Dinner at Bern's Steak House: Is It Worth the Hype?
From private planes and legendary wine cellars to a $253 dinner for two, we finally discovered what makes this Tampa institution so special.
A Restaurant Worth Flying In For?
My father had a wealthy friend who used to fly his private plane from Naples, Florida, to Tampa just to have dinner at Bern's Steak House.
He and his wife would enjoy dinner, spend the night, and fly home the following day.
That's a pretty strong endorsement of a restaurant.
My father never made the trip himself, but hearing his friends talk about Bern's made him want to experience it.
While Dad was still alive, I looked into the restaurant myself. What surprised me was that its menu prices weren't dramatically different from other upscale steakhouses, including Ruth's Chris.
Apparently, you didn't need a private airplane or a seven-figure bank account to enjoy dinner there.
Who knew? The unwashed masses could get a reservation, too!
Sadly, Dad never got to go.
But Bern's stayed on my list.
When Gina and I secured tickets for Rush's Fifty Something Tour in Tampa, I immediately saw an opportunity.
We'd planned an entire getaway around the concert, which became the story behind Our Tampa Rush Concert Weekend: The Complete Experience. But I also wanted to give Bern's an evening of its own.
We deliberately arrived a day early. The concert was the following evening, and I didn't want to squeeze Bern's into an already busy schedule.
If we were going to experience this restaurant once, we were going to do it properly.
Three things were nonnegotiable: a great steak, French onion soup, and dessert upstairs.
I set a reminder to make our reservation 60 days ahead.
We were going to Bern's.
And we weren't going to Rush.
Getting There: The First Unexpected Upgrade
Before arriving in Tampa, we'd researched transportation to Bern's.
Parking near the restaurant appeared limited, so we considered valet parking, taxis, and rideshares. Since I might enjoy a cocktail before dinner and wine with my steak, driving ourselves wasn't particularly appealing.
After checking into the Barrymore Hotel Tampa Riverwalk, I asked the front desk about the best way to arrange transportation.
The woman behind the desk had an unexpected answer.
The hotel offered a complimentary shuttle within a two-mile radius. Bern's was beyond its usual service area, but because the restaurant was so popular with guests, the hotel made an exception.
She recommended being downstairs about 30 minutes before our reservation. The shuttle operated first-come, first-served.
Excellent! One less thing to worry about.
But the real bonus was our driver, John.
John lived downtown and knew Tampa exceptionally well. During our ride, he gave us an entertaining introduction to Bern's, including some rather colorful observations.
He warned us that the exterior wasn't especially impressive and described the lobby as looking like an old bordello.
Not exactly the architectural description you'd expect for one of America's most famous steakhouses.
Then he told us something even more interesting.
John visited Bern's about once a month. He'd sit at the bar, order a beer, and enjoy a steak sandwich that he said was made using trimmings from the restaurant's steaks.
No elaborate dinner. No special occasion. Just a good sandwich and a beer.
Here was a restaurant that inspired some people to fly across Florida in private planes, while a local guy happily stopped by for a sandwich.
I liked that.
And John's advice was just getting started.
One Steak, Two Plates, and Some Excellent Advice
John told us that sharing an entrée at Bern's was perfectly normal.
The steaks were large, the restaurant would divide one between two plates, and there was no additional splitting charge.
That sounded like an excellent idea for three reasons.
First, we didn't need to eat an enormous steak apiece.
Second, we wanted to leave room for dessert.
Third, saving a few simoleons never hurts.
We arrived with plenty of time before our reservation. John told us to call the hotel when we finished, and he could collect us as long as it was before 10:30 p.m.
After checking in, we headed to the bar.
I decided to splurge on something unusual: Bern's Dry-Aged Old Fashioned, priced at $42.
This was no ordinary bourbon cocktail. According to the menu, it combined beef fat-washed Weller Full Proof bourbon, Haven Select, Bern's proprietary Old Fashioned syrup, smoked ice, and fresh truffles.
Yes, beef fat-washed bourbon. And fresh truffles.
The presentation was nearly as interesting as the ingredients, with an elaborate glass apparatus that turned the preparation into a little bit of theater.
Was $42 a lot for one cocktail? Absolutely. But this was the evening we'd been looking forward to, and I wanted to experience something I wasn't likely to find at an ordinary bar.
Gina chose a nonalcoholic whiskey sour, and we settled in to enjoy the atmosphere before dinner.
We struck up a conversation with several gentlemen who'd already finished dinner. Their wives were enjoying dessert upstairs while they relaxed with beers.
They had thoroughly enjoyed their meals.
So far, everything we'd heard was encouraging.
Then we were escorted to the Bronze Room.
The Bronze Room: Dinner With a History Lesson
Our waiter brought water, explained the menu, and shared some of the restaurant's history.
John had already pointed out several nearby buildings connected with the Bern's family, including properties used for wine storage and other hospitality ventures. The waiter added more context to the remarkable operation.
Bern's isn't simply a place that grills expensive steaks.
It's a restaurant built around an unusually detailed approach to food, wine, service, and the overall dining experience.
We ordered an 18-ounce Delmonico, prepared medium rare.
I chose French onion soup, while Gina ordered the salad. We'd share tastes of both.
The steak would be divided between our plates, along with the haricots verts. We'd also share a baked potato with all the trimmings.
I decided to add a side of horseradish-dill sauce. That combination sounded particularly good with a Delmonico.
John had also given us an interesting tip about the wine.
According to John, the restaurant uses wine remaining in certain opened bottles to create thoughtfully blended house reds and whites. He emphasized that it wasn't a matter of indiscriminately pouring leftover wine into one container.
I couldn't verify the blending process myself, but the house red was only $9 a glass.
I ordered one.
And it was excellent.
Somewhere in the building were wines worth more than a luxury automobile. I was perfectly happy with my nine-dollar glass.
The Steak: Worthy of the Reputation
Before our meal, the staff brought toast points for us to share.
Water glasses were refilled attentively, and service throughout dinner was excellent without feeling intrusive.
Then came the food.
My French onion soup was exactly the sort of rich, satisfying beginning I'd hoped for. French onion soup is one of my favorites, and it was something I'd specifically looked forward to trying at Bern's.
It deserved its place among the highlights of the meal.
And the steak?
Impeccable.
Bern's cooks its steaks over a wood fire, and our Delmonico arrived beautifully prepared.
Medium rare, the way the good Lord designed a cow to be prepared.
That's science. And possibly a little theology.
The steak was tender, flavorful, and cooked exactly as ordered. Sharing it was absolutely the right decision.
Between the steak, soup, salad, vegetables, baked potato, and sauce, we had a substantial meal without feeling we'd overdone it.
Everything was excellent.
And we still had room for dessert.
But first, we had another experience waiting.
Behind the Scenes: A Kitchen Unlike Any I'd Seen
After dinner, we were offered a complimentary tour of the kitchen and wine cellar.
We weren't going to pass that up.
Our guide was a waiter in training, and the tour took us directly through the working kitchen.
I've been around restaurants since childhood. I grew up in that environment and have seen plenty of commercial kitchens.
I'd never seen anything quite like this.
The scale was extraordinary.
There was a custom-built grill approximately 30 feet long, where steaks were cooked over a wood fire.
We watched an employee preparing onions for the restaurant's famous French onion soup. According to our guide, the kitchen was processing roughly 400 pounds of onions.
There were chilled storage areas displaying different cuts of beef, steaks being portioned for cooking, salad preparation stations, and a service bar handling drink orders for the various dining rooms.
Dozens of employees moved through the space.
It was organized chaos, but with a remarkable degree of precision.
The tour itself was carefully choreographed. Our guide directed us to specific stopping points, sometimes beside a table or against a wall, where we could safely observe the action without interfering with the staff.
At each station, we learned about the preparation process, the volume of ingredients, and how the different parts of the kitchen worked together.
This wasn't a decorative exhibition kitchen.
People were actively preparing and serving dinner all around us.
For someone who grew up around restaurants, it was fascinating.
A Wine Cellar With Bottles Worth More Than a Car
From the kitchen, we descended into one of Bern's wine cellars.
I'd read about the restaurant's wine collection, but seeing part of it firsthand was something else.
Rows upon rows of bottles filled the storage areas.
Some dated back to the 1800s. We saw bottles priced above $40,000.
Then our guide showed us an extraordinary oversized bottle, accompanied by a custom-cut crystal decanter.
We were told it was one of only a handful of such bottles and was intended to be opened in 2061.
That's quite a long wait for a glass of wine.
I couldn't help thinking about my perfectly enjoyable $9 house red upstairs.
The collection was impressive, but what made the tour memorable wasn't simply the price tags.
It was the history, preservation, and care involved in maintaining a collection on that scale.
You don't have to be a wine collector to appreciate it.
And you certainly don't have to buy a $40,000 bottle to enjoy the experience.
The Harry Waugh Dessert Room: An Experience of Its Own
Dinner and the tour were only part of the evening.
We still had our third nonnegotiable: dessert.
The restaurant arranged our upstairs seating for after dinner and the tour, so we could enjoy everything without rushing.
The Harry Waugh Dessert Room felt like entering a completely different restaurant.
The intimate, wood-paneled booths appeared to be fashioned from old wine casks. Each provided a cozy, private setting for finishing the evening.
There was even a telephone you could use to request music from the pianist.
The pianist was on break when we sat down, so we didn't call him. Instead, we used the booth's music controls to select some light jazz.
Perfect.
Gina ordered the pumpkin sticky toffee pudding. I went in a completely different direction with the Peanut Butter Truffle, an $18 chocolate-and-peanut-butter extravaganza.
The menu described an OREO brownie, crunchy peanut butter, peanut butter mousse, caramel milk chocolate mousse, and peanut butter fudge swirl ice cream.
If you're a peanut butter and chocolate fan, that's a pretty persuasive list of ingredients.
And the presentation lived up to the description. The rich chocolate dessert arrived with its ice cream and carefully arranged finishing touches, looking every bit like something worthy of a dedicated Dessert Room.
Gina thoroughly enjoyed her pumpkin sticky toffee pudding, but the Peanut Butter Truffle was my favorite of the three desserts we ultimately sampled.
The third was a surprise.
My birthday had been the previous week, and we'd mentioned that we were celebrating.
Earlier, in the main dining room, the restaurant had presented us with a thoughtful card thanking us for choosing Bern's for our special occasion.
Upstairs, they brought complimentary birthday-cake-flavored ice cream with colorful sprinkles and a candle.
No waiters singing at the table.
No sombreros.
No embarrassing production.
Just a thoughtful acknowledgment of the occasion.
Classy.
The Dessert Room wasn't simply an add-on to dinner. It was an experience worth making time for, and I understand why people talk about it almost as much as the steaks.
Three Checks, a Service Charge, and a $253 Evening
One detail worth knowing before visiting Bern's is that we paid separately in three locations.
We settled our bar tab before dinner, paid for the main meal in the dining room, and received another check in the Dessert Room.
Food and drinks included tax and an added 12% service charge.
Because the service had been excellent, I chose to add approximately another 10% in tips.
That was my personal decision, not a suggestion that everyone needs to do the same.
Here's how our evening worked out:
We'd been prepared to spend around $300.
Instead, we enjoyed an outstanding meal, cocktails, wine, dessert, the kitchen tour, and the wine cellar experience for $253 for two, including the additional tips I chose to leave.
We hadn't tried to minimize every expense.
I splurged on the Old Fashioned. We enjoyed wine with dinner. We ordered the desserts we wanted.
But sharing one steak made sense, and the complimentary shuttle eliminated the need to pay for parking or rideshares.
The result was a special-occasion evening that felt luxurious without requiring a private-plane budget.
A Rolls-Royce, a Shuttle Bus, and One Last Tampa Tour
When we finished, we called the hotel to arrange our ride back.
We waited outside Bern's for about ten minutes.
While we stood there, I admired a Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV that looked to be worth somewhere around half a million dollars.
Quite a vehicle.
Naturally, Gina posed for a photograph beside it.
Then our ride arrived.
Not a Rolls-Royce.
A complimentary nine-passenger hotel shuttle.
And I was perfectly happy to climb aboard.
We were John's final run of the evening, so he took a longer route back to the Barrymore Hotel.
Along the way, he pointed out neighborhoods and attractions worth exploring the next day, before the Rush concert.
He recommended Armature Works and mentioned several places to get coffee.
We eventually visited The Bagel Nook near our hotel the following morning.
John had become far more than our shuttle driver. He'd been our unofficial restaurant adviser, local historian, and Tampa tour guide.
We spent about $10 tipping for the shuttle transportation, money very well spent and separate from our $253 restaurant total.
And I couldn't help appreciating the contrast.
My father's friend used to fly his own plane to Tampa for dinner at Bern's.
We arrived in a hotel shuttle, enjoyed the same legendary restaurant, and rode home with a local who knew the city inside and out.
Different transportation.
Same great steakhouse.
So, Is Bern's Steak House Worth the Hype?
🟢 Go for it!
Absolutely.
Bern's didn't merely meet our expectations. It exceeded them.
The Delmonico was exceptional. The service was attentive. The kitchen tour was unlike anything I'd experienced, even after growing up around restaurants. The wine cellar was remarkable, and the Dessert Room provided a memorable finish.
But the biggest surprise was how approachable the experience felt.
Yes, you can spend an extraordinary amount of money at Bern's if you want to. The wine cellar alone provides ample opportunity.
You can also share a steak, order a reasonably priced glass of wine, tour the kitchen and cellar, and enjoy a wonderful evening without going overboard.
We didn't feel that we compromised anything important.
In fact, sharing the entrée made the evening better because we had room for the Dessert Room.
Would I go back?
Without hesitation.
And next time, I might just take John's advice and stop by the bar for a steak sandwich and a beer.
Because sometimes a restaurant becomes legendary for good reason.
And sometimes the best luxury upgrade is discovering that you don't need to be wealthy to enjoy it.