Prime Italian Is Prime Turf

The sultan of SoFi's new restaurant succeeds as an all-purpose upscale Italian dining venue.

Comments (0) By Lee Klein Thursday, Apr 9 2009

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Joe Rocco

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Prime Italian

101 Ocean Drive
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: South Beach

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101 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach; 305-695-8484. Dinner Monday through Thursday 5:30 p.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.

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There was no sheep's head to be found at Prime Italian, nor anything else ambitiously regional — only a couple of oddball menu inclusions such as barbecue chicken with cilantro. Rather, the restaurant succeeds as an all-purpose upscale Italian dining venue. In addition to the aforementioned starters, diners can begin their meal by choosing from soups; salads; coal-oven pizzas; oysters; caviar; cocktails of shrimp, crab, or lobster; baked clams; fried bufala mozzarella; and antipasti, whose star attraction is wispy shavings of 500-day-aged Parma prosciutto. Besides the steaks, seafoods, and pastas are classics such as hot and sweet sausages, shrimp scampi, lobster fra diavolo, eggplant parmigiana, and about two dozen à la carte sides, including a whole section devoted to spuds.

Portions here are incredibly hefty (I didn't mention the chopped salad, but to say it can feed six to eight is absolutely not an exaggeration), service is good, the cuisine is very good, and thus the exorbitant bill at evening's end should surprise no one. Vinnie surely enjoyed the meal and thanked me more than once. One has to wonder, though, whether those patrons paying the tab will leave Prime Italian in as appreciative a mood.