Bianca at the Delano: High Prices and Snobbery Stir Memories of a Meaner South Beach

We waited for main course plates to be removed from the table. We waited some more, and then some more. It wasn't as though there weren't enough staff. On the contrary: At one point, while our empty dishes sat, five workers chatted at a nearby station and two others, perhaps managers, stood near the same spot and surveyed the room — except their gazes were grazing beyond the tables, as if scanning the horizon for someone who mattered, someone like Donald Trump.

Perusing the dessert selection elicits a feeling that the Bianca team isn't even trying. It's not just that tiramisu, vanilla panna cotta, New York cheesecake, and gelato/sorbet ($12 each) are choices one sees at a routine restaurant, but they're so pedestrian as to likewise resemble items in the refrigerated section at Walgreens.

billwisserphoto.com

Salmon carpaccio. See more photos of Bianca.

Location Info

Map

Bianca

1685 Collins Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: South Beach

Photos

0 user reviews	Write A Review

Details

Bianca

305-674-6439
delano-hotel.com
Breakfast Monday through Friday 7 to 11 a.m.; lunch daily 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; dinner Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 7 to 11 p.m. and Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday 7 p.m. to midnight.

Grilled octopus $26
Spaghetti pomodoro $27
Roast chicken $36
Sirloin bistecca $46
Dolcetti misti $14

View a slide show of Bianca.

Related Content

• Miss USA Will Be Held in Doral For Next Three Years
  June 17, 2013
• Reader Mail: South Beach Tow Companies Are the Biggest Scam on Earth
  April 18, 2013
• Drogerie: Cocktails in a Mad Scientist's Lab at SoBe's Albion Hotel
  June 7, 2013
• May 2013 Restaurant Openings and Closings
  May 31, 2013
• UltraVive: Does an IV Hangover Cure Work? A First-Person Perspective
  June 11, 2013

More About

• Scott Conant
• South Beach (Miami Beach)
• Las Vegas
• Main Dish Recipes
• Italian Food and Cooking

View a slide show of Bianca.

A plate of dolcetti misti, however, turned out to be a highlight of the meal. The large board of mini-Italian pastries takes up much of the table and includes a trio of fresh beignet spheres with chocolate dipping sauce; a duo of cannoli; a decadent dome of chocolate ganache; almond cake topped with fruit; a couple of chocolate-coated biscotti; and a white-chocolate-coated profiterole. It's a $14 dessert that is obviously portioned for at least two people, which makes it one of the better deals here — although it would help if the waiter would mention it's meant to be shared.

Our dinner began well too, with crisp-crusted minibaguettes and soft, wheaty slices of crusty country bread. What it did not begin with was an amuse-bouche, and at evening's end there were no petits fours, nor a goodbye or any other acknowledgment that we'd just plunked down hundreds of dollars. The staff, perhaps, was too busy resetting our table for the next suckers.