I'm planning a graduation dinner, and I'm looking for a nice, upscale restirant with atmosphere and good food. Any suggestions?

Where in Miami? There are some great places in Coral Gables like Christie's or Ruth's Chris. How many people?

I like the Forge. It is a bit north of South Beach.

I actually had one of my graduation dinners (we did a few, I tried to make a weekend of it!) at Pearl, part of the Penrod complex. If you graduate soon you could always do Joe's. Congratulations on your graduation.

One of the finest is the small and wonderful Norman's in Coral Gables. Norman Van Aken is one of the great modern chefs and his food hints at "nuevo Cuban" or something like New World Fusion. The atmosphere is wonderful and the service is incredible. They even give their servers an expense account for sending flowers or other gifts to their best customers or to make up for a "mistake" which I sincerely doubt ever really happens.

And while the restaurant is simply wonderful there is nothing "pretentious" about it.

I read your request and the first restaurant that came to mind was Norman's. See that Patrick was a step ahead. Just consider this a second of his recommendation. LMF

I hate to do this, but...yes, the food at Normans is incredible but I have never had such HORRIBLE service. My mother and I took my grandmother there for her 70th birthday--they flew down to visit me from Indianapolis. When my mom made the reservations she made a point to say that it was my grandmother's 70th. They called my mom at work to confirm the reservation AND find out my grandmother's name AND what birthday it was. From the start the food was impeccable and the service was atrocious. We made it through our entire meal and even ordered dessert thinking they might do SOMETHING for my grandmother since they made it a point to call and find out her name. The mananger even stopped her as she was going to the bathroom to find out if she was Susie or Dede!! My mom and I giggled figuring something was up...but alas after the waiter did numerous things to equal bad service he did nothing for her birthday. A little bummed out, we asked the hostess why they called and asked her name if they weren't going to do anything. The waiter overheard us and said (and I am NOT exagerating) "Oh, Dede, right? It's her birthday? Yea...I was going to do something, but I forgot." And that was that...he nor anyone else even apologized. I was so disappointed...but like I said before the food was great. So, if you can handle not such great service then Normans is a great place.

Wow, amazing. How else was the service "atrocious"? I've eaten there three or four times and have never seen even the slightest slip-up.