Erba Miami — Restaurant in Coral Gables

I went to Erba with friends for dinner. I saw them on the Miami Spice list and their menu looked good. I booked a table for 6 on a Saturday night. To start off, the hostess was rude. She was very short with us. It already put a bad taste in my mouth. They sat us after a couple of minutes and explained that if one person at the table does Miami Spice, then we all have to. I honestly can’t rationalize why they would enforce a rule like that. I had a friend who was prepared to order a really expensive steak but they missed out because we all ended up ordering from the Miami spice menu. Oh well!

The service was incredibly slow during dinner. It took a long time for someone to take our order and for everyone to get their drinks. The food was really good though. At least, I enjoyed what I had. The bread they bring out with the butter candle is so soft. I could eat it all day. I ordered the grilled peach panzanella, the Mishima reserve picanha and the olive oil cake. The steak was absolutely delicious and probably the star of the meal. Everyone seemed to really enjoy their food and we had no issues there.

The issues began when we were trying to pay our bill. It was my birthday and I had reserved a table at a bar for after dinner. I gave ourselves almost 3 hours between dinner and drinks and I still made it 45 minutes late to the bar (which was only 20 minutes away). The server said we could split our bills and disappeared for 20-25 minutes. She came back and the bills were correct. We put down our cards and I’m not sure how but she ended up charging 4 of us for the wrong amount. The amounts were correct on the bills so I have NO idea how she messed that up. It took forever to get it sorted out. She overcharged me and my boyfriend by $96 EACH. I just wanted to leave because I didn’t want to be late to the other spot. All the time she took up sorting it out meant that we lost our table at the bar. They accommodated us but we were nowhere near as comfortable as we would’ve been had we gotten my original table. It was embarrassing to show up 45 minutes late to my other reservation because Erba just can’t get it together. I don’t know if I’ll be back. The service is awful, the atmosphere is boring and it’s very dark. I don’t know if the amazing food is enough to outweigh all of the cons. Especially at...

Let me come out and say that the food was very good. It's expensive, but it is good. I'm familiar with Mr Patel's restaurants and his farm down in Homestead and I didn't think much of it until I had grilled artichokes as part of the grilled calamari appetizer. The artichokes were great, as good as the ones in Italy. The Denver steak was soft and cooked to perfection, elevated by the bone marrow which becomes a sort of butter for it. It is a rich dish. Cocktails were very good, but a Manhattan will set you back $26 with the house rye. The service here is the problem. There's a bar in the restaurant but we were not invited to wait for our table there even though we waited for 20 minutes with a reservation. To be fair the front desk did give us cocktail menus and offered to take our order but it was cramped in the little waiting area. My main criticism is the constant hustling of the server. "Mineral or sparkling water?" What, there's no regular water? We are advised that the appetizers are very small, so that you can order an appetizer, pasta and main. There's 4 of us, we order three appetizers, we are reminded again of how small the appetizers are, perhaps we should order a 4th, the server suggests. We decline. We each get an entree and one pasta dish for the table. Appetizers are regular sized. The aranchini has 4 balls, the carpaccio is the normal size, the calamari is enough for the 4 to share. The entrees are also plenty, I could have shared my denver steak ($62). The wine list is marked up 300%, I ordered their cheapest cab, $140 ($37 retail), they didn't have it, the server suggests the next cab, $228, I pass. Rioja tonight. I have found similar hustling all over Miami, of course, but the last time was in Orno, which is another Patel property. If it's deliberate training,...

Found out about the $45 pasta tasting between 6-7PM and I couldn’t resist. Beautiful restaurant in the Gables area close to the high end shops. So the pasta tasting used to be 8 courses and they removed two from the menu, one which was the one I was most excited to try…the Agnolotti with wagyu beef cheek. I wish they had maybe removed the lamb or rabbit dish but it is what it is. Mike was the absolute best bartender as he was welcoming, helpful and most of all, attentive at all times. Started with a mezcal based Negroni by the name of “La Bandita” and was pleasantly surprised at how delicious and unique this cocktail was, especially for $12 on Happy Hour. I had this one and one more with a bourbon base if I’m not mistaken. Having refused to eat the bread with the melting butter candle because I wanted to have enough room for dessert, I will only tell you which one of the pasta dishes were my favorites…

Favorites: MAFALDINE: with conch in a lemon and parsley sauce to die for; GNOCCHI: with shrimp and cooked to perfection; RAVIOLI: with black truffle and ricotta; CHITARRA: simple but delicious and pasta cooked al dente.

The LUMACHE was my least favorite as the rabbit tasted to gamey and the CAMPANELLE with lamb ragú didn’t taste quite right.

Having said that, the portions are generous considering it’s 6 of them and I’d skip the bread if you wanna finish these. Otherwise enjoy your bread and finish the 4 you’d like the most and you will be more than satisfied. I wanted to try the incredibly mouthwatering TIRAMISU that I would save some room for if I were you. This is all based in my opinion and personal taste. Service is, without a doubt, top tier so no...