Fast food is, in essence, a less expensive mockery of real food. In the case of the Texas Taco Factory, the fare is twice removed from reality. It caricatures Tex-Mex, which is itself a bastardization of Mexican. In a way this extra degree of separation works to its advantage: The…
The SouthSide Café is located across the street from the Shops at Sunset Place, which really is the restaurant’s raison d’être. The menu, modeled toward accommodating families accustomed to eating at chain restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory, is well balanced, with a wide selection of soups, salads, wood-oven pizzas, and…
I’ve always wanted to write an article about a scandalous “gate.” I once was tempted to pen a “Tomatogate” piece after being subjected to one pale, plastic-tasting monstrosity after another, but the subject matter didn’t seem solemn enough. Then the incident at Thai Toni occurred. It reeked of gate-ness. As…
Imagine a restaurant with horrible food, lousy service, exorbitant prices, and an arrogant maitre d’ who just for the hell of it kicks you in the seat of the pants on your way out the door. The Miami Herald would give this place their lowest assessment: “Satisfactory.” Therein lies just…
A recent New Yorker article about life in restaurant kitchens, written by a professional chef, contained the confession that he and those in the food business regard vegetarians “and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans,” as “enemies of everything that’s good and decent in the human spirit. To live life…
Tinny pings of sitar music tinkle through the air at Anokha, Coconut Grove’s first Indian restaurant, while waiters in white gauze shirts carry trays of aromatic food through the dimly lit, 40-seat dining room. It’s a simply decorated space, with none of the heavy draperies and dusty Eastern artifacts prevalent…
It seems like only months ago that the new restaurant Oaxaca was moving into the 26-seat space on Washington Avenue now occupied by Ernie’s Amazing Burgers. As a matter of fact, it was just a few months ago. But Oaxaca is no more. Never was, really. For unknown reasons the…
Pastis is an anise-flavor liqueur popular throughout the south of France, particularly on the Côte d’Azur in Provence. Locals there have even worked the word pastis into their dialect, using it to mean “confused,” or “mixed,” a definition that is derived from the cloudy appearance of the drink when water…
I’ve never been a dim sum enthusiast: Peppery octopus, steamed shrimp balls, and other such delicacies are not my cup of tea come weekend brunch. Neither, for that matter, is a cup of tea. So it was with some trepidation that I recently trekked along with friends for dim sum,…
(The story thus far: Efrain Veiga, of Yuca renown, announces plans for Mayya restaurant in Albion Hotel; partners include former big-league baseball player Billy Bean and Latin TV star Cristina Saralegui. Minimalist décor costs maximumist dollars — more than two million. Mexican-born Guillermo Tellez, having honed skills with illustrious Charlie…
The stone crab “has a shell harder than a landlord’s heart,” wrote Damon Runyon, back in the days when Joe’s Stone Crabs was the only place on the Beach to get them. Many would say Joe’s is still the only place for stone crabs, but they’re speaking figuratively. Monty’s has…
Franz & Josephs opened last December with little fanfare: no stars, no multimedia PR campaign, no famous chefs or fanciful themes. Seems they’re intent on succeeding with a comforting ambiance, reliable service, and good (though not exceptional), moderately priced food. Sounds a little far-fetched, I know, but supposedly millions of…
The fat cows have new neighbors: Tango Beef Café has settled in across the street from the popular Normandy Isles parillada, Las Vacas Gordas. Tango Café is a parillada as well. Loosely translated it means “place where meats are grilled” Argentine style, which refers not only to the side of…
Many pale people will soon flee their frigid habitats to visit friends and relatives here in the Sunshine State. That means they are coming to our houses. Now I don’t know about your out-of-town guests, but as soon as mine unpack their bags, they begin to pester me with predictable…
People come and go quickly in the food biz, so it’s no big deal that Pepe Freixas, Victor Passalacqua, and chef José Charles left La Dorada, the wonderful Spanish seafood house in the Gables, to try the same recipe again at a new Spanish restaurant called Navarra. Two things do…
As a rule I avoid any restaurant which has an appellation that ends with the word palace or hut: The former are never palatial, the latter usually just cramped snack-food places with graceless décor. Rather than shun the Original Pita Hut, though, I seek it out on Arthur Godfrey’s unofficial…
Steep steps in the kitchen of the French restaurant Prunelle led up to a plush plum-color dining room. Actually it was down those steps that Wolfgang Puck and Jeremiah Tower came to thank us, the chefs and culinary staff, for a job well done. It was in New York City,…
Pasta is a possibility again on Le Jeune Road, just off South Dixie Highway, at the spot formerly occupied by Tutti’s. The owners of Pazzia, which opened this past December, haven’t tinkered with the place much. There’s still a large rectangular bar in the center of the space serving as…
Turkey was where Cleopatra met Antony and the Trojan horse came to fetch Helen of Troy; it was the birthplace of Abraham and St. Paul and the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. But most of us know little about this nation, and even less about its food, which…
La Gloria is, for moviegoers, the most significant Mexican import since Like Water for Chocolate. That’s because this new taqueria is located smack-dab in the midst of Coconut Grove’s cineplexes, offering a transcendent alternative to mall-land’s predictable fare. Mexican restaurants used to be just as predictable, but in recent years…
The Holy Trinity of gastronomic delicacies comes down to this: the salted fish eggs of a pregnant sturgeon, goose livers that have been grossly force-fed, and a subterranean fungus. If you haven’t developed an appreciation for caviar, foie gras, and truffles, you might think this is one giant joke being…
Does the difference between success and failure in the restaurant world boil down to those who have versus those who have not? Those who have, after all, are able to afford an experienced management team and name chef to come up with clever menus and slick modi operandi. They can…
