South Beach
 

Staying at the Tides, any comments? Also great resturants?

Love the Tides, it's one of my very favorites on South Beach. Their service is extremely attentive. We always have breakfast outside in the mornings, and enjoy a martini in the evening - they're known for their chocolate martinis. Enjoy.

Great hotel wonderful pool. One of the best in South Beach.

Excellent hotel choice, luxurious and just north of the busy section of Ocean Drive. Their restaurant, 1220 at the Tides, is pricey and quite wonderful. There are lots of good restaurant choices (and I mean good "delicious", not good "trendy") in South Beach, and I just got back myself-- what cuisines do you like? Given your hotel choice, it sounds like price is no object, but do you also want some "good deals"?

Thanks for the posts. Swim Chick thanks for the comments, I assume you liked the pool? rjw, we like seafood and just about anything that is well prepared, love your thoughts. Also, thoughts on good people watching bars?

If you click on my "name" you'll find a post called "South Beach Trip Notes" or something. I list restaurants I liked this past visit (early August).

At the high end, my favorite is Wish (in The Hotel, Collins and 8th). Many posters also like the Blue Door at the Delano (Collins just north of Lincoln Road), as well as an off-Beach foodie's dream called Azul (in the Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key).

Two more reasonably-priced seafood restaurants I recommend are A Fish Called Avalon (Ocean and 7th in the Avalon) and Grillfish (Collins and Española Way). Both are superb.

Cheap eats actually aren't hard to find, if you're willing to forego atmosphere. For example, La Sandwichérie serves up seriously awesome sandwiches, if you don't mind eating in an alley behind a gas station and around the corner from a tattoo parlor (Collins and 14th). And Puerto Sagua serves incredible Cuban food in a diner that wouldn't be out of place in Little Havana (or even the original Havana)-- but it's authentically wonderful and the servers are so sweet to me when I've gone there (NOTE: they're very cordial to non-Spanish speakers as well). The last time I went to the 11th Street Diner the breakfast I had there was great. And the Front Porch Café has THE best breakfasts in South Beach.

GoTravel will have other great recommendations as well. Anyone else...?

Actually I've never used the Tides' pool, I frequent SB on business and have never been able to work it in....there's a movie, I think it is called "Random Hearts" that has a bit of the Tides in it, although as I recall the pool they show in the movie isn't actually their pool. I enjoy the Grillfish as well, great calamari salad and pineapple martinis.