Between the water and the sand-wich

Four Words. Best Grilled Cheese EVER.

The restaurant is fun and homey, the food is great and the service is remarkable!!! A true gem in the midtown district of Miami. The prices are reasonable, and the taste is definitely worth it.

Even their website is cute! The Morgans Restaurant Check them out! 

Infamous Turkey Pesto Panini with a pickle (which was the only delicious part)

On Monday I was faced with the challenge of fulfilling my “civic duty” by serving for jury duty. Needless to say, it was the most boring, unproductive day, EVER. I originally was excited about serving because I had to go to the downtown county court house, which meant exploring new fun places to eat! But I was wrong.

Being the iPhone dependent type, during my lunch break I decided to use “Yelp” to find a mom and pop type restaurant to indulge my taste-buds. I came across “Metro Deli” which claimed to be “THE New York deli in Miami”…yeah right. I’ve been to NYC and it’s never sucked. Sorry.

First of all, it was hidden in some rinky dink, scary looking food court AND from the outside it didn’t look appetizing at all..as you can see in the photo. But since I don’t like to judge a place just on the decor, I decide to go forth…

Now, I’m all about giving new foods a chance but this was beyond my god given abilities of taste. I ordered their special turkey pesto panini (with everything…which I later discovered included artichokes…random, I know) At first it smelled amazing and so I figured I would instantly fall in love, but no. The cheeses were so bland that it took away from the delicious flavor of the pesto. The artichokes were random and didn’t do anything at all to enhance the flavor. Overall it was just bland and way too filling.

Maybe that wasnt their best sandwich but I don’t think I’d try them again…

It’s just a shame that yelp has it rated as a 4 out of 5 stars. How misleading. Shame on you, Yelp.

The other day I decided to treat my amazing boyfriend to a day out in downtown Miami and to a picnic. Since the weather in Miami has been gorgeous, many  of the natives like myself have tried to take advantage and do a million and one things outside. So we had a wonderful little picni, just us two.

As you can see from the pictures, it was a beautiful day. What made it even better was the delicious eats. We went to  Manhattan Cafe, which is right across from the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center in the outskirts of downtown Miami. The place itself was cute, definitely your typical little new york eatery. The staff was nice, no new york hostility, which was awesome, but the food was pretty decent. Their usual spread includes your basic sandwiches, wraps, salads, and baguettes. I opted for the pita sandwich:

Pita Veggie Sandwich, Shredded* carrots, lettuce, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, with house dressing and cold cut chicken breast.

it was pretty good, and surprisingly filling! My boyfriend got their signature chicken salad sandwich, which was pretty good as well:

Our World Famous Chicken Salad* with raisins, basil, pignoli nuts, granny smith apples & a touch of mayo.

Overall our picnic date was perfect and our food was pretty great. Although the price was a little steep, it was still affordable and it was super quick and healthy, which is a great find in MIami.

This weekend my boyfriend decided to treat me to a night out on the town. He was recommended a restaurant that surely exceeded our expectations. 

Located on the east side of Sunset Mall in South Miami is a little restaurant called Dan Marino’s. Little is an understatement. The restaurant itself is surprisingly beautiful. I don’t expect too much from restaurants that are located inside malls but this one really was incredible. The decor was simple, but it had a very chic and relaxed ambiance. The chairs were comfortable, they almost looked like leather recliners, but classy of course. At first I wondered why they decided to pick those particular chairs, because it seemed like it would be a bit expensive, but once I finished my meal, I knew why. 

Our meal consisted of a 9 oz. fillet mignon steak, mine medium, his medium rare, with asparagus spears, and garlic mashed potatoes with a side of hollandaise sauce.

Prior to that day, I had never had hollandaise sauce, but it was so good! I’m not quite sure what it was made up of, but the combination of the flavors along with the flavors of the steak and asparagus were so delightful. The meal was truly what I had been craving— a good steak. The menu was a bit pricey, with each of our entrees starting at $28 a plate, but it was definitely worth it.

After our main course we had a desert called the Almond Basket: 

“Our most popular dessert. Baked almond brittle folded into a basket, filled with raspberry sorbet & fresh seasonal berries. When you order this one watch the wow’s happen. Enjoy!”

That was the description in the menu. How could we possibly resist!?

Needless to say the desert was so good that I forgot to take a picture (huge failure, I know.) But it was exactly how the menu described it, EVEN with the FRESH berries (they were SO good!) I was very happy about that, because many times I’ve gone to restaurants that claim to serve fresh berries but they serve you soggy berries…ew. But this desert didn’t disappoint.

After we finished I was so full that all I could do was sit back, in my nice, over-sized, leather chair. It was the perfect meal, with the perfect date, at the most perfect place. Great experience and I recommend it to all!

Afternoon delight.

Sweetcakes flavor of the day: nutella and banana cream :D