Icantread's Profile
The Forge
Not a huge fan of the food or the place. Good, not great. If you go with the idea that you will have a good meal, not necessarily mind blowing, you will probably thoroughly enjoy it. It is the Forge and pretention can abound. I had a perfectly pleasant meal with great service alone with my wife and I also had horrible, rude, upselling, plastered smile service when I went in a group of 9.
Their legendary steak is probably in second place to Bourbon Steak, BLT Steak or even STK's choices. I'd go with the filet instead or another entree altogether (of which some are very good). They tried (succeeded?) selling us jumbo stone crab claws as colossal. Overall expensive. vibe is not my thing either. However, the bar is excellent. Great cocktails and an expansive wine-by-the-glass program. Be aware that they do not uncork.
J ALEXANDERS IN PLANTATION
Good, consistent food. Reminiscent of a Houston's/Hillstone's maybe.
Prime Italian - Standout dishes
In my experience the servers have been good about getting you to order a little too much without going overboard. That being said, service can be highly variable at either Prime location.
Specials are always great, meatballs are great, the salad is great (really), lasagna. I don't like the Parm because it's just too heavy with all the other food. I do love their Milanese.
Seeking input on some options - Sustain v Yardbird and some others - With thanks!
Hi aml
I'm a fan of both options, although each place has some detractors. For some the bar at Yardbird leaves a lot to be desired and for others the food at Sustain. Both offer fairly hearty (heavy?) food - ie you shouldn't leave hungry.
If you want to toss it to livelier environment, I would choose Yardbird. The place gets slammed and it's just off Lincoln Road. Sustain is part of the thriving midtown area and is actually in the same block as Sugarcane.
As for what to do your first night...I think you'll want to pick whatever is most convenient to your hotel. They will all be packed, although Sustain will probably be the best honoring your reservation time.
Smashburger to open!
Nothing to write home about. special fries are good, I guess. What's with all the casual eateries in that strip?
Bourbon Steak Favorites
They have a foie gras terrine special right now that is pretty incredible. Actually it's always good to listen to their specials. Chicken and mac is awesome, sides are all good. Steaks are great (even the skirt steak w/chimichurri is worthwhile). Desserts with wild blueberries. I'd never had a wild blueberry before.
Texas De Brazil or Chima??
I would not say that the rodizio is my go to meal. It used to be that I would make these restaurants cry uncle but nowadays that much meat turns my stomach (unfortunately). However, having been to both, I found the quality of food including the "salad bar", and the rotation and accessibility to the meats was a bit better at Chima than at past experiences in Texas De Brazil. if you've been to these and have had to hunt down the guy with filet or lamb, you know what I mean. They also used a lot less salt.
Thanks to fellow hounds, we ate very well in Miami Beach.(long)
Those pork belly tacos are just absurd.
Restaurant Openings 2012 - Miami
My sister ate there towards the end of the year. Raved about it being the best French food she's had in Miami.
WHERE ARE THE ALL U CAN EAT STONE CRAB RESTAURANTS IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
Ballyhoo in the keys used to do it for $35.00 or so.
Two NY 'hounds in need of recs for three days to eat in Miami!
I've visited the south beach location of Chow Down Grill. very different ambiance but the food is excellent. Any of the crab dishes, if available, are musts.
Bourdain in Miami
I think it's easy to go overboard bashing Bourdain here.
First, maybe this is not as ho-hum as we think for the show's target demographic
Second, there were some good recs - River Oyster Bar,Sakaya Kitchen, Garcias (Miami institution probably 30 years old or more), Michael's Genuine,
Third, you would be radically surprised by how good Colombian hot dogs are and they don't really exist anywhere else in the US. I'm not including the whipped cream dessert one that even the owner was looking at him like he had brain damage.
I wouldn't have included Jai-Alai, as it's an old, outdated venue but I actually heard a few "oh look, I haven't been there in years, we should check it out."
I'd also question his choice of interviewees, but I guess they wanted to make us look like we lived in tin shacks in the Caribbean instead of high rise condominiums and green sprawling suburbs.
Takeout for 30
Of the top of my head, I would recommend looking into Blue Sky or The Butcher Shop. If there aren't dietary restrictions involved, pork is a big part of the holiday season down here and a lot of places make pretty good latin-style pork.
1941 bottle of port
That's...kind of specific. I'd recommend the phone book for this one, as well as wine searcher. I've never bought/tasted alcohol more than a year or two older than me and I cannot recall seeing port that old outside of portugal. Something of that caliber would need special storage, if a "1941" even exists. Try Total, Leon's, Vintage Liquors and anyone else that is a step above a Pepito's liquor store.
Miami Christmas week - What are the must eats & Xmas day suggestions?
You may very well enjoy your experience in China Grill - it's not a bad restaurant and it is Chinese, which seems compatible with dining out during Christmas. However, NYCfoodie1234 seems to be doing some marketing for Jeffrey Chodorow's empire on Chowhound across the threads. Take the rec with a grain of salt. In general there seems to be a lot of consensus in the Miami boards about what people enjoy. You may be better served searching around for some favorites and figuring out which will be open.
Additionally, Harry's pizzeria and Michael's Genuine are run by the same group (although they're pretty different). Both are great. I would recommend Michael's as the more adventurous of the two and a better location for a visitor if you would want to go to only one.
Urban Legends of Le Tub
Use one of the outside decorative toilets for a real surprise!
Dark 'n' Stormy Recommendations?
I believe a Dark n Stormy HAS to have Goslings. That being said, I also prefer subbing a nice aged rum and 1/4 to 1/2 a lime squeezed in.
Max's Harvest: Farm-to-Table/Slow Food Coming to Delray's Pineapple Grove
Just read the article, and realized the wording is NT fault, not his marketing department.
Max's Harvest: Farm-to-Table/Slow Food Coming to Delray's Pineapple Grove
Sounds great, though this trumped-up ad-agency line made me cringe - " where in June he expects to open his own outpost of that now-nationwide culinary trend, Max's Harvest..." Let's hope that just means he's too busy paying attention to sourcing the food and coming up with recipes to worry about mumbo-jumbo
Authentic Sichuan in So Fla?
What Chowfather is saying is typical down here. they don't want to risk people ordering things they don't understand and returning it or making a scene. If you've "heard" good things about a Chinese restaurant with a seemingly prosaic menu, ask for the authentic menu and hope you don't get a blank stare.
Anyone been to Blue Marlin lately?
Hope this doesn't come too late. We went once last year. The fryer was broken and had been for months and it would be months before Miami-Dade would put the item up for consideration in their budget...or so we were told. They also asked if we were there because of Guy Fieri. Apparently Diners, Drive-ins and Dives had done a spot there, Guy ate everything on the menu and didn't pay for any of it. (It almost sounded like maybe we should pay for him...) I would not even bring what items we did have up to "mildly pleased". Anyhow, I imagine you are picking up that I'm not too enthused with the place, which is a shame because the setting is exactly more of what I want in Miami.
Authentic Sichuan in So Fla?
Years ago, in Miami there was a restaurant on 8th Street just west of the Turnpike (near the FIU campus) named Lung Gong. It used to be very authentic. My guess is it's still there and probably very good, though I have not been in quite some time.
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Lung Gong Restaurant
11920 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33184
Really, really, really good chicken wings?
Where are you?
Sports Grill (2 in SW Miami area, 1 near Miami Lakes) is a general favorite in Miami-Dade
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Sports Grill
10005 SW 72nd St, Miami, FL 33173
Just NAOE or several other restaurants?
Looks like we have a consensus. I think we would have enjoyed Pubbelly far more had the price point been more on target. To have a nice meal there the bill will end up as high as in one of the nicer restaurants. They use very good ingredients although way too much pork belly and it is very nice (beer and wine only FYI) but too pricey for me not to be more critical.
Just NAOE or several other restaurants?
The price of entry is pretty low but it that bill will grow VERY quickly. $300 - $500 bills for 2 is not at all uncommon.
