We had such high hopes for Guy Fieri's Tournament of Champions at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival on Friday, February 20th. The chef lineup looked incredible, and after having an amazing experience at Burger Bash (with early admission), we were genuinely excited. Unfortunately, this event was the complete opposite. Not only was it more expensive, but it was extremely overcrowded. It was shoulder-to-shoulder the entire time, making it difficult to move, enjoy the atmosphere, or even hear anyone speak. The lines were unbelievably long, and it was nearly impossible to tell where they began or ended -- only to finally reach the front and receive a very small bite of food. There also needs to be serious consideration around sound and entertainment. The event had both a DJ and a live band, and it was way too loud -- you could barely have a conversation. The band, unfortunately, wasn't great and felt overpowering and obnoxious at times. The DJ was much better and played far better music; the overall vibe would have been much more enjoyable sticking with just that. There really needs to be a ticket capacity limit to ensure guest satisfaction. Overselling the event completely took away from what could have been an incredible experience. The organization and overall flow just weren't there. After 45 minutes of frustration and barely tasting anything, we decided to leave and went to Pizza Bar around the corner just to actually get something to eat. The only highlight of the night was spotting Rev Run walking in -- which ended up being the most memorable part of the experience. Burger Bash truly felt like the main event in comparison. We won't be returning to this one. Burger Bash from now on. read more

It's my 4th year going and I always have a great time at SOBEWFF. This year we attended 2 events. We did the dinner hosted by Jet Tila, Aarti Sequeira and Christopher Aguirre. Damaris Phillips was also a surprise chef. The food was delicious. From the passed appetizers to the sit down meal everything was well seasoned and beautifully presented. We also attended the Family Cookout, hosted by JJ Johnson with a special performance from Fat Joe (the BX baby)!!! The food was great, the vibe was awesome and we had an amazing time!!!! I plan on going back next year! read more

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GREAT TIME attending SOBEWFF 2025 for their Tacos and Tequila weekend evening event from 730-1030pm. Very easy to find, especially if staying in the area and are arriving on foot. Food and drinks included with the tickets. On arrival there was plenty of participating booths with tacos and/or Mexican related bites. Bars and cocktails also available. I suggest getting there early to maximize the tastings as well as to beat the crowd a little because as the event went on the lines got drastically longer and the last hour some food booths began closing per lack of inventory. I give kudos to the organizers for the many bins of accessible water bottles for both the MIA heat and to keep the alcoholic drinkers hydrated! Noting for my ladies, that SOBEWFF set up is booths on the beach - so wear the correct foot attire as you will be walking on sand! read more

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SOBEWFF 2025 Mike's Amazing Burger Bash Great food ,Drinks, Music and vibes! Worth every calorie! read more

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I had not attended the South Beach Wine and Food Festival since 2019, before the pandemic. The grand tasting has always been my favorite because I believe it gives you the most bang for your buck however, the price has increased and I don't believe the quality of the food has increased with it. This year, I attended on a Sunday even though my preference is on Saturday. However, capital one offered a discount through their card and the less expensive tickets for Saturday were sold out. I don't know if by Sunday, things are sold out but there were a handful of empty booths and the food that the other vendors were handing out was nothing to write home about. I saw very few quality items with the food. However, I did enjoy the fact that there are more liquor vendors where wine was the staple at most of their festivals in past years. I can't say I didn't enjoy it. It is always a great time but like I mentioned, I've experienced better food at their past festivals. I will return next year but on a Saturday. read more

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SOBEWFF Peace Love and Yoga event is a great way to start the last day of the festival. I had the pleasure of going to a couple of events over the weekend and going to the beach early Sunday morning was a great way to get going for the last day. I love these fitness events as you just bring yourself they provide mats and anything else needed. The yoga instructor was great providing modifications for everyone to be able to participate. Nikki beach as the backdrop is a beautiful location to sit and enjoy our healthy breakfast snacks provided by Carrot Express. Great time with friends and definitely worth the price! read more

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Foodiecon was at the Mondrian Hotel South Beach we went to last month. We paid $100 per person and it was horrible. The only food available was sliders that they only served for a short time and Pasta. The had a breadstick stand too where you could get one breadstick at a time.. There was no food and nothing to do. It was a total rip off and I now realize that you have to spend $300 and up to get any food or entertainment. These were tickets that6 should have never been sold. I would warn anyone for next year. Horrible experience. read more

First time having the great pleasure to attend the BBQ tent. This was after the GOYA tent. We had a small break and then headed for this venue, kind of already stuffed. I've never seen so many smokers. You could have stuck an apple in my mouth and roasted me. Man was I full. Really cool to see Guy Fieri up close. Even ran into a few work colleagues all dressed up pigging out. I was surprised by the lengths vendors will travel to serve a little bit of bacon or pulled pork. However, this was the place to do it. Chef Adrienne had her best foot forward serving up a nice Guava burger. Yummm. Really enjoyed my time here. Hope to do it again one day. read more

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We went to the NuDeco Ensemble with Rev Run at the North Beach Bandshell. It turned out to be a beautiful evening and a great venue for this event. The featured restaurants were from Politan Row, which is in the Design District in Miami. There was Indian Street Food, Mexican food, Italian. Japanese as well as some seafood. The food was all delicious, we enjoyed trying different things. My favorite dish was from Mom's (Japanese Home-Cooking, Politan Row Chicago), key lime pudding with mochi and fruit. While the food was amazing and that's the basis for South Beach Wine & food festival it was the entertainment that really blew us away Nu Deco is an Orchestra with violins, cello, all the traditional instruments but they play modern music with a Twist. Upbeat music that makes you want to get up and dance and clap. Rev Run came out on the stage and played a lot of their hits from Run DMC. This Orchestra is amazing we'll have to find where they're playing next. read more

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EAT. DRINK. EDUCATE. The festival benefits the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism & the Southern Wine & Spirits Management Center at FIU. To date, 28 million has been raised for the school. Over 1200 students volunteer for this epic 4 day festival to gain real life experience in the hospitality industry. I never knew the SOBEWFF was for charity until this year & how awesome is that??? I won two tickets to the Coca-Cola Beachside BBQ, sponsored by the National Pork Board & hosted by Guy Fieri. Thank you to Yelp Miami & Yelp Fort Lauderdales, Diandra and Blue for the tickets & picking me as one of the winners! I took Lauren S as my date & along with Michael & Goldie, we went in style, limo style! I didn't meet Guy but he was busy throwing signed caps & shirts into the crowd from his Chicken GUY booth. His Disney Springs fast casual restaurant is getting set to open their 2nd location in the Aventura Mall. The one of a kind all natural chicken tenders are served with over 20 signature sauces, all created by The Boss of Sauce himself, Mr. Guy Fieri! More than 30 of the nations top grill masters were serving up their mouth watering slow cooked BBQ. My favorite was the brisket being sliced by John Rivers, the owner of 4 Rivers BBQ. I tried pork belly pastrami that was like nothing I ever had before. Thanks Mike C for bringing me to their booth towards the end of the night since that pork belly was a real treat, and my 2nd favorite bite of the night. Tito's made two special cocktails for the event & I had the one mixed with ice cold lemonade. Excellent!!! Cassadee Pope's performance was everything I thought it would be & more. I love her music & that was part of the reason I entered the contest! Such an exiting fun night and thanks again Diandra & Blue!!! read more

SOBEWFF - Festivals Near Me - Miami Beach, Florida

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Wowza! Meat, meat, meat, and more meat. Lots of great chefs from around the world showcased their BBQ and smoking skills at this South Florida tradition, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival: BBQ on the Beach, hosted by Guy Fieri. Great live music and a DJ kept the atmosphere lively. There was all you could eat samples of brisket, ribs, pulled pork, short beef ribs, shrimp, trout, and so much more. The setting on the beach, in south beach, was perfect for this venue. We are already looking forward to next year. read more

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OMG! I have been dying to go to this festival for years and I finally had the opportunity!! The tickets are super expensive and I never planned ahead to save money. There were actually events on Groupon this year, which made it very reasonable to attend if I had to purchase ticket but I was super lucky and won tickets for Art of Tiki and was a date to a friend for Beachside BBQ. Since we live in Broward and did not know how much we were going to drink, we took an Uber there. It took forever but luckily we left 2 hours before Art of Tiki started. They do not let you in earlier than said time at the events. Like seriously, on the dot. My first event ever was Art of Tiki. It was a smaller event and I am glad this event popped my cherry lol. There was a lot of room to move around and we did not have to wait long for a drink or bite to eat. I also liked this event because the drinks were all tiki themed and all rum based. The bites were unique but my favorite was from Chef Adrianne. I went back for seconds. I was even lucky enough to be at the right place at the right moment when Ted Allen was right behind me grabbing a drink! I adore him! He was my favorite on Queer Eye and I find him very intellectually stimulating. The next evening, I was graciously invited by my friend to attend the Beachside BBQ with Guy Fieri. We both love him so we were so excited to go! Unfortunately, this event was one of the major ones so it was next to impossible to meet Guy. You could barely grab food or drinks because there was so many people. I still enjoyed myself a lot and everything was delicious. I wish I could have tried all the food. Next year I want to try the Burgee Bash event and possibly one of the Grand Tastings. I was envious drooling over everyone's photos from the Grand Tastings! Both events I attended were amazing and I am soooooo happy I was able to go. Thank you Yelp for your generosity!!! Thank you Blue for inviting us to these events!! Thank you Britt, Michael, and Goldie- I had so much fun and thank you for including me! read more

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Thanks to Yelp Miami and Yelp Yelp Orlando, I was lucky to win tickets to the 2020 SoBeWFF. We arrived on the afternoon of Thur, 2/20/20. 1st impression - SoBe is SoHot! So we checked into our hotel and did as the locals do. Siesta! Currently in line for our 1st event. Italian Bites. read more

SOBEWFF - In line for Italian Bites. - Festivals Near Me - Miami Beach, Florida

Wow Wow Wow and Wow! What a fabulous evening. The weather was fabulous and the food and drinks even better. There must have been at least 50 different restaurants from around the US and even one from Israel that gave out samples of their bbq delicacies. Each one was better than the next. The biggest problem was that our stomachs were not big enough to try them all. One of the sponsors of the event was the pork industry so a lot of the samples were pork. Guy Fierei was the host and his booth had a delicious fried chicken. My favorite dish was a Boca restaurants version of the mac-rib sandwich. The admission is not cheap but certainly worth the price. My biggest suggestion is to wear comfy clothes and come hungry! read more

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Woah..did it really happen or was it just a delicious dream? The South Beach Wine and Food Fest (SOBEWFF) is, like a fellow Yelper said, Disneyland for Foodies. This cornucopia of delicacies visits our little burg yearly, and this year again thanks to Yelp Miami and Yelp Fort Lauderdale, I was lucky to win tickets to that slice of Meatatarian Heaven known as Beachside Barbecue. Hosted by God, I mean Guy Fieri, my Yelp BFF Michelle L and I had the chance to savor a bunch of great BBQ joints from all across the US. My strategy was to first check out the out of town restaurants, and stagger places in line with Michelle. From a basic spare rib with sweet BBQ sauce from Handsome Devil, to the spicier fare of Ocala's Big Lee BBq..from the pulled pork of Alabama's Big Bob Gibson (the eventual winner!) This was foodie heaven! As it were they even had Barilla Orzo pasta for the "poor" vegetarians. I'd be awfully negligent if I didn't mention local favorite Chef Adrienne and her guava bbq burger. The only hiccup was that the dessert places ran out fairly quickly as did Red the Steakhouse. Oh, and the Coca Cola Bar even had cherry coke! Besides our awesome CMs Diandra and Blue, ai also had the chance to meet Matt C from Jacksonville, Will from Alabama and Tara from the Southeast region. As it were, they even inspired me to follow along to the Sweets and Beats event. My small monetary investment there led me to another sugary cornucopia. Whether the brown butter donuts from Pretty Sweet (nee Sweetness Bakes, one of the original Miami dessert joints), the banana filled ones from Mojo Donuts, or the Zeppoli from Zak the Baker..is your mouth watering yet? Thank you Sobewff for such a delicious weekend. I'll be dieting and preparing for next year! read more

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Was lucky enough to have won a pair of tickets to this event from Yelp. Having never attended any of the SOBEWFF events in the past, I was excited to be getting my first taste. My lovely lady and I made our way to National Hotel to the music of the Marleys to set the vibe for the night ahead. The venue was very nice (I'd never been before; she'd stayed once). There were about 10 or so small tables set up with various vendors serving food set up by the pool area, island tunes swept along in the cool breeze. We started off with a few of the small plates to get something in our systems before getting in line for the bar, including both of our favorites of a smoked shortrib atop a semi-sweet plantain (wish I'd gotten the name of the place). We also made a few trips to both bars. One serving 4 different island-inspired rum cocktails, and the other offering a whole coconut filled with a nice blend of Appleton Estate rum. All in all it was a great night with fantastic food and delicious drinks that had us talking of a trip in the time to come. read more

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BBQ HEAVEN: A PORK, BEEF AND CHICKEN FEST: The Coca-Cola Beachside BBQ, sponsored by the National Pork Board and Hosted by Guy Fieri was the event of our choice this year, and we are so thankful to Yelp Miami and Yelp Fort Lauderdale to offer me 2 tickets to this amazing event. Of course my +1 was my wife, so we headed down to South Beach, in Style may I add, with Britt Z and Lauren S. and arrived early to get in front of the line of expected 4,000 hungry BBQ lovers. The participants this year were so diverse, BBQ Restaurants and Chefs from across the country; from New York, Nashville, Chicago and beyond, and the best of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County offered spectacular creations right out of HUGE offset Smokers and Argentinean Smokers that spilled out aromas of Hickory and Oak flavors throughout the beach. A large stage in the back featuring Cassadee Pope was the entertainment highlight of the night, as well as a middle DJ stage with amazing Hip Hop and Reggae definitely stepped up the mood a big notch for a party. Now, where do I start? As we worked our way from the back (we were advised to), I did not hesitate to stop and see John Rivers from 4 Rivers Smokehouse in Coral Springs. I went there for 2 reasons: to finally meet John Rivers who has an amazing story, and to eat their Smoked Kobe Brisket. Juicy, great flavorful bark and John, himself, put together a generous little sandwich. I knew it was going to be a long night of trying to find my Best Bite of the night, but what a better place to do it. MY DISCOVERIES and FAVES; LATIN HOUSE GRILL, MIAMI. We knew that we were going to be trying plenty of traditional style Beef, Pork and Chicken BBQ tonight, so seeing that they were serving up pulled pork tacos here, by wife and I split 4 very tasty slow roasted Pork Tacos on Flour Tortillas. Hit the spot!!! CHEF ADRIANNE'S, MIAMI. We have had brunch here before, but when I saw what they were serving Guava Rum Pulled Pork Sliders and the juicy tender pulled meat making up this sandwich, my mouth was watering and knew we were in for something special. Well, there was an added bonus: The Sweet Corn Tamalito; a Tamale in a cup. Wow,, delicious,, but too heavy to keep going at it. The Slider could be a Best Bite winner for me , but not until........................ QUALITY MEATS, MIAMI. Never heard of this, but they served Pork Belly Pastrami. Was trying to figure this AMAZING creation out so stuck around awhile and tasted the most incredible Pork Belly I ever had. Not really a creation at all, but they brine the Pork Belly for seven days, Pastrami style with all kinds of spices. This was the best Pork Belly I've ever had and tasted nothing like regular Pork Belly,,,,,,THUS MY CHOICE FOR BEST BITE of the Beachside BBQ. The work that must of gone in to the preparation for this before it hit the smoker. THE BEATRICE INN, NEW YORK. WOW. Checked out the Whole Prime Rib Eye hanging by chains over the Argentinian Grill, large pieces of flavored woods smoking and all that aroma around that meat. I have a passion for meat smoking on open flames with Hickory, Mesquite, Oak woods that produce enough smoke to flavor such large cuts of beef. I tried to find out what type of wood they used, but the Chef was away for awhile so I never found out. I tasted this charred Rib Eye with Prawn Butter on top, and yes the flavors were a result of soaking up all that smoke, and it was the most tender piece of meat, served medium rare. MARTIN'S BBQ, NASHVILLE, TENN. Chef and owner Pat Martin pulled out all the stops as he loaded up 3 large double hooded smokers with his famous Tennessee Whole Hogs. What a sight to see. I was in "HOG HEAVEN" just watching these Hogs smoking and the display was quite a sight with a bottle of wine sitting right in front of the smoking Hogs; quite the effect. What a sandwich this made. Juicy Whole Hog topped with Cole Slaw and a special sauce. I think I will take a trip to Nashville. CHICKEN GUY, BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA (and more coming). Wooohoo, there he was, Guy Fieri hosting all the chicken lovers at his place, throwing Hats and Tee Shirts out to the anxiously waiting fans and foodies. He was having a ball with everyone, and it was nice to see how happy he was mingling with his fans. THE BOURBON BROWN SUGAR CHICKEN SANDWICH was the highlight with Guy's special sauce poured over it. A HIT. And..... Guy announced that he is opening now in Aventura at the Aventura Mall. Although the line to see him and get a sandwich, which was very nicely packed in a red cardboard sandwich pouch, seemed long, it moved quickly. ALL 30 Chefs, Smoke Houses and Restaurants pulled out all the guns for this event. Better than ever expected. We had our fill for sure. Thank you Yelp Fort Lauderdale and Miami, for giving us this great opportunity. It was SMOKIN Saturday night on South Beach at this event that had everything!!! I read more

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I am so happy I was finally able to attend a SOBE WFF event! After living in Miami for 4 years, it was about time that I attended one of the events! :) Thanks to Yelp Miami and Yelp Fort Lauderdale, I was fortunate enough to win tickets to the Beach Carnival that closed out the 2019 SOBE WFF festivities. Thanks Yelp team! The tickets would have been $115 a person, so this really helped to get them for free :) The Beach Carnival was located beach side at Collins Ave and Lincoln Ave (at the location of the former Ritz-Carlton South Beach). You walk on to the sand and you are right at the event site. It was really cool! Dress really comfortably if you go to one of the beach events. My partner and I were both in shorts and flip flops and were really comfortable. There were women wearing dresses and high heels and were really struggling trying to walk in the sand in their high heels. The event was really well organized, you passed through security, had your tickets scanned, and then you went to another area where you exchanged your ticket for an arm band. After that, you then walked through the main gates, and then you had circus entertainers and immediately came into the area with about 30 or more food vendors and probably 5 or 6 bars. I would say keep walking to the back of the venue, it was less crowded as the event started and we could walk right up to the bars and food vendors. The really cool thing about the event is that if you like one food dish, you can go back up to the vendor as many times as you want as long as they have food still available. My favorite food vendors from the event were Cheeseburger Baby (their Corn Dog and Funnel Cake Fries were amazing!) and The Social Club's Lamb dish was also amazing! They had the 2 longest lines and I could see why! If you wait until the latter part of the event, usually the lines start dying down, but the food supplies typically do as well. I loved the Carnival Games, that was the perfect way to space out your drinks and food consumption, and all games were free as well (and you could play them as many times as you wanted!) I definitely would love to come back to this event next year! Would I pay $115? Probably not, but would probably pay up to $80 for a ticket. read more

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I was lucky to be given a pair of tickets to the Grand Tasting Village this year. Founded by Lee Schrager, this is the 19th year of the South Beach Food and Wine festival. The money raised goes to support FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. So far over $30 million dollars has been raised for the school. The event has now spread out to five days from February 19 through 23, 2020. It now includes more than 100 parties, dinners, and events across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties although it remains centered in South Beach. New this year are cocktail centered value events priced at under $100. Parking is tricky on South Beach especially when there is a large scale event. We opted to use the free parking at 700 N Miami Ave and take the shuttle provided by the festival. This is quite a distance from South Beach and with traffic the bus ride back to the car took 45 minutes. You could try to park in a lot closer but they were full and then of course you would have to pay, Once we arrived at the festival it was another 45 minutes to check in with periodic rain showers. The earlier you can come, the smoother the check in process. After checking in we were given a Publix swag bag containing the plastic wine glass you use during the event, a mochaccino, and a recipe booklet. Unfortunately for me they gave me a bag with an open mochaccino that spilled everywhere in it. Whatever recipes were in the book were lost to mochaccino. After running through the rain we finally made it up the sand dune and into the event. The event was incredibly crowded. The first booth we came to was for the paella and it was out and it was only 1 o'clock. Fortunately there were two huge tents and dozens of other booths in between to try. There are tastings from over 50 restaurants. Some of the things I got to try this year were Belvoir Elderflower Sparkling Lemonade, chicken from Shuckin' & Jivin' Eatery, Dos Hombres Mezal Artesanal, N.0 Osteria del Luna Park, froze from Kelvin Slush Co., grilled cheese from Ms. Cheezious, strawberry tomato ice cream from Peekaboo Ice Cream, gluten free Hawaiian bread from the Yielding Seed, cupcakes from Sugar Yummy Mama Atelier and Foodtruck, Lyre's non alchoholic spirits, pastries from Vicky, empanadas from CAO, and a frozen Pina Pop. There were some other things in there but it was so hectic with the crowd. At times you couldn't even move through the tents. It was disappointing though to see that some booths ran out of food two hours before the festival ended. I'm looking at you Stephanie's Crepes. The booths that were popular had long lines to get food. For instance I wanted to try the pasta from the Goya booth but the line was forever. A couple of times I just ended up leaving lines because they were taking so long and people were pushing into me while I waited. My best bite vote went to Ms. Cheezious who put some thought into their offering. It was another really long line but it at least was worth it. They had a honey brushed artisan grilled cheese with fresh hand grated orange peel on top. They did not phone it in unlike the meatball out of a crockpot that into from another table that was ice cold in the center. I wish I could have watched more of the cooking demonstrations. I was super excited to see chef Marcus Samuelsson make an appearance. After his success in Harlem, he is opening a Red Rooster in Overtown next month in a restored historic pool hall and I can't wait to go to. I also got to catch Guy Fieri at the end when he hosted a cooking showdown. He even brought Duff Goldman to the stage. My main festival tip is to come really early and when you get in go straight to the back. I wish they printed a map of the booths and a schedule of the celebrity cooking demonstrations. I feel like I miss so much because I don't know when or where things I want are. This event was sold out and it was darn near impossible to maneuver once inside the tents. Also Capital One was a sponsor this year so if you thought to have brought your card they had priority check in, a lounge, and a handy dandy wine glass lanyard. This is still the Mac Daddy of food festivals. Everyone should come at least once and prepare for the weather. This year it was bipolar, hot and sunny one minute and cold rain the next. At least it kept the temperature down. Next year is the 20th anniversary of the festival. Thank you Blue and Yelp for the chance to attend this one of a kind event. To quote Will Smith "South Beach bringing the heat. I love this town." read more

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Food. Food and more Food Add unlimited drinks, music and Food Stars and that equals 4 days of fun and in the heart of South Beach. Going to make this an annual must attend event read more

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I don't see any way to review the event I went to specifically, so I'll review it here! The Art of Tiki Cocktail Showdown was fantastic. My guy and I got a mic attached to us and a camera thrust in our faces to provide a testimonial, but since he didn't let me talk, I'll do it here (lol)! It was so cool to see bars from all corners of Miami come together here, and even a bar from my neighborhood of Delray. My favorite was the drink from Beaker & Grey in Wynwood. I went back for a second. The friendliest people here were the people representing their bars and making the drinks, as you could tell they were proud and passionate. The people running the event weren't too polite (just giving my honest two cents). The food! Was! Awesome! We both voted for Sugarcane, located in Midtown, who offered up a fried chicken sandwich on a King's Hawaiian bun of course, topped with kimchi brussel's sprouts. I also tried braised short rib, pork belly and purple yam croqueta, and more. There was so much salmon and ahi! The displays these bars put on were beautiful, complemented by the beautiful pool and displays already set up for the event. I had so much fun. Thanks, Yelp! read more

SOBEWFF - Festivals Near Me - Miami Beach, Florida

Now I understand what it means to be as happy as a pig in shit! Guy Fieri hosted Coca Cola Beachside BBQ and we were not disappointed, from the mouth watering foods, refreshing drinks and festive music. We got here early and were the first people in and we went straight to the back and started sampling the food. They were not samples they were full appetizer sizes. They had a such a variety of meats from beef, pork, pork belly and were made in all different ways. Most were bbq or smoked styled. They also had chicken, seafood and pasta so there was something for everyone. The venders were from all over the country with several from South Florida. The music was from country to hip hop and kept the crowd going. So grateful to CM Blue and CM Diandra and SOBEWWF for this amazing expereience. So, there was a fake Guy Fieri walking around and I did get a picture with him. Fake Don't Care!!! read more

Overall it was a great festival, benefits Florida International University and to end hungers locally. Great cause when you purchase tickets to the events. It's our 3rd times here. We attended a few events through out the festival. Dinner event at Novikov Miami was great with guest chef Charles Phan. Dinner with chef Michael White was good too. Couple events to raise awareness such as with chef Jose Andres whom cooked for thousands of people in Puerto Rico after the hurricane last year. Other guests/celeb chefs were here too. The Italian Bites on Friday evening fell short. Supposed to be 7-10 pm, by 8:45 pm half of the stations/booths were out of food. A lot of chefs left and those who canes late like us, got to figure out. Grand Tasting on Sunday with more than 50 restaurants/catering companies. Surprisingly they were all local. A lot of food but nothing really good, unfortunately. Fried food, meatballs, tacos, but nothing good! Not even 1 celeb chefs were around! Although in stages, chef Scott Conan (New York & LA), Food Network Adam Richman and a few more were there. On the other hands, a lot of hard liquors, mediocre wines! Ludacris performed and DJ David Grutman were in the House! Got the crowd moving and shaking their booties! The Burger Bash event was a fab favorite before but at $350 vip ticket? How many burger can you possibly eat? Over priced even it's for a good cause! It was a hot day 89 degree in February! If I return next year, we won't attend the grand tasting! The individual intimate dinner runs around $275-$500 are much better events to attend. You got to be up close and personal with chefs and they serve much better food/wine. read more

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This was my first SOBEWFF event, and many thanks to Yelp for having the drawing that enabled me to score 2 tickets. Here's some observations: GETTING THERE: I opted to drive, and it was really easy to park at the municipal 17th Street garage. It's only a 8 min. walk away, and was only $10 for 5.5 hours. GETTING IN: We got there 15 minutes prior to opening and there was already a long line. Security was relatively unobtrusive and a friendly young greet staff enthusiastically went about assigning wristbands. The dress code was "smart casual" but I saw a LOT of people dressed more like "ultra-super" casual! THE EVENT: the cavernous tent structure on the beautiful sands of SoBe made for a great venue to hold the "Italian Bites on the Beach" It was fairly easy to get samples at the 30 different booths. A lot of the vendors offered pasta dishes and although delicious, it was a heavy carb load and the dishes were starting to run together after awhile. My top 3 vendors were:1)Mercantile Food & Provision of Denver, featuring foraged mushroom risotto sprinkled with truffles and topped with a tiny egg 2) 800 degrees Woodfired Kitchen of Aventura, with its Key West pink shrimp scampi on garlic toast with basil and tomato and 3) M House Restaurant of Coral Gables with its Wagyu Toast with aioli and sumac. As far as refreshments, the lines could get long but the intrepid bartenders did their best. There weren't any spirits, but there were several wines and Heineken Light. I opted to indulge in Cinzano's prosecco and would've gotten really buzzed for all I drank if not for all the food I ate. For bathroom breaks, they have probably the cleanest, well-appointed and air conditioned port-a-potties I've ever experienced. NEGATIVES: there were 2 deejays at the front and rear of the venue, and I get that there needs to be entertainment, but they were way too loud. I had to shout to have a convo with my wife, and it was virtually impossible to speak with any of the vendors about their dishes. Save the loud music for one of the events featuring an artist, like Ludacris, who appeared at an event later in the week. My other disappointment was the extremely long line to meet the event's featured celebrity chef, Italian food bae Giada deLaurentiis. I just saw her from a distance, and she still radiated her vibrant charm! I would suggest if one really wanted to meet her to upgrade from general admission tix to the "preview " tix ($75 more) which get you in early, away from the throngs of people. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the event, and I ate and drank to a Bacchanalian degree, but I'm not sure it was quite worth a $150 ticket. read more

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Why 5 stars? Because how will any food festival ever live up to this? --- --- --- I mean, where do I even begin? I gained 7.4 lbs in 4 days, which is the numerical way to showcase that I enjoyed myself. I attended the following events: THURSDAY Bites on the Beach - Because I'm an insane person, I literally ate from every single vendor here, and nearly consumed the entire serving from each of them. My mouth very much enjoyed this. My OCD brain was quite satisfied. But my stomach wanted a divorce from the rest of my body. There were some great bites here, but if I could do it all over again, I would have bypassed the things that looked less appealing. Overall, this event was phenomenal! FRIDAY Wine Spectator Day - Another home run. I've never consumed this much wine in my life and I did it all before 2pm. Lots of great bites here, too! Best of the Best - If I had to pick a favorite event, this would be it. I wish there were 5-10% fewer people here because it felt a bit claustrophobic at times, but there were some epic bites and sips available here. SATURDAY Bacardi - This was my least favorite event for two reasons: 1) The only drinks available that weren't Bacardi based were Heineken and Red Stripe. That sounds silly... the name of the event is BACARDI, after all. But I do wish they had a small selection of wine or some non-terrible beer available. The lines for drinks were by far the longest here, but I did find some nice concoctions that I enjoyed. I just can't drink much liquor, so I tapped out early and focused on eating. 2) On a 1-10 scale of annoying, the DJ was a 47. Maybe it's because I was not on the level as most of the people here who were quite Bacardi'd up, but this guy almost made me just want to get up and leave. His music selection was great, but he wouldn't. stop. yelling. I feel like a good DJ lets the music speak for itself and doesn't feel the need to shout out nationalities and home towns every 14 seconds for 3 hours. But with all that being said, the food here was amazing. I did really enjoy myself overall, but if I had to pick a least favorite, this would be it. SUNDAY Grand Tasting - This had the same layout as the Wine Spectator event, with many of the same vendors, which is not a bad thing, because that event was awesome. There were plenty of new food vendors though, and boy did I do my best to try as many as possible. Because this event is so spread out, we rarely had to wait in line for more than a minute or two and often times, we were able to walk right up to each table and grab whatever was available. If you're looking to just go to one event and not trying to break the bank on Best of the Best, this is the one! Overall, every other food festival is just competing for the 2nd best in the world - SOBE is truly the GOAT! read more

Go once and you'll be hooked! Seriously, I look forward to SOBEWFF like a kid on Christmas Eve. The city fills up with the world's best chef and sommeliers and pretty much the best of the best in the food and beverage industry. If you love great food and drink, you will love the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. Last year I went to Taste of Jamaica and tried so many delicious treats. The Grand Tasting Food Village is pricey but if you get there early it is well worth the money. You get to try so food and beverages from top rated chefs and restaurants, watch the masters at work in the Culinary Demo stages and enjoy awesome entertainment through the day. Ladies, wear flip flops or sand-friendly footwear and remember the Florida sun can get might strong at times. If you're driving in, the earlier you arrive, the better. Parking can be a big hassle as the day goes on. read more

Had the opportunity to attend the Beachside BBQ. At the SOBEWFF this year thanks to Yelp! Where to start? I mean, it was so much food and so little time. Don't remember to many names because...wine of course, which was all great btw. But OMG, everything we tried was wonderful. I tried to get as much as I could get in but probably tried maybee 15 booths and missed a lot more. Loved the Dj and live band that became really fun after a few wine glasses in. Had so much fun at this event! Can't wait to attend some other events next year! read more

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I was gifted two tickets via Yelp. My husband and I really enjoyed the event. The limited non-meat options was discouraging for him. However, some chefs were able to prepare him items without meat. The carnival presentation was really good. The crowd was friendly. The drinks were really good, although all mixes did not last on the menu through the event. I would return again. read more

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$225 and they're out of food at 3:50 PM. Wow. Maybe not worth it next year. Lots of drinks though, if that's your intention.

I went with my boss and his wife to the Pizza Party hosted by Michael Schwartz and had a blast. It was held at the Jungle Plaza in the design district. Very well organized and the pizza selection was great. Mr. Schwartz was available for book signing and everyone received a copy if they wanted. I like the fact that they had real bathrooms installed for the event so you didn't have to go looking for one around the area. Drinks were limited but I still felt it was enough to keep most people happy. Seating was very limited. No one left hungry, there was plenty of pizza for everyone. It was my first festival event and I'm hooked. read more

I wish I could have attended ALL of the events this year! The one I was able to get to was arguably the BEST. Absolutely LOVED "BACARDI's Beach Carnival hosted by Andrew Zimmern". Amazing theme & decor, super fun carnival games & performers, great bites (of what i was actually able to have) & even better drinks. I was particularly OBSESSED with Grey Goose's "Popcorn la Vanille" (Grey Goose La Vanille, Lemon Juice, Benedictine & Popcorn Syrup). Sounds bizarre, tastes like heaven and SO perfect for the event! The bartender, Stephanie, was also great! For the food, I was a bit disappointed. We arrived at 6 pm on the dot and during our very first walk-about 2 stations had already run out of food! To make matters worse, there were very few vegan/vegetarian options to choose from & I was unable to try at least 3 bites (including the Carrot Dog). Not good. My favourites were Chef Chloe's Butternut Squash Nachos (although they could have benefitted from some heat) a creamed corn, breaded on a stick concoction & the Mirciny Moliviatis' Shrimp Buñuelos, all the way from Guatemala!!! My only other gripe was that I never received a gift bag although I saw a few people walking around with them. Back to the positives... great music added yo the vibe as well! The dj towards the front played tons of really danceable hip-hop for a festive & very lit atmosphere. the rock & roll band on the back were great & played classic rock standards with Mr. Bizarre Eats himself jumping in to jam out for s few songs. All in all, REALLY GREAT event that I was delighted to attend. read more

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WORTH EVERY PENNY. This is a rich people event- there's no denying it. I am not rich. But if there's one thing to splurge on, it's this. You walk through the tents sampling unique, delicious food and wine, and sit down and watch famous chefs cook. The food is amazing, the wine is amazing (even if I couldn't taste it towards the end...), the chefs are friendly and funny and interact with the crowds, and the atmosphere is positive and happy. Best of all, the beach is right there, so you can plop your drunk, fat self right there on the sand and watch the sunset afterward. read more

Fantastic!!! It keeps getting better every year. Hats off to the organizers and everyone inside the ropes that made this event 2nd to none. Great Job ! read more

Had the wonderful opportunity to attend SOBEWFF thanks to Yelp and it really was one of the best experiences I've had in terms of food festivals. The entire event is laid out on South Beach under white tents filled with numerous booths of Miami's best restaurants and bars. Each restaurant gives out bite-sized tasters of their specialities while wineries and liquor brands give out cocktails and wine. There's plenty to go around and pacing yourself becomes quite the challenge. In addition to all the food and drink there are a number of cooking demos by famous chefs from the food network (great opportunity to sit and digest). Great music played by the DJ on the sand and plenty of beautiful people. Such a great event to attend and it was definitely put together very well. Pro tip: wear sandals or shoes you don't care about as the sand turns them white! read more

Just ok. We attended the Fort Lauderdale Crave event as it is part of the South Beach wine and food Festival. The Conrad Hotel definitely did not have a Plan B in case it rained ,and boy did it ever. We were all soaked , and so was the food. You would think that having an event at their hotel they would have options just in case. They could've tented over the entire event and not had rain pouring all over the food and the chefs. Food wasn't bad but drink selections were very poorly orchestrated. Rose Tom Collins and gimlets? Really? Not the best choices for seafood as far as I'm concerned, but a cheap choice If you ever went to the taste of Yountville now there's an event that does it right. They don't oversell they have it tented across the entire event in three different locations. South Beach wine and food Festival could def learn how to do it the right way if they saw how amazing the Taste of Yountville event is. Won't be rushing back to SOBE or Crave wine and food -thank you For $200 they can do a lot better. read more

We attended four different ticketed events at the festival this year, and this one may just have been our surprise favorite. I say "surprise" because we are not particularly drawn to Jamaican cuisine. Well, unless you count rum, which I suppose you should, right? Of the events we attended, this was the only one that was not directly on the sands of South Beach, but instead was in the pool area of the National Hotel. Our first thought was this might be a bad thing, but that was 180 degrees from the truth as it turned out. As with the other events, we arrived 20-30 minutes early. This is my top advice for all the SOBEWFF events - get there early if you can. You can do so much more, try so many more things, in say the first 30 minutes when you get there early, than you can likely do in two hours if you don't. And beyond that, it's not like they don't run out of things as the evening goes on, because we did run into that at times. OK, back to Jamaica now mon. So arriving our usual 25-ish minutes early, we were among maybe the first 10 people in line, so when we were let in, it was quite easy to acquire our first bites and drinks. Rum was flowing freely all evening start to finish, and most all the food we tried was really good. There was a grilled salmon dish thay was just incredibly good, and several innovative takes on what you might think of as Jamaican staples. Some very spicy like you might anticipate, but some not so really at all, and overall just a nice vatiety. Compared to the other events we attended, this one was smaller scale, but it was every bit as packed shoulder to shoulder within maybe an hour of the start, i.e. the first 30 minutes to an hour was our favorite part. That said, it was fun and friendly and festive, including some colorfully dressed (to the extent they were dressed) dancers who made their way thru the crowd and put on a bit of a show, and of course there was nonstop music (a lot of Bob Marley which I quite enjoyed). So even if you don't think of yourself as a big Jamaica fan, and most especially if you DO really like rum, I'd recommend this event highly. While loud and packed tightly with people as it seemed all the SOBEWFF events were, this one had a slightly more relaxed feel somehow, and it was a nice change of pace not being on the actual beach. Added bonus: the hotel has some nice lobby bar entertainment in the evening, so you can keep the party going in there if you like. read more