Narbona Coconut Grove — Restaurant in Miami

I first tried to pass on the feedback about our recent experience directly to the management through email and post-visit survey (by the way, I'd like to point out to the management that the feedback link on the website is broken), but since no one has even acknowledged receiving it for a couple of weeks, hopefully it will be at least seen here.

The review is about our extremely disappointing experience at Coconut Grove location on Sunday 2/25.

We were loyal customers of the restaurant ever since it opened in Coconut Grove to the point we were even inspired to visit Narbona in Punta del Este during our trip to Uruguay. That's why when we had family visiting from Boston for my nephew's birthday, we did not think twice about where to schedule a family celebration.

We were a group of 4 adults and 2 kids. We were seated on time and our server came to attend shortly. He did not introduce himself so I am not sure what his name was.

The first problem occurred when it was clear that the server does not understand basic English. Having lived in Miami many years and being married to a Venezuelan, I have VERY realistic expectations about the level of English that one typically gets. I did not hope to discuss Shakespeare, but, to give one example, our server did not understand a question, "Is empanada fried or baked?" I get it, we all need a job, but what was absolutely unacceptable is his righteous attitude about the situation: not only did he not understand, he made no effort to try to understand. When my husband interfered and explained in Spanish, he just dismissed it saying that for Uruguayans empanadas are always baked, so of course who would understand this question... Well, what a way to present your culture.

My husband had to place the order for the whole group in Spanish. Other family members, who do not speak Spanish at all, were shocked and even concluded that they wouldn't be able to eat at Narbona by themselves - and this is not the impression I was hoping to give them about the restaurant or the city.

Throughout the night, our server was terribly inattentive, to the point of being neglectful. We were a group with kids, so it is not unusual that when he came to take the order, the kids started changing their mind and some members of our party were hesitant about their choices. You would expect the server to help guide the group towards the decision - or at least to try to help. Instead, he clearly got impatient, excused himself and left. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him taking the orders from two other tables while we were waiting for another 15 minutes, with no answers to any of the questions, for him to return. At that point, no one felt comfortable asking any questions and we just asked my husband to place the whole order in Spanish.

The server refused to take notes about our order assuring my husband he will memorize it so the last drop was when we got a drink we did not order. We called him to bring it to his attention and instead of apologizing, he rolled his eyes and almost argued with us! He never took the drink back, it just stayed untouched in the middle of the table for the whole night and it was included it in the check. My husband had to point it out to again that the drink needed to be taken out of the check, which the server did, but, of course, it left everyone wondering if he was hoping we would not check.

We were never offered dessert or tea/coffee options - which, given that our reservation clearly stated this is a birthday celebration - is a pretty big oversight. At that point, frustrated with the experience, we just asked for the check and left somewhere else to finish the night. We considered speaking to the manager right then, but did not want to make the impression from this dining experience even worse for the rest of the family.

Miami does not have a lack of restaurants, and, especially with how the price of eating out has gone up significantly, I am definitely not voting for Narbona with my money any more. That's a pity how the quality of service went...

EVERY RESTAURANT SHOULD LEARN HOW TO TREAT YOUR CLIENTS LIKE NARBONA. This restaurant is very close to my house and I'm a frequent client over there. Me, my wife and my dog usually go for the Brunch on Sundays and we always have a great experience. The place has their own Dulce de Leche and Wine but at this time it was different and even more special. I've been looking for a restaurant to celebrate my wife's b-day, not a but deal, just a reservation for 15 people. We wanted our guests to have whatever they want and all the restaurants we tried were creating a lot of difficulties. On the B-day morning I thought about Narbona, because they also have a great outside patio. I stop by and Aaron made the reservation. He was great and arranged everything we needed. I was planing to stop by a pastry shop that I called the day before and they also had a lot of excuses but I remembered that Narbona also had a pastry shop. I saw a Dulce de Leche cake that would fit perfectly but my wife is a big fan of chocolate. The pastry chef came to me and said: Don't worry, I make it chocolate for you. Mauricio came to help me and he was just amazing. Took my cake order and made sure the cake was exactly how I wanted. BELIEVE ME! The cake was also 40% cheaper than the pastry shop that I called before. We arrived on time and we had Narbona team waiting for us. We had exclusive waiters and the service was just unbelievable good! they even did separate checks for my guests. The food was AMAZING. We had buratas, empanadas, salads, pizzas and I also had a Short Rib with Aligot that was falling from the bone. At the requested time, Mauricio and the pastry team came with te cake and everybody just had a great time. We had some bottles of wine and the good thing about Narbona is that since they produce their own wine and Uruguay is the best producer of Tannat grapes, they have this full body with a great drinkability called Luz de Luna. It was a great night. Everything was perfect, and my wife was very happy with her b-day. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NARBONA and really appreciated what they have done to us....

Narbona @ Coconut Grove is a cozy place to eat yummy food and drink good wine. They serve great meat dishes to very yummy pasta and very yummy ice cream.

We went there the other night with friends and ordered the provolenta which was really good. We also ordered pasta tagliatelle with filet mignon which was really yummy, also had the filet mignon ravioli which was great too. The milanesa with arugula and cheese shavings was really good. For desert we had was the tiramisu which was also very yummy, and their ice cream is simply great. You can go to eat or just stop by for the ice cream that is a 5/5 in my book.

Congratulations to management for having such a great team onboard. Kudos to the chefs that made all this great food and to the servers that brought the food out to us, nice and hot.

Our sever was very attentive, don’t remember her name, but she had brown hair and blue/gray eyes. Very attentive and very knowledgeable about the menu and the daily chef recommendations. I wound recommended after saying the daily recommendations adding the price at the end of each plate suggestion, just as a courtesy.

The only thing that I thought was a put down for this dining experience is that they close early on weekend nights, which I think they should consider being open a little later on weekend nights, at least until 11:30 or 12 midnight. They turned on the lights at 10:30 ruining the magic of what was a great dining experience. The cozy atmosphere and magic going on during the dining experience came to a complete stop after they turned on the lights. We where half way eating our dinner and having several bottles of wine, just having a slow and wonderful diner with friends. There where still at least 4 more tables besides us completely full. Just a suggestion.

But besides that, the food was very yummy and the service impecable.

I highly...