Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Disappointing Miami Spice Lunch at Restaurant Michael Schwartz

I stumbled into a great Miami Spice deal of a dinner at Tongue and Cheek so I gave it another go at Restaurant Michael Schwartz, his newest venture. The restaurant is at The Raleigh Hotel, with tables scattered outside near the pool.

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When going to a restaurant week (or month, in this case) prix fixe deal, I find that first you always have to look at the menu. But apparently, just finding a menu that sounds good isn't enough. The lunch menu at Restaurant Michael Schwartz sounds great. In fact, it sounds amazing, for a $23 3-course lunch. Lobster salad, seafood stew, beef carpaccio. 

I chose the Lobster salad, toasted brioche, frisee for my first course. 
My "lobster salad" came and it was a bit of lobster on a tiny brioche, with a spattering of frisée on the side. What was this, an amuse bouche? 
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Taste-wise, it was really good. But still ... Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting tons of lobster at this price, but a couple pieces on top of a tiny brioche? Can't I at least get more of the "salad" part? A proper appetizer size salad with a bit of lobster would make me more satisfied! Instead of a lobster salad they should've put "tiny lobster roll".

Carina's appetizer was a better deal with a generous portion of Grass fed beef carpaccio, parmesan, preserved lemon, capers, arugula.
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The entree fared better for me but not so much for Carina.

Harvey Cedars fish stew, saffron aioli, parsley croutons
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The stew comes with toasted bread and pesto
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On the smaller side but still enough food. The seafood was cooked just right and the broth was great.

Carina got the Grilled skirt steak salad, shaved fennel slaw, fried chickpeas, aioli
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A little overcooked and just overall not very exciting dish.

The one course that we were both happy about was the dessert
Corn and blueberry bread pudding, buttermilk gelato, candied pistachio
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Buttery bread pudding chock full of blueberries, and we loved the buttermilk gelato.
Buttered popcorn gelato brownie sundae, salted caramel cracker jack
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The chocolate brownie was great, and we had fun trying it with the buttermilk gelato from the other dessert!

Restaurant Michael Schwartz had the potential to serve a great meal - the flavors of most of the dishes we had (minus the skirt steak) was good, yet the Miami Spice lunch fell short of expectation. If they didn't want to serve an expensive lunch for the prix fixe deal, I think customers would've been happier with a better executed salad than that tiny lobster roll.

Restaurant Michael Schwartz
The Raleigh Hotel
1775 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 612-1163
http://www.raleighhotel.com/dining/restaurant_michael_schwartz/
Restaurant Michael Schwartz on Urbanspoon

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