Artisan Beach House — Restaurant in Bal Harbour Village

We made reservations for my birthday dinner at 5:30 pm on November 21. We recently moved to the area after I got a great job offer from a local law firm. We have been too busy to have a nice dinner since the move, but used my birthday as an excuse to actually get out and enjoy a nice dinner. We also mistakenly assumed that the Ritz Carlton name would ensure great service and a relaxing, stress-free night out. I saw reviews on the Miami New Times recommending the restaurant, which was only a few miles from our condo. Muhammad (I'm not sure if that is the correct spelling, he told us verbally) was our server. When we first arrived, we were greeted promptly, and service began fine. We ordered our cocktails first (my wife a Rum Runner and myself an Old Fashioned), which came in reasonable time. The location was not busy, there were around 4 tables seated when we arrived. Shortly thereafter, we ordered our appetizer and our entrees. Several tables arrived after this, and placed orders. At that point there were maybe 6 tables total on the patio area. My wife and I eventually began to notice our poor service. We finished our drinks and placed them aside to alert the server. The server walked by several times and ignored us. Since, in my past, I've worked in the food service industry, we were nothing but congenial at this point. However, it took me physically flagging down the server after sitting with an empty drink for at least 15 minutes, while he walked by several times, before he refilled my drink. We finished our second round of drinks, and still had not received our appetizers.

After about an hour, our appetizers finally arrived (this was after some patrons who arrived after us had received their meals). Our appetizer was fresh, but mediocre. We finished the app and our drinks, and were sitting for a while. No one ever cleared our drink glasses, or our appetizer plates.

We remained waiting for service for a while more, before eventually I walked up to the bar, asked for an update on our entrees and asked for another drink. At this point, we were sitting at our table with 3 empty drink glasses (my two I had finished and my wife's one), and our empty appetizer plates for a while. I asked our entrees be placed to go at this point. After arriving at 5:30, and placing our orders at our second server visit, we finally received our entrees at around 6:50. Strangely, this entire time, other tables had been bussed, other drinks refreshed, and other patrons promptly attended to. Several patrons who arrived well after we did not only had their tables completely bussed but received their entrees well before we did. Maybe the servers attended exclusively to locals, but either way our service was terrible. We received our boxed entrees close to an hour and a half after we arrived, on a Sunday night where the establishment was almost empty. Our server tried to make nice by telling a story about how the term 86 arose, and by offering us a dessert tart.

We didn't choose to patron the Artisan Beach House because we wanted a free tart. We wanted exceptional service, a great ambiance, and top-tier quality. There are plenty of other fine dining options in this area, choose another. You may as well eat at Applebee's for the quality of experience you have here. When we arrived home, the food was pretty good. We just wish we were able to enjoy it at the establishment with the service we went there for.

However, I sat at bar and ordered a drink while my wife was freshening up on the way out, and Jose provided exceptional service and conversation. I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 because the entrees were great, and on the off chance the service was the fault of our server alone. Either way, would recommend you spend your money in one of the many other fine dining establishments...

We had an extremely disappointing experience while dining on a pre fixe menu. First, the vibe was off. The restaurant was nearly empty despite the staff telling us it was going to fill up. We were told we couldn't sit outside at first because we hadn't requested that in the reservation, but the reservation never prompted us to do so. A table sitting next to us was allowed to move outside after being seated, prompting us to protest again and we were eventually moved outside also. Several tables outside were never seated the entire evening; and the inside remained entirely empty.

We were never contacted in advance nor asked at the restaurant about dietary restrictions. An opulent shellfish platter (we don't eat shellfish) was replaced with the same hummus appetizer served at the hotel's pool--and initially for the same price until we pushed back and were given a $40 discount.

The service was off. Staff could not keep track of who was at each table, and clumsily handled transitions between courses (removing plates, replacing silverware etc).

Lastly, the food was subpar. Steak was overcooked and tough. Dessert was flavorless. And as mentioned before, the hummus was fine but a staple for the pool, not an elegant NYE dinner.

All of this would have been tolerable had we not been paying $550/person plus a mandatory 18% gratuity. We expected superb service, food, and atmosphere for...

Went here for dinner last night because it was one of the few places we could get a reservation on the water at sunset time so last minute.

I’ll start with the views. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. It’s one of the few places in Miami that I’ve found on the water in which you can see both the ocean and bayside at the same time, making it the perfect spot for sunset. The views were perfection.

For being at the Ritz and paying a pretty penny for dinner, I feel that the table setting could’ve been just a little fancier, but it was still nice!

The food was pretty good. I had the chicken and my friend had the steak. She felt her steak could have been more seasoned and she had to add a dash of salt and pepper herself.

I was concerned about the server’s lack of knowledge regarding food allergies. I have a gluten allergy and when I asked what I could eat, he wasn’t very knowledgeable which always makes me feel a little uncomfortable when trying to navigate through ordering. When it was time to order dessert, he told me he thought the brownies would be gluten free. Not because they use a special kind of flour, just because he thought that was typically a gluten free dessert. I expect more when going somewhere like this to dine. Hopefully this restaurant can help educate their staff better or maybe even clearly mark GF options on the menu, because that’s always...