Carlos P.
Yelp
10/2/22: UODATE, Angelo the restaurant mgr contacted me directly via phone and profusely apologized for the experience and asked I return for a chance to rectify experience. Even gave me his personal cell. I'm updating rating from 1 to 3 for now.
9/30/22: I came to this restaurant tonight based on an instagram post by @miami.foodiez advertising how great it was. They were raving about the cacio e pepe pasta and the tiramisu.
I went w 2 friends. The place itself is alright - since it was a last minute res literally before arriving, they didn't have any tables inside and we sat at the 'patio' outside - which ironically was a much more charming setting and didn't smell funky like the inside of the restaurant. Given that it was 8:30p, temp outside was very nice so it was enjoyable (if you didn't sit under one of the 2 full speed ceiling fans making both u and your dinner cold - thankfully we were in between) - that's where most of the enjoyable experience ended.
We all opted for the Miami Spice dinner menu at $45 for 3 courses since it had the cacio e pepe that had prompted our visit.
Since there were 3 options for the apps and the desserts, and it was 3 of us, we each picked one of the 3 choices in each of these sections to try them.
I'm going to rate this restaurant at the level that is supposed to be.
From the apps, we had the Calamari (not the regular menu option w shrimp etc), Antipasto Delli Osteria (prosciutto & burrata cheese?), and the eggplant parmigiana.
The calamari was somewhat standard, nothing noteworthy about it, except it had the heavy fried oil flavor, not what I expect from a nice place.
The prosciutto platter the same. Nothing noteworthy. Neither here nor there.
The eggplant parmigiana, on the other hand, was an entree onto itself and totally delicious, specially if you force the waiter to shred some fresh parm on top (I say force because he never offered anything throughout the whole meal other than the bottled water to start).
This app can be your entree and you'd be happy - it's thinly sliced and wrapped into a cone shape. I don't like eggplant anything and this is the only thing we tried tonight I might actually consider returning for. I don't generally like red sauces in the U.S. but this red sauce was OK (not exceptional), but that's already a big compliment from me
The BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT not just of the night, but out of all the cacio e pepes I've ever had, was the ONE DISH we drove out of our way for. It couldn't have been a more innocuous and bland dish - it had a flavor reminiscent of a lightly soapy solution. Plus it had ZERO salt (or maybe it did, but I was so bad we had to pour the salt shaker in it and it still kept needing more). I had to ask for some grated parm on mine to make palatable, and even then I could only take a few spoonfuls before I gave up.
Both of my friends opined the same. They had to ask for pepper flakes (I know, let's not go there) to get through it.
I told our waiter that it was horrible when (after a long time of not ever coming to the table to check on us or serve us water) he asked if I wanted to take mine home - One of 2 friends will eat anything if you make it spicy enough and ate his dish and that of the other friend (shameful, I know). Waiter said he'd tell the manager about my disappointment, but if he ever did, the manager never came.
In the table next to us, another couple had ordered the same and they complained and sent it back - not sure if for same reasons. Manager did come and talked to them.
Desserts were the Apple Crumble, Tiramisu (one of IG recommendations) and a puff pastry. Puff pastry should be skipped at all cost.
Tiramisu was the better choice, but it's overwhelming w the very heavy cream, so keep it mind. Again, not what I expect for a nice restaurant.
We didn't dare waste time asking for coffee so we left after dessert.
SERVICE: was spotty at best. Our orders were quickly taken, and drinks were quick to arrive, but waiter only served the Pellegrino bottled water to one of our friends and not the other. He never came to check if entrées were good. And I had to flag him down to replenish our water (only other time he served the one glass of water was as aforesaid, when we sat down).
Oh! to start, when we sat down, they serve you a small amuse bouche: a tiny ball of potato and branzino, but it just tasted oily and had barely any fish taste.
Cutlery service was a bit haphazard - they served us varying size forks and plates but not in the cute 'family restaurant' intentional kind-of-way, but seemed more like I either don't care or don't know any better way.
Like most places that people rave about, I just COULDN'T find anything where I could say that this restaurant is 'better than average' for this type of restaurant.
Best of luck!