Prime 54 — Restaurant in Miami Beach

We had an underwhelming experience at Strip Steak. Everything was just OK considering the price point and our expectations, but perhaps we need to adjust for Miami and in particular the Fontainebleau. But I've had much better for less money.

We arrived a little late for a reserved table we were under penalty of being charged for in case of cancellation, so it was disappointing not to have a table ready immediately in a restaurant that was not very not packed, and then to be shoved at an afterthought table by the service bar. Our daughter was very hungry, so we immediately put in an appetizer to take the edge off. The appetizer was never put in, and never arrived. After a flurry of early activity, our waiter was spotty in showing up the rest of the night (although our bus person was extremely kind and did show up frequently), and told us that we couldn't put salads in separately because the kitchen would course our meals out based on timing after the whole order was put in. Maybe that's why the appetizer never got put in, but between not being able to get salads in (we were ready to order those but hadn't picked mains yet) and the waiter's spotty appearances, it was 30 minutes before our salad orders even went in, and probably 40 minutes from sitting down to getting any food besides the bread (which was quite good).

Considering the fact that the restaurant was not full and the insistence on putting in the full meal for the kitchen's sake, combined with not getting the appetizer we had wanted, it was frustrating to not receive our main courses of steak until about an hour after our order was placed. There was probably a 35 minute wait between our salads being cleared and the steaks arriving, while we sat there people watching (definitely interesting here) but hungry.

Service aside, the food was solid if standard high-end steak joint fare. The meat was high-quality and cooked property to temperature, and the chimichurri sauce was delicious. The bread was great, although I wish we would have been offered a second plate of it considering we probably spent an hour between waiting to order and waiting for steaks without any actual food on the table. We had brussels sprouts and sauteed spinach, which were solid though not necessarily memorable. The fries.... would have been at home at Texas Roadhouse. Look at the pictures people have posted. I mean, they're still fries, so we ate them, mostly, but.... yeesh.

The wine list was extensive and there were wines by the glass at high but not insane prices, but for bottles, one should be aware that I found about 6 bottles at two-figure price points, and those sub-$100 bottles were far outnumbered by $1000+ selections. As far as I could tell, it wasn't like some other steak joints where they mark up cheap bottles to insane prices - I think this was a curated list of good wines, and the one we had at $85 was very nice. But even by prime steakhouse standards it was an eye-opening and wallet-stretching wine list.

The food was expensive; probably a 25-50% premium vs. national steakhouse chains like Ruth's Chris/Morton's, but along the lines of what I would have expected for the location and the city.

That said, with all that expense, the final disappointment was having boxes brought out for us to pack our own leftovers. Admittedly this is a pet peeve of mine, and was possibly also a COVID-related policy, but when you're spending over $500 for dinner for 3 (one being a child), you don't expect to be packing up like you're at Applebee's.

All in all - generally solid if average prime steakhouse food, sub-par service, frustrating at the price point. Hence 3...

We wanted to visit the Fontainebleau Miami Beach just to see it, and decided to do our Christmas Dinner at Stripsteak on a recent family vacation. We were seated in the downstairs area which was nice, as it seemed less noisy and easier for conversation than upstairs. We had all dressed up for the occasion, I forced my jeans wearing husband to put dress slacks on and felt bad when I saw most of the guests in very casual day attire. So tip number one -- you can wear whatever you want here apparently. I think I will organize this review into sections, as it was a mixed feelings experience.

Service -- okay. Hostess was very friendly, and apologetic for us having to wait a few minutes for our 7P reservation. Our server was either over extended or avoiding our table, as she did not really check on us often. In fact we had to wave down other staff to get water and other items we needed. She was friendly enough, we were just not a priority or they were short on primary server staff? Not sure what was going on that night but our food took AGES to come out, as in tables seated after us were getting food before us which we found odd. Oh, and when we had significant meal leftovers at the end of our pricey meal -- we had to box up ourselves, which is not my experience in a restaurant where I am dropping $200 pp.

Ambiance -- okay. The restaurant is off the lobby, and two story. The main detractor were the tables. They looked like something out of Longhorn Steakhouse or a diner? Maybe that is the intent, given this is a steakhouse -- but the table/chair set up was a bit lackluster for what we thought was going to be a 'finer dining experience'. Perhaps it is a bit more casual in Miami/South Beach but we are from San Diego/California and get the whole casual vibe thing truly and we generally take it up a notch at our nicer restaurants. The floors were also filthy which was a detractor along with the restrooms off the restaurant. I am normally never this picky about stuff but when you are going for an entire experience somewhere this stuff matters.

Food -- good. They brought us two loaves of the bread, likely after seeing how long our food was taking to come out... like longer than a fine dining experience should take in courses. The bread was outstanding. Three people at the table did the prix-fixe Christmas Dinner, and two of us ordered off the regular menu. I was a regular menu person, ordering the Baby Greens Salad and Roasted Half Chicken. Both were good, but nothing to rave about. One person ordered the pricey Lobster Bisque and was disappointed. I had bites of my husbands scallops from the prix-fixe and they were excellent! Also the prime rib was cooked perfectly on the prix fixe as well after I snuck in a bite of that. The dessert on the prix-fixe was probably my favorite -- a chocolate/peppermint concoction that was YUM.

Weighing the entire thing it was okay, leaning towards the good -- maybe it was just an off night for the restaurant but given what we spent on a dinner for 5 plus cocktails and a bottle of sparkling wine, it was disappointing after touristy Gianni's two nights prior set the bar...

On 11/4/24, treated some family members from Switzerland who were hotel guests. There were 3 of us total. Like many who hail from places where good food is the norm, I was eager to please them with some fine American fare and, at the end of the night, it did not disappoint with the notable exception of the service.

Prices are a bit stiff, a couple of bottled waters, one $115.00 bottle of wine, 2 appetizers, 2 main courses, 2 veggie sides, 2 desserts, $607.00 incl. 20% tip and tax. I believe I've eaten at some pretty fine places from NYC to Chicago and so on and the pricing topped all of these--but so too, did the food. In fact, the boneless ribeye was touted by one of my guests as the finest piece of meat he'd ever eaten. The Chateaubriand for 2 was also very amazing.

This was a Monday night. Though reasonably busy, it was probably nowhere near the weekend crowd. And here's where the slight service failure came into play. Ryan, our waiter, was hardly attentive, really long spells between visits to our table, and while, on the surface, pretty friendly, he seemed distant, dismissive, and an attitude of, "Hey, we know what he have here--I really can't be bothered too much with specific questions about the food, etc." At least, that was the vibe he gave off. He just didn't seem hugely interested and his presentation was so canned and spoken so fast, we might as well have an AI robot. Personally, at this price point, I would expect just a tad bit more.

To top things off, he brought me the check which totaled $595.00, but then ran my CC for $607.00. As I investigated the discrepancy, I noted a second bottle of Fiji water we didn't ask for had not been added. I get it--at this price point, who cares? Well, the principle suggests he could have mentioned it. What he instead chose to mention is the $93.20 service charge (tip) is distributed among the entire staff and if I cared to leave him something additional for HIMSELF, then please...I declined.

End of the day, I would eat here again and hope for a bit better service, but it would have to be a really...