There is a big problem with chef/owner Carmen Gonzalez’s new restaurant Carmen. The problem is that there are no problems. Who is going to believe a review that says something like that? Okay — the location could be a problem, judging just from past history. The restaurant is in the…

While in Edinburgh two years ago, I went to buy a city restaurant guide at Cooks Bookshop, owned by Clarissa Dickson Wright, formerly one of the Food Network/BBC’s Two Fat Ladies. They were a notoriously butter- and beer-swilling duo (until partner Jennifer Patterson died in 1999) who roared through the…

Oceanview outdoor restaurants on Miami Beach are like the weather is in the rest of the nation: “Everybody talks about the weather,” as the nineteenth-century saying goes, “but nobody does anything about it.” Of course nobody has to do anything about it down here; perfect beach weather — and lots…

Although Haitian-born, chef Ivan Dorvil’s previous culinary experience has been everywhere but. His formal schooling was in Montreal, supplemented by some informal munching-his-way-around-Europe time. His previous executive chef jobs were at mid-Beach’s Middle Eastern Oasis Café (back when it first opened, to raves, in the mid-1990s), and in a couple…

What’s the difference between a “gastropub” and a restaurant? Nothing, as far as I can tell. A recent New York Times restaurant review that described a hot new place’s food as “gastro-pub cuisine” went on to list everything from pasta to lamb chops to cheesecake — which sure doesn’t sound…

The roast chicken of my dreams is sexy, not spartan — bursting with juice, tender yet firm, and very important, served splendidly dressed in its own succulent skin rather than cruelly stripped of this tasty protective covering by cooks whose claims to health consciousness fool only the most gullible or…

Cooking is not just about nourishment, or even about taste. It’s about, well, everything: An area’s food is as much a key to understanding a culture as is its history. This is not an original thought, at least not from me. Ever since Food Studies became as chic and serious…

When a South Beach resident wants just a nice light bite in a stylish setting, there are roughly a zillion places to go; it’s probably harder to find a single South Beach block where one can not get a designer salad — or crêpes, or panini, or whatever meat/fish/veggie carpaccio…

Since sabor is the Spanish word for flavor, one wonders: Why did the owners so name an Italian restaurant? Was sapore taken already? According to a quick look in the Miami area phone books — nope. The Italian word is still up for grabs. But in terms of ethnic identity…

There are many local restaurants that are enjoyable because they are so typical of what Miami now is and does best: perfectly put-together upscale glamour. And then there are restaurants that are enjoyable because they are atypical of what Miami now is, but shining examples of what we could be,…

Does the old expression discuss going “from feast to famine” or “from famine to feast”? I’d always thought the former, especially while trying to find a decent pizza when I first moved down here from New York City a decade ago. But after experiencing Pizza Libre, the latter won’t leave…

If you have read anything about the Coral Gables restaurant Cacao 1737 (though there hasn’t been much to read — the lack of buzz especially odd since Edgar Leal was perhaps the most buzz-producing young chef in Venezuela before he relocated to the now-defunct restaurant Zur in Miami Beach not…

From the outside, this small, unassuming downtown lunchroom with the ubiquitous coffee/pastry window on the street looks like a typical Cuban joint — and sure enough, it was La Carreta for almost a quarter-century. Then Argentine owners took over a couple of years ago. Now rechristened and redecorated, Floridita, as…

Early one morning several years ago, speed-reading through the e-mail that had accumulated overnight, I found a long letter that appeared to be from a friend. It started like a continued conversation among people who knew each other well enough to totally dispense with formalities: “Here’s a story.” Though I…

It’s that time of year when the annual horde of houseguests descends from the north yet again, demanding to be schlepped out to the Everglades yet again. What they claim they want is to experience our region’s great natural wonders. What they really want is one of our region’s great…

To think of restaurant reviewing as an Xtreme Sport may at first seem overly dramatic to readers who are more accustomed to thinking of the genre in terms of, say, rock climbing without ropes, or racing down ice-coated mountains in unprotected vehicles that have no brakes and are the size…

After a weekend afternoon in the park with the family, there is nothing like ice cream. So it’s just as well that Tasti D-Lite Café isn’t open on weekends, because Tasti D-Lite “ice cream” is nothing like ice cream. Unlike its competitors in the field of low-fat desserts that attempt…

At the start of a new year everyone makes resolutions, 99 percent of which involve losing weight. Who makes these resolutions? Skinny people, like Miami’s models. Curse them! Because who needs these resolutions? Miami’s restaurant reviewers. Not that I’m complaining. Getting paid for eating out at least once a week…

There are highs and lows in the restaurant-reviewing world — a low, for example, being the week I got food-poisoned twice at the same South Beach joint. A high was the day I discovered Raja’s. Because even though Miami has many Indian restaurants, the cuisine is almost invariably Northern Indian/Bengali…

As my companions and I walked through the front door at Madame’s Restaurant, three things happened in quick succession. First, the rather stern older woman at the maitre d’s desk, pointedly noting that we’d arrived at 7:45 for a 7:30 reservation, chided us discreetly yet firmly for our lateness –…

“This is why we moved to South Beach in the first place!” exclaimed my companion. It’s something we used to say to each other frequently when we came from New York City almost a decade ago. It almost always involved a “shirtsleeve experience,” like lunching in lushly planted tropical patios…

When Tango Beef Café folded last spring it was surprising that the closure was even noticed. The parrillada had featured an unusually varied selection of grilled meats, but it’s not as though North Beach doesn’t have a glut of other good Argentine grills, especially when, about three months ago, Tango…