Basilico Ristorante — Restaurant in Doral

What a great find! We stopped there while in Doral for lunch, as we were going on our traditional December trip to Mercato Italiano to load up on Italian salumi and other Italian imported food.

The strip where Basilico is located is a small one and easy to miss. It’s located on NW 41st St, east of 107th Ave and west of 102nd Ave. For some reasons I thought I was going to some type of Italo-American small place, you know, the typical “pizza and pasta” joint.

Well, big surprise instead: we ended up in a white tablecloth upscale-feel restaurant, really a place that feels like an Italian trattoria. The ambience is relaxing, clean and like I said, really “Trattoria-style”: you don’t go there to grab a drink at the bar, you go to eat. The décor is neat, from the modern spot light on the ceiling to the wood frames all over the place to mix modern and nice comfort style.

The other surprise factor was that the prices are very reasonable for Miami and for people like us coming from West Palm Beach, the value price/quality was totally great.

I had the paccheri all’amatriciana, very good and rich with the thick amatriciana sauce.

My wife had the Ravioli with gorgonzola, fico e pera (fig and pear) and they were really a nice delicacy.

Both dishes were $ 18.95 each, we were in some sort of paradise coming from an area where some spaghetti with 4 small shrimps on top can set you back easily $ 26-28.

We split an Italian salad and were super satisfied; service was great and we felt at home.

I had a glass of Chianti D’Albola, my wife a glass of Merlot from Friuli (a rare find in Miami); she won this one. Her merlot was much better than the Chianti, so much that I had that as my second glass.

This is going to become out place to go in Doral for our future trips to that area.

Last thoughts: no liquor license, that means no “Amari”, or other Italian digestive liquors. Big deal? Nope. Also, if you are far from Doral you can visit them in Miami Springs (I believe NW 36th St and 59th...

Went for lunch during the week. Had the Filet Mignon (I dont think its on the menu). Comes with a soup or salad and 1 side. You can pair filet with mushroom sauce or fig sauce. I choose the fig sauce (My mistake). Although the filet was cooked perfectly (Medium Rare) it barely had any flavor. That was disappointing specially for the price. You are basically forced to use the sauce or put salt on a cooked stake (Ouch). Well, back to the fig sauce, Although my friend loves the fig sauce on his filet mignon, I did not like it at all. Sweet sauce on a filet mignon just didn't taste good to me. The side of spaghetti was cooked perfect but the side of soup was so, so. Not much flavor. Overall I was ok with the food, unfortunately my friend had hyped the filet mignon up so much that I was really expecting a home run of a steak, when I barely got a 2nd base steak. I would not order the filet again, its pricey and no flavor on its own. A filet mignon should have its own seasoned flavor to be eaten on its own without any additional sauces or seasoning. Ill probably stick with their typical lunch specials which come out much more economical and are cooked more often and taste better probably. I did like the staff here much much better than the guys at the Miami Springs Basilico. Im not a fan of Miami Springs border line rude, sarcastic service, but I guess people like that. Another one of my coworkers also complained about the amount she got on her Telefono Pasta here at the Doral restaurant (Much less) compared to the Miami Springs. Overall I'm not sure if I'll drive back down to this Basilico from my office for lunch. I was not impressed, specially for the amount I spent for lunch. Parking was ok, we got to the shopping center around 12:15. It does start to get full for lunch since there are a lot of other restaurants in the...

I see that there wine distributor is Walgreens drugstore. Sitting at the bar, my view was wine bottles with twist off caps. How cheap can you get? This really degraded the restaurant in my opinion then I saw a waiter. Commit a cardinal sin he poured a glass of wine for a customer that was at the end and mixed another bottle in the same glass. Don’t know if I will return after seeing that. I sat at the bar and the waiter was non existent because there was no bartender. It looked like the manager took my order, but then he disappeared sitting down at a table. I asked two waiters for my check and was totally ignored until I faked a heart attack and they all came running. The food is pretty good even though the chef looks like he came from a Chinese restaurant. Definitely not an Italian cook But those Chinese are clever, fellas, infiltrating everywhere. I could see him through the window of the kitchen. Decent Italian plates, but if you’re looking for decent food and good wine Kiss that idea goodbye, but if you’re looking for decent food I give it a 4 out of 5 I had the veal scallopini. The funny thing was I ordered a second class of Melbex because it wasn’t a twist off bottle and the waiter started to pour me a twist off bottle of cab when I told him it was wrong he said it’s the same thing I said no it’s not at the end, all was good. I had a decent glass of Melbec and a...