mt234's Profile
South Beach Restaurants: the good / the bad
by all means avoid the Cardozo on Ocean Drive! RIDICUOUSLY priced menu, with a specialty menu that has $25 Mojitos!!!! Horribly overpriced!!
The Palace on Ocean Drive & 12th - not great food, but not bad, and definitely the most reasonably priced on Ocean Drive ($6 Mojitos!)
BLT Steak at the Betsy Ross Hotel on Ocean Drive: great food, great service. Not cheap, but not ridiculous for the food, service and ambiance.
Rosinella on Lincoln Road: great food, reasonably priced and decent service. The best Italian food in Miami!!
Miss Yip on Lincoln & Meridian: nice atmosphere, reasonably priced, and really good Chinese food. Nice dim-sum menu
Baires Argentinean on Lincoln Road...beautiful restaurant, good food, great service
Pizza Rustica: awesome pizza and cheap
Clevelander on Ocean Drive: food sucks, but good place to people watch, too pricey for what they serve
Best Fried Chicken in New Orleans?
I'm surprised no one even mentioned Picadilly Cafeteria!! the recipe they use is real old school from the original Picadilly in Baton Rouge. perfectly seasoned and fried crisp and juicy. Willie Maes is good....but not great, and it is in a not so great neighborhood and the service basically sucks. Popeyes is really better and cheaper. Fiorellas has OK fried chicken, but it takes a long time. Coops is just ok. Choices for fried chicken in the quarter are slim, but there is a popeyes up on canal street, shockingly about the only consistenly decent dish on the Harrahs buffet is the fried chicken (if you have a coupon check it out)
really though...of all these Picadilly i think has the best!!
Ramblas at the International House Hotel
Absolutely FANTASTIC dining experience! FInally New Orleans has a great tapas restaurant that is far from gimmicky or trendy. Great food and excellent service in a very very comfortable environment. Go for the special Chefs tasting....which for $40 per person is an incredible deal. You'll get to tast just about everything on the menu and its all served by extremely knowldegable wait staff who really know the menu, the food, and ingredients. The sangria was also top notch.
Luke lunch review
i had dinner here recently...food left a lot to be desired............. and for pete's sake will someone please dim the freaking lights in the place..??????
Feelings Cafe? Other restaurant input
Feelings is quite possibly one of the nicest, most romantic restaurants in the city......and is probably the BIGGEST disappointment foodwise!!! you really want the food to be good here, since it is sooooo nice, but it is some of the worse food anywhere! there is absolutely nothing creative, nothing original, nor are there any true specialities here, just really mediocre--borderline bad food. crabcakes were terrible, salad was bad, gumbo tasted like it was frozen or sysco, beef tournedos entree was nothing special eithe, and the peanut butter pie dessert was the biggest ripoff, topped off with can whipped cream.
the owners should hire a real chef, throw out the entire menu ( it has not changed in years!) and start all over. this place is really a jewel that could be soooo much more------ if they had good food. hopefully mgmt realizes that place would really pop again with some attention paid to it!!!!!
Great new sushi buffet on St. Charles
This place was a huge let down. The ambience is cheap cafeteria. Definitely catering to those where price and quantity are the primary issues.
These "buffet" type places only work well when they have the volume to turn the food over and keep repleneshing it, otherwise the stuff just sits there and gets worse by the minute. Also, considering this is the former home of the Versailles and Chefs Table restaurants, it's a bit of a letdown that it is now a cheap buffet place rather than something a bit tonier, especially considering the location.
The very BEST King Cake?
Randazzo's Chalmette ain't dere no more...BUT....Nonna Randazzo's on Hwy. 190 on the Northshore has the virtually the exact kingcake the Chalmette bakery was famous for, and it's owned by the granddaughter of the original!
Also...surprisingly Rouses has a great kingcake, not too sweet, lots of cinnammon and just enough icing
3 Nights at Le Richelieu in French Quarter
Just walk up Chartres to St. Philip Street and hit Irene's! Skip breakfast in the hotel cafe, it ain't what it used to be. Walk over to Clover Grill for a cheap greasy fix. Lunch or dinner head over to the Marigny Brasserie just across Esplanade Ave.
Mr John's Steakhouse
Just had a great meal here last week, and it was superb! The service as absolutely fantastic. Very attentive, professional in a non-overbearing manner. They don't merely refill beverages and water, but rather replace them, often and whenever needed. ( i have never been to a restaurant that replaces all water glasses midway through the meal--only thing missing was a lemon slice!)
Food was top notch. Everyone enjoyed their meal, steaks were perfectly cooked and served sizzling hot. The Italian entrees were also very good. Decor is very pleasant, old school ambiance perfect for the food served. Free valet parking right in front is a huge plus. Refreshing to see the manager walking the floor, actually caring about what is going on. Overall a very pleasant and enjoyablle meal.
Dickie Brennan's....steakhouse(???)
ordered the house special filet mignon (served with fried oysters on the side, on top of creamed spinach & potatoes) i think it was $48.....keep in mind this is a steakhouse...specializing in steak.....
told the server i wanted it medium, with no blood. steak comes out very rare...send it back.....they send back out the same plate of creamed spinach/potatoes/fried oysters (which were cold by now) along with the steak now prepared rare.....send it back again.....they send out once again the same plate with the same bed of spinach/potaotes/oysters (which by now taste like crap) with the same steak...still rare....send it back again...tell them to go ahead and butterfly it if they have to, just cook the steak medium........once again........same stuff on the plate...butterflied steak, brought out by the manager.....cook beyond well done........the server notices it and says..."oh yeah...thats definitely not medium".....i have the manager look at it and tell him i'll just eat it since i'm on a schedule.
now the whole time going thru all this....you would think someone would offer another glass of wine, something to drink...anything at all.........but no. it is inconceivable that a steakhouse cannot prepare a filet mignon medium.....it is inconceivable that a restaurant would not replate the accompaniments whenever a plate is sent back....it is inconceivable that any restaurant would serve the exact same steak three times when the server/manager all have witnessed and attested to the improper cooking. yes...ultimately the manager did comp the steak without asking (i think only because i politely declined the dessert offer), but any first rate restaurant should graciously offer a wine or cocktail refill immediately...much less after any dish is returned as many times.
MILA:
lunch at mila / aka disaster @ the pere marquette!!!
service was fantastic (where on earth did they find such nice, apologetic staff?)
restaurant decor is seriously chain oriented---amazing how generic they've made this place, it resembles every other recently renovated marriott property--especially the canal street marriott (the lampshade chandeliers give it away--must have been the same design team)
the name represents mississippi/louisiana, yet the decor has nothing to do with neither. it's stark, cold, and benign.
the food hardly reflected either state either-----the special was a chicken breast with wild mushrooms and spinach.....an absolute bore; unseasoned, no flavor, it tasted and looked more like a banquet meal rather than the daily special at a supposedly top notch new restaurant!!
one would also think that a restaurant specializing in these 2 states would serve at the very least a top notch, sweetened iced tea also.....but no.
mississippi mud pie dessert----someone please send them ya mamas recipe for this regional staple! there is nothing wrong with this desert in its original form -- they should not even attempt to recreate it because it's just a huge disappointment.
overall they need to take a few lessons from the former rene bistrot----lunch should be quick and fast, there should be a prix fixe menu that doesn't take 45 minutes to get out of the kitchen; they should bring back the table d'hote specials also, and the prices need to come down to earth a bit also.
NYE: Irene's or Tommy's?
Irenes is so much better....but you're delusional if you expect either to be quiet and intimate at any time, much less New Years Eve!! Quiet and intimate are what the dead restaurants that have no business are!
