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Miami New Times' Iron Fork

3.3 (29 reviews)

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Jonathan V.

When I first saw the rating of this event I was scared, but it didn't disappoint. There was tons of food and a lot of it was delicious. My one tip would be, skip the bottom floor in the beginning and head upstairs as that is where all the really good food is. I have to say that after trying the oysters from the below places, i was absolutely in love and am dying to visit the restaurants. They had the freshest and best-tasting oysters. - Midtown Oyster Bar (so fresh, it still had salt water) - The Oceanaire Seafood Room (same as above, really good) - Lure Fishbar (delicious east/west cost prepared oysters) I also need to say that the Small Pork Taco from Tantalize was amazing. Very, very flavorful. My one gripe with the event, had nothing to do with the event itself, but rather the restaurants on the bottom floor. The majority of them had run out of food by 8:20-8:30. I was really looking forward to trying some of the food from them, but alas wasn't able to. Maybe next year. Happy eating!!

Brenda P.

A while back a group of event planners got together and the meeting must have gone something like this: HGIC (Head Genius in Charge): "OK everyone, let's discuss new and refreshing ideas for the 2013 Iron Fork event! Lets begin with the VIP portion. Anyone?" GENIUS #1: "Ooh, ooh, I know! Let's sell VIP tickets. Then, we can set up the entrance in a special location so that everyone can wait in full summer sun. In order to top that, this being a Miami event and all, let's not open exactly at 6. Oh no, Cuban time baby! Vitamin D is good for you y'all! Everyone looks better plastered in sweat no?" GENIUS #2: "Oh yeah? I can top that! Then, let's set up the VIP lounge (with included beverages) inside an auditorium. Ticket holders can then walk down treacherous slippery steps in complete darkness (gotta have vibe after all) to make a line and get the tiniest of pours of the crappiest wine. Then they can repeat. With any luck, wine will get spilled and people will fall. Now we are talking!" GENIUS #3 "My turn! My turn! You know the contest between the 2 chefs? Lets NOT take advantage of this venue with actual theater space. Instead of holding the contest where guests can get a birds eye view in a theatre, lets set them UP on a stage and people can look up from the floor they are STANDING on and GUESS what they are doing. Instead of a dark auditorium where screens can be set up to offer more detail, lets set up the screens in full sun too so that you can guess what's showing on them as well. No worries, there will be a host talking you through it....maybe. Oh yeah, you feeling me?" GENIUS #4 "I have an even better idea. This one will tie all of these wonderful ideas together. Wait until you hear this one! We can pack the majority of the restaurants and vendors under ONE tent. Everyone loves to be packed like sardines right? Then, in the remaining VAST space under a/c we can scatter 3 restaurants here and 3 others over there. In between, guests can take turns once again GUESSING who is on what floor and taking multiple elevator rides to figure it out. It will be like an adult game of hide and seek. This is just too good to pass up." HGIC (Head Genius In Charge): " I am very impressed with these ideas. They are sure to be crowd pleasers. I can't believe we never came up with these before! This will be the BEST EVENT EVER! All of this before 7:00pm even rolls around? Wow. By the time general admission opens, the line will surely go around the block what with all those tickets we oversold and all. I love me an "elbow room only" event. I think I need to go take a nap from all that we have accomplished here today. It's not easy being this good." ============================================== New Times, your event absolutely sucked. It will be a cold day in hell before I return to it. It was a complete waste of my money. While I was initially excited to have a lot of seafood options (since I'm a pescatarian), I also found it tiring that most restaurants only offered ceviche or seared tuna. After the 5th ceviche, I was eagerly searching for something else. Kudos (and the ONLY reason there are any stars to this review) to The Local House and MPP for having the best ones. Also kudos to old school Anacapri for shining with their pear fiocchi. I guess there's a reason they have been around for so long. City Hall also stole the show with their bread pudding. I wanted to compare it with Chef Adrienne's (one of my favorites) but sadly by 8pm her stand was empty and they were gone. I also noticed that they were not set up by 6:15pm. What gives? I am not sure what happened but that was also disappointing just like everything else. I happily walked out by 8:00pm and never looked back.

Amanda T.

My 100th review has definitely got to go to the Miami New Times Iron Fork event! Thanks to Cassie and the wonderful world of Yelp I was able to attend this amazing food filled event. I have to say after reading previous reviews regarding this event I was extremely impressed at how efficient the set up was this year. Will call got my tickets very quickly and since I arrived right at 7 I was let right in. Throughout the whole event I never had to wait even a minute to get my sample. The location was able to hold this crowrd well giving each individual table ennough space to work without interfering with one another. Restaurants that stood out to me were: Cholos ceviche Donut Divas City Hall Baoli Azucar Smokers- Longest line at this event and well worth the wait We parked at the bank of America building and were able to walk through the lobby to the event so it worked out perfectly. Only complaint which did not affect me was that by 8:30 some restaurants had run out of food so I would have been upset if I had paid and arrived late only to realize food had run out. As for me I was able to try everything I wanted and more. This was and excellent event that I would gladly attend again.

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Alex H.

This was my first Iron Che....err Fork event. I'm always going to be looking around for Chef Sakai and the Chairman. If you've never had the opportunity to see the original cooking competition, be sure to check it out. Iron Fork, on the contrary, is far from just a competition. Glenn G. has a great breakdown of all the foods. My take is simply that City Hall won in my heart with the girtts and shrimp. Up to the first bite, I wasn't sure what to expect. Once I was in, I was enthralled. Sadly, it was over before I knew it. I would have gone for seconds, but it ironically was at the end of my tasting so I was pretty full. The ice cream was out by the time we got to it. I know the second floor of Grand Central, so I wonder what the VIP area was like. Oh well. My second place was probably Whisk. I wasn't impressed by lots of the others. Too many places were offering menus and business cards. Sorry, no hands available to carry them all (and don't you dare give me a bag to carry a stash either, I'm here to eat not carry things). A few nit-pick complaints... First off, no tables to put dishes down. If you had a drink in one hand and food in the other, how were you able to eat it? Sure, there were a few tables outside... outside!! Ugh. Thankfully trash pickup was fast inside. Poor A/C. Crowded. Walking paths were disorganized. Bottom Line: I'll probably try it again next year, but I'll be sure to watch out for the venue. Grand Central, as large as it was, still needed more A/C.

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It was so much fun and plenty food !! Too bad, I wanted to eat more but ....

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Loved it!!! I am going every time!!! I was so full from the delicious samples before I made it to the second floor. I also had a great time.

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Villain Theater

Villain Theater

4.6(95 reviews)
4.1 miLittle Haiti
$

Being open-minded and interested in experiencing various walks of life pays off when living in…read moreMiami. Looked on eventbrite for something to do on a recent Friday night. Found a RuPaul's Drag Race elimination round watch party. And this is how I learned about Villain Theater! From what I gathered, there is quite a variety of programming here like improv and comedy shows A friend and I met up here for the big event. I've been familiar with Little Haiti for decades but admittedly haven't kept up with what's going on since the area started changing. All that to say, I went in totally blind. Well, honey. Villain Theater opened my eyes! Wide open, in a great way. There is a lobby/waiting area with a concession stand and restrooms. The theater inside is dark with low lighting, plenty of seating and a stage that is easily viewable from any seat in the room. On the evening I visited, not only was there the RPDR watch party with amazing hosts, there was even an all-out revue! Now, I wasn't expecting this. Nevertheless, it was certainly an entertaining and tasteful experience with expert performers as well as amateurs. Pro tip is bring plenty of cash ($1s and $5s) - I know for next time. Performers also accept tips via electronic payment. :) Villain Theater felt like an all-inclusive safe space. Everyone was welcomed in and treated with respect. I highly commend the staff and hosts for doing an excellent job in that regard. Major pluses were free parking, cheeeap drinks and they have popcorn!

I like the Villain Theater. It's very friendly and you can tell it is very open to the community…read more We went to one of their improv shows for date night and it was very fun. I didn't get to try the food since we came from dinner. But they offer a selection of drinks. The show did run a little bit longer than expected. What's cool is that there are opportunities for you to take improv classes and also take your company here for team building.

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Villain Theater
Villain Theater
Villain Theater

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Area Stage - Lobby decor for beauty and the beast

Area Stage

4.4(28 reviews)
7.5 mi

I absolutely love the Area Stage. The classes and the ITP program is second to none. I have…read moreenjoyed everyone of their productions.

Families with children and/or friends on the autism spectrum who intend to enroll in the ITP…read more(Inclusive Theatre Program, now called Inspired Theatre Program) classes at Area Stage, please read below before moving forward. Our daughter, now a 9-year-old girl on the spectrum who loves art and music in an incredible way, started her journey with Area Stage in mid-2024 by taking private lessons with Annette, an amazing instructor at Area Stage. Under Annette's guidance and patience, our daughter improved tremendously and was able to perform in three showcases where she sang and danced alongside other children. This success did not come without challenges. Raising and supporting a child on the spectrum can be very difficult. From meltdowns and lack of attention to struggles with taking turns and stimming, families connected to autism understand these behaviors can be caused by many factors such as inflexibility or sensory overload, which are often misunderstood by neurotypical people as misbehavior or poor parenting. Fortunately, everywhere we have gone to help improve our daughter's behavior and skills, we have been blessed with people who truly understand autism and know how to support autistic children, just like Annette did. That changed on May 14th, 2026, when our daughter's instructor had an emergency and could not attend class, so a substitute instructor was assigned to the ITP class. Our daughter had a rough day during class and, as we were told, she was not following directions and was being disruptive. She was repeatedly told not to do certain things because they were "not allowed," as if that alone has ever been an effective way to regulate or support a child on the spectrum. Our daughter was in deep distress, as she often becomes when something triggers a shutdown. Her behavior escalated to the point that the Director of Inspired Theatre Project, Irma Becker, stepped in and told her she was misbehaving, that wh. This is a 1 hour class. Meanwhile, I, her father, was sitting outside waiting for the class to finish. Once the time was up, I approached the door where the children exit from, but no one came out. As I got closer, I heard, "So who's coming to pick up this child today?" To my surprise, it was Irma asking who was picking up my daughter. When I explained that I was her father, Irma approached me aggressively and explained that my daughter did not want to participate and that she was a "mean girl" who pushed her multiple times while she was trying to get her to follow directions. My daughter was listening to everything Irma was saying because they were standing next to each other. While Irma discussed my daughter's behavior with me, my daughter became even more overwhelmed, yelling and completely out of control. I told Irma that I would talk to my daughter later at home, but she continued escalating the situation. In the middle of the chaos, she told me that we needed to discuss next year's enrollment because of my daughter's behavior, although she still had to commit to participating in this year's showcase. I was speechless and asked, "Do you even know that my daughter is on the spectrum?" In response, Irma began listing her titles and degrees in behavioral therapy, completely contradicting herself through her own behavior. It is truly sad that someone like this could be in charge of a program such as this one. We formally contacted ownership via email to explain the situation, hoping to schedule a meeting, discuss possible solutions, and receive an apology. Instead, we were told that after conducting an investigation with the people present, ownership concluded that Irma never said anything inappropriate about our daughter. Additionally, our daughter was removed from the inclusive program entirely only two weeks before her showcase. During a call with ownership regarding our email, the owner himself told us that he believed the problem with our daughter was that she was "not used to hearing no." Imagine saying that about a child on the autism spectrum, as if simply hearing "no" were ever a solution for autism-related behaviors. This was coming from someone who has never spent even a second with our daughter, yet still felt comfortable giving an opinion about her behavior. What I see here is a major red flag. When someone reports misconduct, unethical behavior, or unprofessional conduct and their concerns are immediately dismissed or denied, it creates an environment where that behavior can continue unchecked and potentially lead to even more serious problems. It is like calling a police department to report misconduct by the chief of police, only for the person making the complaint to be punished for speaking up. Thank you for creating a program that helps so many students with special needs. I truly hope this experience serves as an opportunity for growth and improvement so the program can become even more inclusive moving forward.

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Area Stage - Beauty and The Beast, running through Dec 22, 2024!

Beauty and The Beast, running through Dec 22, 2024!

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Beauty and The Beast returns in South Miami this holiday season!

Miami New Times' Iron Fork - festivals - Updated May 2026

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