As I waited to use the restroom at The River Oyster Bar yesterday, I read the restaurant’s glowing reviews, nicely framed and hung on the walls, and wondered what had gone wrong with our Miami Spice lunch there. It was my first time at the restaurant and I had read great comments so I didn’t anticipate an experience that so closely bordered the disappointing.
We received the Miami Spice menu with the regular menu. No complaints there. From that point on, though, the service was unfriendly and disjointed.
I started off with the tomato and Napa valley goat cheese salad. A tomato half topped with goat cheese and balsamic syrup, served over arugula and pesto. The goat cheese was creamy with an intense flavor; the dish not overly creative but good.
With the exception of the fish salad, the entrees posted on the Miami Spice web site are different than those that were offered yesterday. We had a choice of steak (not the churrasco), the fish salad and Mongolian pink shrimp with spicy noodles. Four of us ordered the shrimp, which turned out to be a poor choice, at least for our tastes. The shrimp were large, plump and juicy, but the dish was too spicy to eat. My lips, tongue, mouth were burning after the first bite. I like spice but this was too much. I ate the shrimp and some of the noodles that weren’t in sauce, which carried all the heat, but I couldn’t really enjoy the dish.
The person who ate the fish salad said it was good and the steak looked good too, although it was served on an unimpressive bed of lettuce and chopped tomatoes. One of my friends opted to not order from the Miami Spice menu, instead choosing the churrasco with yucca and roasted vegetables originally listed on the Miami Spice website from the regular menu. Wishing I would’ve taken that route, I waited for dessert hoping it would save the day, but its anti-climactic arrival didn’t allow it to.
Three of us ordered the queso manchego with orange-carrot salad and candied walnut raisin crisp, except two of us didn’t get a crisp. The three long rectangular plates arrived at the table at the same time: Thin triangular sliver of manchego on the left side, carrot salad in the middle, crisp on the right side — of only one dish. Was I on candid camera? Now, why would someone carrying out three plates of the same thing carry out two of them visibly missing a component? I called our waiter and asked for my crisp while my coworker felt cheated and asked to change the manchego for a warm apple and berry crisp with vanilla ice cream. That was really good. But I also enjoyed the combination of the manchego on the crisp topped with the carrot salad despite its initial incompleteness. It was interesting and light.
Back by the review-plastered walls leading up to the restroom after my meal, I read Victoria Pesce Elliott’s review, in which she said that if she were hard pressed to pick her favorite restaurants in Miami, The River Oyster Bar would be on the short list. Certainly, I figured, something had gone wrong this time around. I want to give this one another try but not for Miami Spice, at least not lunch, which I didn’t find worthwhile. You’re better off ordering from the regular menu like my friend who enjoyed her $14 churrasco more than all six Miami Spicers put together enjoyed their three-course meals.
tags: Miami Spice, The River Oyster Bar
P,
Please give the place another chance. It’s still one of my favorites in the city. It can be a little quirky (such as your crisp experience) and the chef can be a little heavy-handed with the spice (the churrasco at night comes with grilled vegetables, some of them being whole grilled jalapenos - I guess chiles are vegetables, right?) but I find the place homey and casual enough that I don’t feel uncomfortable asking for something that was forgotten or for less spice in a dish. As you go there more often, and you should, it’ll grow on you. If you go at night, try the tuna tartar. I know it’s done everywhere, but River’s has something different.
I will. Honestly, I’ve never heard bad comments about the place. Our experience was just awkward. We were a large party too, so I don’t know if that had something to do with it. Walking around the restaurant I saw other people’s food and everything looked really great. In fact, a friend had the shrimp from the Miami Spice menu on another occasion and loved it. Maybe his was less spicy. The dessert part was odd but I definitely want to try their regular menu. As I’ve said many times, I believe in second chances.
As I read your entry, I had complete deja vu…we went to River for Spice last year, and had nearly the same experience. When we told our server we were going with the Spice menu, he was surly and unpleasant. The food was similarly off, and we all left feeling annoyed and ripped off.
This wasn’t my first time at the River Oyster — I’d been a couple times before, and liked it — but it was definitely my last.