Food & Drink

On a recent trip to The Old Cutler Oyster Co. & Raw Bar in South Miami, my dining (and driving) companion and I took a wrong turn and wound up on a dark stretch of Krome Avenue. The trip was a little spooky and so, by the time we got…

You can never be too rich or too thin or spend too much of your money on pricey (but pretty) morsels at chichi Miami restaurants, right? Wrong. Enough Mediterranean delicacies from seaside, Eurostyle bistros. We hankered for something different. Ethiopian or Moroccan or Polish would have cured our epicurean malaise,…

Aficionados of Laurenzo’s Italian food-and-wine emporium in North Miami Beach have long clamored for a sit-down restaurant, and after a number of false starts, the venerable establishment – Miami’s answer to Manhattan’s Balducci’s – reopened Laurenzo’s Grill at the Cotillion in late August. Housed in a missionlike structure, the dining…

Despite recent changes and additions to my home (i.e., a lake where the front yard used to be), I was feeling decidedly housebound during last week’s rainstorm. Seeking respite from my newly water-logged decor of mops, buckets, and hip waders, I enlisted the aid of my dining companion, and together…

In South Beach, where restaurants come and go nearly as often as the tides, earning consideration as one of the best local eateries is no mean feat. However, for Cafe Carezza the distinction may be a double-edged sword. Housed in the Boulevard Hotel on Ocean Drive, the cafe is a…

Last year while CocoWalk was still in the construction stages, I wandered around the rubble shaking my head. The three-tier, open-air, Disneyesque complex would go the way of the dinosaur, I was sure. No one with any sense would fight the gridlock of cruising teens and the paucity of parking…

At 11:00 on a recent Saturday night, the long, broad stretch of Lincoln Road Mall looked more like a ghost town than a commercial neighborhood only blocks from busy South Beach. B.C. Chong’s, the Grove transplant in Johnny’s old digs, and Espresso Bongo, a new bohemian nightclub with live music…

In Miami, the word pub – like the word bistro – does not necessarily connote good cheap eats or a working-class atmosphere. English Pub, which sits next to the pink Key Biscayne Galleria shopping center on Crandon Boulevard, is veddy, veddy upper crust, with a clubby atmosphere and the obligatory…

If you ascribe to the bigger-is-better school, the underwhelming size of Tani Guchi’s Place might deter you. It shouldn’t. What it lacks in space, this little eatery more than makes up for in quality, and quantity, of food. Carole and Terutoshi (“Terry”) Taniguchi provide a warm atmosphere and excellent fare…

La Terrasse may not be everyone’s cup of cafe au lait – the place is very European (or at least the SoBe version of a hip continental hangout) – but we not-so-trendy locals had a very tasty meal there recently. The restaurant doesn’t rank among the greats, but if you…

The secret to success in the Italian-restaurant business here has little to do with designer food. Forget miniravioli stuffed with shitake mushrooms, radicchio pesto, or other exotica. Restaurants that seem to consistently draw the biggest crowds offer hefty portions of perfectly cooked pasta and simple sauces at inexpensive prices. This…

After nearly a year in operation, everything at the Fishbone Grille should be going swimmingly. But while some of the restaurant’s offerings are outstanding, heavy-handed preparation of various seafood dishes and well-meaning but haphazard service provide bones of contention. An offshoot of the 79-year-old Tobacco Road, Miami’s oldest and most…

Many restaurants don’t survive Miami’s off-season, but judging from the number of new kids on the block (especially the South Beach block), this is no ordinary South Florida summer. After a nostalgic Friday Night Live concert a few weeks ago, my dining companion and I shagged up Washington Avenue to…

Hunt no more for a wild restaurant in this otherwise tame town. Now find caribou, alligator, venison, pheasant, rabbit, and elk without going even to the Everglades. Cafe Cazando – Spanish for “hunting” – brings the great outdoors to a charming corner of Coral Gables. While the two-month-old spot has…