Porterhouse Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Sunny Isles Beach

The injustice the friendly manager committed against me was arguably minor, however nonzero, permanently lasting, and disturbing in principle. I was already biased in Jack’s favor upon arriving, having read the negative reviews and his responses thereto. As a business owner myself, I know the customer is usually wrong in such disputes, especially in the service industry. Jack has to deal with rude, puerile customers here and in person. Jack has been unfairly slandered at times in these reviews. I still suspect Jack is mostly innocent and falsely criticized in the vast majority of the negative reviews.

A few moments after I sat down amicably greeted by the bartender, the manager, Jack, politely informed me the tank top I was wearing was not allowed. I respectfully indicated that I would return shortly with a nicer shirt. Jack assured me they’d be open to 3 and I was welcome to return. It was clear that I would have been ordered to leave if I did not respectfully acquiesce to the manager’s polite request. Jack said it had been this way for 22 years.

In this very quick exchange, I asked Jack if I could have possibly known about the no-tank-top rule. I forget his exact words, but he admitted to me the rule was unpublished: that not any similarly situated customer in my shoes could have possibly known of this rule before entering. I examined all signage, as well as the Google Maps profile and the listed website. The rule is as secret as it is anomalous in the industry context of the casual atmosphere and price range found at Porterhouse.

Jack committed three injustices against me. 1) By depriving all conscious-rule-abiding customers any possible advance notice whatsoever of the secret dress-code before arriving, Jack unfairly cost me the time and embarrassment of having to leave and perform the change in clothing; 2) the business’s failure to give any reasonable prospective client advance notice of rules which are in excess of prevailing social norms newly and permanently deprived me of my claim to the status of never in my life having been asked to leave a restaurant due to dress-code-non-compliance; 3) Jack committed intentional or unintentional gender bias by applying a differing, relaxed set of rules to females in his business, which I detail as follows.

The female bartender who greeted me was herself wearing a very revealing black tank-top. The cutaneous surface area exposed to air on her part far exceeded mine, with midsection visible. Her attire was socially appropriate and contextually apt for May in Miami while working at a loud bar, as was mine while attending. However, a prohibition against wearing tank-tops was selectively applied against me as a male customer. I note there was also a female customer at the bar who donned clothing exposing her shoulders. She was never confronted over infraction of dress code.

I support the business’s legal right to make whatever rules it wants; even the gender discrimination I experienced should not be unlawful in my opinion. It is, however, morally contemptible. Jack’s abject failure to empower me with any way of discovering his rules until unwilfully violating them, and his failure to apply the same rule to at least one and likely two other females in his property, is reasonable cause for a lower review than I graciously leave out of profound deference and benefit of the doubt to the manager. He seems like a generally highly respectable individual, however he ought to create a proper website and/or signage apprising customers of his longstanding gender-discriminating no-tank-top-for-males-only rule.

The manager did not welcome or acknowledge me during my dress-compliant return and stay for dinner. I ordered the signature Porterhouse steak. It was superbly excellent. The service was competent, timely, and professional. I may return to have another excellent meal; if so, I would hope to be politely greeted by the manager just as he had greeted the woman who was sitting next to me at the bar after I returned, paying no further...

Literally, I didn't want to rate this place. But after on every 1 star review I see 5 stars nonames with fotos not from this place, I can't stay calm. Every low star review is correct. I saw the manager and the guy is not interested in this place. He is just a common retire who wants no trouble, so employees get the best of him. The place survives only due to lack of competitors, pricing and this is the only place that works till 3 a.m.

Food. No, sorry, food is average at best. Typical sport bar with most things fried or buttered. All 5 stars for food are definitely fake or from people with low expectations. Drinks. Beer is awful, guiness is spoiled. As idle kegs were opened months ago. Manager, we will be obliged if you visit Tap House or any other brewery and taste real beer. Fresh. Girls make nice cocktails though, but straight drinks are cheap ingredients. If I could separate, I would give 4-5 stars to servants, who work in veranda. And 2 stars for bartenders and 1 star to manager, that I ll explain later. So guys outside are nice, try their best and be of service. I am surprised someone is not happy, but maybe I was just lucky. Than bartenders. Yes, they make good cocktails, but that is it. This young girls spend more time in their cellphones, talking to each other, or hunting handsome guys (do they have issues with documents or watched too much " Pretty woman"? ) and picking them up. They are slow in service, do not ask what you want, can't recommend a thing, they are not here to talk or listen (hey , us it a bar or what?) . Worst part is that these ladies also poor drinks to servers outside and print checks to them. And after 10 p.m. it is always one girl. I am sorry, but normally even 1 bartender can keep up with that . They are arrogant and definitely not happy with their work. And if they found someone in the bar for another hunt, forget about getting your orders. You will be the last one to be served, waiting for an hour or more. I would say, if Manager wants to improve the place, he needs to visit new hooka bar over the bridge and see how customers meant to be treated. Put control on your bartneders. Higher more people or change the girls. It is obvious their attitude comes from their belief their position is secured. All negative reviews because of them are well deserved. Music. Guys, people come here to talk. Not to close their ears from definitely too loud music. Manager. I was surprised to see real one during the day. At night a youngster pretends to be one. And it is obvious he is not. A random guy, who is treated like one. Maybe he is a son of the owner, but the looks of him explains most. So I am positive that negative reviews refer to him at least half of the time and not to real manager. Still, it is the owners and managers responsibility to organize the place. If your employees make best of you, if you care about service, quality and your reviews don't wait. Start changes. Painful, but needed. The place is less than 50% loaded most of the time. That a shame. And you run the business. Not bartenders.

Well, someone wrote place is strictly for locals I am local and I say "avoid the...

How could I possibly start a review on this "grill". I lived in Sunny Isles Beach for 13 years and never visited this place. But as they say, there's always a first for everything. First off, it was a friends 21st birthday and like most people we decided to stay local and grab a couple drinks. The place wasn't even close to being busy. Once we enter we were a party of 10 and sat us down at a booth where only 5 people could sit. I tell the person there if he could put the tables together and he did it very rudely while having this look on his face. I don't mind at first. Once we sat down the menus were just thrown at us and didn't make us feel welcomed what so ever. There's barely any lighting in the restaurant so I had to use the flashlight on my phone to look at the menu. Our server comes and he looks like a super chill dude. Greets us and says if he can start us off with anything to drink. We all ordered water and a couple of drinks. Once we finish ordering our drinks he then try to rush us to order the food. I told him give us at least 5 minutes to look at the menu. 20 minutes later he brings us our drinks. He then says if were ready to order and obvious we are. Once we all start ordering he didn't write down anything. He thought that he could memorize a 10 person order and not mess up. We all order and it takes at least 45 minutes for the food to come. Mind you this, the restaurant inside is completely empty. Just a couple of people at the bar. The music that was playing at this bar made me feel like I was at Ultra 2011. All they would play was heavy dub step and it made my brain melt. So the food comes and I cant contain my hunger after working a 6 hour shift earlier. I thought the food would be decent especially since I was high. But, let me not even start with the food. The chicken looked like I could go the the nearest 7/11 and make it. The chicken was so bland and extremely chewy. The lettuce looked like they went to the back pf the store and picked out leafs and the tomatoes were dry. On top of that, the fries were harder than a hockey puck and was cold. Once we all finished the waiter came and we all asked for separate checks. The waiter came with all of our checks and told us all to please tip him nice because they are under a lot of stress. Mind you this, its a Wednesday at 10 P.M. There was barely anybody there. The only thing they stressed out was me in the end. At the end, I don't recommend anybody to eat at this establishment. The waiters were rude, the owner didn't care, the food was mediocre at best, and the music selection was ran be a 10 year old. The first and last time...