Raphael Restaurant

I had a great experience at this restaurant. Me and my friend got lured in with the 3 course meal deal 2×1 including the bottle of wine. It was awesome.
They start with the salad and the bread with the olive oil, balsamic and parmesan cheese. The entrees where very nice portions as my friend had the steak with fries and it was very good I had the salmon with linguini and it was made to near perfection.
Even the wine witch was house wine (Merlot) was decent.
Overall a good place great service and awesome food!

Truly awful — bad food, bad service. Truly, one of the sauces we had could have been Campbell’s mushroom soup from a can — inedible. The other food was not quite as bad, but not good, either — rubbery chicken and over cooked pasta. It wasn’t cheap despite the specials and our server was ruder than average for Lincoln Road. A definite avoid. Other Italian restaurants down the mall are far better food and quality, and dishes are comparably priced.

i had much better experience with this restaurant than as reported by other Unilocalers.
like many of them, my group did get attracted to this restaurant because of the half off pasta special. they start you off with bread with olive oil, balsamic, and parmesan cheese. as for the entrees, unlike what others have mentioned, my friends and i were served very decently-​sized portions — we were all stuffed by the end of the meal. i ordered the truffle ravioli which is so delicious it is making it onto my list of favorite raviolis — next to bella cucina italian’s pumpkin ravioli and tuscany’s pear raviolio. another good dish you can try is the linguini del mar, which two of my friends ordered and really enjoyed. the penne al vodka is very simple even bland and not recommended — hence the 4 stars instead of 5.
other good specials they had was the $ 59 dinner for two which gives a salad and an entrée person, including 1 bottle of wine to share.
as for service, our server janet was great and i am a stickler on good customer service. possibly, the restaurant is a hit or miss based on which servers/​cooks you get.

Happened to stop only because my friends insisted. I told them it might not be good, but they insisted. They wanted Italian.
I can open a better jar of sauce. Its over priced, all hype. Small portions and the pasta is overcooked. For an «authentic» Italian place I would expect it to have al dente not overcooked.
Service? Well on Lincoln road you can’t expect good service, for some reason only the hostess is nice as she pulls you in. The rest has plenty to be desired.
Plenty of better places on the beach.

It was the pasta special that originally had us stop and look at the menu. We were tired and were very hungry so we thought we’d check it out. I had thr gnocchu 4 formaggi and the sauce sorta ruined the dish for me. I only had a bite before I felt my taste buds and stomach revolting against me. I told her about the taste, consistency, and flavor not really meeting my standards. She did not take it out of my bill. I asked to speak to manager — he refused. So now I’m stuck with a dish I don’t like. I paid for it and gave it to a bum on the street.
So-​so food, horrible service. Eat somewhere else.

This is one of those restaurants that has people asking you as walk by «want to see the menu?» Blah — I don’t like people who hound me as I walk by — but we came here since we were all hungry, wanted food and the menu didn’t look too bad.
However, the food is here is ok. They do have the pasta special 50% off, but the portions are a bit small. I ordered the lobster ravioli and got 3 pieces of ravioli. I am not kidding THREE pieces. Granted, it was good but THREE pieces. My friends weren’t too impressed with their dishes. One of them ordered the salmon pasta — which was too salty and another friend ordered the pasta with chicken (can’t remember the name) it was ok, nothing to rave about though.
The service was ok, but the main thing is the portions are too small — even for the 50% off deal.

Great food and cheap! They had some 50% off special going on and we just happened to see the flyers for it and loved the food. I ordered the Raphael’s Pasta dish and my friend had the Alfredo Chicken. We went back and ate again the next day.
The service is bad but that is because the tip is included at 18%. Most of Southbeach has the included tip most likely because of the tourists from abroad?!? or why I have no idea.