so to start this off, let me say that this was my first time down in South Beach, maybe they do things differently there than what we do in South Georgia, but hey... when in Rome. so, to start this off, let me say we were walking down Collins Ave, and we were lured to the restaurant by the fantastic smell of cooked beef in the air. I looked over at the rest of my party and told them that we had to eat there. We made our way to the host and ask for seating inside... well, I was wearing a ball cap, so I wasn't allowed to dine inside, but the roadside seating was offered... hey, I understand rules of apparel, but when you are appealing to "World Cup" fans... you could do worse than someone wearing just a ball cap. I understand that rules are rules, so I was satisfied with where we were seated at... besides, I was excited with the great smells that were emanating from inside of the restaurant.
As I began to look at the menu, I will admit that I was a little shocked with the prices of the cuisine, but I got to thinking that this could be a high end joint, I was ok with it. I was financially prepared. A female server came over to our table and asked to take our drink order. I guess I must have offended her when she offered to serve us Aqua Panna water in the liter bottle for $12.00 a bottle, and my response was that my country raising refused to let me pay $12.00 a bottle for water, especially when you can order a case of it off of Amazon for $36.00 for a case of twelve bottles. I decided that I would settle for a good old southern staple of "sweet tea" to drink, which was seconded by another person in my group, while the third person decided to have a Sprite.
Our server left us to go and fill our drink order and finally made her way back to us after about 15 minutes of being gone to advise us, that the "bar" informed her that they no longer had any sweet tea for the night. The time was 9:30pm and they were open for business till 12:00am, so I was a bit set back by this, but I wanted a steak. I ended up ordering a plain old tap water to drink because, well, I was not going to pay $12 for a bottle of water... I was not dying of thirst yet.
So we ended up getting a lemonade brought to the table, a glass of water, and an eight ounce glass bottle of Sprite, at $5.00 a bottle.
We got our drinks, so now let's talk about our food. I ordered a 14 ounce New York Strip steak, medium well... I'm getting older and don't digest uncooked food so well anymore, sadly. The rest of my party ordered the filet mignon medium rare, and the third finished off with the chicken parm plate. Our sides that we ordered were roasted brussel sprouts, and a loaded baked potato without chives. Now comes the good part... if you are still here, you are going to find out if they can cook a good steak or not...
Well, we got our food after another lengthy wait. Now let me tell you, the guy who brought our food gave me one of the most beautiful cuts of steak that I think I have ever seen. It was definitely a New York Strip. I could already tell from the juices running in my plate that my steak was definitely undercooked. I looked over at my party's food and see the chicken parm, and I'm telling it looked and smelled great. The filet mignon smelled great but it appeared to be over cooked. From what I could tell, it looked like the cook got the order backwards. We cut into the respective steaks and my suspicion was right, the Filet Mignon was over cooked and the New York Strip was way undercooked. At this time, it is getting late. It is after 10pm and I had just finished a six hundred mile drive, I would have eaten my shoe if it was served right. I cut into my steak and began eating it. There was no flavor on the meat at all, I guess they don't use seasoning, other than the grilled garlic clove, that is to be used when eating the steak. I did get to taste the filet mignon, and it had way more flavor thank New York Strip. Sadly, I must have drawn the short straw on this meal. I was hungry and I was refusing to let a $70 steak go to waste, so I ate the entire cut of this steak. To bring this to a close I want to address the billing. They added a service charge to the receipt, which is something I have been used to if there was a large party, but for them to serve three people, I felt we should have been the once's to decide on the amount of the tip we leave our serve. This is to keep the server honest and make sure they take of the customer. The odd thing is I usually tip over 20 percent because I have family who are part of hospitality business. They make their living on tips. This night it didn't total up to what normally give... I was not inclined to give it either. I understand the goal is to make money, but I am a believer in taking care of your customer...Maybe it was the way I was dressed, or how I sounded with my southern draw, I feel like this restaurant really misread me and my group read more