If you look very hard high up on the ceiling of Doraku, a sophisticated spot with minimalist mode-of-the-moment décor (relying largely on the natural elegance of contrasting polished woods), like a Terence Conran-type take on a traditional Japanese teahouse, you will notice that the subdued mesh-muted lights appear to be…
Here we are on the cusp of November, and I’m just getting around to writing about Oktoberfest. Very tardy on my part — after all, we know that Oktoberfest takes place in September. What’s that? You thought it took place in October? Jeez — we better start from the beginning…
As a food reviewer who does not keep kosher (I’m not Jewish), but who fields many requests for truly tasty kosher noshes from diners who do, I was excited early this year when new Kosher Gourmet opened with ads touting two things that run-of-the-mill kosher bakeries rarely have: prepared foods…
You can’t really fault the Cheesecake Factory people if, over the years, they’ve developed a bemused attitude while the front window of their popular eatery in the Aventura Mall food court has intermittently reflected the changing of restaurant signs in the space across the way. Soyka tried a News Café…
Recently I had a houseguest who presented a bit of a challenge in offering her a truly impressive dining experience. She’d grown up with a grandmother who was English, who was so wealthy that her idea of shopping was taking the QE2 over to Manhattan for an afternoon on Fifth…
“Mornin’ General,” my mostly African-American co-workers would say as I’d drag myself through the doors of Bagel World in Queens, New York, at 5:30 a.m. The nickname had nothing to do with any military bearing or bulldog attitude on my part; when I was first introduced one of the guys…
In terms of lunch-hour possibilities, 41st Street is a great place to make a bank withdrawal, but not such a great place to spend same on grub. Not that there aren’t eateries dotted here and there among the ATM machines. It’s just that almost none are appealing; in this neighborhood…
I could blame Zagat for my heading to Caffe Vialetto with visions of haute conch and upscale callaloo in my head, but I’m too big for that. It’s true the dining guide ranks the restaurant number three in the “Top Caribbean” category, yet while I had never been to, or…
Early last spring I got an e-mail from a reader recommending a restaurant I’d actually noticed myself while reviewing another place in the same neighborhood, the increasingly lively area right off Circle Park. The quite overlookable spot (décor, as seen through a plain storefront, is basically beer neon and fishing…
Pita Loca is a place I usually frequent alone, even when my wife comes along. She pretends she doesn’t know me. She’ll stand a few feet away, as if she’s a separate customer, when I order my hummus sandwich to go. It works like this: The man behind the counter…
314 72nd St, Miami Beach;
Good Chinese take-out is a whole different bag from good Chinese food — quite literally. Because aside from needing to be slightly undercooked, to travel from restaurant to home without physical deterioration, great Chinese take-out food must interact with its enclosing porous paper parts (cardboard lids and cartons, et cetera)…
About three months ago I received a press release that began, “If you’re not famous, notorious, or a young, beautiful, unescorted woman, be prepared to wait in line for a table at the new, hip restaurant lounge Barcode.” Okay, I thought: I’m definitely not a, b, or c. Also it’s…
Britto’s paintings are boastfully commercial in nature. Those in the art world can debate whether this quality diminishes his reputation as a serious artist, but there’s no doubt the bold lines and bright colors make for a cheery, even dazzling dining room décor at his namesake restaurant in South Beach…
Let’s start with the basics: There are three types of “eat-out,” as opposed to homemade, burgers. One is the slider, a thin two-biter that slides down the digestive tract so fast even skinny supermodels need to order a six-pack. White Castles (Krystals for Southerners) are the classic sliders. Two is…
So you’re a couple of New York guys who have just relocated. It’s earlier this year. It’s lunchtime. You’ve been doing something-or-other in Miami Shores, and are cruising south past some of the increasingly snazzy neighborhoods bordering Biscayne Boulevard, like Belle Meade and Morningside. You are real hungry. And what…
There are no menus handed out at Macaluso’s, a smart-looking Italian restaurant sitting almost secretly in a ministrip mall off Alton Road in South Beach. Instead most of the ten appetizers and seventeen main courses were rapidly enumerated by our waiter, a practice that I believe unfairly punishes those of…
Since there’s no dance music blaring over this humble luncheonette place, it’s hard to figure why Disco Fish is named that. Perhaps the reference is intended to suggest fish so fresh they’re still party animals boogying direct from boat to plate. However, though the eatery co-bills itself as a fish…
The first time I dined at Gusto’s, with Victoria, was the evening after she’d put the family cat in the clothes dryer. “The cat went in by hisself,” Victoria disagreed, demurely. “Yeah,” grimaced Victoria’s grandmother Marci. “Luckily she couldn’t figure out how to turn the thing on.” Victoria is three,…
In 1975 President Gerald Ford dodged Squeaky Fromme’s bullet, South Vietnam surrendered to the communists, Sonny and Cher called it quits, and House of India opened on Merrick Way in Coral Gables. “I hope they’ve given it a paint job since then,” I said to my wife on the way…
“Little man felt very bad/One meat ball was all he had/And in his dreams he hears that call/’Ya gets no bread with one meat ball.'” –“One Meat Ball,” Depression-era song written by Louis Singer & Hy Zaret. I’m not saying our economy is going to stay down in the dumpster…
When two Indian restaurants in London won Michelin stars (only rarely bestowed upon ethnic eateries) last year, it initiated a spate of stories in American food publications about not just the goat cheese samosas on fresh pear chutney and other modernized neo-Indian dishes featured at the starred spots, but also…
