Patanegra

Everything I had was excellent. I tried the AYCE tapas for $ 25 special and it was great. I particularly liked the ceviche, the pork meatballs and both the chicken and beef empanadas.
The service was outstanding and the atmosphere was great. A very friendly vibe there. Very good food at reasonable prices.
Like the Terminator, I’ll be back.

Wow… we’ve always wanted to try this place and I’m SO glad we did. We had the $ 25 Tapas Madness which was great because we were able to try a bunch of different things. I’m a little picky and I loved everything, especially the stuffed dates. The server was also amazing… I had the unlimited sangria and he just kept them coming. I can’t wait to go back :)

Came here for the Xtreme Happy Hour with the wifey, had to wait a while before a waiter greeted us but he made up for it. Great little all you can eat and drink happy hour… tastey sangria, decent well drinks and Fabsisco provided plated after plate until we were stuffed. The tapas on HH were above average quality and larger than tapas world portions. They did however raise the price from 20 $ to 25 $ for race weekend and didn’t honor our local resident status and even charged us 30 $ each per computer/​staff error but still worth it I suppose due to the quality of the HH. ⁴⁄₅ stars due to unprofessional management and terrible music/​ambiance. Yellllllp I’d def go back, its economically irresponsible not to take advantage of it.

Stopped in for a cocktail on a busy Saturday night and we got a seat at the bar right away. The restaurant was actually kinda slow and I wondered why because downtown was really packed. I didn’t have to worry though, the bar tender took our drink order immediately and in moments we were served two perfect Old Fashions.
We asked for a menu to scope out the appetizers and throwing caution to the wind we ordered the cevechi and the beef tostones. The beef was tender and had a nice flavor. The cevechi was excellent, served as a sampler there were three types to try.
The restaurant is set back a bit from the street so I think it is hard to see if you’re passing by. The bar looks out to the street with several large flat screen TV’S above. The inside is spacious and there is room for large parties without being cramped. The bathroom was clean.
The bar tender was friendly, quick with the drinks and made several recommendation on the food and wine. If we didn’t have prior plans we would have stayed for dinner. After a great happy hour, we plan to return to try dinner.

Dear God. These were the best tapas around. We got there for the happy hour which was a deal in and of itself. From 4 – 7 as many tapas as you want and endless margaritas or sangria. All for $ 20. The tapas were excellent and some of the best margaritas we’ve had.
David was our server. He was informative and entertaining while taking care of everyone.
We come to St. Pete once a year. We only wished that we found this place sooner. This will be a regular place for us upon our return.

From the moment we entered until we left we were engaged by every member of the staff we encountered. David, our server was delightful and very attentive to our every need. We shared four tapas during their 2-​hour Happy Hour that were fabulous on every textural and temperature count. The Golden Margaritas were a perfect pairing.
The stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates were luscious and piping hot, served in a crispy endive leaf and a few crunchy almond slivers.
The meatballs were juicy, as were the Stuffed Piquilla Peppers were well spiced and complemented by a nice marinara.
Our favorite bite was the Patatas Bravas coated just perfectly with a nice aioli.
All-​in-​all, a great place we’ll definitely revisit.

Heard about the change of management so decided to give it another try. Tried the beef bowl.
Excellent. Adding to my list of lunch places for Hispanic food replacing Pipo’s on 4^th.

We had a 45 minute wait for the place we were going to eat dinner at, and there wasn’t any room at the bar to wait. We decided to take a stroll down the street, and immediately found this place. They weren’t packed, and they had room at the bar, so we decided that this would be a good place to wait.
We ordered some drinks, an old fashioned for me, and my wife tried one of their white wines which she enjoyed. We figured since we had our drinks, we may as well order some tapas. We decided upon the beef tostones and the ceviche sampler.
The beef tostones were pretty good, served with plantain chips, shredded beef, manchego cheese, and garlic mojo. It was like having a bit of ropa vieja on my plantain chips. The ceviche sampler had the red (shrimp, tomato, jalapeño, citrus, cilantro), the green (whitefish, poblano pepper, tomatillo, avocado, passion fruit) and the whitefish (fish marinated with lime, red onion, peppers, garlic and cilantro) the green was my favorite in case you’re interested.
The service was great, the price was reasonable, and the tapas have me interested enough to come back and try an actual meal.

It’s possible I am being overly harsh with a 3 star review of Patanegra, but I just was not that impressed. I would probably give it another ½ star if I could, but nothing about this place is going to bring me back.
The lovely lady and I came here on Saturday night, not too hungry so a tapas restaurant would work great. They had the restaurant set up for 2 very large parties and very little room available. They had additional seating available inside the lobby of the office building of which this restaurant is part of, and they have a great outdoor patio. However, it was in the 40 degree range, so outside wasn’t happening and an office building lobby is fine for lunch on a Tuesday, but not dinner on a Saturday. Therefore, although they were going to try to make room for us, we sat at the bar.
Lets start with the bartender who was serving us. Very friendly, very efficient. However, I ordered an old fashioned (or their version of it) and the amount of simple syrup he used probably justified a trip straight to the dentist. They are supposed to have a hint of sweetness, not taste like a trip through Willy Wonka’s factory. Moreover, my girlfriend asked him to explain the difference in sauces between the two paella recipes, and he proceeded to simply read off the menu — obviously something we can do. Additionally, keeping in mind it was around 40 degrees outside and very windy, he opened the windows behind the bar to the patio. Thankfully, we were just finishing our meal, but it wasn’t really open window weather. Apparently, the comfort of the customers didn’t matter.
As for the food — I started with a cup of lobster bisque and Melissa had the mussels. The lobster bisque had just a couple of crumbs of meat in it. Though otherwise good, it wasn’t superb and the couple of tiny bits of meat left me disappointed. Melissa had to send the mussels back because they came out cold. When returned, they were okay, but nothing special.
Melissa then got some ceviche, and I got an order of meatballs and an order of potatoes with bacon and a spicy aioli. Melissa was disappointed in the ceviche, though I did not try it. The meatballs were good — better than the bisque — but I think the most recent meatballs I had were from Publix, so the bar was already set pretty low. The best item was the potatoes — those were memorable — but if the most memorable part of your meal is the potatoes, then you’re either having smothered and covered and chunked hash browns from Waffle House, or your meal wasn’t that great.
We had a brief conversation with the manager about their new brunch menu (bottomless pancakes and bottomless mimosas) and during the conversation, he indicated they were changing the name and switching to a more American style menu with spanish influences because they misjudged whether downtown St. Pete could support a spanish restaurant. First, Ceviche is down the block and I think that place has been shut down a couple of times by the health department and is still going. Second, downtown St. Pete supports multiple mexican, sushi, vietnamese, and french restaurants, just to name a few. The problem isn’t the ethnic nature of your food — the problem is your food. Serve a quality menu, and people will come. It’s very telling that you have that incredible location and awesome courtyard/​patio, and you aren’t making it. Vue had the same problem in this location — do you think downtown St. Pete can’t support a sushi restaurant? Of course it can — but you can’t rely on your location and patio alone. There are too many great restaurants in just as good a location for any of us to choose a place that thinks they can half-​a$$ the food.
I don’t mean to be too harsh — like I said, the food was good, service was friendly. It definitely does not deserve less than 3 stars and might even deserve another half if I could give it. However, there are any number of better restaurants in walking distance.

Fantastic! Beautiful outdoor patio with outstanding tapas style food along with some regular sized entrées. I had the ceviche sampler and plantain cups, both were great. The winner was the tres leches desert, definitely recommend it.

Unilocal needs to add Patanegra to their map search results
What a nice surprise! Grouper sandwich
with small salad (yummy dressing, ate all my lettuce)
for $ 12 and a superb margarita $ 4
Want international vibe… Paul my waiter, so sweet, is from Portugal
And the handsome chef is from Spain!
Cool Music
Outdoor café
Right across Central Ave from Jannus Live … Later it is the wilder it gets!

I’ve been to this place a couple of times now. The food is not bad, but it’s not the greatest either.
The croquetas were burnt. The plantains were dry. The sangria was alright. The pork could’ve used a bit more flavor. All their desserts are quite delicious.
Depending on the night, the service has been good and bad. Its a nice spot in downtown with outdoor seating and good entertainment so I do encourage you to grab a drink (sangria or the coquito) and a quick bite since their plates are very small.

I’m not going to lie. I was a bit concerned about this place. It was Saturday Halloween night, and everything in the area was packed to the rim except for here. It was weird. My hubby was like let’s go, we can get a few small plates, it was dog friendly, we wouldn’t have to break the bank, nor wait forever.
I was happily surprised. We ordered a tuna tartare dish, tostones with shredded pork and sweet plantains, and some potatoes with hot sauce (patatas bravas). All were pretty good, and my favorite was the tuna tartare. I also got a tres leches mixed drink. It totally tasted like a tres leches cake. That was cool, different, and I haven’t seen that on a menu elsewhere before.
It turns out they were having a late Halloween party, and they cleared the inside for a dance floor. The DJ was there already.
I feel like maybe this place is like an after work drink spot. I don’t know though since I am never in the area at that time.
Nevertheless, the food and drink were great, and a good place for tapas. They were not honestly super innovative and different in my opinion, but they were tasty.

We’re from Venezuela and Spain and this is a perfect mix of the two, with a little extra Caribbean, Latin America and whatever else.
It is SO GOOD
Seriously worth a try

Pro: Great tapas in downtown St. Pete. Favorites were the tostones w/​ropa vieja, mofongo w/​shrimp, and chicken empanadas. Excellent drinks (old fashioned, piña colada) from well-​stocked bar too! In addition, server Curtis made excellent recommendations for dining and entertainment options. (Bravo, Sir!) Live Latin music on weekend nights for those that want to cut a rug…
Con: Can go from zero to noisy rather quickly. Timing is everything.
Bottom Line: Plenty of menu options, and they’re all good! ¡Buen provecho!

Loved this place! When trying to find a lunch place in downtown St. Pete, each restaurant seemed to blend in with the next with «soup, sandwich, etc» type of menu. When we saw a tapas place, we had to stop. First off, the service was awesome! I wish I remembered our server’s name, because he was extremely attentive and friendly. He made our experience very enjoyable. Second, the food was sooo tasty. We got some type of chicken sandwich (no bun) with a side of plantains. Then we got sautéed shrimp & three sides (mixed veggies, brussel sprouts, and spaghetti squash). We enjoyed all of it and there was plenty of food for the two of us. Third, the prices were excellent. We got those three sides for $ 14 and the rest was cheap too. I think our bill was only $ 35 after everything? Definitely recommend this place if looking for something different in the downtown area!

The Mofongo is excellent.
The Coquito is the best damned drink. It’s a Puerto Rican twist on spiked egg nog, replacing egg and cream with cream of coconut. They’re very strong.
Avoid the albondigas. Very dry.

So my boyfriend and I tried this for the first time
Location/​ambience: I love this location. It’s centralized and easy to walk to if you live downtown. The décor was very pretty except one small detail. The chairs are little high for the table. So when you sit down you are higher up than normal… or it could have been my big booty. Minor detail not a big deal.
Service: Friendly, quick service. The server gave us her recommendations and seemed to know the menu. Even asked for our feedback on how the food was. When we said we didn’t care for the calamari she took it off our check. They are very attentive.
Food: It was ok. We had the chicken empanadas, calamari and ropa views with tostones. The calamari was a little limp. I think because they didn’t use enough batter. The empanadas were ok. They didn’t really impress. The ropa Vieja tostones were good. They added goat cheese crumbles. I was a little skeptical at first but the flavors went very well together. They gave us 3 sauces. Chimichurri, salsa verde, bbq. They were all very good.
The portions were also huge for tapas! Often times you go to a tapas restaurant and the tapas are too small to share.
I am excited to return once they get the menu down! Kudos to the staff and chefs at Patanegra!

My husband and I went to this restaurant for Tapas Tuesday: four dollar sangria and five dollar tapas. This would’ve been a five star review, however… We realized after we left and scrutinized the receipt that they overcharged us for drinks and one of the tapas. They charged us SIX dollars per glass of sangria which in the grand scheme of things is not really that big of a deal (although the we had 5 total drinks)… But if you’re going there on a night to save a few bucks and check out a new place with good specials, that can be a bit of a disappointment.
Anyway, for tapas we had:
Piquillos rellenos — amazingly delicious! Yet again, be sure you ask which tapas are $ 5… We were under the impression this was one of them but it turns out it was actually $ 8. (The server will inform you in advance which tapas are $ 5. Miscommunication I guess.)
Croquetas — very yummy, and so good with the sauces they provide (especially the salsa verde which is like none I have ever tasted!)
Albondigas — meatballs… loved these, spiced nicely
Patatas Bravas — meh, I mean I love potatoes but these were nothing spectacular
Chicken Empanadas — was not impressed
Ambiance: great inside… Nice lighting, music, and décor. Unfortunately outside they were doing some construction so it was a bit loud. We chose to move inside.
Service: outstanding. Our server was Luisa and she was friendly, attentive, and professional. I have to assume that because they haven’t been open very long, the over-​charging was just a mistake. We will be more communicative next time.
Pricing: reasonable and what you’d expect from a tapas bar. It would have been a more pleasant experience had we been charged the actual specials price, but I would still go back and eat there again. We should have looked at the bill more closely before we left.
Food: delicious. I forgot to write on the list that we had the bacon wrapped dates with blue cheese to finish off our dinner. They were absolutely amazing! I will probably order them every time I visit this establishment.

This place is in the old Vue sushi spot. So I saw that they opened and wanted to check it out. Initial impression of the décor… it’s too bright! Turn the lights down. I think some drapes or something to make it look more romantic would also be nice. The music is on par for a spanish restaurant and I was glad they were playing that music. It was spot on!
I like the fact that they have a lot of cute décor in there and they definitely have the spanish theme down. We went for Tapas Tuesday and got the Sangria for $ 4.00 which was a good deal. Sangria had fresh fruit in it… which was nice.
We also ordered some tapas for $ 5.00 each. The server was attentive and helpful and knew the menu which is great for a place that just opened. The tapas are a great size and we’re super tasty!
Not only did the cooks, server AND bartender come over to see how everything was but they all made sure we were happy and taken care of!!! I’ll definitely be back!