It's not every day you get an invitation to a fun, fancy, flirty party on South Beach, but at the sparkling Mr. Chow, you're on the guest list -- well, if you can afford it.
Charlotte Bistro is a sassy little flirt. From the moment you catch a glimpse inside the tight-fitting dining room on Miracle Mile where swirly mirrors and framed prints compete for attention, you know this girl has got ambition.
The Dadeland Plaza Mall on South Dixie Highway in Pinecrest looks like the usual jumble of strip shops. But tucked between For Eyes and Muscle Max is a world of restaurants stretching from Asia (Japan and Vietnam) to Brooklyn (Roasters 'n Toasters). We opted for three European menus and found ourselves transported -- without the flight or exchange rate.
Lots of people assume Miami is a health-conscious town -- a Southeast version of L.A., perhaps. Maybe it's all the beautiful bodies and sunshine. The truth is, that when it comes to dining out, we've got more deep-fried, porky, processed and syrup-laden food than nearly any city I know.
Coconut Grove has long been a magnet for drifters. It's easy to stop by for a beer and fall in love with the colorful, quirky neighborhood. But for a Chicago-themed eatery that plopped down in the ungainly spot that once housed Don Quixote, it has been a tough transition.
Bar Rosso sounds like just what the condo-dense Aventura neighborhood behind Loehmann's needs: A wine-savvy place to meet friends for a bite and a sip. But the warehouse-sized space that was once Ivy's seems cold and empty, the staff untrained and the food simply not up to the task.
With champagne budgets rare these days, it seems perfect timing for a low-brow burger and beer joint to open in South Beach. And what better name for it than The Burger & Beer Joint?
The northwest suburbs of Miami-Dade offer any number of Latin American restaurants, but cuisines from the other side of the Atlantic are a bit harder to find. Here are two Miami Lakes restaurants that boast a taste of the continent and a Doral spot with Mediterranean flair.
Miami is having a French moment. And nowhere is it more authentic than on the tip of South Beach at the new Au Pied de Cochon. After opening in late May it kept the same hours as a hospital emergency room -- around the clock. But, sadly, after some wrangling with the city over liquor licenses it has scaled back to just lunch and dinner.
I rarely bother to review nightclubs that double as restaurants since the food is usually an afterthought, the prices are absurd, and the attitude is predictably preposterous. The Bancroft Supper Club could have been different.
The setting is a classic Hollywood version of the perfect little French bistro. The walls are eggshell white, accented with red and black and dotted with gilt-framed mirrors and sweetly Gallic artwork. Daily specials scrawled on a blackboard over the open kitchen are recited with flair by a team of briskly competent, black-clad waiters while diners fill the room with bubbly chatter.
A family trip to China last fall left me craving most of all the drop-of-a-hat elegance of the family-style dining we enjoyed -- relaxed yet ritualized banquets with a dozen friends and acquaintances in which we were served a multitude of dishes in a kind of formal order I never fully understood.
Whipped-cream clouds daubed with peach-bellini puffs and ice-blue swooshes lighted by the neon setting sun are the backdrop for one of Miami's most breathtaking new restaurants. The dramatic sky is just part of the eye candy for those who can swing the bill at Asia de Cuba, the latest Miami outpost of Jeffrey Chodorow's eating-as-entertainment empire.
As we begin the countdown to the Summer Olympics, it's time to take note of a worthy new Greek contender in the Miami dining arena. After all, it was Coroebus, a humble cook from Elis, who sprinted to victory in the first recorded Olympic Games back in 776 B.C.
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