately, our guest had ordered the onion rings as a side, or the disappointing burger would have been alone on that plate.Wild salmon. Ordered medium, came well done and a bit dry, but it was OK and well seasoned. The baby arugula served under the salmon looked like spinach The hashed gold potatoes were like mini French friesagain, brown with retained oil, mushy, soaked through and not really edible. When queried, the server said they usually dont look like that. So maybe sometimes they are firm, crisp, and delightful.And finding our server, ANY server, often a challenge, though one person, Jess, who was also a cook (baseball cap gave it away) was engaging, knowledgeable and responsive when she was in the dining room. Our first server, a man with a jaunty bow tie, became increasingly distant and non communicative as the night progressed. Fortunately, others stepped into the breach. After we were finally able to flag him for the check, he did deliver it, but without so much as a grunt or a thank you, which would have been a nice touch. With all the people involved, the room felt oddly understaffed.We did decide to go elsewhere for dessert. Overall, the place is busy (it is new) and has a very active bar. It is attractive in an industrial chic way (though a bit of noise-dampening insulation, sound baffles, or whatnot to absorb the din would have made conversation less difficult. If a few things are tweaked and addressed, it could be a restaurant worth recommending– 1. If the frustrating and disorganized service is better managed (or managed at all–no one seemed to be in charge or directing the big service picture, and the chef endorsing the group service concept only validates the skit-skat, haphazard approach to service delivery.)2. If the menu were better written to actually describe the innovative elements so diners know what is actually in the dishes, and can receive what they think they are ordering. Failing that, if the servers explained unusual preparations.3. If the fryolator for okra and potatoes was at the proper temp to fry without delivering oil-soaked items.Sarasota needs interesting new restaurants, and this one has a lot of potential; we hope to hear that it addresses some of its issues. If you go take a leisurely approach, and do ask for descriptions as you order.
Group dinner. I had been here before and enjoyed it. I wanted to bring a group of 14 for dinner. There was a hassle from the beginning, wanting a guarantee of $50 minimum per person. They set that aside and we made the reservation weeks in advance. Las minute cancellations shrank us to 11. Slow service (although our server was a pro), and a rude reply from the management happened. They essentially said we wasted their time and should not come back. I will take my business elsewhere. I would have gone back for dinner for two, but not after what they said.