El Novillo — Restaurant in Florida

The server's service was exceptional. They were professional, quick, and positive, despite the mother's day madness (thanks Daniel and Miguel). 5 stars for you.

Usually, I wouldn't bother leaving a review but this experience is one I need to share.

Except for one hostess (I'm sorry we did not catch your name, but you acknowledged the situation, and told us not to worry, that you'd figure something out, something the manager was having a hard time doing. You added our name back on the list and that was appreciated), the other hostesses and manager, Luis, were not as professional or really interested in helping us after the restaurant's mistake. We were waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes (after being told we'd only need to wait an hour, fine, we figured it would be a little more)... We got up to ask for the third time (asked at the 1 hour mark, said 15 minutes, asked at the 1:20 mark, said we were next, and at the 1:40 mark) and we discoved we were crossed off the list as a no show. We were there, even have a plethora of pictures with timestamps to prove it.

The restaurant didn't seem to care or even think it was possible for them to have made a mistake. They were working off a hand written list. My advice is they upgrade buzzers or to an actual reservation system. They tried to say we were not there and that we must have stepped out, but trust that we were actively trying to listen for our call. We were starving. Then when we were finally told we would be next, they tried to say a reservation would be seated before us. We would suffer because of their mistake. If not, we would have already been seated. We were livid.

After being seated, while finishing our meals, the manager only approached our table to take the extra chair. Oh, but while he was taking it away he said "the wait may not have been good, but was the food at least good?" .. at that point we smiled and nodded. He basically acknowledged that they dropped the ball at the door, was more concerned for sitting the two larger parties instead of the simple party of three that had been waiting 2 hours due to their mistake. They did nothing to correct it or turn the situation around.

The servers however, as mentioned above, made our experience more memorable. And we do thank you. The only reason this review is getting 2 stars, id because the server and bus boy were actually hospitable, unlike the hostesses...

I recently visited El Novillo with my family not too long ago and I have some mixed opinions about this place. We had a good meal, but it just wasn’t “amazing”. A family friend who used to live in Miami 20+ years ago had hyped it up for a long time and we decided to give it a shot - it’s a nicer Nicaraguan steakhouse serving all the traditional meat dishes, with some specialties like chicken churrasco, seafood dishes, and more. There’s a good variety of Nicaraguan appetizers, and they bring out some garlic bread, salad, plantains, and rice & beans with all entrees, which is actually really nice. We got chicken churrasco, steak churrasco, and repocheta el novillo as an appetizer. The sides weren’t very good other than the plantains - those were great. The chicken churrasco was actually surprisingly better than the steak one - it was quite juicy and flavorful. Really nice! The steak was kinda chewy and not quite what I was hoping for. Cooked to perfection, just not that tender. For a restaurant that proclaims “world famous churrasco”, I would expect the best of the best. I just unfortunately can’t say it was the best!

Our food came out in a timely manner and service was good, other than our first waiter not speaking any English and him needing to bring us a different one - not really any big complaints though. Awesome atmosphere though, I have to say!! I just think, in general, this is one of those places that was once incredible, and has since fallen off a bit. You can see that from all their awards plastered on the wall by the entrance - looks impressive, but then you see most them are from the late 90s and early 2000s. It also would make sense why our family friend was raving about this place - they probably hadn’t been here in 15+ years. So would I recommend this restaurant? Probably not - unless you want to try chicken churrasco. That’s really good. This place has tons of potential - hopefully they’ll make the necessary changes to head in the right...

This is our hangout place every Friday after work to start the weekend. We sit at the first come first serve area next to the live music and bar area.

This is the area where you don't jump into the routine of ordering your drinks, appetizer, entree, dessert and out the door in 45 minutes.

I recommend taking your time and ordering your first round of drinks while you nibble on the toasted garlic bread slices that they serve. They usually also bring to the table an assortment of sauces. Our favorite to put on the bread is the spicy onion-jalapeño topping.

For drinks they have a full bar and also available is a Nicaraguan beer called Toña. I recommend Flor de Caña 18yr which is a popular Nicaraguan rum.

When you are ready for your second round of drinks, order the sampler appetizer. It has small rolled tacos with a white creamy sauce... reminds me of sour cream. It also brings short ribs, tortillas with bean paste, Nicaraguan style cole slaw, fried cheese, plantain chips, pork chunks, pork rinds and I think I'm missing something else.

After that you really need to wait before ordering because you might be to full for your entree but get ready because it gets even better.

If you like fish then I'd recommend the Tipitapa Whole fried Fish. It's not your typical fried fish where you are already thinking about how are you going avoid all those spiny bones. Don't worry because this fish is served whole with no bones. Amazing

Steak lovers have the option of the famous Churrasco (skirt steak) but I prefer the Carne asada which is less greasy. All entrees come with unlimited amounts of Gallo pinto rice, plantain chips and sweet fried plantains.

Don't forget to try the tres...