1500 Degrees at Eden Roc in Miami

Photo credit:Brett Hufziger
If you are looking for a kind of late 50's early 60's glamour, it's hard to beat Eden Roc Resort, Miami, on the upper "Golden Mile" of Miami Beach. Though just a short cab ride, it feels a world away from the thumpety-thump of South Beach where the party scene is inescapable. The $200 million renovation has the place feeling fresh and modern with a cool and shimmery color palate and nods to a time when it was the resort of choice with entertainers like Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Lena Horne, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr and Elizabeth Taylor.

The property has multiple pools, a great view of the ocean but not a lot of choices when it comes to dining. Fortunately I found the new restaurant on property, 1500 Degrees, to be absolutely wonderful. Hell's Kitchen fans will recognize the name of the chef, Paula DaSilva, a past contestant who was named one of the "Top 40 under 40" by Gold Coast magazine and "Best Celebrity Chef" by Broward/Palm Beach New Times. To be honest, it's hard for me to get excited about yet another steakhouse. 1500 Degrees is described as a farm to table steakhouse, which was good news for me, because you can easily make a meal out of small plates and appetizers.


First up was the local Florida Wahoo ceviche ($13). Ceviche can be found on many Miami menus, but this one was really outstanding. It had the right balance of peppers, cilantro, onions and lime. It managed to be refreshing and savory at the same time.


I don't know if the Pork Belly Tacos with Housemade Kimchee ($7) are always on the menu, but they should be. Shatteringly crunchy morsels with melting bites of pork and juicy kimchee are a mouthwatering treat! I suppose an order of 4 is meant to be shared, but I gobbled them all up myself.


The spiciest dish I tried was the White Water Clams with Chorizo, Peppers and Aji Amarillo Pepper Broth ($15). Chewy nubs of Spanish chorizo and lots of garlic and peppers flavor the clams and the luscious broth. It was a generous portion and I will not soon forget it. The tangy broth was so good I used a spoon to get every last drop.

So as you can see, I didn't even bother ordering steak. I have no idea how the steak is, but am happy that the other dishes were by no means an afterthought. Prices are a what you would expect to find in a hotel, a bit on the high side, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I was a guest of Eden Roc and 1500 Degrees

1500 Degrees at Eden Roc in Miami

Photo credit:Brett Hufziger
If you are looking for a kind of late 50's early 60's glamour, it's hard to beat Eden Roc Resort, Miami, on the upper "Golden Mile" of Miami Beach. Though just a short cab ride, it feels a world away from the thumpety-thump of South Beach where the party scene is inescapable. The $200 million renovation has the place feeling fresh and modern with a cool and shimmery color palate and nods to a time when it was the resort of choice with entertainers like Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Lena Horne, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr and Elizabeth Taylor.

The property has multiple pools, a great view of the ocean but not a lot of choices when it comes to dining. Fortunately I found the new restaurant on property, 1500 Degrees, to be absolutely wonderful. Hell's Kitchen fans will recognize the name of the chef, Paula DaSilva, a past contestant who was named one of the "Top 40 under 40" by Gold Coast magazine and "Best Celebrity Chef" by Broward/Palm Beach New Times. To be honest, it's hard for me to get excited about yet another steakhouse. 1500 Degrees is described as a farm to table steakhouse, which was good news for me, because you can easily make a meal out of small plates and appetizers.


First up was the local Florida Wahoo ceviche ($13). Ceviche can be found on many Miami menus, but this one was really outstanding. It had the right balance of peppers, cilantro, onions and lime. It managed to be refreshing and savory at the same time.


I don't know if the Pork Belly Tacos with Housemade Kimchee ($7) are always on the menu, but they should be. Shatteringly crunchy morsels with melting bites of pork and juicy kimchee are a mouthwatering treat! I suppose an order of 4 is meant to be shared, but I gobbled them all up myself.


The spiciest dish I tried was the White Water Clams with Chorizo, Peppers and Aji Amarillo Pepper Broth ($15). Chewy nubs of Spanish chorizo and lots of garlic and peppers flavor the clams and the luscious broth. It was a generous portion and I will not soon forget it. The tangy broth was so good I used a spoon to get every last drop.

So as you can see, I didn't even bother ordering steak. I have no idea how the steak is, but am happy that the other dishes were by no means an afterthought. Prices are a what you would expect to find in a hotel, a bit on the high side, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I was a guest of Eden Roc and 1500 Degrees

1500 Degrees at Eden Roc in Miami

Photo credit:Brett Hufziger
If you are looking for a kind of late 50's early 60's glamour, it's hard to beat Eden Roc Resort, Miami, on the upper "Golden Mile" of Miami Beach. Though just a short cab ride, it feels a world away from the thumpety-thump of South Beach where the party scene is inescapable. The $200 million renovation has the place feeling fresh and modern with a cool and shimmery color palate and nods to a time when it was the resort of choice with entertainers like Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Lena Horne, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr and Elizabeth Taylor.

The property has multiple pools, a great view of the ocean but not a lot of choices when it comes to dining. Fortunately I found the new restaurant on property, 1500 Degrees, to be absolutely wonderful. Hell's Kitchen fans will recognize the name of the chef, Paula DaSilva, a past contestant who was named one of the "Top 40 under 40" by Gold Coast magazine and "Best Celebrity Chef" by Broward/Palm Beach New Times. To be honest, it's hard for me to get excited about yet another steakhouse. 1500 Degrees is described as a farm to table steakhouse, which was good news for me, because you can easily make a meal out of small plates and appetizers.


First up was the local Florida Wahoo ceviche ($13). Ceviche can be found on many Miami menus, but this one was really outstanding. It had the right balance of peppers, cilantro, onions and lime. It managed to be refreshing and savory at the same time.


I don't know if the Pork Belly Tacos with Housemade Kimchee ($7) are always on the menu, but they should be. Shatteringly crunchy morsels with melting bites of pork and juicy kimchee are a mouthwatering treat! I suppose an order of 4 is meant to be shared, but I gobbled them all up myself.


The spiciest dish I tried was the White Water Clams with Chorizo, Peppers and Aji Amarillo Pepper Broth ($15). Chewy nubs of Spanish chorizo and lots of garlic and peppers flavor the clams and the luscious broth. It was a generous portion and I will not soon forget it. The tangy broth was so good I used a spoon to get every last drop.

So as you can see, I didn't even bother ordering steak. I have no idea how the steak is, but am happy that the other dishes were by no means an afterthought. Prices are a what you would expect to find in a hotel, a bit on the high side, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I was a guest of Eden Roc and 1500 Degrees

A Tale of Two Restaurants: Bonefish Grill and Red Lobster Review

Given the opportunity to review Bonefish Grill and Red Lobster, I leapt at the chance. I love seafood, as does my husband, but the opportunity to be able to afford time and money to go out for a night rarely presents itself. So, when MS&L, on behalf of Bonefish Grill contacted me to check out and compare the two restaurants, I took them up on it without a second thought.

These are my personal findings of the restaurants - presented in a scaled format and are wholly unbiased.

I will say, before heading into the review waters here, that I found the comparison of these two places to be a bit like apples and oranges; they're vastly different in their approach to both seafood and dining, but I will leave you to read and let you know that I will most definitely be back to both places in the very near future. I loved them both.

Scaling is 1 for Poor and 5 for Excellent so the total Perfect Score for any restaurant would be 25.

Parking -

Bonefish Grill 5 - The parking is directly in front of the restaurant and we chose to go at a later time - 8:45 PM, so there were lots of convenient spaces open.

Red Lobster 5 - Being on a busy corner, the parking for Red Lobster is primarily off to one side, so it can sometimes be difficult to find a close spot. That being said, we also dined later in the evening here and had no trouble finding a good spot.

Ambiance -

Bonefish Grill 4 1/2 - The only thing keeping this from a 5 was the fact that my seat was facing the side door of the restaurant - which was facing the Drive-Thru at Wendy's and the lights from the cars passing through were glaring at times. I liked the booth, it was very roomy and comfortable (my husband was able to sit the entire time comfortably - not easy to do with a broken hip) and the wall hangings and polished look overall was very nice.

Red Lobster 5 - The very definite nautical feel of the restaurant is something my husband and I both enjoyed very much. The acoustics were good (we couldn't hear other conversations from our seat) and the lighting was just right.

Service -

Bonefish Grill 4 1/2 - I will repeat this ad nauseum until restaurants listen up: I want to start, continue and finish with the same server - always. We had 5 different servers bring different parts of the meal to us and I find that very disturbing. I don't care if they want us to get our food on time - a single server should be able to do that no matter what. If your servers need that much help, then something needs to change. The servers we did have were very polite and our original server was more than professional - when she was there.

Red Lobster 5 - At one point our dinner tray was brought out by a server that wasn't our own - I saw the girl carrying it look up at our server, who was across the room and shook his head at her, and then promptly set the tray down on the table adjacent to us. Two seconds later, our server was there and ready to do his job. He was perfect in every way - in fact, I haven't had that level of service from any restaurant in the past few years. It was a refreshing change and my husband and I both appreciated that.

Food -

Bonefish Grill 4 1/2 - This was an easy 5, except for the fact that my husband's scallops were gritty and the side dishes were more of an afterthought than a dish. In fact, what should have been zucchini and tomatoes had no tomatoes whatsoever and I mistook the dish for a garnish. It was only after inspecting it that I realized it was the vegetable of the day.

I started with the Bonefish House salad, which totally rocked. It was one of the best salads I have ever had; filled with pine nuts, Kalamata olives, hearts of palm and a divine citrus dressing - it was perfect. In fact, I'd go back just for the salad!

We had a small loaf of bread delivered to the table with what the server called 'pesto'. It most definitely wasn't pesto, but rather closer to a bagna cauda. Either way, both the bread and the dip were delicious.

My entree was the Ahi Tuna that was impeccably prepared to a medium doneness with a side of Jasmine rice, which was equally perfectly done and my husband had Sea Scallops and Shrimp, which were the proper doneness, but the scallops all still had some grit to them that was rather unpleasant. My husband doesn't like the usual sides and asked for fries with gravy. He said the fries were terrific and he was overall a happy camper.

We finished off with the Macadamia Nut Brownie and I have to tell you, that was the best restaurant dessert I have ever had, hands-down. It was perfectly warm and yet the ice cream wasn't melting at all. It was truly decadent from start to finish, but we only ordered one, and I'm glad we did because there was no way I'd have been able to eat one myself.

Red Lobster 4 1/2 - I started off with a house salad here, too. I asked for the Caesar and it came piled with freshly grated Parmesan and plenty of croutons, but the dressing was less garlicky than should be for a Caesar.

My entree was the Honey BBQ Grilled Chicken and Shrimp which came with garlic mashed potatoes and pico de gallo. The chicken was perfectly done, moist and delicious. The shrimp were excellent - they were done just right and the wood-grilled flavor put them over the top. The broccoli side was done to perfection and quite large for a side, as well.

My husband got the Endless Shrimp (of course) in Teriyaki and Cajun flavors and he had 50 shrimp by the end of his meal! He didn't like the french fries here as much as at BG.

We ended with Warm Apple Crumble à la Mode (which we shared) with coffee and it was another excellent ending to a great meal.

Pricing -

Bonefish Grill 5
Red Lobster 5

Both restaurants had good pricing for value. Red Lobster had larger portions, but Bonefish made up for that with well-prepared dishes.

Total for Bonefish Grill: 23.5 out of 25
Total for Red Lobster: 24.5 out of 25

Bottom line? They're both very worth the trip and I will surely be back for more great seafood at both restaurants.

Gift Cards provided by Anna Murphy of MS&L. This is not a paid product endorsement.

Restaurant Review: Outback Steakhouse

Before last night, I had never been to Outback Steakhouse. I know; How is that possible? Our server actually laughed and didn't believe me at first, but it's true. So, when I was offered a gift card to try it out and give a review, I jumped at the chance. It's OBSH's 20th Anniversary! Twenty years, and I hadn't been there. It was high time I stopped in to check it out.

We went to the Outback Steakhouse here in Bethlehem, Pa and this is how our dining experience rated.
Scaling is 1 for Poor and 5 for Excellent so the total Perfect Score for any restaurant would be 25.

Parking - 5 - Keep in mind it was a Sunday evening, so we basically had our choice of parking spots.

Ambiance - 4 1/2 - The only thing keeping this from a 5 was the lighting - it was a little dark, but that's a good thing when it's just two of you. Everything was clean and shiny and I wasn't bothered by other conversations going on in the restaurant, so the sound aspect was good.

Service - 4 - This would have been an easy 5 if the service had been consistent. We had the nicest waiter - Jarrett H. - but we didn't have him the whole time. We had three other servers drop off various parts of our dinner and they were all super nice so they get a solid 4 for service.

Food - 3 - I really, really wanted this to be a 5, especially after the appetizers. Marty had Grilled Shrimp on the Barbie and I had Gold Coast Coconut Shrimp. Both were excellent, perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned and at just the right temp. The grilled shrimp came with a remoulade sauce that was very good, but Marty said the shrimp were so good as-is that he didn't even need to salt them, and that's saying a lot since he's a real salt-oholic. The Creole-marmalade that came with my shrimp was to-die-for and Marty kept stealing it to put on the bread that was served with our drinks (which was also awesome). I was so wowed, that I expected it to continue on to the entrees.

I ordered Grilled Shrimp Caesar Salad and Marty ordered the Bacon Cheese Burger with Swiss Cheese, medium-well. He was going to order medium, but when the server said "a little pink inside", Marty changed his mind and went for a bit more done.

When my salad came, it looked odd and I couldn't figure out why at first until I realized that there were no croutons- a must for Caesar and also part of the menu description billed as "hand-cut". I did eventually find them all buried in a little pile under one side of the salad. I don't know if the dressing was bottled or not, but there was so much garlic in it that it was very hot. I love lots of garlic, don't get me wrong, but I won't be breathing near anyone for a week, and that much garlic in a Caesar isn't the norm.

Marty didn't do so well on the burger front, either - his burger was too done and dry and he only ate about half of it. I was thoroughly bummed out because they had started so strong with the appetizers.

Pricing - 4 - We ordered cheaper meals, so our total was $57, but if we'd actually ordered a steak from the steakhouse, our total would have been that just for entrees. So, for this cheap Scot, the pricing for value gets a 4.

Total for Outback Steakhouse? 19 1/2 out of a possible 25.

The bottom line? I'd go again, but I'd order a different entree, and go with my own instincts about burger doneness.

OBSH Gift Card provided by Charlie Kondek of MS&L. This is not a paid product endorsement.