area 31

great seafood and atmosphere. seafood there was excellent. waiting staff good. ambiance verynicewith a beautiful patio that overlook downtown miami. the acoustics were not good there so it was very loud so not a great place to have a quiet intimate dinner as you can hear everyone's conversation. the only disappointing thing was their dessert menu. they did not have a good selection of desserts such as creme brulee or even cheesecake. the worst part of the entire dinner was parking was difficult and even with a restaurant validation it cost
$13.00 to valet. it took us 30 minutes to retrieve our car which was quite frustrating. however the meal was worth it. best mussels ceviche i've ever had as well as the scallops and wonderful salad.

beware! i had dinner here recently with four friends, all of whom are experienced travellers and have dined in very fine restaurants all over the world. this place was so pretentious and phony chic (well, it is miami) and i felt like we had been robbed. service was immature, slow, and inappropriate. example: our waiter "congratulated" each of us, one by one, for our "excellent choices" when we ordered- i don't need a 20 something kid to approve of my choices! (we were all 40-50 age range). i could give a list about the poor service but won't. the food is all served in tapa size portions- i understand the art of creatively pairing ingredients but just know that you will be paying around $30 a plate for about two or three bites of food! and no, i do not judge food quality by its portion size. maybe this place gets great reviews from people who have never had a reallynicemeal, or from people who feel better about themselves after throwing away money and later telling their friends how cool they are (again, this is miami). the views outside on the balcony are nice, and i'm glad so many were wowed by this place but my advice is think twice- this place is pretending to be something that it is not