Pura Vida Miami — Restaurant in Miami Shores

I love the food here.. it is top notch. I was very happy when they opened in Miami Shores as I live nearby, I come to the location multiple time per week as it is also a convenient place with a lot of seating to do some work. As noted in these reviews, the food is expensive- but it is high quality and so I willingly pay. What I cannot stand from a premium/expensive product offering however is being treated poorly as a customer. If you are going to charge premium prices, provide premium service and attitude. The bus boys, food runners and expo staff are all lovely, however the cashier staff since opening have been downright rude, inflexible, and treat their customers like annoyances. Today's example- I had a free coffee to redeem on loyalty points that I was told at the end of my order I'd have to redeem by placing a separate order through the app instead of my order with her. The cashier's delivery was very low energy and unfriendly, but the mechanics of the app are not her fault so I spent the minute or two navigating the app to place the order. After sending the order I asked the cashier if she could make the coffee in a mug so I could enjoy it with the rest of my meal order which I placed with her instead of a to go paper cup. She replied that they cannot make to go orders for in restaurant, so that it would have to come in a to go cup. I replied that I thought that was ridiculous and asked if I could speak with somebody else, a woman in a blue shirt came over and listened to my request and doubled down that to go orders had to be taken to go, but she was willing to make an exception this time. What is especially infuriating is that a mandatory gratuity is included with every order, so the cashier team has no incentive to be kind or accommodating, and I inevitably give the cashiers minimum $5 tips per order as a result while being treated like a chump by their employees. My unsolicited feedback to management- if you're going to charge premium prices have staff that provide a premium service and attitude, we pay a few extra dollars for your avocado toast you can pay a few more dollars to a cashier who smiles and is friendly to your customers, and at minimum remove the auto gratuity fee on the food items in the self service fridge- if I order 10 items from the self service fridge and 1 coffee that the barista makes my entire total should not be subject to gratuity. You're ruining a chain restaurant that I love with this greedy nonsense and...

Place is nice and atmosphere is welcoming. However, the prices are stupidly high for what one gets. Similar places offer better pricing and/or more quantity to justify the high prices. The size of the smoothies is a joke, they are not very tasty (imo), and they charge too much for them. The food is just OK; nothing to brag home about. AND what is up with this silly service charge automatically charged on the receipt? If someone is picking up food, they are charging a service charge, but for WHAT? And then adding insult to injury, they flip the screen around so you sign after paying and the first thing in one's face is the tipping menu. They already added a service charge to everyone's receipt and now they expect folks to also tip the place. The food also takes a long time to come out, even when the place was 40% full, at best. I had not been to this chain for a while and now I know why. Won't be coming back for sure. Don't mind paying high prices for food so long as it is high quality, tasty, and service...

Extremely disappointed that they charged me a service fee of 18-20% even after explicitly mentioning that I did not want to.

I arrived to Pura Vida to get an acai bowl (just me). After ordering at the “bar” I noticed that on top of a service charge fee of 18-20% they are asking for any additional tip. I am all about tipping whenever there is service to the table but when I am ordering to have a quick eat at the bar why should there be a service charge of 18-20% (this is separate from tip). I asked the cashier why do I have to pay a service charge of 20% if it is only me eating and I’m not getting any table (literally an acai bowl in the bar) and she mentioned it’s because management says and it’s not possible to remove it. The fee goes to the restaurant but not the waiters as the waiters only get the “additional tips” but I clearly did not feel paying about 40% between service as tips.

Acai bowl was very bland and didn’t taste very good either. I personally prefer...