Giselle Miami — Restaurant in Miami

As much as I really wanted to like Giselle, I agree with several of the reviews here that it is over priced and too hyped up. We came to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

If you are driving, try to find street parking because their $40 valet basically drives your car 10 more feet then where you drop it off and is completely pointless. The other option is for $20 and they say it’ll take 20 minutes to get your car to discourage you and his parked several blocks away. If you have the choice just Uber is probably cheaper.

Once we got up to the restaurant, we were greeted and seated right away, and the restaurant is nice and has a cool vibe on the inside. I will say our servers did take very good care of us.

We ordered a round of drinks and for $20 a drink. I don’t feel like they were anything out of this world. It was more so a large cube of ice that took up 70% of a glass. We also got still water for the table.

For the appetizers, we ordered the waygu dumplings, and they were very good. They come with five pieces so it’s good enough to share amongst two people. The dish is $26 but you know we’re eating so the price is expected. I would definitely recommend them to try.

For the main course, we order the New York strip with the mac & cheese as the side to split. First of all the steak came out pretty rare, and we had to send it back twice until it was medium. Again, the servers were attentive and making sure we were happy and getting the steak right the way we wanted it. But for a $70 steak, it was horrible. Didn’t have much taste and I would say I’ve had better priced steaks for less. No sides were included for that $70 so we opted for the truffle mac & cheese. Though it is a little bit pricey at $30 I would say the portion is enough for 3 to 4 people to split and this was my favorite meal of the night. It was very cheesy and you could taste the truffle, it was delicious. Highly recommend it.

For dessert, we ordered the Gisele’s pearls which was decent as well. It came with a little congratulations chocolate for our friends birthday. A little disappointing considering I’m sure a lot of people celebrate their birthdays here.

Once we got our bill, it was $600 (including the same meals our friends ordered) and we were charged $30 in water which we were never told that the water is by the bottle. Also, they do not leave the bottles at the table. The bottles are rotating so I find it a little misleading because you don’t know if you actually drank the full bottle or not and they keep refilling them without asking you obviously because they are making money off you.

Once we paid and we’re leaving we’ we’re waiting by the elevator and wanted try to get a picture where one of the staff told us that there was a line to take pictures. I found a weird as they really were standing waiting for the elevator to leave. It was just a client who had not even sat down at her table yet or ordered any food. He was rude and disrespectful to paying clients telling us that we had to wait in the line if you wanted to take a picture, even though we were waiting in the elevator to go down in the same spot. The girl literally took a video walking to the elevator and that was it. It was so stupid.

If you decide to go in 11 there’s a cover charge of $45 for women and $60 for men even if you ate at the restaurant. I understand people not consuming at the restaurant but I would have thought spending money in the restaurant you could at least get a discounted or free entry.

I would say if you’re looking for a good restaurant with a unique experience, there’s many more options in Miami. Giselle fell well short of what I had expected. Giselle is more about social media clout and girls walking around, taking videos for their Instagram than it is about actually providing a worthy restaurant experience for the price you pay. I was really hoping to like Giselle and was very let down. I would...

Giselle is one of Miami's newest rooftop restaurants. While visiting the city I wanted to try a place I have yet to patronize. I always want the food to be good, but I also wanted a nice ambiance. Giselle has been in my Yelp list of places to try so I opted to make a reservation! The reservation was made about 2 weeks ahead of time. However, there were only two time slots available, 6pm or 11pm. I try to eat my last meal before 8pm so I opted for the 6pm reservation. A few things to note: the reservations are made through Open Table. They do require a credit card to reserve. No shows or cancellations less than 1 day in advance will be subject to a charge of $50 per person. Additionally, a day or two prior to my reservation I received a message from the restaurant that included a very detailed dress code policy. Following are the details of that message :

“At Giselle, we strive to create a sophisticated and refined atmosphere for our esteemed guests. To enhance your dining experience, we kindly request that you dress in an upscale and stylish manner. We do not allow casual attire, wearing jeans with rips, tears, or any form of distressing, clothing such as T-shirts and baggy pants. Additionally, our dress code policy prohibits beachwear, tank tops, shorts, baseball caps, flip-flops, and sports jerseys. Please note that Giselle reserves the right to cancel your reservation if we do not receive confirmation via text message or the dress code doesn't meet our requirements. This is to ensure that we can effectively manage our bookings and provide the best possible service to all our guests. Your prompt response is highly appreciated. Restaurant staff”

we arrived to our 6pm reservation about 15 minutes early. As such, we were lucky enough to catch several people leaving yoga class and that meant there would be plenty of street parking. We found a spot on the same corner of the restaurant. We only had to walk a short distance to the entrance.

This restaurant is on top of a club. There is a large backdrop outside for club E11EVEN, and a Giselle back drop is above it. It appears that this is set up for pictures to be taken. I did not want a picture, but after we took one of my friend we entered and advised the host of our reservation. We were placed in an elevator to get to the restaurant. There were about 3-4 people standing at the host stand. We were immediately walked to our seat. We were seated in the Dream room. The Dream Room is a more intimate space. The front area is more of an open air space.

Our server greeted us shortly after we were seated. He welcomed us to the restaurant and asked us what we wanted to drink. I opted for bottled still water. For my cocktail I ordered the cappuccino martini ( E11EVEN Vodka, Mr. Black Coffee Liqueur, Espresso, Parmesan Foam). My friend ordered the 11:11 Wish ( E11EVEN Vodka, Prosecco, Strawberry Citrus, Cotton Candy). The drinks were brought out quickly. My martini was a little too full so it did create a mess when it was placed on the table. I had to ask our wait staff for a towel to clean the table.

My drink was AMAZING! I do not drink often so my tolerance is low. However, if they were not the case I would have ordered a second one! My friend said that she loved her drink too.

For food, we ordered the mushroom escargot as an appetizer. I ordered the branzino for my entree and my friend ordered the lobster pasta. The escargot came out first! OMG—— amazing! Now there is no telling how many calories and fat are in the fish, but oh it was so worth it!! I would order it again!! My branzino was good, but I can’t say that it stood out from other branzino dishes I have tried. I would recommend ordering it if you are a branzino fan.

Overall I enjoyed our experience at this restaurant. Service was stellar, restaurant is beautiful, drinks were amazing and...

Finally, Miami has a restaurant with both amazing ambiance and FOOD! My girlfriends and I heard amazing things about Giselle. Of course we thought “ it’s likely overhyped” but we had a birthday to celebrate so we booked our resy about two weeks out and snagged an 1130pm. We decided to arrive an hour earlier in hopes to be seated. We were greeted from the 1st level took the elevator up and the doors opened to a packed and crowded scene on the retractable rooftop level. We checked in and headed to the bar to grab drinks. Crowd was pleasant with a dress to impress vibe. Cocktails were delicious and bar service was prompt. We had 3 rounds(5ppl) of cocktails at around $390 with tax and gratuity included. As we were getting hungry or shall I say hangry, I decided to ask front of the house if he could check on our table around 1115pm. As I saw guests arriving being sat immediately of our party size. I wanted to make sure that we were not forgotten about. Nuno pleasantly assured us that we were not forgotten about and we would be sat before or right at our reservation time. As he promised we were sat 5 minutes after. As he knew 5 females were getting impatient and were starving, he sent over a complimentary bottle of champagne as soon as we were seated. Who doesn’t love free champagne.!? We then had our server Alvaro give us a very detailed description of the menu with his recommendations(which was of great help) and wasn’t pushy about what we should order. Which usually happens in Miami upscale trendy restaurants. Alvaro made things happen for us and fulfilled all our requests. He sectioned and timed all the dishes magnificently. The pauses in between weren’t too long nor short. It was smooth. The food was absurdly delicious. The oysters with foam and cold grilled shrimp cocktail are still on my mind. The truffle cone was divine and truffle toast was good, but could’ve used a drizzle of truffle oil or possibly the toast grilled in oil or butter would really uptick it. Both salads were executed like a salad should be. Fresh, crispy and cold. Sticky ribs were not overly sticky and saucy and the scallions were a nice touch. Branzino was cooked perfectly. Skin crispy and meat was juicy and plump. Lobster Fra Diavlo was impeccable. Pasta was Al Dente and lobster meat was amazing. Steak was a perfect mid rare. I could go on and on about how delicious the food was. Truly nothing was over or undercooked as well as nothing was overly sauced. Really hard to execute this on every dish. Hats off to the chef which we saw so involved with everything that was sent out(we sat right next to the open kitchen) Another surprisingly gesture that Giselle did which a lot of these scene to be scene Miami restaurants don’t do. The general manager Steven popped in a few times to check in on our table. Asking how everything was. As well as made sure at the end of the evening asking if we enjoyed everything. This simple touch goes a long ways. It didn’t end,, The Pearl cake and chocolate bar desserts weren’t overly sweet and balanced perfectly. Alvaro gave us consistent impeccable service and Nuno stopped in as we we’re heading out to our table to make sure our evening went well and to make sure we weren’t leaving hangry. Complimentary birthday shots were taken all together and truly made it an experience that we are definitely going back for. Thank you to the staff at Giselle. If you enjoy dining well, quality food, great scene, beautiful ambiance and amazing service, make sure to reserve a...