Current South Beach Restaurant Recs?
 

I'll be in South Beach (Miami) next week for a business conference. I'll be staying at the Loews. Please offer some recommendations for restaurants & casual nightlife.

I'm not interested in the late night club scene (at 35 I'll admit I'm too old), but would like to have some ideas for both fancy & casual dinners, breakfast & lunch spots, good place to meet someone for drink(s) or for coffee (and dessert?).

I just want to have all my bases covered. I may need to entertain exisiting and potential clients and want to have some ideas ready.

Thanks for any input you can offer! Trish

I am interested in hearing some answers to those questions myself. I will be there in July for a long weekend and was wondering the same things.

ttt Nobody knows where to eat?

Where is everyone?

I will be staying at the South Seas. Any good food recs?

There are a lot of good ideas on Chowhound.com. Check it out. It might help ya.

For the World Cup, SushiSamba, a good restaurant with a mix of Brazilian and Japanese, if you can believe it, has great special drinks. It's become sort of the place to watch matches and it has a fun vibe to it. It's on Lincoln Road and the food is good.

I was going to wholeheartedly recommend casual lunches on Lincoln Road, until I realized that it is so hot right now and that temperature might not be for everyone.

Big Pink towards the southern end of the South Beach does casual nicely. I understand the rooftop bar at the Hotel is great for drinks. A fun night can be Taverna Opa, a Greek restaurant that evolves into dancing on tables. It becomes a club, not not one of the beach "clubs", though. I haven't been to Joia in a while, but I liked it very much last time.

The classic standard for fancy dinner is the Forge, with its spectacular wine cellar and very good food. It's a Beach institution that has managed to stay current, hip, and classic at the same time. Last time I was there, Cafe Nostalgia, right next door, a great bar/lounge to hear excellent Latin bands was very busy.

Right now, Prime 112 is getting all the raves for the best food in the Miami area. It's very pricey, but supposedly the food matches it's see and be seen ambiance. Heat players and opposing players reportedly ate there quite a bit during the playoffs.

I recommend you check out the restaurant pages of the Miami Herald - www.herald.com. Their reviews are pretty up to date.

I live here, but I don't get to South Beach as much as I used to. I hope a more freqent traveller to the area gives you better ideas.

Thanks for the suggestions! Chowhound had a bunch too.

I just don't want to take someone I'm trying to impress to someplace that's "sooo 6 months ago".

I also want some ideas for myself. :)

Hi Trish, I didn't see your post.

Marks
Blue Door
Nobu
Wish

Forgot to add, haven't eaten at either but they are pretty hot right now (or were recently).

Vix
The Restaurant at The Setai.

In addition to the ones mentioend by GoT, we LOVED Barton G's. It was so "over-the-top" with the food presentation, it truly made it a fun experience.

We ate at the Forge and had a terrible experience -- our steaks were well done when we ordered them medium rare and our service was the worst we ever had there. It really was probably an exception. Everything I have ever heard has been rave rave rave about that place.

Brunch on Sunday is sooooo lovely at the Delano. Good place to hang out at night also.