Cafe Vert — Restaurant in Surfside

I arrived to cafe vert at around 10am mid November looking to take out breakfast for my wife and I. First thing I realized as I walked in is how dirty and rundown the place looked. I figured I'm taking out and it's only breakfast how bad could it be. I approached the counter and stood behind one other person who was waiting at the counter looking rather annoyed. There was a gentleman behind the counter moving around kind of frantically and not doing much of anything. After three or so minutes I asked the gentleman in front of me if he already ordered and he said he was waiting to pay (you can tell he was ticked off). More so, this place has waitresses so not sure why he had to come to the counter to pay and mind you at the time there were only there tables seated and two waitresses working. After two more minutes the guy behind the counter finally acknowledged the customer who wanted to pay his tab, began looking for table number ones bill on the counter and started to yell at the waitress why the bill wasnt where it was supposed to be, in front of everyone. The customer finally paid and I thought I would get some sort of acknowledgement as I was waiting there for 5 minutes right behind this guy but there was another customer who just came straight back saying he doesn't have time to wait and just wants to know how much a Danish costs. The guy behind the counter ignores me, tells him 4 dollars, takes the cash and starts moving around frantically again behind this counter. Again I'm standing there waiting for just some kind of acknowledgement so I can order and when a lady just barges in saying I'm here to pick up an order that has been paid for and am in a rush. He turns to her and asks the order details, she says two breakfasts, he says no it was three. She says maybe that was a different order, she ordered two breakfasts with feta on the side, he said yeah this order is with feta on the side but it's three not two and then goes on to lecture her saying he confirmed it three times over the phone. At this point I'm kind of shocked, not sure how this place is still in business. I tell the guy that he had ignored me for almost ten minutes, is rude to his staff and customers and he starts to mock me and waives me off. I walked out and went to the next breakfast place which was clean, professional and delicious mind you. If your in Bal Harbour on vacation avoid this place at all costs and to the owner or manager, if your seeing this review you should change your attitude or close down, this business is all about service and seems like you don't want to give good service to anyone. If this is what you did in mid November, what are you going to do in the...

A crushing crushing disappointment. We came to Cafe Vert years ago while staying in North Beach and were then charmed by the cosy atmosphere (the cafe was half its current size back then), small French menu, great food and its typically French boss. We came back today for our last meal before leaving Miami and God were we disappointed. We sat outside and made our presence known immediately. We had to go back inside twice to make sure that they had not forgotten about us and please could you take our order. Others outside left because the wait was so long and service was non existant. We ordered two special breakfasts which include coffee and juice. 25min in our drinks finally arrived, in paper cups though. We had to wait at least 10 more minutes to get our food and while the eggs were good, the potatoes were only so so. But the real extra deal breaker was that on top of a total lack of service, the portions were ridiculous by American standards. I mean, if I order the "special breakfast", I don't expect to still be hungry when leaving. I went back inside to pay and was told that the 2 $11.50 special breakfast came up to $29+ with tax, which did feel a bit high, especially given the utter disappointment that the last hour had been. When the cashier told me that the special was $14 or so, I checked the menu and when I told her that it wasn't, I realised that they de facto include a 20% service charge, which obviously means TIP. Now I have no problem with suggested amounts, but I do think it very misleading to include such charge and then ALSO suggest 15 / 18/ 20% extra tips! A tip on top of the tip for a service you never received? What a nerve! I told the cashier that we loved it there years ago but that our experience today had been really disappointing, she did not acknowledge what I told her, instead keeping busy with other orders. I further tried to talk to the owner, not to cause a scene, but to tell him in private that everything we had been charmed by years ago had vanished and that instead we had felt both invisible and somewhat misled by the check, but there was no talking to him it seems. The restaurant wasn't full and they have plenty of staff it seems, but for some reason, management is inefficient and borderline disrespectful towards its customers. We were looking forward to this meal, we left hungry, disappointed and, to be honest, feeling insulted for their lack of regard for once-enthusiastic customers. We went to the Jewish bakery nearby to complete our...

The restaurant experience was not the best and not to my liking. I came inside and the tables are widely spread out which looked not like a cafe I would see. Sat down and was greeted with a staff, absolutely amazing kind staff who are happy to have a smile on there face and always welcoming. Ordered the French toast and I have to say, the presentation was spectacular, and even the taste was amazing. That was very impressive. I ordered fresh squeezed watermelon drink, very small and ABSOLUTELY OVERPRICED! $6.50 for a small drink! Maybe because it is fresh squeezed but for 6 dollars! Insane! Also, got some coffee. It was absolutely terrible. The coffee was very bland and it is not good brewed coffee.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was ok, the restaurant does seem a bit outdated with the design and the tables has numerous scratches on it. Looking around in the corner, it looks really old and feels like food is rotting in there.

The time to get the food and the drinks was very long, I get they have to get everything prepared but the amount of time it took was over the limit. People who work well with stuff like that could bring it out in minutes.

Overall, this restaurant is somewhere I probably wouldn’t come back to if I am in Miami area. Food was really good, service was amazing, atmosphere was alright and the coffee and drinks were overpriced and terrible. I wouldn’t recommend it...