Essensia Lounge

The ceviche ($ 7 during HH) was good but the plantain chips were rancid made with old oil. The waitress told me right off the bat that the 50% coupon on Unilocal is a mistake. They can’t combine happy hour prices with the coupon. Duh, I think we know this. I spoke with manager and he honored it. Pretty patio area

This is a great spot for happy hour after a day on the beach. I believe Monday-​Thursday most of the appetizers and drinks are half price from 4 – 7 which is a steal for food and drinks of this quality on South Beach. Draft beer I believe $ 4 and Ceviche $ 6 during happy hour makes this very reasonably priced for a hotel lounge on the beach. The burger I ordered was well prepared, delicious and worth every penny. The hotel lobby, lounge and pool area are all great for taking a break from the hot Miami Beach sun in an intimate, low-​key setting away from all the typical Miami chaos.

The food is decent but the service is not that great. Bar food from a fancy restaurant. It is comfortable.

What a neat location– at the back of the classic hotel The Palms, north of South Beach on Collins. Excellent cocktails included a Mango Mojito — mui delicioso. The Tapas appetizer would better have been dubbed Charcuterie. Enjoyed the comfy lounge setting.

On a recent trip we were fortunate to stay at the beautiful Palms hotel, on arriving to the hotel we decided after we unpacked to go down to the lounge and have our first drink of the trip. Best decision we made! It was happy hour 4 – 7 and EVERYTHING IN THE BAR INCLUDING FOOD WAS HALF PRICE! what you say? YES EVERYTHING HALF PRICE! We tried some of the craft cocktails, my fave was the Pink paloma, which was a margarita with pink grapefruit juice. It was delish. I also had the Palm burger with your choice of cheese, I had the cheddar and your choice of side, I had the fries. The burger was cooked perfectly and the fries were amazing. The inside of the lounge is beautiful and the patio is also just very relaxing and beautiful. Everything you would expect from a classy Miami beach hotel. The staff was so friendly and seemed to really care how we were enjoying things. Yes, I know the gratuity is automatically added in, but that could almost make the staff take customers for granted, not here. I highly recommend and yes we did stop in a couple of times during our visit and not only did the staff remember us, they asked questions about how our visit was going.

Beautiful lounge right inside the Palms Spa and Resort in beautiful South Beach, Miami, Florida baby!!! Definitely would come back. Went here for dinner and had lobster, ahhhh to die for! Everyone in my group of four loved, let me repeat — loved the food, décor and ambience! Definitely would to again if I ever get the chance!

In Miami I was eating a lot of pastries for breakfast and very little eggs and bacon. And you need to know that I love my eggs and bacon! So my friend and I decided to splurge one day and after a lot of research on my part we decided to visit Essensia Lounge for a buffet breakfast. Sure it was pricey at $ 24 per person, but compared to the other buffet restaurant options on Miami Beach, this was a bargain. You have no idea how excited I was to eat a breakfast buffet. When we finally got seated (I made reservations so it did not take long), we ran over to the food table and the options made me feel giddy. You had every option you could imagine: pastries, bread, smoked salmon, an omelet station, a waffle station, eggs, bacon, fruits, fruit parfaits, quiches, unlimited coffee and fresh juices, bread pudding, etc. What I kept getting more of were the croissants and bread pudding. OMG they were amazing! I am massive fan of bread pudding. Just writing this review is making me feel nostalgic… sigh. One more thing, don’t sit outside unless you want to get killed by mosquitoes. Those little bastards love my blood.

Best Gazpacho ever and I’m not even a fan of gazpachos.
All of their herbs and salads are super fresh and grown in their own garden in the back, so they add really intense flavor to all of their dishes.
Beautiful restaurant with a beautiful bar.
Highly recommend!

Essensia is the restaurant and lounge in the Palms hotel, located between the chaos of South Beach and the chaos of the Fountainbleau hotel. Parking was easy (valet) and the restaurant validates your ticket so you’ll pay 5 $ plus tip.
The hotel itself is adorned with beautiful palms and other tropical plants and trees and has an old Florida feel to it. I expected Ernest Hemingway to walk in at any moment, smoking a Cohiba and wearing a guayabera. There are quite a few interesting photos of various famous people that have presumably spent some time there.
The restaurant has outside and inside seating, we elected for outside seating on the porch overlooking the pool and palm area. It was quite nice, and definitely has an old Florida/​Key West feel to it. Except for the large family next to us whose 8 or 9 year old daughter was intent on informing the entire restaurant that she «had to go upstairs and take a dump» repeatedly, it was nice. I guess the moral of this part of the story is, ask to be seated away from the massive family with 14 screaming children and parents who clearly cannot be bothered (they are on vacation, after all).
The cuisine was superb and service was excellent. They had an interesting and eclectic wine list, without being overwhelming. I opted for one from Cornas — from which I’ve never seen available in Miami before. Pleasantly surprised to see a northern Rhone wine instead of just the standard southern Chateauneuf-​du-​Pape GSM blend.
What we ordered: Thai lemongrass lime soup (excellent), chilled local lobster with palm hearts and local avocado (just ok, the lobster was not super fresh), beet and heirloom tomato salad with local Burrata (excellent), kale and citrus salad with almonds (excellent), Peruvian Paiche with spinach and a celery root purée (excellent) and a grass-​fed Filet Mignon with a radicchio risotto (good).
We originally ordered the short ribs and then the diver scallops wrapped in bacon, however they were out of both (no big deal — it happens when you use locally sourced small batch ingredients). The short rib dish in particular was described by our server as being the best thing on the menu.
I love the fact that that the menu is farm-​to-​table and uses local, organic and seasonal ingredients as much as possible. Miami needs more places like this — we’ll be back for sure. I can’t wait to see what other creations Chef Julie puts on the menu going forward.

Beautiful hotel with a beautiful bar, on the Beach but away from BOTH the hustle and bustle of South-​South Beach (basically south of 25^th and Collins and north of 5^th) and the Eden Roc-​Fountainbleu area.
This lounge has a patio overlooking the garden next to the Palm Hotel pool, as well as a nice selection of eco-​friendly organic spirits, which gives people a nice mix of options. The tapas and finger foods were quite enjoyable as well.
If you live on the beach, you should take your friends here for one of those local nights or early evenings, where you want to hear them and you also want to be heard. Its quite enchanting.