Restaurant Review: Timpano (Tampa)

We’re spending the winter in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa. We love it and will likely buy our winter home here. A few blocks from where we live is a restaurant called Timpano. The restaurant opened in 2005 and was sold in 2011. It was closed during the pandemic and reopened in November 2021. We have walked by many times and wanted to have dinner. We finally got the opportunity this week.

Anthony’s Take: Timpano has a fun vibe, Instagram-worthy decor, and solid food. The service was attentive, but really rushed. We ordered three courses and they all arrived within seconds of each other. Our server was definitely on top of things, but I’m not sure why the food came so fast and courses overlapped so much. The tableside pasta is more than a gimmick. It was genuinely delicious. The cocktails and wine list are solid as well. We’ll likely return and ask the server to please slow down and course our meal.

Decor & Vibe

From the bench outside to the Vespa inside the front door, there is a lot to catch your eye and shoot for your Instagram reels. The space is open and verdant with lots of wicker, dark woods, flowers, and live plants.

The bar is covered in tiles with tropical plants hanging overhead.

Tables were comfortable. The lighting was a bit dim (even more so after the bulb in the lamp at our table died).

We had a comfortable booth in the back of the restaurant.

Food

The menu has a good variety of modern Italian dishes (many riffs on classics like Tuna Saltimbocca instead of veal).

Bread and flavored butter was brought to the table within minutes of being seated.

We started with the Truffle Arancini. They were crispy with a creamy center and a nice truffle flavor.

We then had the Parm to Table Experience. It sounds gimmicky: pasta prepared tableside in a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano, but it’s not. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the pesto sauce was delicious. It’s a huge portion and we took half home.

I selected the Tuna Saltimbocca for my entree. The tuna was perfectly cooked and the prosciutto added a nice crispy, salty element.

My husband had the Rock Shrimp Risotto. It was well prepared (albeit slightly salty). The portion was also huge, so half was added to our to-go bag.

We also ordered the Eggplant Polpette as a side dish. These were crispy and tasty. We were pretty full at this point, so two of these also came home.

Drinks

Timpano offers an impressive cocktail menu and wine list. My husband started with an Espresso Martini and I had a glass of Brut Rose.

We also ordered a bottle of water. I’m a sucker for details and liked that it was presented with lemon and lime slices.

Overall Impression:

I’ve walked by here many times and am glad that I finally got to have dinner. The food was very good. I liked the rethinking of several classic dishes. The service (as mentioned above) was attentive, but the food came out way too fast and we felt rushed throughout the meal.

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