How would you like to eat at a restaurant where the kitchen is crawling with rodents and bugs, where the walk-ins are filthy, and the line hasn’t been cleaned in months? Not to scare you, but it happens, and more often than you think. Florida inspectors have been hitting the…
This week, I’m shying away from a picture of the layout and instead posting this bit of food porn from our restaurant in question.The catch is, not only do you have to tell me the restaurant we’re eating this tasty-looking morsel from but you also must name the dish. (Click…
Jennifer Reed is a South Florida chef and owner of the the Sugar Monkey. She blogs on Clean Plate Charlie about food and the people who make it. A three-week road trip through the South and Midwest was exactly what I needed to gain ten pounds and get in touch…
Trusting there’s always something interesting to be found at Whole Foods, we searched the aisles until — voilà! — we came across bags of Classic Iced Tea-flavored candy. Most candy companies do a terrible job of translating drinks into candies (Harino and Brach’s — you need to step it up!),…
This week’s column on crabbing around South Florida gave me a lot of ideas on what it takes to eat crab the right way. There’s proper technique, of course. You’ve got to know how to dismantle a whole steamer, what’s edible, and what’s not. But then there’s also a list…
Zagat posted its annual survey results for fast food this week, rating national fast- and full-service chain eateries in categories like “Top Food for a Mega Chain” (Wendy’s) and “Top Healthy Options” (Subway, Jamba Juice). But every survey has its stud, and this year’s was Five Guys, who took the…
There have been plenty of attempts to fancy up Cuban cuisine. There’s the overrated Versailles, and the Cabana restaurants in West Palm and Delray do a good Cuban-Caribbean fusion.But the truth is, a fine ropa vieja can be found at lunch-counter Cuban joints, like Las Colinas, a Wilton Manors restaurant…
Chef Carlos Fernandez of Hi-Life Cafe and Top Chef fame shares with us some of his experiences on the show and gives us some insight as to what’s in store for this neighborhood bistro now that it’s under new management.To read part one of this interview, click here.New Times: You…
• Once upon a time, it was pretty common for local restaurants to shut down for the summer. Now that the economy is in the shitter, it’s starting to happen again. Charlie reported earlier that Testa’s in Palm Beach had made like a door and closed until November, and now…
To view a slideshow from the Rustic Inn, click here. Fenton Stanley Ridgeway III hunches over a stack of Maryland-style blue crabs at Riggins Crabhouse in Lantana. He’s dismantling the crabs like a machine: His thick fingers look impossibly nimble as they dance across the shells, plucking out meat from…
Got an interesting post or bit of news to share? Email it to Charlie and we’ll include it in Eating Around the Blog-o-Sphere. All Purpose Dark raves about the best thing it’s eaten recently, a fried calamari and jicama salad from La Marea.Remember The Meatist? New Times’ old columnist has his own…
When Jose Martinez and his fellow chefs showed up for work on Friday morning at the Samba Room, they were shocked to find the doors closed.Instead of walking into the kitchen to prep for service, the employees were confronted by a representative from E-Brands, corporate owner of the Samba Room,…
This week in Dish, it’s a crab adventure. But not just any crabs — blue crabs from Florida’s Gulf and East coasts, prepared Maryland-style or doused in garlic oil. To get this fix, we ate at two local institutions of crabbery — Riggins Crabhouse in Lantana and Rustic Inn in…
Samba Room, which for ten years brought Latin fusion to Las Olas Boulevard, closed its doors on Friday. The closure follows last week’s news that E-Brands, the parent company behind Samba Room as well as Timpano’s Italian Chophouse & Martini Bar (also on Las Olas), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy…
Navigating the sprawling expanse of South Florida can be difficult for even the most seasoned foodie. With Destination Dishes, we’re looking to make your food travels easier. Each week, we’ll highlight the most interesting food finds, broken down by region. Want to find great roti on 441? Or how about…
Quaint, German restaurant Checkers Old Munchen held a good, old-fashioned bier tasting this past Friday night that saw the joint packed. A sizable crowd turned up and shoehorned in to the August installment of the restaurant’s monthly beer pairing. There was barely any standing room to be had, but the…
It seems we can’t stump you folks. Every time we ask you to guess the restaurant we’re eating in based on a picture, you get it right in no time. Well, this week’s Where Are We Eating? should be a little bit harder.No hints here, other than to state the…
• If you’re going to work in a restaurant, you may as well work in one that offers a killer selection of beer. That would be Yard House, which is opening next month in the Village at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach and is now hiring some 200 folks to…
South Florida’s hot chefs, including Talay Thai’s Charlie Soo, get the calendar treatment. Oysters that clock in at eight inches long? We’re gonna need a bigger boat.Food trucks are back. Here’s a comprehensive list of South Florida’s kitchens on wheels.Palm Beach has some great specialty markets. Here’s our Top Five.This…
“You call this spicy?” said Brad, a broad, bearded New Yorker with a penchant for heat. “I gotta tell you, sister, this ain’t hot at all.” Brad, a friend of my parents’, was talking about my mother’s homemade enchiladas. Since I was a kid, she would make the chicken- and…
Potato chips aren’t exactly considered exotic fare in America, but when we saw our favorite brand, Archer Farms, was offering Macaroni & Cheese, General Tso, and Greek-Inspired versions, we had to give ’em a go. After all, the brand’s traditional and Salt & Vinegar-flavored chips have long been favorites, mostly…
We’ve seen plenty of restaurants close for summer vacation, but when a place shuts down for the entire summer, it’s usually bad news. That’s what’s happening at the 90-year-old Palm Beach institution Testa’s. The restaurant announced Wednesday that it would be stopping all operations for the rest of the summer…
