food, Food, FOOD! I really wish I could eat more, so we could’ve gone to more food places in Miami! Everything looked cool and super yummy. There’s definitely going to be future trips to Miami to try all the other spots that I had on my list. Until then, enjoy these places! As I’m typing this post, I realized that we actually went to a lot of places, so this is a longer food post hehe.
The first restaurant that we went to was located in the Lincoln Road Mall called La Cerveceria De Barrio. Coming from the snowy and cold midwest, dining outside surrounded by palm trees was just what we needed. We took advantage of outdoor seating the whole trip. I don’t remember exactly what we got to eat, but the food was pretty good. I do remember the drink though haha. I ordered a lychee margarita and it was a very interesting mix. I’m not really sure if I like lychee flavor mixed with tequila though, I don’t really drink too much tequila to begin with. The drink smelled really good and I definitely felt a buzz from the drink.
On our walk back, we decided to grab some dessert from Icy-N-Spicy. Go check out their instagram when you have the chance, they have super fun and big desserts! I don’t remember the last time I had that much sugar in one sitting. We got the cotton candy + 2 scoops + 1 topping combo. The two flavors that we got for the ice cream was cookie monster and banana dulce leche with ferrero rochers chocolate as the topping. Both ice cream flavors were super good, but my favorite was the banana dulce leche. We didn’t have the option of picking our own flavored cones, but they had some pretty cool flavors like matcha and red velvet. This will be on my list of places to go back too, soooo many more desserts to try from them!
The first morning in Miami, our airbnb host recommended Pura Vida. It was super close and walking distance, so we decided to give it a try. We ordered the Blue Majik acai bowl with an Immune Booster juice shots. Our bowl consisted of blue spirulina blended with passionfruit, banana, pineapple, almond milk, chia seed, topped with vegan granola, shaved coconut and blueberries. We also picked up a fresh coconut to drink from! Smoothie/acai bowls are always so yummy and I really enjoy the taste of immune booster shots. It’s both fruity and spicy, plus it gives me that feeling of me actually taking care and doing something good for my body.
Now my FAVORITE dining experience ever. I booked a table for us at Gianni’s at the Former Versace Mansion, the Villa Casa Casuarina. I can’t even explain how exciting that was for me. I would have never thought that I would be dining in a mansion, let alone Gianni Versace’s mansion. One day, I’ll be able to afford to book a suite there and experience the rest of the mansion. It is a beautiful house and there’s so much details in the design and architecture everywhere. Our table was right by the pool outside and you didn’t even notice or hear any noise from anything beyond the walls, you literally just forget that you’re at South Beach Miami and in this other world.
So for our appetizers, we got the Gianni’s Salad and the Kobe Beef Carpaccio. The Kobe Beef was very tender and so easy to pull apart, the salad was perfect and light with the lemon dressing. For the main entree, we ordered the Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli and the Chicken Scallopini. Both entrees were delicious and then for dessert we both got the Sorbet. Now the sorbet was my favorite dish, the flavor was a creamy coconut. Probably the best coconut ice cream or sorbet that I have ever had. I would eat it all day if I could. For drinks, I ordered Versace Nero D’Avola IGT, a red wine and my boyfriend got the Coco Casuarina cocktail. Another great coconut food item we had on the trip! I would definitely go back to Gianni’s to try the rest of the food and just for the atmosphere itself.
Keep in mind that it was fine dining, so portions are small. I don’t eat much, so it was the perfect amount for me haha.
You thought I was done? Nope there’s still a few more places to go! So we ate pretty good the day of the mansion, summer bodies were not in mind at all because we went to Cajun Boil for dinner. The size of the seafood in Florida will always beat the midwest, it’s a must to get seafood in a bag when down south! We had our first seafood boil together in Orlando back in 2019 and have tried every place we could find ever since then and nothing beats the quality in Florida. I would say Cajun Boil is my second favorite place so far. (King Cajun Crawfish Orlando will forever be my favorite.) This place was pretty good, so we actually had dinner here again the next day LOL.
So between the two dinners that we had here, the flavor and spice levels were pretty inconsistent. On the first day, it was so flavorful and we ordered a medium spice level that had our nose running as we ate, but the second day it wasn’t as flavorful and we ordered a level up ‘spicy‘ and that wasn’t even as spicy as the day before. It was still good though, don’t get me wrong. The sauce wasn’t just all butter and oil, it was an actual sauce called the ultimate sauce. The first day we got combo #6 including 1/2 Lb shrimp & 1 Lb clam & 1/2 lb snow crab & 1 lobster tail. The table next to us ordered the pound of Alaskan Snow Crab, so the second day we ordered that with a combo #2 including 1 lb Crawfish & 1 lb Shrimp & 1 Fresh Maine Lobster.
After seafood, we decided to walk on Ocean Drive again for dessert and drinks to end the night. I’ve always seen things on social media about those nitro dragon breath bite things and there a spot called Nitro Dragons, so we grabbed some to try. To be pretty honest, I was pretty disappointed in it. First, I thought it would be more like ice cream bites or like crunchy flavored ice things, but they’re more like cheese balls that taste like captain crunch and they taste stale once they stop steaming. I would say overrated, first and last time eating those.
We went over to Sugar Factory for drinks and a small french fries snack. Of course we had to get their popular 60 oz. glass bowl. On my 21st birthday, I had a big bowl to myself, finished only half of it and had to take a fat midday nap because I was so drunk, so I wanted to share one this time just incase I wouldn’t be able to walk back to our place. My alcohol tolerance is so much higher now though, I’m sure I can handle a whole bowl to myself this time. The flavor that we got was The Watermelon Patch and fun fact: the Watermelon Patch was actually designed by Pitbull. So thank you Pitbull for that!
(We also grabbed a slice of pizza on the walk back and fell into a deep food coma sleep)
Our last full day in Miami was an adventure day, so for lunch we grabbed a quick slice of pizza and hotdogs from places we passed walking around in Wynwood. After our activities, we got some Taiyaki Ice Cream from Taiyaki NYC located inside 1-800 LUCKY. If we weren’t so full from the day before and saving room for another seafood boil dinner, I would’ve tried the ramen or other asian foods from the other restaurants located there too! It was such a vibe there, I could’ve stayed there all day and just ate listening to the music. Imagine a beer garden with asian influence. It’s a place that we’ll definitely go back to try out. We got the Cafe Con Leche and the Matcha Made in Heaven Taiyaki flavors.
Just writing and looking at all the pictures again made my mouth just water. So much good food and that wasn’t even all the places that I wanted to try! Most of the time I find food places through instagram, but this time I literally just googled best _____ in Miami and found tons of options. It’s honestly the best part about planning and going on trips, the food! Expect another food blog post from Miami with new locations later on, until then I’m going to train to eat more. HAHA. Should I make a post about where we visited in Miami? Let me know! Stay safe everyone and warm if you’re in a snowy winter season like me! xoxo ♡
SALLY ♡ T
SALLY♡THINGS 