Il Gabbiano — Restaurant in Miami

We had the opportunity to visit Il Gabbiano again this week while vacationing in Fort Lauderdale. We were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. We had dined there previously while visiting Miami and had an exceptional experience. We attempted to dine there one other time, but we were running about 10 minutes late so I called the restaurant and like many others were told too bad that they would not hold the reservation so we were unable to dine there that evening. It was my fault for being late, so no problem, I now knew in the future to arrive on time or early or plan on dining somewhere else. So this time we arrived early (5:30PM for a 6:15PM) reservation and were seated outside.

There are great views of the harbor and all of the boat traffic passing by the restaurant. The restaurant has a beautiful dining room both inside and outside with white linen table cloths and the wait staff are very professionally dressed. After being seated, we served a muse similar to a brushetta only each item was separate on the plate. The muse consisted of a small piece of bread, a chunk of parmesan Reggiano, a small puddle of balsamic vinegar, and a nest of diced tomatoes that was a nice beginning to our dinner. What happened to the fried zucchini? The waiter arrived and introduced himself and informed us of the evening specials however he was difficult to understand with his accent and the fact that he was wearing a mask.

After reviewing the extensive menu that in some categories did not explain the make up of the dish well enough the waiter arrived to take our order and I asked a few questions but again he was difficult to understand and he did not seem to want to take the time to explain much, so we order. We ordered the Burrata appetizer and it was delicious. We also ordered the Veal Saltimbocca and the Pollo Farcito and a half order of the Capellini "iL Gabbiano" The Veal Saltimbocca and the Pollo Farcito were exceptional however the namesake pasta was just OK, nothing exceptional. We finished our meal with Creme Brulee that was also very good.

The assistant waiters were not as attentive to the table as they were on our first visit, no crumbing of the table, empty water glasses, etc., we waited a significant amount of the time for the check only having to asked for the check. The service during this visit paled in comparison to our first visit when the service was outstanding! I do not mind paying the premium prices that IL Gabbiano charges but I expect premium food and service in return. The restaurant may also want to implement a dress code in order to maintain their reputation as a fine dining establishment since some people to do not have the common sense to know what is appropriate dinner wear for such a restaurant and they arrive wearing t-shirts, halter tops, etc as we observed during this visit. This is fine dining, not Burger King. (No offense meant to Burger King) Unfortunately on this visit the restaurant did not compare in service quality to our...

This was honestly such a bad experience for such an expensive place let me start off with the good part it was one of the most beautiful restraunts I have been to in miami and this the only reason I am not giving this zero stars because of the view, but lets talk about the bad from the beginning the experience was bad it was my mothers birthday and I wanted to make her feel special so I knew she didnt want to sit inside and so we asked to be moved outside and that is when the waiter looked at us like he had a problem with us sitting outside and he said “okay” with an attitude. We then moved outside and 3 people came by us we did not know who our server was. We then became aware of who he was he introduced himself and let us settle in. He then came back to let us know about the specials at which he said very fast, we barely even heard what he said, my other ordered the seabass and I ordered keep this is mind FROM THE MENU the filetillo a la florentina it is $42 I asked for it medium. The food took pretty long to get to the table at least 20 minutes no one really checked up on us in those 20 minutes, I had literally yell for someone to get me a refill on a soda that was completely empty which is ridiculous, I am critiquing this hard btw because I work in a country club in high end service it is not hard to please a customer for the first time, the food came my moms fish was salty and did not seemed cooked properly, my steak was burnt on the side and stop and inside was bloody. I could barely eat it. It was disgusting. At this point still no one high school checked up after 10 mins of the food being served again ridiculous and at this point im upset because i am trying to enjoy the lunch with my mom but the service was just horrendous, KEEP IN MIND THERE IS 3 PEOPLE IN THIS RESTRAUNT AND SO MANY WAITERS. We then had dessert and as to we had to most pathetic happy bday song I have ever heard, I pitched in so it wasnt that sad. The bill came it was 211.48. For the experience I got I felt horrible paying that kind of money because I have gotten better service at olvide garden paying $50. Anyways I later on felt something was wrong with the receipt and I called without saying who i was how much both our dishes were and they said 42 for both!! Speaking with a “head server” because the manager was not in. So I got lied to on the prices and then my mom lter called and they said we had ordered the “specials” when in fact when i ordered I pointed at items from the menu to the server. So overall DO NOT GO HERE NOT WORTH YOUR MONEY SAVE YOUR TIME. NEVER AGAIN. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER. AND HORRIBLE...

These are my personal opinions.

Overall: Beautiful place on the water, fantastic staff, food was unique and delicious!

Price: expect $150 per person with appetiser, meal, drink, dessert, coffee, taxes, tip.

Salty mates! Several of the folks in the group commented that the meals were quite salty, so much so that I stopped eating in part because my mouth was parched from the salt. Let me be clear for myself though, I don't often add much salt to my meals, and the folks I asked are also health conscious and unlikely to add significant salt to their meals. Everyone agreed the food was unique and delicious, just a few of us commented collectively about the salt.

First noticed the heavy salt at the bar with complementary fried zucchini. Delicious! Definitely salty. I thought maybe the salt was to encourage folks to drink up!

Desserts: The custard based desserts were oh my gosh over the top! Berries covered with custard, yum yum!

Chocolate cake was a bit too sweet for my taste, and very dense to the point of feeling almost like a brownie but advertised as cake. I was expecting a moist cake.

Had great hopes for the tiramisu. Didn't really take me to the top. It was okay. Of easy reasonably priced tiramisu, I'd recommend Publix and just take it home.

My recommendation would be to pass on the American coffee. Maybe some other coffee was better.

Atmosphere: This is April in Miami. Temperature was low 80s. We sat outside before sunset, and it was a pleasant time at the beginning. By the end of the evening, when the terrace was full with many people, it was hot and stagnant. The wind was blowing from land and the terrace faces the bay towards the ocean, so very little breeze came through. Actually, no breeze. The fans were spinning, but were too high for any relief. Also, the fans were higher than the eve, so they were just pushing around the hot air that had risen to the ceiling. If someone from the restaurant is reading this, I'd definitely recommend more fans and having them lowered.

Oh my gosh the crew! But let me tell you about the captain and crew who assisted is with our meals! Pedro was the captain on our journey, and he and the crew kept water topped off, uniquely assisted and served the ladies first (I really appreciated that special touch, something I haven't seen in quite a while, and did so without much ado! In fact one of the people didn't even realize it had happened until desserts were served!), the team replaced the table cloth with a minor spot before serving desserts, I was quite impressed!

Thank you for a...