On The Town: Miami

I was lucky enough to spend my holidays in Miami this year. I had visions of laying on the beach, sipping tropical beverages and eating fabulous meals every day.  Well the weather was COLD so there was no beach activity, I didn’t really have any tropical beverages and I didn’t have that many fabulous meals!

Before I left I did some digging around. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale boards on Chowhound isn’t that active and a lot of the recommendations are for outside Miami. I also found this link from the Miami New Times which talks about the best food in Miami and polled some friends that travel to Miami often.  It quickly became clear that a lot of the food I wanted to try (especially Cuban) was outside of South Beach  and the better food on South Beach was on the pricier side.  With no rental car and crappy public transportation in Miami and little desire to do $50+ dinners each night, options felt limited (I will not mention the dinner Johnny Rockets).  Here’s a quick rundown on some of the places that I tried.

Big Pink (SoBe)
157 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida  33139

The Big Pink is owned by the same restaurant group that does the “Prime” restaurants which came highly recommended. It’s kind of a glorified diner with a huge menu that has something for everyone. I wasn’t expecting brilliant food but at the very least something decent enough (we ended up there after our first choice restaurant was closed). I had the fried grouper sandwich with sweet potato fries. The piece of grouper was HUGE and comes on a brioche bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and a curried tartar sauce. The sandwich was good but nothing to phone home about. The sweet potato fries were addictive. My sister had a veggie burger (which I cautioned her about) that she did not enjoy at all and my mom had a BLT which she said had “too much bacon” on it. Clearly I was adopted.

Pizza Rustica (SoBe)
863 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139

I’m a big pizza fan so I always like to try pizza when I go on vacation. When I think of Miami I don’t think of pizza but Pizza Rustica kept on coming up in my research. I didn’t go in with any expectations. I didn’t know if it was a sit-down restaurant. I didn’t know what style of pizza they served. Nothing. So I was kind of surprised to roll up to kind of a whole in the wall on Washington Ave. They had stacks of slices ready to go and looking kind of dried out. Because I was hungry I persevered and picked up a mushroom slice. The pizza was weird. The crust is thin but oddly chewy and thin. The toppings were okay. The serving size is huge. I imagine it’s a great place to hit up after a night of drinking. Maybe I’m just not accustomed to this style of pizza but I have no reason to become further-acquainted with it.

Van Dyke Café (SoBe)
846 Lincoln Road
Miami Beach, FL 33139

I decided to try Van Dyke Cafe on the recommendation of a fellow Tweeter who’s taste tends to align with mine. We went there around the lunch hour and I was thrilled that their breakfast menu is available all day. The restaurant is on Lincoln Road and has a huge outdoor patio which is great for people-watching (if the weather is nice). The inside is also really nice with a lot of dark wood but huge windows to brighten the space up. I had the Eggs Crab Cake with two poached eggs on top of a crab cake with spinach, tomato, hollandaise sauce and Thousand Islands dressing. Sounds great, right? It was pretty good. The slice of tomato was NOT delicious, it was crunchy and probably should have been omitted. The crab cake wasn’t the best crab cake ever but it worked within the dish. My mom ordered a burger and it was SO GOOD and my sister had an omelet which was ok. If I were in the area I’d probably try this place again because they seem to have some pretty solid offerings overall.

Joe’s Stone Crab
11 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33139

Joe’s Stone Crab is a seafood institution in Miami so it was at the top of my list. We showed up on a Tuesday night at around 7:15PM and was told the wait would be “an hour and a half to two hours”. We decided to wait it out. And we did… for 2 hours. Luckily the wait was worth it! We started off with a coconut shrimp appetizer that was great. Nice, huge shrimp and just the right amount of coconut flavour with two dipping sauces. For my meal I had the Cold Seafood Platter which consisted of 4 oysters, 4 jumbo shrimp, 3 or 4 stone crab legs and half a lobster. The oysters were really fresh and came with horseradish, tabasco and lemon that you could add as you wished. The shrimp were HUGE and sweet and cooked perfectly. I had never had stone crabs before and I must admit I don’t get what all the fuss is about. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy them, but as I said at dinner “I’m not losing my shit over some stone crabs”. The meat was sweet and plentiful, you definitely get a lot out of each crab leg. The lobster was also fantastic. It was halved and part of it was just straight lobster meat and the other part was a lobster salad. I loved it all! For dessert we had the key lime pie and I’m convinced I could eat that everyday. Joe’s Stone Crab was definitely the food highlight.