Most diners, including reviewers, are sensible enough to take cost into consideration when reflecting upon a restaurant meal. If served, say, a savory but less-than-stellar sirloin for $15, we are apt to cap any negative judgment with a modifying sentiment: “It might not be the best steak I’ve ever had,…
In the beginning, there was the hamburger, a simple round of chopped beef slipped into a soft white bun. And the hamburger begat the cheeseburger, which begat the double cheeseburger with large fries, which begat the turkey burger and the tuna burger, the mushroom burger and the veggie burger. And…
wtf Dogma Grill? Critical Miami wants to know. The Miami eatery has successfully sued a hot dog establishment with a similarly punny name: Hot Dogma. The location of this weiner warehouse? Pittsburgh…
The building at 9851 Kendall Drive used to be just another gas station, contending with the Shell station across the street and the Chevron on the corner. But intrepid entrepreneur Michael Touma saw opportunity when the skyrocketing gasoline prices and glut of competition overwhelmed the Texaco station. He removed the…
What is a real Grove restaurant?Coconut Grove Grapevine asks the question today: “If a tourist asked you which restaurant in the Grove actually says ‘Coconut Grove,’ which would it be?”…
If I sound a sardonic note or two in this review, it is likely because of my current battle with PPDS, or post-Post depression syndrome. Although affecting only a minuscule segment of the population, PPDS is highly prevalent among those who have dined at Post Restaurant and Lounge. Symptoms include…
Elsie is standing behind the counter of LC’s Roti Shop, explaining that when the neon signage outside was first erected twenty years ago, “they charged by the letter, so I shortened my name to LC.” The little storefront shanty has hardly changed a whit since — it still has more…
It’s a corporate world and we just live in it. Art, music, literature, film — not to mention daily minutiae such as toothpaste and automobiles — are conceived, packaged, promoted, and sold by gigantic, faceless entities that have all the conscience of a great white shark and all the commitment…
Renaisa Indian Restaurant, located just east of Biscayne Boulevard, boasts indoor and outdoor tables facing the Little River canal off 79th Street — not exactly a Venetian vista, but diners seem to love sitting by just about any body of water. That’s one reason for Renaisa’s success over the past…
Most locals know NE 167th/163rd Street as a shopping destination, not as a restaurant row. But the roughly three-mile strip between I-95 and Biscayne Boulevard is the closest thing our town has to a Chinatown — though it’s actually more of a Pan-Asiantown. On their way to Home Depot, Wal-mart,…
We received very exciting news yesterday and we just had to share it with you. Now, we know that you Beach dwellers loathe leaving the island. Heck, you don’t even want to leave your condo, since you paid so much money for it and you now realize that with an…
My husband and I had a long-overdue couples’ night with two of our best friends, Jeff and Jessica, one recent Sunday at Origin Asian Bistro, a South Miami restaurant that was Miami New Times’s 2006 choice for Best Restaurant in South Miami-Dade. We love the place: The Malaysian roti is…
After years of working at Norman’s Restaurant, Chef Jeffrey Brana and his wife Anna have opened a place of their own, Restaurant Brana, in Coral Gables (see this week’s Cafe review). Riptide spoke with Jeffrey by phone and asked him a few questions about subjects not covered in the review…
There exists an inherent elegance through simplicity.” That’s one of Chef Jeffrey Brana’s talking points concerning the cuisine at his and wife Anna Elena’s new Coral Gables dining establishment, but he could just as well be describing the 50-seat restaurant’s modest decorative scheme. Pale yellow walls in the tasteful rectangular…
Ask any resident of a major city, from San Francisco to Lima, Peru — or even citizens of not-so-major cities like Portland, Oregon; or Richmond, British Columbia — where the local Chinatown is, and they’ll have no trouble directing you to some dense enclave of Asian culture and businesses, where…
“Where Cuba meets the Far East” is Oriente at Cardozo’s motto, which on paper isn’t a bad idea. The crisp, light flavors and exotic spices of Asia offer a potentially tantalizing contrast to heartier, homespun island fare. A little yin and yang, so to speak. Throw in American-style salads and…
Is there any scarier word on a restaurant menu than healthy? Okay, maybe vegan. “Fat is flavor,” chefs say, which is why a well-marbled steak cuts like butter and tastes like heaven, why a half-pound of butter suspended in an emulsion of acid and herbs is as natural an accompaniment…
A Fish Called Avalon, the long-running seafood restaurant on Ocean Drive, has issued a press release trumpeting its boycott of all Canadian seafood products to protest the clubbing of baby seals. “Canada’s fisheries sell lobster, snow crabs, cod, mackerel, scallops, shrimp, haddock, oysters, herring, perch, mussels, sole, yellow perch, sardines,…
The local media has been mourning the demise of Fu Manchu Chinese restaurant on 71st Street in Miami Beach, which shut its doors after a near record-setting 71 year run (only Joe’s Stone Crab has been going longer). Longevity aside, however, Fu Manchu was a pretty lousy restaurant over the…
Restaurant reviewers find our prey many ways, most of them as unexciting as the way African big-game “hunters” find theirs — by using savvy local guides rather than doing any real hunting themselves. But occasionally one does stumble out of some metaphorical mist and find oneself, accidentally, in Brigadoon. (For…
There’s nothing quite so satisfying as sitting peacefully by a river and composing poetry. Finnegan’s Way? Can’t really say. Maybe that’s not entirely true — dining by a river can be just as rewarding, and even more so for those not as fortunate as I to be blessed with poetic…
The first duty of food is to be really delicious.” Cindy Pawlcyn, one of my favorite chefs in the Napa Valley, made that statement, and it’s God’s own truth. Of course, in our little town, that’s like shouting “Long live Fidel!” from atop the Freedom Tower. Too many local restaurateurs…
