Casablanca South Beach

I was just in Miami this past weekend and ate there on Sunday evening. My guest and I each were given a free glass of wine and we were promised 25% off the menu prices.
We started with the Ceviche. Only downer was that it took about 30 minutes to come out. Ceviche is served cold and should have been ready on the spot… I presume the server forgot about us for a bit, but that’s really my only complaint. The Ceviche was super tasty, maybe lacked a little texture, but yummy regardless. Then we shared the Mahi Mahi. YUM! Super moist and tasty perfectly balanced citrus and shallot flavors. The broccoli was perfect and the jasmine rice delicous.
When the bill came, everything was Comp’d appropriately. Our shared meal cost only $ 25 per person wth 2 drinks each. I was pleasantly surprised.

Decent brunch. Pancakes okay. Bacon cold but still good. Service is better than the food.

One of the worst restaurants I’ve ever experienced. Stopped here for what I was hoping would be a quick lunch on a Monday afternoon. There were 3 or 4 servers working and only 4 tables seated. The hostess advertised 2 for 1 drinks, but I did not find out until I got the bill it was 2 for 1 per person and could not be split between 2 people.
After taking our order the waitress had to come back to check the entire order because she did not remember any of it. It took over 30 minutes to get our food! When the food finally arrived my skirt steak had no flavor and they forgot the plantains. I asked the manager to refund my meal which I ate only a few bites of. I told him I would pay for the sandwich my girlfriend had and the drinks. I also told him that we were in a hurry as we had a plane to catch. Over 10 minutes later we received a bill of $ 51 for one sandwich and two $ 14 drinks, and the bill had 18% gratuity added, which the waitress said was standard. I will never eat here again and would recommend others avoid it at all costs.

Umm. If it’s a buy one get one free drink special anywhere, you should always ask for the price. Anyway, I came here because they were having everything on their menu for 50% off. The service was pretty crappy and the food took like 20 minutes to come out but when it did it was pretty good. The portions are extremely generous so be prepared to share, gorge, or take the leftovers back home.

I was here with John F, and wasn’t impressed. The drinks were OK — big and seemed weak, but somewhat tasty. Nothing to write home about…
The deal here though, is that they have a «2 for 1 special», which is what got us to walk in in the first place. The guy offers us this deal, we ask if they have mojitos, he says sure, we sit.
Here’s where they get you. It seems that the «2 for 1 on drinks» is only good per person. You need to order 2 drinks EACH to get this «deal». If you put up any sort of a fight about this they give in pretty quickly, but you definitely have to argue with them about it. I’d do so before they serve you at all.
So, we ended up with 2 mediocre mojitos for $ 14 + (automatically included) 18% tip + tax. $ 9.50/drink at the end of the day isn’t much of a deal.

So my friend and I were walking through here during happy hour and of course are being bombarded by the skimpily dressed girls standing out front of each restaurant tying to get you to come in. So this place was doing some buy one get one free deal, so we decided we’d stop for a drink.
Of course none of the good drinks are part of the deal… but rule number one of finding a place to each on Ocean drive is: be ready to negotiate (just like in europe). So I do a little negotiating, threaten to leave, and then the waiter gives in and says he’ll include the mojito on the buy one get one free deal. Rule number two of eating on ocean drive is: if the restaurant is not too busy at the time you’re going to dine with them, choose a seat front and center outside – you are now one of their most prized customers because you are starting to make this place look busy and they will most likely go out of their way to have you stay – thus including the mojito as part of the deal.
Then the waiter tries to pull a fast one and say the buy one get one free deal is only for one person and you cannot split the 2 drinks – in order words each of us would have had to get 2 drinks. Since we had places to go soon after this, I did a little negotiating, threatened to leave and then he let us split the buy one get one free deal.
Long story short, be ready to negotiate on Ocean drive. This place can be a lot of fun and have great food, but understand these guys are willing to deal. The mojito was so-​so. I gave this place a ²⁄₅ stars because of the average mojito and the waiters trying to say one thing and do another.

I sipped on 3 Mojito’s on the front porch, while I sucked on a supposed real Cuban cigar, I bought from some beauty of a Cuban gal who was selling them on Ocean Dr. It was a good smooth smoke, but I wouldn’t know the difference. It smelled good.
The Mojito’s, as you can imagine, were the best ever passed on my tongue. Fresh fruit in them; ever heard of strawberry’s and oranges crushed with your mint?! (I tried to duplicate it the first weekend I was back home!)
My newly acquainted British pal and I had great conversation and laughs as we watched the paparazzi chase someone down from a famous restaurant next door, who fooled them with a look-​a-​like decoy and got away.
I had some kinda appetizer, but I don’t remember what it was; I had such a rum buzz.
The dark mahogany, bar is beautiful, and the ceiling fans remind you of Bogey and Bacall.
A tropical, sensuous atmosphere, with an attentive waitstaff and bartenders.
Right on a famous strip that makes Miami the beauty she is.

This is an OK place to eat. My daughter selected it. We wanted to try eating at one of the many restaurants that are in the Art Deco area of South Beach. I think she liked it because it was a little bit quieter than some of the other restaurants in the area (may have been a bad sign).
I cannot disagree with the other reviewers. I would probably avoid this next time.

After spending a couple hours laying out on the beach and doing absolutely nothing I needed some sustenance. You know, from all that doing nothing. Walking along ocean we stumbled on this place and decided to give it a shot. I got the caesar salad which was pretty tasty and the fiancée got a greek salad and a delicious strawberry margarita. We finished with a serviceable hot fudge sundae. Overall not a bad place for a pretty cheap lunch.

At night disastrous! In the day, on a weekday, is a different story…
Just by the beach, it IS perfect for brunch; pretty much generic but outrageously cheap ($ 9 bucks for a Eggs made your way + Bacon + Toast + Potatoes + Juice + Coffee) and please try the Bloody Mary; high on cellery but very, very tasty.
Let’s repeat: come on a weekday, 4 breakfast, you’ll like it.

AVOID. This place preys on non-​locals and is able to do so because of it’s Ocean Dr. location. Shit food, shit drinks, shit service, then they try to swindle you with the bill.
My group of 6 was lured in with a 2 for 1 drink special and being the lushes that we are, we fell for it. The mango martini I got tasted more like a screwdriver — gross — and had little to no alcohol in it. Same with everyone else’s drinks so we switched to beer. The food was gross and over priced. Worst calamari EVER.
Then came bill-​time. I see from the other reviews that they make a habit of overcharging people. We too noticed we didn’t recieve the promised 2 for 1 drink prices and sent the bill back for revision. When it came back correct, we each threw in our credit card and told the waiter to split it. Now some places don’t like splitting a lot of credit cards but our waiter didn’t say anything about it. So about 20 minutes later — no lie, it took 20 minutes — the waiter comes back and hands us each our receipts, which ranged from $ 20 — $ 45. As it turned out, rather than splitting the bill evenly, this brilliant waiter just randomly selected what to charge each person for — and it obviously did not work out evenly! I’ve never in all my years of dining out seen someone do something so dumb. So then when we asked why he did that, he yelled at us for not being more specific about what we wanted. I mean, if in doubt, how about asking?! Took another 20 minutes to get that mess figured out. Unfortunately gratuity was already added in, so we didn’t get the pleasure of stiffing this asshole.
Oh, and did I mention 2 hookers sat directly next to us? I mean, we had to assume they were hookers as their outfits consisted of only mesh and straps — no actual fabric.
I wouldn’t return here if it was the only restaurant in South Beach — which it most assuredly is not. Again, AVOID.

Friends don’t let friends eat at Casablanca. The food was cold. And chewy. And not what we ordered. Then, they tried to charge us $ 3 extra per cocktail over the price listed on the menu.
Go to News Café instead.

GOOD:
Coctail variety was good and they were tasty.
BAD:
–No seniors menu.
–The service was not good.
–They tried to hornswaggle us on the bill. The menu said one thing and they charged us another and she actually tried to argue the point.
–The waittress was in a tiff with the staff and that’s not really our business.

I popped in here on New Year’s Eve a few years ago and had one of the best caipirinhas that I’ve ever had. .. in a pint glass. And then I had another. And another. The bartenders were fantastic, and the place was just a little less of a mob scene than the rest of the places on Ocean Drive, which provided a nice respite in between our plunges back into the cauldron.