Area 31 — Restaurant in Miami

If you want the short version this is a great place to eat and while pricey isn't super expensive. I recommend without reservations, there are some hiccups, but I will eat here again myself. I went Saturday night and tried to walk in for dinner. The hostess at the front told us that it would be 20 minutes for a table. OK no problem, we'll wait and have a drink. My friend and I sat on the trendy white marshmallow chairs in the lounge waiting for a server to ask us for a drink. They never did, we made small talk and just watched as we were over looked time and time again. Our hostess even came over twice to apologize for the wait, still no drinks. Our 20 minute wait turned into a 45 minute wait. Highly unusual and not even a offer to buy a drink or a appetizer for the wait. Strangely we sat there the whole time, no one asked us if we wanted a drink, or if there was anything they could do to make us more comfortable. Thankfully we are both in the hospitality industry and don't act a fool when things aren't perfect. Remember readers, no one is perfect 100% of the time. We both came with the idea of having the tasting menu. Area 31 has a 5 course local sustainable seafood menu. We ordered a bottle of wine and the plates began to arrive. Our first plate was tuna ceviche made from passion fruit and Peruvian peppers. Very nice and fresh flavors. The sweetness from the fruit was unexpected from the typical dish I've had of salty, and acid from limes. The heat from the peppers was not overwhelming at all - but I missed any unique pepper flavor, other then the heat. Our next dish was a Whitewater fried clam with heirloom tomatoes. This dish was both the highpoint and low point of the meal. The clams were tender and not overly chewy. The problem is that they were fried in a spicy bread crumb that I thought tasted exactly like graham crackers with Tabasco sauce. The clams were over powered to such a degree by the frying and bread crumbs so as to make them a total write off. On the other hand the tomatoes were amazing. Not only were they pretty as a picture, but tender and really stole the show from the spicy graham cracker fried clams. Ask them if they can just give you a plate of those tomatoes. Next was basically a cioppino. This had clams, calamari, shrimp, and fish placed in a spicy tomato broth. A very good dish, all the fish was cooked to a perfect degree. Nothing special to this dish - but it was cooked exactly how it should be; so if your looking for a killer cioppino then this was a shinning example. Next was a tile fish on a nut butter. Quite a interesting take, and really made the dish. The dessert was a goats cheese cheese cake. It was great, garnished with a thin slice of orange on top and a few wedges of mandarin oranges around the plate. For me a very good finish to a meal. I spend several hours deciding on how to rate this. I think had a few things gone better during the night (long wait to be seated, no drink service, miss on the fried clam dish) they would have gotten 5 stars. Again like I said in the start of this review the experience was a great one. I will go back again and suggest that you try it. Don't assume that because I gave it three stars that this was a average experience. This a great option for fantastic food, with a highly trained staff. I will be back again and expect to write a review giving...

Update:

5 Star Rating: My boyfriend and I returned to Area 31 this past Saturday (February 18, 2017). After getting in touch with Michael DeGano (who was extremely gracious and considerate throughout the whole process), we returned on his recommendation; the same hostess sat us at our table right away - no rude remarks this time around. The manager was very attentive, he even gave us 2 glasses of Champagne right before we began ordering to get the evening started. Our waitress, Melissa, was absolutely magnificent, she gave us recommendations on the appetizers, entrees, wine choice, and even dessert. The view was breathtaking and the food was very delicious! I am disappointed my experience with Area 31 started out so negatively, but I am glad to say they truly redeemed themselves! 1 Star Rating : This past Friday (February 10th, 2017) was my first time at Area 31, I had always heard/read great reviews about this restaurant (food, view, etc..) and I was excited to experience it myself. A friend of mine also made the recommendation. I was truly disappointed when the evening did not go as planned. My boyfriend and I arrived an hour early to the restaurant, our reservations were at 10:00 PM, we walked up to the hostess counter and we informed them that we were there for our 10 o'clock reservation, we told them that we wanted an outside table. The hostess told us it was an hour wait (with a very condescending attitude by the way), we told her we didn't mind waiting, and she told us to come back later then (again very condescending). It seems that there was an event going on outside, it was packed and a band was playing. We didn't mind this at all, we enjoyed ourselves outside while we were waiting for the hour to pass. After a couple of minutes, we decided to just go back inside and ask for an inside table instead. We walked up to the hostess counter again, there were 2 ladies - one on the computer and another next to her in front of the menus. The lady on the computer did not even look up at us when we walked up to the counter, the other lady asked if she could assist us. We informed her we wanted to sit inside instead, she grabbed 2 menus and was about to walk us over to our table. At the same time another couple was about to follow her as well. The lady on the computer saw the confusion and made a hang gesture to the other couple to follow the lady with the menus instead of us. She looked at us and stated "Can I help you?". We told her that we spoke to the other lady, but before we could even finish our sentence, she cut us off and stated "I am the one working the computer, you need to talk to me". Her rudeness and attitude were so transparent that it caused us to tell her, "No thank you, never mind." We walked away and left to another restaurant that night. If I am paying a pretty penny to eat here, I would expect great customer service from the get go, especially from the hostess. This individual truly lacked customer service, a trait that is needed when working in a high end restaurant like Area 31 - so...

The only PRO here was the view.

Came for my birthday dinner this past weekend with friends and was the worst place I've been to so far.

CONS: The service was HORRIBLE our waiter literally came introduced himself disappears for at least 20 mins. Finally we ordered drinks another 20 min wait.

We ordered appetizers, the portion for the crispy pork was a complete joke -$20 for TWO small half inch pork bites- they were good but not $20 worth.

We also had the tuna appetizer that was OK I guess, small portioned as well.

These appetizers are more like tasters, one bite and done.

I got the seared swordfish- said it came with mash potatoes but there was only a tablespoon of mash on the plate, no chorizo either...I paid $33 for a 6oz swordfish because nothing else was on the plate.

My friend had the lamb it was pure bone, again the side was a tablespoon.

We had a side of flatbread 4 small pieces of flatbread and a tiny side of melted cheese- this was the most satisfying thing I'd had all night there.

The waiter came and took our drinks that were empty from our table but never asked if we wanted another round and disappeared for 30 mins! Mind you my girlfriend and I are having champagne and the guys were having cocktails. You'd think they would want to keep them coming.

We finally see another waiter and asked if we can have another round, the manager comes over with an attitude and we simply tell him our drinks were taken and we wanted another round. He was so rude, said ok well your server will be back. No apology, We said its been a good 30 mins he said ok and walked away. He was an older guy wasn't even able to get his name.

That wasn't even the worst part- there were at least 3 roaches BIG roaches running around our table and up on the walls.

I was completely disappointed by the whole experience. By the time it was for desert we had been there for 3 hours!! because of all the waiting we did, I wasn't even wanting cake at that point.

There was no music outside where we sat just the noise of others, honestly for the prices they charge this should have been a lot better.

Ended up ordering late night delivery that night when we got home as this was not satisfying. Complete waste of money. ($420.00 including the $60 tip to the non-existing waiter- we tip no matter how bad the service but this was on the top of the worst)

I've been to multiple high end places and this was by far was the worst...