Purdy Good

Bartolome Grill & Restaurant’s 54-seat dining room is handsomely attired in black (tables, chairs, linens, pillars, bar, lofty industrial ceiling, waiters’ outfits) and vivid red (seat cushions, bar backlighting, waiters’ ties). Two walls are predominantly glass, which lightens and expands the space considerably; the rest are painted a grayish white,…

Denny’s Rolls Out Late Night Menu

Thank god for PR companies, because I really would have been bummed to have missed the news about Denny’s new late-night menu, served only between the witching hours from 10 to 5 in the a.m. At first, I thought I’d post the photo above in our weekly WTF Is It…

Cheap Eats: Out of the Blue Cafe

Jose D. Duran The Midtown Steak Sandwich at Out of the Blue Cafe. Where: 2426 NE 2nd Ave., Miami 305-573-3800 What $15 Gets You: A sandwich, panini or salad with a drink. Located on the fringes of Wynwood, Out of the Blue Cafe feels oddly out of place among the…

Recession Busters

Recent articles have explored some of the revenue-enhancing measures that restaurateurs have undertaken to counter rising food costs — smaller portions, cheaper ingredients, professional pickpockets to work the dining room, and so forth. Many establishments will no doubt also rely on Miami Spice, the annual discount-dining program that begins August…

A Little Bellyaching

Just back from Guatemala, and jonesing for raw fish and the curative powers of pickled ginger, we dragged our sorry carcasses and knotted, rebellious intestines over to Sushi Jo in West Palm Beach late Sunday for a bit of s&s. We just couldn’t resist that Guatemalan street food, could we?…

Still Lazy After All These Years

Baleen was an instant hit when it debuted at the Grove Isle Hotel & Spa in March 1999, and for good reason: The heavenly outdoor patio, with white gauzy curtains billowing in the breeze, proffered a panoramic vista of Biscayne Bay that was, and still is, difficult to beat. The…

Raw Deal

If vegans are a “Hezbollah-like splinter faction” of the vegetarian movement, as Anthony Bourdain once wrote, then raw foodists would be that group’s loopiest fringe. Like vegans, they don’t eat products derived from animals, but they also shun chemically processed or pasteurized ingredients — and of course abide by the…

Kobe Raises the Steaks

Jeffrey Chodorow, head of the China Grill Management restaurant empire, has always brought a Ziegfeld Zeitgeist to the table. Sure, he hopes customers laud service and cuisine at CGM’s two dozen-plus venues. But he also wants them to consider the dining experience as akin to attending the theater or spending…

Flapjack Flip-Off VIII

In the spirit of this pugnacious presidential primary season, we proudly present a special Kitchen Sink Edition of the eighth annual Flapjack Flip-Off. “Anything Goes” is the theme this year, as our quartet of unwitting restaurant contestants will be permitted to sling apples, chocolate chips, flag lapel pins, or any…

Value Veal

Ristorante Fratelli Milano’s umbrella-shaded tables are tightly clustered together on pinched, pedestrian-clogged SE First Street. Two dozen indoor seats are just as closely cramped in the windowless aisle of a room, where harried waiters squeeze through impossible spaces with oversize white bowls of pasta in their hands. This ain’t exactly…

Andú Lounges

The new Andú’s retro-futuristic design dares to depart from the restaurant world’s recent tilt toward timid, if tasteful, taupe-toned settings. Tables shine in white Plexiglas, banquettes are silver-gray, and globular white sculptural murals hang on the walls not taken up by floor-to-ceiling windows. Hand-blown glass bubbles form a circular curtain…

Mint Leaf Makes Debut

A cacophony of chatter and clatter greets diners as they enter Mint Leaf, which has sprouted in the spot once occupied by Darbar Indian Restaurant and, most recently, by Restaurant Brana. The din seems surprisingly strong for such a modestly sized room and betrays a tranquil décor defined by dark…

The Unreal Deal

Food is fashion: Halter tops and haute French one day, bling and sushi the next. American-Chinese restaurants began to fall from favor about the time men started wearing earrings, and nowadays the dark, stodgy interiors and tired, predictable cuisine are like mutton chop sideburns to the alluringly clean face of…

Macho Tacos

“De sus amigos de ‘Taco Loco,'” reads the sign over the storefront window at Maya Grill. The Mexican restaurant opened six months ago on West Palm Drive in Florida City, but residents here have long been relishing Maya’s tacos, which were formerly sold from a Taco Loco trailer in various…

Tasty Morsels

Miamians in the mood for Mexican in other corners of the county might consider these solid south-of-the-border joints: Burritos Grill Café 899 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-891-1041; $15 or less per person, excluding tip and alcohol This quaint and immaculate 30-seat café has obligatory sombreros and ponchos hanging on…

Tasty Morsels

Mediterranean cuisine is the toast of South Beach. Over the past few years, more than a half-dozen hoity-toity restaurants have opened, serving bright, clean, simple Med fare forged from fresh, high-quality ingredients. Here are two catches that focus on seafood: La Marea at The Tides South Beach 1220 Ocean Dr.,…

Viva Vita!

When a couple dined at a high-end establishment in the chivalrous days of yore, it was not unusual for the gentleman to be handed a menu with prices and the lady to be given one without. The idea was that because he was paying, she needn’t let numbers get in…

Too Will Do

Eleven years ago, a pair of Danish chefs, Jan Jorgensen and Soren Bredahl, opened Two Chefs restaurant in South Miami. Bredahl returned to his homeland quite awhile back, but Two Chefs’ popularity has never waned — in part because Jorgensen has been a fixture there, making sure food and service…

Tasty Morsels

North Miami isn’t exactly a hotbed of cuisine, but a short ride up the Biscayne corridor does yield a couple of gems: North One 10 Cream-colored brick walls conspire with blond woods, amber-colored glass, a very low ceiling, and little else to form a refreshingly unpretentious ambiance. Anyone acquainted with…

Cheap Eats: Mi Peru

Elvis Ramirez Where: Mi Peru, 1760 Miami Gardens Drive, Aventura, (305) 940 9404. What $15 Gets You: A big plate of chaufa with meat and a drink. For those who lump Latin cuisine into a category consisting of rice, beans and some sort of meat, Mi Peru in Aventura is…

Doug Rodriguez Is Back

Michelle Bernstein and Doug Rodriguez were recently announced as nominees for the James Beard Foundation’s best chef in the south award. The first name is no surprise, for Bernstein is one of South Florida’s most notable chefs. (She nabbed a nod last year but didn’t win.) The recognition for Rodriguez…

Tasty Morsels

If you feel funny about plunking down big bucks for oxtail and plantains gussied up in the guise of Nuevo Latino, here are a couple of viejo Latino spots to consider: Islas Canarias 285 NW 27th Ave., Miami; 305-649-0440; $15 to $25 per person, excluding tip and alcohol This tiny…