Macaluso’s

Best Italian food in South Florida. Some here on Unilocal complain about the cost, but the food is so good I personally feel it is well worth the cost. My favorites are any sausage dish, the meatballs, and the Macaluso salad. Vanilla cake is crazy good as well.

Excellent restaurant! Best Italian food in South Florida, hands down! Meatballs, sausages, home made pasta and even the salad were absolutely exquisite. Deserts were delicious and a great variety. I wholeheartedly recommend this restaurant!

Disappointing.
We had been here years ago and remembered having a good experience but this time, it was very disappointing.
The staff will constantly tout their «incredible» food but the food didn’t live up to the staff’s claims.
The linguini with clams was sitting in a dish full of oil. Completely over seasoned with oregano and the minced clams were rubbery.
We also got their «famous meatballs.»
Wet and over seasoned again, nothing special at all.
The chicken, artichoke mushroom pasta was basically tasteless.
I’m surprised at how disappointing this experience and their food was, and all of this at a pretty high price. $ 220 for two people with two glasses of wine.
I wouldn’t go back and I couldn’t recommend.
The only upside of the evening was that we took a fair amount of the food in a doggy bag and gave it away to a hungry homeless couple on the way back to the hotel.

This place is great. I try to go whenever I’m in town. Meatballs are awesome, Sinatra Hot Shrimp and Shrimp Scampi are amazing. I love the pasta with chick peas and pancetta. In short, their food is absolutely full of flavor — there is nothing subtle about the flavors.
I will say it is a bit pricey, especially the wine (wine by the glass is very expensive, and in some cases not great). But the food is so great it is worth overlooking that.

We have been regulars for years, tonight on our way home we decided to stop in really quick and take some of our favorite meatballs and salad to go. We didn’t double check our order because we assume that when you pay $ 40 for lettuce and 2 meatballs that the order should be correct. To our surprise when we got home the meatballs were missing the ricotta cheese that they always come with and the salad was over salted. We tried calling the restaurant numerous times to see if we could go back and get the order fixed (we don’t live that far) and no one answered the phone, there wasn’t even an answering service. We are very disappointed tonight, the quality and service seem to have deteriorated.

Food was good. Coming from an Italian family, and living in the NY Metro area I would say I am a tough reviewer of Italian food, especially after the entry spiel about the Chiefs cooking from a 75-​yr family history of cooking fine Italian food.
Excellent choice for Miami Italian. If the rating was subjective to the Florida region I would give it a 4+, but being an overall. I can’t do more then a 3.
Meatballs are excellent. Wait staff is not patient, but fine overall. Not a warm feeling when eating at the establishment.
Also they showcased their house pastas in a display (no menu, all verbal). Yet my wife’s Linguini was definitely not homemade.
I ordered the baked Rigatoni with chicken. Which seemed to be a homemade pasta.
Desert was also great. Interesting but great twist on Tiramisu. And we loved it.
Not cheap. But pretty solid overall… For Miami Italian.

As an Italian, I never go out for Italian. But Mac’s is the exception to the rule. The service, food, ambiance and products for sale are all second to none. Meatballs, well you gotta try em’ yourself to understand the state of perpetual happiness. Go now! Tonight!

Rude staff– I stopped by the restaurant to buy a gift card for my parents and to start off I had to go up to someone to help me then he looked me up and down (I was wearing jean shorts, black tee and cute sandals) and said I could only buy a gift card over $ 200 (which was fine) then he told me to hold on because there was a private event. He made me wait about 15 – 20 minutes while he was standing by the bar– I just walked out.

Mediocre Italian food. All the sauces taste like they’re from a can.
Not sure how Japanese paper lanterns play into old world Italian décor.
And it’s a known fact that the «home made birthday cake» is from a box so you might be disappointed.
I’m trying to think of something nice to say.
Ah, the wine was good.

This
horrible. Avoid the rude people who work here at all cost I walked into this restaurant at 7 p.m. on a Thursday and the place was empty staff would not let me order two appetizers without ordering an entire meal the manager had to get involved and it was a big pain in the ass

I went for lunch today on the market side, not the dinner restaurant side, and the food here is freaking out of bounds good. Ridiculously good. I am literally a happier person today having eaten lunch there. The three guys with me, the same. We were practically high fiving during and after the meal.
I’m full blooded Italian. So I know my Italian. And I’m from Philly. So I know my sandwiches. Their meatballs are great. Veal parm sandwich. Great. Antipasto salad. Great. Sauteed broccoli rabe. Great great great great great!!! I literally cannot say just how excellent the food was. If I could pay the owners to open another location in DC where I live I would.
To be fair it was a little pricy. But I split a sandwich with someone (they’re huge!!!) and the four of us shared a salad and the broccoli rabe. They also started is off with a complimentary wedge of asparagus fritatta. And we had more than enough food.
And as for the service, our server could not have been nicer. Took great care of us.
And they had menus with pricing. I saw comments about no menus but that’s not the case, at least not at the market.
So sorry some others have not had good service or felt the food was a little on the expensive side. But that was not my experience which COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE AWESOME!!! Go. Just go. Just go now! It literally makes me insane this place only has a 3 star rating. I won’t be able to sleep tonight over it. JUSTICE MUST BE DONE!

On a recent night my wife and I chose to dine at Macalusos to celebrate a birthday. We were very disappointed with the way that the restaurant treated us, in particular «debating» my wife’s food allergy. On top of everything, the place was completely dead, with only one other table occupied. While we won’t be returning, Macalusos is probably salvageable if they change the way they treat their customers. On the plus side, the meatballs were quite good.

One of my good friends is from Staten Island; he’s warm, generous, and friendly.
Macalusos says they are from Staten Island, but I’m not buying that; management is cold, stingy, dishonest. (Example: They say they don’t take reservation for their decent but nothing special food, but they do… if you kiss up enough)
Don’t go. The food is not worth the crazy attitude.

I have tried numerous times, but nothing changes. The owner is openly hostile and aggressive to his customers and staff. The food is ok. There is no menu and the staff will try to up charge you on everything. Of course no menu means no prices so don’t be shocked when you get hit with an outrageous bill. The food is also far from fresh. When the waiter explains the menu to you they actually bring over a basket of boxed pasta to show you the pasta you get. What kind of Italian restaurant uses boxed pasta?!?
But if you would like to pretend that you are in the soup nazi episode of Seinfeld all while having frank Sinatra playing on repeat and eating mushy meatballs… this place is for you.
Oh and the owner has been contacting Unilocal trying to have negative reviews taken off. So read the reviews carefully and make sure you disregard the fake friends and family reviews.

Awful food, service and prices. Save your money and go to another «fine dining» restaurant in South Beach. Not worth the hassle or rudeness by staff. I was also told by an «insider» that the vanilla cake is just Duncan Hines cake mix that they refrigerate and sell for $ 14 a slice! Some family recipe that is!

Food good and I can usually get past the lack of any semblance of «warm and friendly.»
Called tonight to place a to-​go order. Tried four times and no answer. May be that they are busy, but based on the normal attitude I’d guess they are simply being indifferent and not answering the phone.
The place does a decent business, but in someone else’s more customer-​oriented hands it would be packed.

I came to the Macaluso’s Market place for lunch and it was excellent as always.
I ordered the Meatball Parm Hero and the sub is Huge!
Two oversized meatballs with cheese over Italian bread and Marinara Sauce… uhmmm. So good. A nice glass of wine and excellent service from my waiter to top it all off.
Remember … this is the market side. Dinner is another thing. There are a lot of bad reviews based on the fact that there is no set menu or prices. The place is been there for like 17 years and it has been the same from the beginning. I guess people could do a little research and see if it is the place for them.
I like the fact that I can order from a fresh menu and add or remove things as you like them.
It doesn’t bother me.

Buyer Beware! As other reviewers have noted, this restaurant’s menu is «verbal only». This, combined with high prices and with our waitress’ aggressive pushing of what turned out to be more expensive items on the menu resulted in an unhappy surprise when the bill came.
It started when our waitress asked if we wanted flat or bubbly water. We told her «flat,» and she said, «oh, so a bottle of flat water.» We needed to repeat several time, «regular water,» to make sure we got Miami’s finest instead of a bottle of Evian.
Most egregiously, we asked our waitress if our party of three (two of us were smaller women) should order the salad and the escarole or just one of these appetizers. «You should order them both,» she said assertively, «It’s not that much food.» She then brought a massive salad and a hearty bowl (for an appetizer) of white bean and escarole. When the bill came, we were charged for three salads ($ 33 in total) and the escarole appetizer was $ 19, a hearty price for some leaves, white beans, and broth.
Unlike food, there is a menu for drinks, however our waitress suggested a glass of cabernet not listed on the menu. She neglected to mention that it was more expensive ($ 18) than any other glass on the menu. When she went over the pasta options, she said the fusili comes with a meatball and a sausage. When the bill came, we were billed for the fusili ($ 18), the meatball ($ 8) and the sausage ($ 8) — there was no mention that the meatball and sausage were optional. Our waitress also tried to sell us a bottle of their salad dressing.
Clearly, we could have asked the waitress how much eat item was, but there is a social dynamic at play: it feels uncomfortable to repeatedly ask how much different items cost, and it seems this restaurant capitalizes on this dynamic. The end result was we left feeling taken advantage of.
We did argue being charged for three salads, and the woman (not our waitress) immediately took off two of the salads. Interestingly, this other woman told us she would talk to us about the bill because our waitress was «busy». We suspected they had a system where the server who pushes you to buy is different than the person who talks to you when you have complaints.
A word about the food: It was mixed. The salad was great if you like garlic. The escarole was too salty. The pasta was good. One of us loved the meatballs. I found them soggy. The vanilla cake (which our waitress said was «amazing») seemed like a cake you make from a mix and left out for a few days. It was obscenely priced at $ 14.

One of the best Italian restaurants I’ve been to.
Food is always amazing, wine amazing, and service is usually on point.
Wine list has prices on it, and yes, the menu is presented verbally. I’d go into it thinking $ 50 to $ 75/​person, plus alcohol. I mean, it’s not the Olive Garden.
The meatball on salad is just the best, but I know if I tried to make that at home it would be gross. I’ll leave it to the chefs at M to get it right!
When we go, we always get the same dishes, and they are always so delicious! The taste never changes, and that’s what brings us back. If I lived in MIA I’d weigh 900lbs! Haha
They don’t take reservations for parties less than 8 (I believe it’s 8 people).
Oh and don’t worry, I’m not related to anyone at Macalouso’s, I just love the food!

It is unfortunate that Unilocal does not allow you to give negative stars, because that is what this restaurant deserves.
My husband and I are local Miami Beach residents and have spent considerable time exploring fine restaurants throughout the area. We were hopeful Macaluso’s would live up to its positioning as a higher class establishment that offers great service and attention to local residents. We could not be more wrong.
The food was simple, but generally tasty. And while we could get past the undisclosed and extremely overpriced menu, we could not get past this restaurant’s attention to detail in aggressively taking advantage of its guests.
Tricking people into expensive bottles of water is one thing, albeit unexpected for a restaurant west of Ocean. But taking advantage of a family with a baby is despicable.
As a perfect example… after asking for a «few pasta noodles» for our infant we were warmly assured this was «no problem.» Fast forward to a very confusing check, they charged us $ 16 for the few noodles our baby daughter played with. Ok… maybe this was a simple mistake? Absolutely not. Waiter informs us they refuse to make «side dishes» and there was nothing they could do. All without any notice or warning that they would charge us $ 16 for roughly $ 1 – 2 worth of plain pasta, on a bill where we spent well over $ 100 on our meals plus drinks. Then the manager arrives with an abrupt and rude attitude telling us too bad.
Please take our advice and spend your time and money at a more respectable restaurant. There are plenty of great options in Miami Beach and we are glad to share our list of favorites where you will never be disappointed or insulted in this way.