Table 8

A note to to Ms Fernandez. How many were in your party? Most establishments that are NOT chains or large capacity places charge 18-19% auto gratuity for parties of 5 or more. This protects the server that earns $3/hour from people that are ignorant of tipping protocol, run them ragged, sit for 2 hours or more spend their money on food and skimp on the gratuity which is customarily split between the server, bar, busser & food runners. All said, servers sometimes end up paying out 5% of the gratuity to the support staff. i havent any idea of what the poicy is at this establishment, but i am a restaurant owner in Baltimore and know how my place operates. You also might want to check out what your actual charge was. We occasionally get calls from people that look at their account on an hourly basis. Credit card processors - some - automatically add 20% to the authorized amount to account for gratuity. Restaurants settle their tabs and run batch over night. Banks take a few days to process and then CHARGE the amount you authorized. Most likely you hopped on your computer when you got home and presumed the ""pending authorization"" was a charge. I bet it settled out correcty. Before bashing an establishment, check your facts. Its people like you that make us restauranteurs pull our hair out. People should be required to get a dining license for dining at places other than drive throughs where you only need to talk to a box and tipping isnt required. Geeze! more

Stopped in for the Winter Spice menu and was actually surprised that the prices were very reasonable even off the spice menu. I had perhaps the best rib-eye I have ever experienced...better than Prime 112 or Smith & Wollensky by miles...and considerably less expensive. Beautiful place, great ambiance, and the best meal I have had in Miami in ages. more

Wonderful food, great drinks, nice ambiance.\r \r \r \r Then I check my CC bill. On the bill at the end of the night, 18% gratuity was included. Great, fine, it's south beach, i'll pay it. My total was $70. When I checked my CC statement, they had charged me $85, a 20% increase on the 18% I had already paid. \r \r \r \r Stay classy, Table 8.\r \r more

Have ben to about 5 Miami Spice dinners so far, and Table 8 is the best! They dont make you feel akward ordering from it...some restaurants turn their nose up at yo, I've noticed (Devitos). At Table 8, the owner came by and said- ""just go for the spice menu- its great, don't look any further than that!"", and so we did, and he was right! it had a great skirt steak in a generous portion, with a fantastic soup to start. The place had a very nice scene at the bar for the middle of summer, and the service was just great. We hadnt been to Table 8 in quite a while, but will be back soon! Pros: Amazing food, great service, nice owner! more

You dont 'just become a celebrity chef because your're pretty. Unlike actors or models, with whom it seems to be about who you know, or what you did to get there- to some degree, you cant just become as famous as Chef Armstrong for no reason. We came because we've heard the hype and seen the press. We'll return because we had the food, saw the restaurant, and felt the love. The experience was the best we have ever had in Miami. From the flawless service, the knowledge level the staff had achieved (nearly unheard of in SOBE), to the perfectly and masterfully executed cuisine and the hot scene at the place- DONT MISS TABLE 8. I had a totally original Calamari dish served and a huge cast iron serving piece. The flavors were phenom and the dish was a slam dunk. My wife had a beautiful beet salad- couldnt get enough. The entrees ranged from many local fish selections, to plenty for the meat lover. I went with a NY steak that had a flavor so unique, it redefined steak for me. I asked the waiter how this thing tasted so ""different"", and he explained to me how Chef Armstrong's dishes often take days to prepare with all of the marinading and whatnot. He isn't just pulling a steak from the fridge and tossing it on the grill. Among his techniques, he apparently uses vaccuum sealed bags to marinade some of the meats in for several days, whatever the process it works! Cant say enough about the evening we had. Moderate priced wine list, great deserts, loved the place. The area we sat was a bit dark and we needed a flashlight to read the menu, but I guess south beach seduction\r might be a way to describe it. Ha. What a place! Pros: atmosphere, cuisine Cons: bit dark more

I helped plan a bachelorett dinner for about 15 women in Miami Beach last week. We we looking for the best dinning experience, which I was under the impression were sorely lacking in Miami, and had recently seen Chef Govind on OPRAH, so we wanted to try it. With plenty of advance notice I had made the reservation at Table 8 with a few special requests that they gladly accommodated (food requests, where we sat, etc.) They had several options for set menus with different pricing that they had offered us in advance, but we ended up ordering off the menu. I started with a boucheron, a cheese dish which is gently fried or baked, with which I wasn't previously familiar, and it was absolutely to die for! A slight crispness to the outer layer, enveloping a divine cheese inside. Everyone was over the top with their apps, which ranged from a perfectly prepared tuna tartar dish, to his famous grilled cheese short rib sandwiches. Chef Armstrong was making his rounds through the restaurant while we are getting our entrees. He stopped by to check on us and was so charming and sweet, and truly passionate about explaining several of the dishes to us. The entree menu had a very nice and concise selection of local fish, a ""baby chicken"" dish that was absolutely amazing, and plenty of meats (lamb, pork, steak...). I had a local snapper that was just fantastic, I though that all of chef's sauces and the types of accoutrements he uses is really what sets his food apart. I sampled dished from the sliced Kobe steak to a Korubuta pork dish that was just perfect. The food is very ""comfort-food"" oriented, and I think I had expected a bit more fancy-schmansy...a pleasant surprise for a place so touted by the cullinary world. The ambiance was just beautiful, lots of candle light and amber tones. Our staff was fun and service was the best we had anywhere over the 3 days. A fabulous experience by all account! Pros: food, ambiance, staff, all great! more

The week of March 10, we brought our annual convention to Miami Beach. I planned a night out with my wife at Table 8. We arrived at 7:30pm and were seated promptly in the empty dining room which faces Ocean Drive. \r \r For appitizers, we ordered the diced ahi tuna asparagus, marinated radishes, aioli and the warm boucheron balsamic roasted onion, avocado, herb salad. We ordered the salt encrusted porterhouse for two which, is the signature dish at table 8. We ordered Rose by the glass for the appitizers and the Syrah also by the glass for our main course.\r \r The appitizers arrived. The boucheron on my plate was tepid and near cold. The only flavor was in the roasted onion which was served on the plate. My wife grimaced when she forked a piece of the radish on her ahi tuna appitizer into her mouth. She quickly took a gulp of water. I asked what was wrong and she offered me a sample. I immediately discharged the piece from my mouth into a napkin. This was the most bitter thing I have ever tasted. We consulted our server who checked with the kitchen. She reported back that they had mistakenly marinated the radish only in vinegar forgetting to add the rest of the marinade. No offer to replace the foul tasting dish or delete it from our tab.\r \r Our porterhouse arrived and was presented by a different server who explained the cooking process and the ingredients in the salt crust. Our first impression was that the cut of beef was very small for $125 allowing us each 5 or 6 medium sized slices. We also found an inordinate ammount of gristle and tendon in our portions which was inedible and we had to discharge into our napkins.\r \r We received our check which came to $276, which included an 18% gratuity. Today (3 days later), I checked my credit card statement and found that they had added another 20% to that charging me $332. In my 18 years as an event planner and dining at over 1000 restaurants, this experience rates as the worst. more

At my wife's insistence, after seeing Chef Armstrong on Oprah, we made a reservation last night. I have dragging myself down to the beach, with all the traffic and expensive parking and general mayhem... However, when we arrived at Table 8 we were told they had underground parking and that it was priced reasonably at $10 (very cheap for South Beach). The parking situation was great, because for those of us who know the beach, it usually takes Valet's 30 minutes to fetch your car from 6 miles away! \r We arrived early (by Miami times) and were seated with little wait. Apparently Wednesday night is their big ""party"" night, when the place gets a bit more of a bar scene than other week nights. The selection was pretty impressive and I was urged by a very attentive waitress to go with a sweetbread dish and chef's famous ""kobe"" style steak for an entree. Of course, we also had to try the grilled cheese that Chef made on Oprah (which is not usually available in the dining room- only the lounge) though I'm sure they will change this since the Oprah show this week. \r The sweetbreads were wonderful, not like the sinewy onces most of the Argentine restaurants down here love to overcook...but rather a perfect amount of crispness surrounding a delicate and wonderfully rich inside. \r Like the sweetbreads, my steak was made to perfection and I now get what the hype over ""Kobe"" and ""kobe style"" is all about. If American ""waygu"" is that tender, I can only imagine what its authentic counterpart in Japan is like!\r By the time we finished a very nice desert, the place was packed with a young and restless crowd. It was so bad that it would have interferred with the people dinning, but it was definately a ""scene"". \r The place is my new exception to the rule I have lived by for years of keeping away from the beach in season...Table 8 was a fantastic experience that I look forward to replicating soon! Pros: service and food Cons: crowded more

After seeing Chef Govind on Oprah, my sister and I drove 20 miles from the Grove to have lunch with our visiting Dad. We wanted to take him to Table 8 for dinner, but couldn't get a dinner table on Friday until way past dads bed time..so we ""settled"" for lunch. I can't say enough about how wonderful the chestnut soup that I started with was, and then to move on to this perfection in a sandwich.... wow! Oprah doesn't mess around and its no wonder every book she mentions becomes a best seller! Not that Govind wasnt a huge culinary star already, but Oprah is bringing him to mainstream America for sure. The lunch was so reasonable priced for the beach, the service was very friendly and it was just a great great experience. Pros: The perfect lunch spot Cons: a little touristy more

After seeing the hot young Chef, Govind Armstrong, on Oprah the other day, we figured we would stop in for lunch at Table 8 and try the famous grilled cheese sandwich (who even knew they were open for lunch?? Must be the best kept secret in Miami!). We were offerer a choice of two menus, one was a lovely 3 course prix fixe that included a glass of wine, and was only priced at $22! My friend went with that, while I opted to go for the decadent grilled cheese with short rib. While she dined on a wonderful light and healthy fish dish (snapper I think), I went all-in and devoured a gooey, rich, oh-so-comfort-foodie, grilled cheese. It was really a remarkable sandwich experience! I had no idea I could have that type of experience with a sandwich, in fact! Ive had mand great dinners at Table 8, excellent service, impecible food, hip corwd, etc...but this is definately going to be my new lunch spot. And the amazing thing was....it was less expensive than a lunch at the deli across the street! Pros: beautiful patio on Ocean Drive, perfect lunch cuisine Cons: possability to get addicted to the grilled cheese more

It was with a great expectation that I entered the restaurant that Govind Armstrong has sway over on South Beach. I only wish that it could have lived up to the reputation that this up & coming chef has earned. I called last minute and was able to get a table. This worried me a bit; usually a good restaurant is BOOKED up. My guest & I were promptly seated and although it was 9 pm the place was fairly empty, another worrying sign. The menu appears to have ambitious dishes, but execution was very flat. The starters were Chestnut Soup, which was lukewarm and lackluster. The Sweetbreads while crispy were served in a very oily melange of over cooked root vegetable bits, which added nothing to the dish. They were colorless, texture less and flavorless. VERY DISSAPPOINTING! The Entrees' came next, Salmon on a bed of lentils with collard greens. The dish was dull, colorless and while the salmon at $32 was nice if small at about 6 oz, the single leaf of collard greens and small mound of purple lentils were again oily and quite bland. My guest's buccitini was also under seasoned and rather un appetizingly plated and not served with Parmesan which had to be asked for and was brought literally a teaspoon full on a tiny plate. JOKE or WHAT? At this point we just wanted to escape this very pricy culinary failure. I think that Govind Armstrong really needs to totally revamp the kitchen staff or close this place before it destroys his reputation in this town. Pros: Place has nice trendy look Cons: The Food more

Was in Miami this week for Art Basel and had not prepared by making advance reservations. The only times we could get a possible table were 6pm or 11, so I was very disappointed that I wouldn't have the opportunity to dine at this restaurant that everyone was buzzing about earlier in the week. I asked the woman when I called to take my number in case of a cancellation (figuring there was no way they would actually call). As it happened, on Friday around noon a very pleasant young lady called me to say that she could get my wife and I in at 7:30 that evening. A bit early for Miami, but beggars cant be choosers! We were promptly seated, and were treated fabulously from arrival onward. The room was elegant and already buzzing with energy that early. Out waitress was passionate about their food and terribly knowledgible about the menu and wine. We had wonderful stone crabs, currently in season and an amazing New Zeland mussle dish to start. I was surprised by the selection of steaks (5 to choose from) as I never though of Table 8 as a ""steak house"". I went with the famous salt crusted porterhouse (which isnt on the menu, but those in the know, know to request) and it was a divine experience! the meat was crusted in a beautiful cake of salt and seasons, presented table-side, and then taken back to the kitchen to be sliced. The presentation was enough to come back for alone! My wife had a wonderful fresh grouper, and all of the dishes passing us by looked amazing. The desert menu was fine, not brilliant like the dinner menu, but quite nice. Overall it was a dining experience to rival the best of NY in my opinion. By the time we departed there was a lince out the door and a great bar scene happening. Beautiful decor, a perfect dining experience! Pros: Best Steak menu Ever! more

I had read mixed reviews only online, everything else I've seen about Table 8 from the serious food writers however has been tremendous, so I was happy to have to opportunity to be in Miami recently on business. We had a loud and large group of business associates on a weekend night and had an impeccable dining experience. The waitress was casual, but totally professional and really knew her wine, as well as every dish on the menu...We pretty much trusted her to send out all the apps and every dish she sent was wonderful. Loved the calamari dish, which was totally unique. We had the best buratta I had ever experienced and each dish was simple and approachable- were not talking over the top ""haute cuisine"". Mostly steak eaters for dinner and the porterhouse was honestly as good as all of the press I had heard. Crusted in a salt and herb mixture, I had never seen anything like it. Yes, it was pricey, but you dont go to Miami Beach on a budget. I hear they are opening in NY and I look forward to having them in my backyard, its a ""dont miss"" restaurant! Pros: food, energy, great staff Cons: little bit expensive more

Took my boyfriend for his birthday during lunch and I was disappointed. Maybe my expectations were to high but the food was not good. My boyfriend told me thanx for the meal but he would have enjoyed a dinner I cooked at home better. Nice atmosphere and decor but below average food. Good place to go if you just want to chill and get some drinks with friends but don't expect a fab lunch. Pros: decor, ambience Cons: food more

my husband and i were in Miami for my birthday weekend. We decided to try a a new restaurant in SouthBeach. I chose this restaurant based on the reviews and their menu selection. We decided to try their Tasting Menu. For $120/person for a 5 course meal, we were both disappointed. The food was ok, nothing to rave about. We had the Kobe style slice beef on the menu, and even that did not get our tastebuds jumping. The drinks were clearly overpriced as all places in South Beach. OUr dinner bill totaled $350 for two people. Should have spent the money elsewhere. Pros: Ambience, good menu selection Cons: cost. food was average for the price they charge more

I went there with my boyfriend for the miami spice menu. The menu looked great but the service was terrible and the drinks were very overpriced. The waiter was impossible to find, the food took forever to arrive and when it did I had to look at the meals and say where are we going to eat after this? The portions were extremely small and not tastey at all. I will never go to this restaurant again and have told all my friends of this terrible experience. The need to invest on some waiters and waitresses with personality instead of just looks. The service was awful. Pros: nice atmosphere Cons: everything else more

1 star is 5 too many for this place. We had a party of 10 for my birthday and sat at one of the outdoor tables. Menu was nice, I will say, but the service was the worst I've seen anywhere in a long while. We had to ask for our waiter no less than 5 times while we sat there with menus, no cocktails and no water. Finally they came and took our drink orders, but it took 20 more minutes for everyone to get their drinks. After the cocktails arrived, we had to ask for our waiter 3 more times before he came over and took our dinner order. When the food finally came, everybody's food arrived at different times. Mine, as well as others meals were not cooked to the proper temperature (warm at best), and the food was forgettable. Since you can't let hot food sit around, some people were finished with their entrees before other's had even arrived. Nobody came to check on us while we were eating, and again, glasses went empty for long periods. When we complained to the manager, he said he was sorry, but didn't offer anything: no discount, no free dessert, no round of drinks...just an insincere apology. I'm used to lousy service in Miami, but for the amount of money this place charges, their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. Clearly, I will not be returning to Table 8, nor will I be recommending it to my friends.....and clearly, the management really won't care that a South Beach local is so dissatisfied. Cons: everything more

We have sampled Miami Spice menus all over town. At Devito's they make you feel like a pauper for even requesting it, and once you do there's a dismal choice between a chicken and a pasta, with some unexciting sald to start. At Table 8 they actually offered the Miami Spice menu and said, ""why order from the regular menu, give the Spice menu a shot and I'll gaurantee you'll love it"", and boy was he right. Not only was the service impeccable, the crowd beautiful, and the room gorgeous, but the food was just other-worldly. Chef Armstrong was working the room all night, autographing his cook book for customers, and just spreading the joy all around. Miami has needed a place like this to really back up this so called ""culinary revolution"" everyone has been bantering about and almost nobody delivering. To see Table 8 packed on a week night in Summer is so encouraging, it is hopefully a sign of more good things to come to the Miami culinary scene. The arrogant posers places like Devito's wont stand the test of time, and its a shame that a seemingly great guy like Devito would lend (or sell more likely) his good name to such bogus operators. Pros: Spice Menu, Service, Crowd, Ambiance Cons: Absolutely none to be found! more

South Beach has long been in wont of a great restaurant. Sure, we have some really good places, fun, with decent service, tasty food, but I don't believe anything previously opened has taken South Beach to this level of dining. We experienced so many uniquely brilliant flavors in his dishes that I cant even do justice here in describing, but the Porterhouse was a brilliant display with flavors to match, the simplicity of an oak leaf lettuce salad with such wonderful flavors, the perfection in a grouper, the specialty drinks, with a level of service I have never experienced in South Beach, were all such a joy! Chef Armstrong and his partners have set a new bar that I only hope others coming into this market will strive to match. his food is simple and not ""over the top"", but with such wonderful ingredients that it truly stands out in every way. Well down Table 8! more

We went by for a new Wednesday night ""Dinner Party"" that our concierge at Setai set up. Got there around 10:00 and the scene was hot, nothing but tables of models.... We were seated a bit late (25 mns) but no big deal, since the bar was packed with a fun crowd. Service was totally on point and the food was totally unlike anything I've had down here before. very unique flavors, beautifully composed dishes, and just impressive all around. Had an increadible sliced steak, ""Kobe"" style, with a killer sweetbread appetizer. Everyone was impressed with food, with the exception of one of our dinning companions who apparently prefers his steak burnt crisp- but they graciously took it back and problem solved. After dinner we had a table in the lounge with bottle service, great music all night and just a sex-as-can-be scene. As if the food were not enough, the place rocked. Pros: beautiful people, serious food more