Went here for the second time today.

Went here for the second time today.

The first time I tried The Stone Soup Company I called in an order of the Vegan Pho. They ran out of noodles and didn t tell me until after they sent someone out to go buy more noodles. I waited close to an hour inside the restaurant for my food after calling it in 10 minutes before I arrived. I figured it might have been an anomaly so I tried them again this afternoon.

I arrived with a party of four. Meal was okay. Ordered the veggie Cuban sandwich with fries and Cole slaw. Fries were the best part. Service was initially mediocre. Lengthy delay between drinks and getting to order and stared at my Bloody Mary on the bar for a few minutes. Figured the wait was because they were busier than usual for a stream of FSU bar crawlers getting ready for the upcoming college football season. When we were done with our meal we informed our waiter that we wanted separate checks. Our checks sat with our cards for a few minutes waiting to be picked up. Another employee had to pick them up presumably because ours was too busy.

We waited thirty minutes for our checks.

When the cards were swiped, our waiter got them confused and swiped the wrong ones for each bill.

We exchanged glances with the other employees as they watched us wait as our waiter tried to correct this issue. We waited to be approached by a manager. That didn t happen, so I approached our waiter and informed him that at this point we had waited so long that I expected to be credited for the meal.

I was told that they were working on it and were speaking with the manager over the phone who runs the system from home. Great.

A few minutes later we were approached by a man whom I later learned was the owner. I informed him that I expected to be credited for the meal. He told us he would credit us and walked away.

A few minutes later we were approached by our waiter with our checks. Nothing was credited.

I walked back to the waiter and asked why I had been charged for the meal. I was then accused of just wanting a free meal. I requested a manager.

I was met again by the owner. I asked why he said he was going to credit our money back for the meal and he instead had our waiter charge us in full after now waiting 40 minutes after our meal had ended to get our cards back.

He accused me of wanting a free meal.

I signed my bill in full and left no tip.

I have no idea how this place has four stars. Even my experience aside the food is mediocre. How the owner of this establishment manages to keep a customer base is besides me. Poorest customer service I ve experienced in Tampa and very disappointing.

P.S. Don t sit in the booth closest to the door. There s a leak that drops water to the table. I watched them seat a family of four with two small children there before the family had to request to move. Have the decency to close that booth.