A cacophony of chatter and clatter greets diners as they enter Mint Leaf, which has sprouted in the spot once occupied by Darbar Indian Restaurant and, most recently, by Restaurant Brana. The din seems surprisingly strong for such a modestly sized room and betrays a tranquil décor defined by dark…
Food is fashion: Halter tops and haute French one day, bling and sushi the next. American-Chinese restaurants began to fall from favor about the time men started wearing earrings, and nowadays the dark, stodgy interiors and tired, predictable cuisine are like mutton chop sideburns to the alluringly clean face of…
“De sus amigos de ‘Taco Loco,'” reads the sign over the storefront window at Maya Grill. The Mexican restaurant opened six months ago on West Palm Drive in Florida City, but residents here have long been relishing Maya’s tacos, which were formerly sold from a Taco Loco trailer in various…
Miamians in the mood for Mexican in other corners of the county might consider these solid south-of-the-border joints: Burritos Grill Café 899 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-891-1041; $15 or less per person, excluding tip and alcohol This quaint and immaculate 30-seat café has obligatory sombreros and ponchos hanging on…
Mediterranean cuisine is the toast of South Beach. Over the past few years, more than a half-dozen hoity-toity restaurants have opened, serving bright, clean, simple Med fare forged from fresh, high-quality ingredients. Here are two catches that focus on seafood: La Marea at The Tides South Beach 1220 Ocean Dr.,…
When a couple dined at a high-end establishment in the chivalrous days of yore, it was not unusual for the gentleman to be handed a menu with prices and the lady to be given one without. The idea was that because he was paying, she needn’t let numbers get in…
Eleven years ago, a pair of Danish chefs, Jan Jorgensen and Soren Bredahl, opened Two Chefs restaurant in South Miami. Bredahl returned to his homeland quite awhile back, but Two Chefs’ popularity has never waned — in part because Jorgensen has been a fixture there, making sure food and service…
North Miami isn’t exactly a hotbed of cuisine, but a short ride up the Biscayne corridor does yield a couple of gems: North One 10 Cream-colored brick walls conspire with blond woods, amber-colored glass, a very low ceiling, and little else to form a refreshingly unpretentious ambiance. Anyone acquainted with…
Elvis Ramirez Where: Mi Peru, 1760 Miami Gardens Drive, Aventura, (305) 940 9404. What $15 Gets You: A big plate of chaufa with meat and a drink. For those who lump Latin cuisine into a category consisting of rice, beans and some sort of meat, Mi Peru in Aventura is…
Michelle Bernstein and Doug Rodriguez were recently announced as nominees for the James Beard Foundation’s best chef in the south award. The first name is no surprise, for Bernstein is one of South Florida’s most notable chefs. (She nabbed a nod last year but didn’t win.) The recognition for Rodriguez…
If you feel funny about plunking down big bucks for oxtail and plantains gussied up in the guise of Nuevo Latino, here are a couple of viejo Latino spots to consider: Islas Canarias 285 NW 27th Ave., Miami; 305-649-0440; $15 to $25 per person, excluding tip and alcohol This tiny…
Something seemed amiss as soon as we entered Jason’s at the Harrison. The vaguely Vegas room, with black-and-white tiger-skin motif and thumping club music, didn’t gel with the Mediterranean/Asian/American comfort cuisine of chef Jason McClain — who just a couple of months ago, and with much fanfare, had taken over…
The intersection of 71st Street and Rue Vendome in Miami Beach is what many would call a “cursed location” for restaurants. The list of victims includes a Turkish place, a Russian place, and most recently Ouzo’s, a Greek/Med place that has since moved to South Beach. If this were a…
Sake Room Sushi Lounge is a chic little restaurant that tries very hard to please … when it’s not trying almost as hard to annoy. On one hand, you have fitful, graceless service by a haughty young waiter who had evidently decided we were neither beautiful nor Latin enough to…
Where: Asaka, 20355 Biscayne Blvd., 33180, (305) 682-9331 What $15 Gets You: Miso soup, salad, several california rolls, chicken katsu, vanilla ice cream tempura (or wine). Sushi is one of those foreign dishes that have become as American as apple pie (apple fish pie). It’s not strange to ingest the…
It’s said that Jewish history, along with the religious holidays that celebrate it, can be summed up in three sentences: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat! At no time of year does this ultimately concise historical summary seem more accurate than now. Thursday is Purim, a holiday…
Does bad service negate good food? Not necessarily. Many restaurant recommendations come riddled with caveats explaining the place isn’t much to look at and the service is shoddy but the food is fantastic; I have never heard somebody tout an establishment by saying the cuisine was awful but the décor…
Mary Brickell Village still isn’t much of a village, with many of the storefronts as empty as the concept of a downtown urban mall. Think of it more as a quaint clustering of that rapidly replicating creature known as the casual-upscale restaurant chain. On the plus side, Brickell Village has…
If you go by the menus of the Italian restaurants in our little town, you can only conclude that one of the world’s most glorious and diverse cuisines consists mainly of pizza, fried calamari, pasta with red sauce, and tiramisu. Italy’s great artisanal and regional specialties — hand-crafted salumi and…
When was the last time you ate chicken tikka masala on a rustic riverfront deck, as a manatee drifted by and a footlong, eye-poppingly bright green lizard watched you from under a nearby table? It was probably the last time you ate at Taj Mahal, though this colorful Indian restaurant…
The most utterly predictable comment from a New Yorker in a Miami pizzeria: “It’s not like a New York slice.” Culprits often cited are humidity, water quality, and brand of canned tomatoes. In fact, the real deal has been available for about a year and a half at Primo Pizza,…
Where: Graziano’s Gourmet in the Gables 2301 Galiano St., Coral Gables, (305) 460-0001 What $15 Gets You: Parrillada with a side salad (or fries) and an Anchor Steam…
