Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay - Miami — Restaurant in Miami Beach

We stopped in for a very early dinner on a Saturday. Atmosphere was pleasant and reminded me of an old 1960-1980’s style steakhouse more than an Asian themed restaurant. Service was attentive, friendly and thorough. I wasn’t impressed with the menu and the “inclusive” price fixe selection was confusing and unnecessarily frustrating. They offered 2 choices. One was $69 and the second $110. May be off a dollar or two but close. You can easily find these on the web site. Problem is the entire table needs to order them or no one can. My wife was set to order the $69 as she wanted a lighter meal and salmon. My son wanted the larger selection, as he wanted steak that is not offered on the $69 menu. Well, we couldn’t do that. Everyone at the table must order the price fixe or no one can. Secondly, everyone must order the same menu. Considering that all items are not offered on each it is difficult to find a match for all people. Then add in the entire party must order a price fix it becomes confusing and unnecessarily frustrating. If two people sat down they could order for two but if three sit all three must order but not two ….. what? Anyways we just ordered off regular menu. Cucumber app very light and refreshing. Nothing special but good start. Duck bao had great flavor however the duck was 80% fat and the rendering was a bit weak so most of this ended up on my plate. Buns were great. Chicken thigh app was a hit. Crispy skin delicious with a creamy slightly peppery heat actually was a good replacement for the duck on the buns. Spare the duck, eat the chicken. Salmon main course was the hit. I’m not a salmon fan but I took a couple bites and they were excellent. Wife and son both said best they’ve ever had. Fried rice was ok too. It had a spice that I still can’t figure out. That spice overwhelmed the light natural soy based rice. I’ll figure it out but now it’s slipping me. They add a poached style egg table side . It was ok but not necessary. Back off a bit on the mystery spice and make sure the rice is hot when adding a 3/4 cooked egg. If rice is cool the egg becomes a “gummy” texture. We also had the steak that is offered on the price fixe too. It was ok. Again, not great. A small steak cooked much closer to rare than the med rare ordered. I’m a steak fan so it takes something special to get me excited. I guess it was ok. Almost forgot the best part. The tuna sushi was awesome. As others have mentioned it is very small nickel sized pieces. My guess is the portion reflects the quality and cost of the tuna. This, to me, seemed like a high quality fatty tuna. Very lightly papered and I’m guessing a bit of lemon grass. If not, then something similar to give a light fresh cleansing burst at the end of the bite. My son is a sushi king and he agreed. Tuna just melted like a pat of warm butter. I realize that this may sound more negative than positive but overall we enjoyed. Price was nuts as you’d expect in Miami. $350 for the above with 2 glasses of a house red wine. Son had 1 bottle of Diet Coke. I had tap water. My fear for Gordon has always been getting way too big and diverse thus lending to lower quality restaurants. He is so successful and talented but it’s impossible to have restaurants all over the world and expect them to be of equal quality. He has become an owner in name only. Doubt he’s even...

Hands down the WORST ever service I have received in a restaurant. The waiters could not care less about service, the visiting diners or their jobs. I am not sure if this is due to being understaffed or simply not giving two shakes about anything.

We initially ordered four starters while waiting for two more people to join us. These four starters arrived fairly promptly and correct. After that it all went downhill.

We ordered five more starters (different to the original ones) and four mains. A waiter turned up with a lamb dumplings starter, which we did not order. We told him that the order was wrong, and he actually looked annoyed at us for not ordering them, as he took them away. Then another waiter dumped a mains dish on our table and disappeared before we could even ask what it was. It took us 5 minutes to flag down our waiter, who said it was the red snapper dish, which we hadn’t ordered but (and I quote) “if you want, just try it”. We refused it politely, as we just wanted what we ordered.

The whole baby chicken finally arrived, but no cutlery to actually eat it with, only chopsticks. We asked for one set of knife and fork, and got four forks instead. Again it took another 5 minutes for another waiter to surface to ask him for a knife, which was eventually delivered to cut the (now cold) chicken with…

We received two portions of Jasmin rice, when we ordered one portion of egg fried rice. When telling the waiter, he said “no, you ordered white rice”. We definitely did not. Then he decided to say that the egg fried rice was still coming. It did eventually arrive but about 10 minutes after finishing all of our main dishes. One of our starters was still outstanding though, ironically.

This turned up with the bill… we sent it back as we were done (not only with our meal but also the attitude of the waiters) and they still tried to charge us for this starter that showed up basically as dessert. Imagine! The compulsory service charge came to $150, which when questioned, the waiter said he could not remove. We said we were not willing to pay any service charge for the deplorable service received, and asked to speak to the manager. He grabbed the cheque and stormed off.

He then came back visibly annoyed without any manager, flung a new cheque on the table and said “I removed a bunch of stuff” and stomped off. The service charge was down to $102.

Entirely not the point though. “Service” or lack of service like that should not be rewarded by default. There was not a single apology for all the continued mistakes or forgotten dishes, or in fact for the poor service.

How this restaurant has Gordon Ramsay’s name on it, I don’t know. He should spend a week there with this staff and literally (verbally) punch...

These 2 cats were lucky enough to be apart of the soft opening of Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay in Miami this weekend. Lucky Cat is one of Gordon Ramsay’s newest restaurants, and it’s Asian themed. We regularly review Vegan restaurants and vegan options on our instagram: @the_vegan_vagabonds This is not a #vegan restaurant, but our server Gabriel had a “cheat sheet” that helped him identify what dishes could easily be adapted to fit our needs. We were very impressed with the level of service we received. The #craftcocktails they made were a high light. We got the KAKIGORI made with absolut elyx vodka, passoa passion fruit liqueur, spicy mango & pineapple. The other drink was the SOZU made with suntory roku gin, plum blossom sake, yuzu,coconut & rhubarb. Round two had us getting the URESHI made with absolut elyx vodka, junmai sake, lychee, rose, & smoked salt water. We also got the OKINAWA MARGARITA with olmeca altos plata tequila & thai basil-infused cointreau. We found all 4 drinks to be well crafted, very flavorful, with good depth & attention to detail, as they should be for $22 a drink. Our 1st course was the PEA GUAC, basically an avocado & pea dip served with rice crackers. It was an interesting blend & very tasty & the portion was surprisingly not bad at all. Although our next course, the KYOTO CUCUMBERS with miso tahini dressing, was very good, the size of the portion had us scratching our heads, making it difficult for us recommend it. The SMOKED HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALAD with house dressing infusion, tofu cream, smoked with applewood was incredible, but lacked an ample amount of dressing to enjoy it fully. The server did get us more dressing though. The AUBERGINE & CABBAGE DUMPLINGS with spiced black vinegar & chili crunch, were perhaps our favorite dish we had, and we highly suggest them. Our server did warn us, they are made in same fryer as everything else, so if that bothers you, they are not for you. The CHAR SIU MUSHROOM with miso aioli & chives was hearty, but the mushrooms alone lacked flavor, & the sauce was too rich & not well paired. The AVO & TOFU BAO with jalapeño & avo sauce and miso tofu, was disappointing. They lacked flavor & imagination. Dessert was a CHOCOLATE TOFU, a valrhona chocolate crémeux, chocolate tofu ice cream & white chocolate tofu, it was dreamy & creamy & the prefect way to end the meal. All in all a great experience, and I would recommend to anyone who is in search of a new experience, but I don’t see us rushing back anytime soon. #veganfoodblog #veganfoodblogger — at...