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