Dining Out:
Where To Go Before The Show
By Peter Laird
Wondering where to dine before or after the show? There are plenty of good options to choose from, including The Arsht Center's own Intermission Bars, which offer upscale snacks and drinks (artisanal cheese plate and glass of champagne, anyone?) and are perhaps your most convenient option.
If you're in the mood for something more substantial, there are a number of nearby spots such as Miami Arts Café , directly across the street from the Arsht Center and open for pre-show dining on performance nights (reservations required).
Tony Chan’s Water Club is an upscale Chinese restaurant where you can choose from hundreds of dishes and watch your meal being prepared in the glass-walled kitchen. Upstairs, overlooking Biscayne Bay, is Blu Moon Resto Bar, a Mediterranean restaurant with a menu that features pizzas and pastas as well as steaks, chops, and seafood. On Biscayne between 18th and 19th streets is Bin No. 18 Bistro & Lounge, a casual wine bar with a Mediterranean-influenced menu of soups, salads, tapas, and sandwiches.
In Miami’s resurging Design District, you’ll find several spots getting lots of notice. Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink is a casual, neighborhood eatery serving unpretentious, freshly prepared dishes with an emphasis on local and organic ingredients. At Grass Restaurant & Lounge, the unique, mostly outdoor setting is almost as big a draw as the cuisine, which offers a creative fusion of American, Mediterranean, and Asian flavors.
Just around the corner is perhaps Miami’s only Ethiopian restaurant, Sheba, whose attractive decor is complemented by an African art gallery. Food here is fresh and flavorful, but not too spicy, and will leave you wondering why Ethiopian cuisine isn’t more widely available in a city whose diners are constantly seeking new ways to tantalize their taste buds.
New additions to the Design District include Brosia, with its pan-Mediterranean menu and beautiful, oak-shaded courtyard, and Domo Japones, a hip Japanese bistro housed in an old 1920s-era post office, with a creative, eclectic menu.
Further north on Biscayne is Luna Café, which offers a winning combination of quality Italian food, reasonable prices, and friendly, professional service. And if you can’t find something you like at Soyka’s, a classic American bistro, you may as well just go home and call it a night. Practically next door to Soyka is Sushi Siam, the popular Japanese-Thai restaurant. From sushi and sashimi to noodles and curries, the food here is consistently fresh and tasty.
Want a taste of South Beach? Just across the Venetian Causeway is the Miami Beach branch of Joe Allen Restaurant, the unpretentious and always popular American bistro. With its tempting menu of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and entrees, there’s something here for everyone. A few doors away is Sardinia, a new and notable addition to the neighborhood serving authentic, rustic Italian cuisine. And just off the MacArthur Causeway, on West Avenue, is Oliver’s Bistro, where you can choose from an array of tasty, well-prepared dishes.
In Downtown Miami, La Loggia, a busy lunch spot that's also open for dinner, has been serving consistently good, reasonably priced Italian food for the past seven years. Los Ranchos, the popular Nicaraguan steakhouse chain with a location at Bayside Marketplace, serves a tasty, tender churrasco along with a variety of other meats and seafood.
Newcomers to the downtown dining scene include Il Gabbiano, a high end Italian restaurant opened recently by the original owners of New York's II Mulino, and Prime Blue Grille, a steak and seafood restaurant serving only all-natural, corn-fed, hormone-free, premium beef. Both restaurants boast stylish interiors and beautiful views of Biscayne Bay.
Also convenient for before- or after-show dining is the Brickell Village area, home to a number of fine restaurants including one of the area’s pioneers, Perricone’s. Ten years later, this Italian restaurant is still as popular as ever, with its wonderful ambiance and consistently good food.
Directly across the street from Perricone’s are the newest locations for a pair of popular, upscale national chains. As its name suggests, seafood is the star at The Oceanaire Seafood Room, where the menu changes daily depending on the fresh fish that’s been flown in from around the world that day. And the innovative and authentic dishes coming out of the kitchen at Rosa Mexicano are redefining Mexican cuisine for Miami diners tired of the usual Tex-Mex fare.
On the back (east) side of Mary Brickell Village is Grimpa, a true Brazilian steakhouse where, naturally, beef reigns supreme. (With an elaborate salad bar, though, even vegetarians will be happy.) Order individual cuts or enjoy a never-ending selection of carved-at-the-table meats served on swords, rodizio-style.
Peter Laird is a Miami-based freelance writer and advertising/marketing consultant. He can be reached at peter@lairdcreative.com.
Restaurants (click here to see our entire dining listing)