Cafeteria

Same fare as it’s sister restaurant in Manhattan, the posh high white leather banquets were a great place to catch brunch with friends, while nestled away from the insanity of Lincoln Road Mall. It’s too bad that the Miami outpost couldn’t keep up with it’s northern relatives — the NYC joint is practically packed all the time (it’s open ²⁴⁄₇) with long waits for tables! I ate at the Miami location this past January, but walking by yesterday, it was closed. Too bad: S

If you are looking for a place for a drink on Lincoln Road with a little privacy, there is a new rooftop bar at the top of this restaurant with couches that overlooks Lincoln Road. A waitress will serve you drinks and you can sit on the couches and enjoy the evening. This might also be a good location for a corporate event. Expect to pay Lincoln Road prices. BTW, the don’t serve appetizers on the roof.
To get to the rooftop bar, enter the restaurant and go the elevator in back. There are also a outside staircase at the east end of the buildiing on Lincoln Road.
Okay, I’ve been here for an American comfort food lunch. The service was slow and it took some time to get my bill.

We strolled up and down Lincoln looking for a place to have dessert. This place stood out since many restaurants are Italian and therefore have the same desserts. We sat down on the couch outside, enjoyed the weirdo and the hotties, and got good service. I would give it five stars except that it was clear to me that the people next to us were having lots of problems with their food.

We came here for dessert and had a great Belgian waffle banana split while sipping champagne cocktails, perched on an outdoor couch to watch the electic mixture of Floridians who populate this fine promenade. The service was excellent.

Avoid if you can. The service was terrible, rude waiters, presure to order a lot, they dont care about client service. My wife and I just left the place withouth even ordering, never ever going back

Everytime I’m in Miami — I come here for people watching and breakfast. I’ll never forget when one time there was a chef’s special of the day — sweet potato crème brule’ OMG — that was insane — we tried to actually pack one in the fridge so that we could fly it back with us. It lasted less tha 10 hrs because we scarfed it down the same day LOL!!!

Great people watching place if you opt to sit outside, pleasant décor if you sit inside. The food is great — the tuna tartar, the crab burger and the Cafeteria burger which we tried were all excellent. The house fries are delicious. Food prices are pretty reasonable, while drink prices are a tad high, which is completely normal for South Beach or Lincoln Road.
However, the service has been below average every time I have been there. Be prepared to wait long, and have to hunt down the waiter if you want another drink or extra sause. Overall, a pleasant dining experience. The main advantage — open 24 hours a day!!!
Follow-​up: I’ve been to this place several times now, and I must say their service is SHOCKINGLY BAD!!! A simple lunch take a minimum of 1h45min. I guess that’s what happens when an 18% tip is automatically included, and the waiters don’t have to work for their tips. Again, great food, baaaaad service!!!
Overall– a good waiter can make up for bad food, but good food cannot make up for a bad waiter.

The worst dining experience of my entire life. I have been to many amazing restaurants all over the US and this by far was the worst. I think you can get better service at McDonalds. I heard of the Cafeteria in NYC and was recommended to the one in Miami by our hotel. Just to briefly explain we were the only people in the whole place, the server argued with me over what I ordered, he sat at the counter and read Maxim for 35 minutes, still no food. When our food finally arrived my salad had not one thing that it said it had on the menu, our server had still not come to our table yet, the manager took 20% off our bill, but to top it off I almost died when we got our bill with a 18% tip already added. 18% for a server who did absolutely nothing, I later found out you can dispute you tips. I vow never to go again, mediocore food, and horrific service.

Cafeteria. sounds like a crappy lil’ place with no seats and a buffet line that you haveta stand in, pick out really bad food, and then find yourself a table while holding your tray of food. but this is not the case in MIA.
As a native floridian who went to grad school far far away in pittsburgh, i decided to reminisce about my south beach days with my pittsburgh friends during one spring break… and we chanced upon cafeteria on a brisk and comfy sunday nite…
in the town that never sleeps. (really. even the alky-​hol stores are opened on a sunday.) cafeteria was a nice change from all the other restaurants in the area. everything seemed to be italian or seafood, and cafeteria was the good olé’ ‘down south’ cuisine… but because the italian place was giving us a free bottle of wine if we have dinner there, we said what the hell, and decided to come back later.
we were sitting down in cafeteria around 11:30, and continued our drinking binge on a sunday nite, with lychee martinis which although expensive (it is south beach) were great, and much more refreshing compared to the yuenglings we were having in the «burgh.»…
the décor was awesome but since we were already drunk i wasn’t too focused on that… i just remember white and stainless steel everywhere. including the spotless bathroom, that i must say, is really refreshing for women… the couches with tables by the window were comfortable and perfect to keep our overly loud conversation about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and the weird people sittng in the front of the restaurant, somewhat private since other people can’t see us. and they can continue to wonder «WHO THE F*%& is soo obnoxious over there???»
the bartender and waitors and busboys were hot, although we were wayy tooo drunk to really tell the difference. I think we tried to flirt with the busboy thinking he was a waitor and that he would give us a free drink here and there. unfortunately, all we got a was a realization that he was a busboy and had no power, and a number and a «call me» wink back… we also tried this with the bartender, and when our four puppies (two from my friend, and two from me) weren’t working, we had our hot lil’ boyfriend give him the eye also. just in case. but he wasn’t interested since he was prolli getting this every nite from random drunk blue collar pittsburgh people who were on their first visit to MIA…
so after forking out a good 60 bucks, downing our lychee martinis like water, wearing our jackie– o sunglasses in the restaurant because we haven’t gotten to wear them all year in pittsburgh so we thought we’d just wear them everywhere in mia, we finally stumbled outta cafeteria to catch a cab at 3… another wonderful MIA nite, in a wonderful lil’ place called cafeteria.
this review prolli didn’t help if you were looking for food reviews from this place. but i just wanted to document all the fun i had there that nite.