Balans Restaurant & Bar – South Beach

Food was amazing and the service was also great! A must go if youre looking for great tasting food.

Subpar food, overpriced for the portion. Ordered two crab linguine and one came over saucy while the other had none. Rather than tossing the pasta with sauce they left us with cold pasta and a side of lukewarm sauce. Wish they were more attentive since 18% gratuity was automatically added to the bill.

Nice cozy spot in the Lincoln Mall area. The staff was friendly, however the service was pretty slow even though they did not seem to be busy. I went for brunch with my husband and we both ordered the Balas breakfast meal (bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, potatoes). Portions were great – neither of us could finish the meal! 15% gratuity was already added – which was less than the standard 18% added at most other places I visited in the area.

Food, service has always been great. Went for lunch with family, staff was very accommodating with the children. I do miss the olé lobster club before the menu change.
The interior needs to be updated, showing its age. Chairs are a bit beat up. Bathrooms need to be cleaned more to get rid of the smell. Keep the translucent glass doors though.

Step by for few drinks with my girl, Carla provide us spectacular serves, love this place!

Best place for breakfast and brunch. Popular spot for local south beach residents. Good atmosphere good food and alright service. Ordered the eggs benedict with crab cake which they’re known for was delicious!

I got the curry and found a sharp piece of plastic in it. When I notified the server — he took the piece of plastic and walked away. Didn’t say sorry or offer to replace the dish.
Oh — the chicken was chewy and not good. Highly recommend avoiding this dish and this place. 0 stars.

They have the best stake ever «churrasco.»
And their waiter «qais» and the others are so nice. Even their manager Victor is amazing.

I’m not going to lie, at first this place was a nightmare to work with, but after making friends with the right people, and getting all the important cell phone number isn’t not so bad.
It’s a great restaurant, super cute location and very accommodating for large groups.
I would recommend eating outside, and if possible going for Brunch or Lunch… I wouldn’t recommend it for dinner, unless you’re trying to do something low key and go to bed early.

Food was great, the mimosas are amazing, the atmosphere was awesome and since we sat outside we had the chance to people watch as we enjoyed our food and talked about our lives. My best friend invited me and I’m glad she did because I really enjoyed the experience.
Our waitress was very courteous and he came by constantly to make sure we didn’t need anything else.
I was also pretty impressed with the kitchen being open till as late as it was! Great place, check it out!

Came here for Brunch sunday sat down fast, great Mimosas, the server never asked us if we needed anything not bad service but no attention we understand it was a busy brunch sunday. Will be back enjoyed it

Stumbled upon this place on a Saturday night. After reading reviews I didn’t have much hope but was very surprised! Service was great, appetizers were very tasty and espresso martinis were perfect! Would definitely recommend and return.

Not the best. 10 min to order and because I asked for a waiter. The drink finally arrived. I order a fruit juice and they gave me a vegetables smoothie.

Stopped for breakfast. Meal was ok. Bacon came out as tough as beef jerky. My husband complained, she only replaced his did not offer to replace mine. Potatoes were on the extra crisp side. The pancakes however were delicious.

This is our favorite place ever! In spite of being located in South Beach, Balans is a place that anyone can afford. Happy hours on weekends from 3 – 7 and some 10 pm (M-​F) and on weekends after 11 pm. You can always find delicious food and great wine –at very reduced prices during happy hours– and the best service. If you fall in server Hugo’s hands, you will enjoy a great evening. I visited the one in Mary Brickell last night, but unfortunately Balans there succumbed to the ridiculous prices and attitude of that area. The happy hours are not repeated in evening. At SOBE, Balans is never empty. Congrats for a good job and great management.
If you look for StudioNous at SOBE come to Balans!
Luis M Rodriguez

Lincoln Rd location has New boring menu. No more Indonesian noodles nor Baha shrimp nor corn beef hash nor many other great favorites. Managers quit. Prices much higher. Lots of available tables… Need I say more? Oliver’s here I come!

Came with a group of friends for breakfast.
Fast service, pet friendly, clean bathrooms.
Victor and the new manager were charming & attentive.
Crab Benedict was amazing!
Try the cocktails by Gio, very inventive and tasty!
Will return :) nice ambiance; not like the noisy neighbors.

Great place to start your day at. Very popular for their breakfast. Amazing salmon Benedict!

It was one of the only places open when we arrived to Miami. Service was not the best. She forgot some items we asked for & the food was OK.
Got an omelette, avocado toast, cappuccino & mimosas.
Prices are reasonable but won’t go back unless we have to.

Great avocado toast! Couches make a good spot to stop in the shade of umbrellas to people watch! Be sure to try the fresh squeezed juice– delicious!

We live in Miami and often frequent Balans but at the Biscayne Blvd location; we always have had a good experience. Today’s experience at the South Beach location was awful and incredibly disappointing.
Two of the items we ordered were unavailable (Nutella crêpe and one of the fresh fruit juice combos), which is bizarre for a full service restaurant given that it was only 11am when we ordered.
Our server (David) was very very inattentive. It took over 30 minutes for is to get our food (2 omlettes and a sandwich — nothing complicated) with the restaurant being about 40% occupied (so not busy). David never came over to apologize or explain the delay. My son ordered water. He never got it after 90 minutes and us asking more than once. My boyfriend ordered a refill on water and never got it after waiting for over 30 minutes.
When we finally got our food, David never came to check on us. We wanted to order another drink and finally had to ask the hostess to help us.
We won’t be back to this location.

Balans happy hour is even better now that they have craft beer on tap for $ 4. Also $ 5 wine, $ 6 cocktails and $ 6 small plates and flatbreads in an upscale setting with comfy outdoor seating and friendly service too.

Is you like awesome: drinks /​food /​people watching /​drinks /​music /​brunch /​service, then this is the place! Great martinis. The grouper bites are always a fav. I had the macadamia crusted snapper last night, it was so delicious! The crab cakes are the best on Lincoln Road! Why? They have fricken crab in them! more crab than bread crumbs and filler, so yeah I ate one all to myself. They’re always adding new items so come back again and again so you don’t miss anything. The Indonesian Noodles with Shrimp are a new one, they’re great too.

So with my obsession of eggs Benedict I tried them here and they were good. That’s all I had and it’s very filling. The prices at this place are resonance, nothing crazy for being Lincoln Road and ridiculous. A lot of people have told me they like this place for breakfast and I did too. Check it out!

We were staying close by so this was a supposed to be a good option for breakfast.
I was pretty disappointed. The food was decent but nothing special as far as breakfast food goes. It could have been better if it had arrived to the table warmer and in a timely manner. While this was disappointing it could have been overlooked if the bathroom hadn’t been so appalling. There were separate mens and women’s single stall bathrooms. The reason I’m pointing this out will be apparent in a moment. The ladies bathroom was absolutely disgusting. I am shocked by how poorly a woman can leave a restroom. This isn’t even the worst part. I left our table three times during the course of breakfast in hopes that the bathroom would have been cleaned so I could actually use it but to no luck. I did finally resort to using the men’s bathroom, a first for me. It was clean enough to use but I would not say it was sparkling in any way. These bathrooms are in a prime spot in the restaurant and I do not understand why they weren’t checked on more regularly.
Overall, I wouldn’t return here because the food was mediocre and the bathrooms needed some serious help.

Staying in a hotel close by we were looking for a sit down breakfast option. After to go breakfast for a few days I needed a minute to sit down, hold a menu in my hand and enjoy a real breakfast.
We strolled along Lincoln Road and found this without issue. There was a movie or something being filmed a few doors away and there was quite a commotion. We opted to escape the added noise and dine inside. The front door was wide open but the A/​C was blasting so the temperature never really felt regulated.
While glancing through the menu my wife stepped away to use the restroom. She found it unclean (i’ll spare you the details) and spoke to one of the staff members about getting it cleaned so she could use it.
We ordered and waited for our food. Bathroom still was filthy.
Food arrived and my wife couldn’t wait. My brother told her to use the mens room. She said the mens room was quite clean while the women’s room still remain uncleaned.
We set that aside and tried to enjoy our breakfast.
I ordered a basic breakfast — scrambled eggs, tomato, bacon, sausage, potatoes and upgraded to a bagel and cream cheese instead of toast. When the meal arrived I was underwhelmed. The bacon looked like it had been cooked and allowed to sit for a bit of time. The eggs were cooked well and still warm which was nice. The potatoes lacked a seasoning or dominating flavor profile and were chewier than I expected. I don’t like sausage but my brother took it off my plate and after a few bites opted not to continue eating it. The bagel and cream cheese were fine and good to have since the rest of my meal was underwhelming.
The prices charged for dining on Lincoln Road relative to what was delivered were not on par. I would take the extra time, jump in the car and dine away from the area. This place was not worth it.
Especially when the customer service was just as lacking as the flavor of the food.

I have been coming here since it opened and the breakfasts were always amazing! Now I came for happy hour and the service was friendly and really good. The wait staff were helpful, engaging and smiling.
Awesome happy hour 5pm-​7pm with delicious $ 5 wine and good eats and good service. Well done Balans! The flat bread pizza was delicious too.

I was on a mission to find a swimsuit so I headed to Lincoln Road Mall (recommended by a local) to shop and I got hungry as soon as I set foot on the strip. It was lunch time and I fancied something light, like a salad or seafood or both.
I saw the menu for Balans, spotted exactly what I wanted, but didn’t want to stop at the first of the few menus I’d seen. I walked the entire strip from Alton Road down to Washington Avenue, found my swimsuit, looked at all the menus, and you guessed it, ended up back at Balans.
I sat outside by a fan. I was greeted promptly. I ordered the Lump Crab Salad right away. I had known all along that that’s what I wanted. I then ordered a Red Lotus to drink (pretty tasty with a sweet lychee in it).
My salad arrived pretty quickly. It was definitely pretty. It had grapefruit, orange, and watermelon on it over a bed of mixed greens with a mango lime dressing. And a nice sized portion of lump crab meat.
Overall, very tasty salad. Light. Refreshing. Never knew crab and grapefruit would pair so nicely.
The 3 things that made me rate this ³⁄₅ stars:
1) If you’re going to serve citrus in a salad, please make sure it’s segmented.
2) I shouldn’t have to use a knife to make my mouthfuls bite-​sized.
3) Make sure there are NO SEEDS from the orange or grapefruit in the salad! I found 2.

My friends and I found ourselves looking for a place to grab a simple bite to eat and a drink.
We ended up going to Balans, not our first choice but Segafredo was too busy.
We were promptly seated and our order was taken. We ordered a grilled chicken salad and the hummus trio, in my opinion the hummus was better than the salad.
Our server was polite. No complaints there.
I can’t really tell you what it is but I just feel this place is missing something, maybe is something with the service or maybe they need to be more creative with their menu? Maybe a little bit of both? But definitely something is missing, at least that’s my opinion.

This is the 3^rd time that I come to enjoy this restaurant. It the ratings had a 4 ½ star I would of gave it to them. But alas, 4 star must be. Located on the hip Lincoln Road in SOBE (a place to be seen and to be seen with). Balan’s is poised for greatness!
Service here is great always looking to make you feel as comfortable as possible. There is hounding for you to finish nor is there anyone that is hovering over you. They just want you to feel at home to enjoy the cuisine, the focus here is good food, great service. ASK FOR NESTOR, wonderful smile and personality to match; he was at the top of the game, always watching our table and meeting our every needs.
The menu was not vast just clean and full of creative dishes from the Grouper bites to the Asian noodles to the poached Salmon, you are encouraged to explore. They always have dishes that are not on the menu so be sure to ask what they are from Nestor.
Have a great time!

Für einen Absacker am Abend sind wir hier spontan eingekehrt!
Happy Hour stand auf der Karte, das klang verlockend!
Regulär kostet jeder Cocktail 11,95 $, zur Happy Hour dann aber nur noch 6,95 $, was ein super Kurs für diese Ecke von Miami Beach ist.
Wir waren gespannt, wie der Cocktail zu diesen Konditionen aussehen würde?!
Kurze Zeit später würde das Geheimnis gelüftet.
Der Long Island Iced Tea war wirklich klasse. Geschmacklich gut getroffen und auch von der Mischung mehr als gut!
Zu diesem Preis und und in einer wirklich guten Größe, stimmte das Preis-​Leistungsverhältnis vollkommen!
Der Service war freundlich und präsent.
Das Ambiente auf den Lounge-​Möbeln war relaxt und man konnte entspannt die anderen Gäste und Passanten beobachten die vorbei schlendern!
Wer also in der Nähe ist, und Lust auf einen Cocktail zum angenehmen Preis hat, sollte ins Balans einkehren!

Heute waren wir gegen 9pm in dem Laden, bzw. davor in der Lincoln Road auf einem kleinen Sofa und haben bei zwei sehr guten Cocktails den Abend ausklingen lassen.
Die Cocktails waren wirklich sehr lecker.
Ich kann aber leider nur drei Sterne vergeben zwei für die sagenhafte Lage, einen für die Getränke.
Abzug gibt es für den völlig überforderten Surferboy der uns versuchte zu bedienen (wenn man ihn zu Gesicht bekam).
Des weiteren gibt es für die abgegriffenen, schmuddeligen Getränkekarten und den versifften Tisch Abzug.
In punkto Sauberkeit könnte dieses Land noch von anderen lernen.
Hier war es heute aber extrem.