South Beach Visit! Help!

[Staceyy]

I will be visiting South Beach the 2nd week of February and would really appreciate some restaurant recommendations. We love food - Sushi, American, French, Italian, Indian, anything really.

We do not want to have to take more than a 5 to 10 min cab ride so we'd like to stay in South Beach.
Dinning with a view would also be nice but we'd choose food over a view.

From what I'd seen on the board, I was thinking Talula or maybe Meat Market?
Would appreciate any recs anyone can provide for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Thanks agian,
Stacey

[Blind Mind]

Just had another phenomenal meal at Meat Market last night. That is my favorite on the beach, just narrowly edging out Talula. You cant go wrong with either.

[askdrtodd]

Au Pied du Cochon and Joe's Stone Crab were both great, also Barton G was cool, nice atmosphere and decor, some people on here don't care for the food but the whole fish we had was excellent. Drinks there are pretty amazing too.

[Frodnesor]

Au Pied de Cochon is closed.

[jimmyodonnell]

One of the few places in south beach to sit waterside is the Lido restaurant at the Standard Hotel on the Venetian Causeway. The have a very pleasant outdoor dining deck overlooking Biscayne Bay with city views across the bay. I have eaten here just once, but the food was very very good, the emphasis was on very fresh ingredients and they have a selection of raw and vegan options it that appeals to you. If you're eager to sit on the water and willing to try some innovative dishes I think you will like this place -- great food, absolutely attitude-free.

[Staceyy]

Thanks so much Frodnesor & jimmyodonnell, this should really help a lot :-)

[Frodnesor]

There are lots of good suggestions on this fairly recent thread ->
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/647559

If you're looking to stay on South Beach I think the best food is at Talula. Meat Market I've only been to once shortly after it opened, it was a mixed bag but showed promise. Others have been more recently and came back with good reports. BLT Steak (about 5,572 steakhouses opened up on South Beach the past couple years) is also pretty good.

Others I like on South Beach ->
Indomania
Sardinia
Burger & Beer Joint

Indian is definitely not a strong suit for South Beach (or Miami generally), nor is sushi for South Beach. The best may be Bond Street but there have been a couple chef changes since I was last there. Personally I'm not a big fan of Sushi Samba. I've had some great meals at Nobu but one or two mediocre ones too, and their strength is moreso the cooked foods than the sushi.

There are several new pizza places - Casale, Sosta are the biggest names. I've had some great pizzas at Casale and then some only OK ones, and I had only a so-so experience at Sosta but others have had better.

The French places on South Beach seem to be dropping like flies - Au Pied de Cochon, Cafe Maurice both recently closed.

Douglas Rodriguez recently opened a new restaurant ("De Rodriguez") in the Astor Hotel, upscale Cuban, and also has Ola. There are actually lots of new places on South Beach I've not tried - Mr. Chow and his evil twin Philippe, Asia de Cuba, about 5,569 of the steakhouses ...

Oddly, views are not easy to come by despite the wide expanse of ocean (most restaurants are on the ground floor) and the best "views" in most of South Beach are for people-watching, mostly on Lincoln Road or Ocean Drive (as to the latter, BLT Steak is the only decent place I can think of to eat at).

www.foodforthoughtmiami.com