Cafe Charlotte

This place was recommended but the food was just ok. The service was good, seated immediately. Food was OK, the sauce was watery and the meat was pretty tough (chicken). Worst part — the surrounding area is pretty dicey. A lot of street people and a few women outside of a neighboring night club handing out coupons, I guess.

Their Empanadas are amazing! I haven’t had better empanadas yet.
The prices are also very reasonable.

The place is not as good as it’s rated. I was not welcomed when I came in. The server wasn’t friendly. The skirt steak tasted indifferent. Finally, I was charged 15% for tips which is often for a party of 5 or 6 people, not a party of one.

Our first night in South Beach, we found this on Unilocal and it lived up to expectations. I ordered the beef empanada, taqueria, and snapper in lime sauce. Everything was delicious. I also snacked from my fellow diners on the ham and cheese empanada, calamari and palamano. It was all delicious and the entire group agreed it was a good choice for dinner. It was a quiet Thursday and we were seated and served very quickly. Seems like an off the path place, but well worth it.

I was here a couple of days ago and fell in love with the snapper with lime sauce. Every bite had a lot of flavor. Don’t let the white sauce scare you, it looks creamy but it really isn’t. The service was spectacular and the food came out very quickly. I would also recommend the skirt steak over the ribeye. The ribeye seems to be low quality. You should check this place out whenever you get a chance.

Place is OK, but not 4.5 stars. Pricey for what it is: a simple no frills spot. Food was good, but nothing to die for.

Great food that is worth a trek through a so so part of town. Get the skirt steak you won’t regret it! The Italian stuff is OK but the steaks are where it’s at.

Great food for a great price! I was in the area and stumbled upon this family owned café.
Service is fantastic, we were seated immediately and our waitress took our drink orders right away. When she returned she explained the menu and gave us a few suggestions.
We ordered the ribeye with rice and beans and a skirt steak with fries, both cooked medium. Before our food arrived we were given some table bread with a side of tomato garlic olive oil topping on the side. It was very good although i hoped the bread was a little warmer.
Our food arrived fairly quickly to our satisfaction. The grill is right out front so you can smell the yummy goodness being created. The was super yummy and delicious! Both steaks had a lot of flavor but i preferred the ribeye’s flavor more than the skirt steak. The chimichurri sauce on the side was fabulous as well, it went great with both steaks. Only downside was that we asked for medium and the steaks came too red in the middle, bloody, and running.
Next was dessert, when I see panna cotta– i must have it. Lol it came creamy with prefection topped with a caramel rasberry sauce. Amazing! Loved it!

The food here is pretty amazing. I had the skirt steak and it was perfectly cooked to my expectation. The seasoning was good as well.
My girl got some seafood spaghetti type dish. It comes with oysters, mussels, shrimp, and calamari. She loved it and can’t talking about how good it is. I’ll update when I get the name of it. It’s a nice small relaxed type of environment so it would be good for a little romantic setting if you wanted.
I will definitely come back next time I’m in Miami.

This place is absolutely not a 4 – 5 star restaurant, even for the price. The service was really disappointing as the waiter looked like he was going to fall asleep and couldn’t even answer a simple question about the menu.
The food was prepared way too quickly (literally 5 minutes) and tasted no better than a simple spaghetti anyone could make with ingredients from the grocery store on the corner. The parmesan cheese was out of the plastic container, the sauce was not homemade, and the butter was literally served frozen in those little plastic containers.
I recommend finding a different place to eat.

All I can say … is that although it may look like a «Dive» the service and the food was amazing! I was sad we could not return before we left Miami! I can still taste the steak on my mouth!

Amazing food! I got the Ribeye with mushroom sauce and my date got the large skirt steak. Both were flavored perfectly. I asked for their chimichurri (I may have butchered the spelling) sauce but I thought the flavor alone of the steak was already good enough and didn’t need any help from the sauce. :)
Both were amazing!!!
We also ordered the calamari which we loved. The meal came with bread, butter and salsa. I ordered the plaintains with my ribeye steak which I don’t recommend, not because the plaintains weren’t good, but because they were sweet fried bananas, the flavors didn’t end up complimenting the steak very well. I would recommend you go with a more neutral and bland side like potatoes. :)
Otherwise our dinner was fabulous all around and the service was good too.
For $ 64 (this included mandatory tip like all the other places on South Beach) we got two huge orders or steak and amazing calamari. We were very happy with our meal. :)

Yikes. I’m all for affordable eats, just not when quality is a huge trade-​off. Their food is mediocre, the ambiance nonexistent and the service subpar.
My friend and I were searching for a dinner spot on Unilocal and came here because of the great reviews. I ordered the Pabellon ($ 12.95) and she ordered the Skirt Steak with a side of House salad ($ 13.95). Our food came out very quickly, almost too quickly. I wouldn’t have minded waiting 20 minutes for a well executed dish but it fell way short of expectations. As we were eating I noted that the beef was very hard to chew and surprisingly bland, despite the colorful seasoning. The plantains were also way too sweet for my liking and the black beans had a hint of sourness, which left a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, my girl friend had a better experience with her food and said that her medium rare skirt steak was good, though nothing special. Service was uninspiring, our waiter had an I-couldn’t-care-less attitude and he didn’t bother checking up on us. Perhaps because a 15% service charge was already included in the bill?
Not sure why this place has 4.5 stars. I wanted to like the food but unfortunately (or should I say fortunately?) I will not be returning when I’m in Miami Beach.

Service was very poor and food mediocre at best. Waited in line for 20 minutes just to get a vendor who doesn’t know what goes into the breakfast and tried to make me choose either bacon, toast or friest, although they are all included in the breakfast (separated by commas). Ended up ordering Popeye el Marino breakfast, which cost me almost $ 10. Comes with small OJ — basically a 2 oz shot of orange juice (although their full price small OJ is 12 oz), 4 egg whites with ricotta and spinach and spinach croquette. Besides the table being dirty, I’m hugely disappointed. Was expecting more based on the Unilocalers. Guess my review will go unnoticed in the sea of people who just love this place (for what reason exactly?)

A perfect little café in the heart of Miami Beach to get some of the best Latin food at affordable prices… oh, and the wine too!
Thus far in Miami Beach, we’d already gotten a taste of Cuba and Peru. Now it was time for Argentine flavors with the best beef empanadas I’ve ever had. For $ 2.50 a piece, you really can’t go wrong with this fluffy, savory puff. I wish I had stomach space to order more.
The real gem here was my Snapper with Lime Sauce and plantains. My fish fillet was amazing, and the lime sauce drizzled over it just made everything so orgasmic. I had to control myself from immediately going to town and devouring this meal. The complimentary bread helps to keep me on my pace, but best believe I wanted another fish.
My friends ordered breakfast with shredded pork and the mussels, both of which were tasty in their own rights. Everything here really was divine.
While service at first seemed slow, they never once rushed us, and gave us all the time we needed to enjoy our food, wine, and dessert. Since it can be either really slow or busy, be a little assertive when trying to grab the wait staff’s attentions. Best grab a bottle of their recommended reds and nurse it while you wait for your food and staff to get back to you.
Café Charlotte was certainly a treat. Thanks for giving us such a wonderful brunch experience on days when the weather is less than perfect.

Underwhelmed by my experience here. My boyfriend and I were visiting for the weekend from NYC. I bookmarked this place for dinner due to all the great reviews. I was starving. I noticed more Italian dishes than anything else. FYI, this place is quite small but we got lucky and the restaurant was nearly empty on a Sunday evening.
As an appetizer, we ordered the Caprese salad which was pretty good but that’s not hard to make. The complimentary bread came with an amazing red sauce though! It was actually the most flavorful thing I tasted. As entrees, we both ordered the «Frutti Di Mare» ($ 15). For the first time in my life, I was disappointed with this dish. I’m used to ordering this at other places and it usually has delicious sauce. It was soooooo bland at Café Charlotte. No flavor at all. I think there might’ve been some sauce at the bottom but I barely even saw it. The spaghetti was also way too thick. However, presentation was excellent for both appetizer and entrée.
Although my dish was a disappointment, the service was excellent and I saw tons of stuff on the menu that I should’ve tried instead. I like the concept of this place as well… Italian & Argentinian fusion. If I’m back in town, I’ll definitely give this place a second chance. They don’t deserve anything less than 3 stars but hope they work on that seafood pasta!

After spending about 10 minutes trying to decide what to have for lunch (which isn’t actually that long considering how indecisive I am), I finally decided on Café Charlotte. I had heard good things from several coworkers and saw the other Unilocal reviews were positive. Browsing the menu, I was a little bit confused as to what type of restaurant it was supposed to be. They have a variety of dishes ranging from Argentinian to Peruvian to Italian, but who am I to judge what kind of food they want to cook? As long as it tastes good, I am a happy camper!
I ultimately decided to call in an order for a skirt steak sandwich. I was given a wait time of 10 minutes, but probably arrived within five. When I got there, I saw a couple of coworkers who were having lunch and mentioned it was my first time there. When I asked if they liked it, they said they eat there at least weekly. Each of them was eating a chicken breast with rice and beans, and it made me wish I had ordered that.
My steak sandwich was actually really good. The meat was tender and cooked to my liking. The bread used to make the sandwich was the perfect consistency. The sandwich came with fries which were also good, but I couldn’t tell if they were fresh or frozen. I look forward to trying other items on their menu and can definitely see myself making Café Charlotte into a regular lunch spot for myself.

Un très bon restaurant italien !! Les serveurs sont vraiment très acceuillants et souriants. Nous avons tous pris des pâtes accompagnées de différentes sauces: sauce tomate basilic, carbonara, vodka, … Les assiettes étaient vraiment très copieuses mais excellentes !!! Nous avons payé 92 $ (pourboires inclus) … Un peu cher mais c’etait vraiment super !!
Un très bon restaurant italien pour notre dernier jour en Floride !

We were so happy to have found this hole in the wall Argentinian restaurant. We had a bad experience the day before with a café and were skeptical at first about trying it but glad we decided to! The service is great for being a small restaurant. We had the empanadas to start (1 grilled and 1 fried) then we ordered the skirt steak with a side salad. So delicious! Goes well with the red wine.

An unassuming spot practically across the street from the entrance to Espanola Way. This had pretty authentic food, albeit a strange mix of Latin American and Italian, and reasonably priced. It just didn’t wow me away, especially considering the 4.5 star overall rating on Unilocal.
THE WAIT: None for seven of us around 7pm on a Sunday night (during the MLK long weekend).
THE COST: $ 80 total for a light dinner for six. Affordable!
THE SERVICE: Great! Our server was patient, and went out of his way with things like bringing a plastic cup for my friend’s baby.
APPETIZERS:
* Caprese Salad (mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, & basil. $ 6.99) — 3 stars
pic:
Your standard fare. Fine if this is what you feel like, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get this.
* Cachapa (corn pancake stuffed w/​homemade fresh cheese. $ 5.95) — 4 stars
pic:
This is quite sweet, which surprised me. But I really liked the grainy texture to the pancake and the crisp on the outside. The cheese was quite thick and congealed; I would’ve liked it more stretchy and thin as it got a bit hard rather quickly.
* Beef Empanada (bread dough stuffed w/​steak, eggs, potatoes, & onions. $ 2.50) — 4 stars
cross-​section:
The shell was thick, doughy, and had a slight crisp to it. The filling had a good mix of ingredients and the meat was incredibly flavorful.
Pasta, Polenta:
Ravioli & Gnocchi:
Chicken:
Meat:
Sides:
Receipt:

What I Got
— Skirt Steak with a House Salad
— Spinach and Cheese Empanada
Another place I had to stop at while in Miami Beach. I definitely not disappointed! I fell in love with the free bread and salsa! Yumm! It had a good spicy kick. The skirt steak was cooked a perfect medium rare and didn’t need the chimicurri sauce! It had good flavor on it’s own. Only regret I had was getting a house salad instead of mashed potatoes. What was I thinking lol… The spinach and cheese empanada was okay. They ran out of beef, chicken, and ham and cheese. –_​– ANDD apparently their empandas are different than Charlotte Bakery… A customer asked about getting some next door and the worker said that Café Charlotte’s were better lol.

Wir haben heute sehr lecker im Café Charlotte gegessen. Das Personal war sehr freundlich und der Snapper Mare Chiara ist sehr zu empfehlen — einfach fantastisch!

Für das Charlotte gilt: «aussen pfui, innen hui»! Das Lokal hat das Ambiente eines Bahnhofcafés, aber das Essen ist einsame Spitze. Das Brot: hausgemacht. Das Chicken Cacciatore: zart und saftig. Das Steak: auf den Punkt. Das Tiramisu: zum drin Wälzen.
Die Küche ist offen, man kann dem Chef in die Töpfe schauen — fast immer ein gutes Zeichen. Und die Bedienung strahlt über beide Ohren und hat für jeden ein freundliches Wort.
Für den Preis eine herausragende Leistung. Wir haben in Miami nur im Prime One Twelve noch besser gegessen — aber zum xfachen Preis.

Sind aufgrund der guten Unilocal Bewertungen hier gewesen und wurden ein bisschen enttäuscht. Die Vorspeisen waren super, das Rib Eye leider eher fettig und mittelmäßig. Auch die Ravioli waren eher durchschnittlich. Nette Bedienung

Hier bekommt man definitiv eines der besten Steaks in ganz Miami! Ein absoluter Insider. Und zum Nachtisch Tiramisu selbstgemacht! Familienbetrieb mit super Essen und günstigen Preisen.

Absolute recommendable. Big portions. Absolute delicious and definitely resonable

Leicht zu übersehen ist dieses feine kleine Restaurant. Die Bedienung ist sehr freundlich und schnell, das Essen sehr gut und preiswert. Die Rechnung beinhaltet schon das Trinkgeld von 15%.