Tosca, the fine-dining eatery on 23rd Street and Collins Avenue in South Beach, has hopped onto the brunch bandwagon.
Now offering a new menu on Sundays, from noon to 5 p.m., Tosca offers everything from bacon and eggs to Hamachi crudo to cucumber risotto. There is a wide range of appetizers, breakfast classics, and entrée type dishes, plus plenty of salads.
Of course, no restaurant worth its fleur de sel would ignore your thirst, and yes, Tosca offers an unlimited champagne bar ($20) with your choice of orange juice, wild strawberry, or white peach mixers. An interesting addition is the unlimited crostini offer that comes with the champagne bar, your choice of bruschetta, goat cheese and truffle honey, or eggplant caponata. The rest of the menu is a la carte.
We were recently invited to sample the brunch and were pleasantly surprised by the indoor/outdoor seating arrangement. The dining room is technically indoors, with the benefit of air conditioning, but in place of a fourth wall, there is an open space leading out into the lush garden. You get the feel of eating al fresco with the comfort of eating indoors.
The garden offers intimate areas with minimal seating where you can take your flute of champagne and your lover and engage in delicious conversation. It's a perfect place to lounge after you've finished eating.
Some of the dishes we found most noteworthy are the steak and eggs ($29), a grilled Wagyu skirt steak, two eggs cooked to your taste, home fries, and spring ramp salsa verde; the tuna tartare ($18), with avocado, mango, and a soy sesame dressing; the prawns a la plancha ($18), with a plate dressing consisting of sweet chilies and gremolata, served with garlic chips and grilled pita; and the artichoke salad ($15), a delightful blend of warm goat cheese croquette, frisée, and artichokes, drizzled with a vinaigrette.
A jumbo lump crab salad ($16) also had a delectable house dressing, but lacked sufficient crab meat, and the ricotta cheesecake filled French toast, with wild strawberry sauce, mascarpone butter, and Vermont maple syrup, was nice and rich, but slightly overpriced at $22.
If you live in South Beach, Tosca, with its varied menu, fresh ingredients, and unlimited champagne bar, definitely has the potential to become your Sunday brunch spot.
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