Tamara Bistro

The dining experience was excellent, overshadowing the food itself, thanks to the live music in Tamara’s cabaret setting and courteous service. The Shrimp & Scallops was pretty good and the Paella (not shown on menu but was offered by the waiter) had good portions of seafood but was very salty. The steak and red snapper however were average.

Picture this, you enter Tamara’s Bistro, which is inside of the National Hotel and you are immediately greeted by the sun that is setting over Miami Beach just a outside the window. You are given the choice to either sit outside by the infinity pool, or inside in air conditioning (I might choose the later for a couple more months).
As you make your way to your table you are greeted by the welcoming scent of food being served just a few tables away. Now, let’s take a look at the menu, shall we? The items that pop out are the salmon tartare and provençal tart. The tart is a perfectly thin puff pastry that is served with onions marmalade, white anchiovies, kalamata olives, and herbs. So light and fluffy you’ll want to eat the whole plate.
Now, my favorite dish on the menu has to be the croque madame. I may be slightly biased because I went to France a couple of years ago, and focused my efforts on eating as many as I could. I have to tell you, Chef Pierre Sudre really knows what he is doing. He was raised in France!
When it comes to dessert you would be completely out of your mind if you didn’t order the profiteroles. This beautiful plate comes filled with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, Chantilly and toasted almonds. You may want to order two!

Beautiful setting overlooking gorgeous pool.
Very good calamari, wild shrimp and steak. Ok salad. Very nice waitress.
Like all restaurants in major SOBE hotels, expensive.
Check to be sure no loud pool party at this or adjoining hotels will bombard your lovely setting with boring techno music.

Where should I start??? I just sent a message to Richard R. who posted the previous review, as I could have copied and pasted his, the similarities so striking… My wife and I went to Tamara last Saturday, 9÷4÷10, to take advantage of the Miami Spice Menu. A friend of mine treated us to dinner, so off we went.
To begin with, there was a party in the Oval Room (which is rectangular, by the way), going on at full throttle… Every time the little door opened up (pretty much every five minutes) our conversation was greeted with a blast of hip-​hop music. We sat down at 8:15 PM, and my friend showed up ten minutes later. I guess we got the appetizers by 9:00 PM, after we had gone through all the bread our stomachs could withstand. When they finally brought the wine we ordered, I had to ask the waiter to change my wife’s glass because it had a lipstick stain on it. The main entrees came at around 9:45 PM, and dessert did not come out until 10:40 PM, after we asked for the check because we just wanted to leave… So dinner took between 8:15 PM and 11:00 PM.
Timing is a big issue in any lunch or dinner situation. When one goes to this kind of place, it is expected that staff have their timing down to almost a science; not the case here. The food took forever to come out of the kitchen; the waiting staff, Max, was absolutely lost in space, and the only person who clearly had any idea about how to run things was Carlos. He graciously tried to make up for these issues by offering us an after-​dinner drink on the house. The food was very good, in general, but execution seems to be a big issue, as well. My beef tenderloin medallions were lukewarm, at best. They were very tender and tasty, but not at the desired temperature. My guess is they had been lying around the kitchen counter until the rest of the order was ready.
This restaurant could be so good with a bit of tweaking here and there… Basically, they need to fix the kitchen staff, and definitely, the waiting staff; they have no clue about timing. Just a pity given the location and the surroundings. No wonder they told us they will keep the Spice Menu going even after 9÷30÷10. I guess they think they can keep attracting people, somehow.

I went here with some friends Saturday night to eat from their Miami Spice menu. We thought that, in addition to magnificent food, we’d have excellent service, given the fact that the restaurant is located in an upscale hotel. We were wrong. Due to slow service, our dinner lasted 3 full hours — we entered at 8 and left precisely at 11. It took 45 minutes just to get the appetizers. I don’t know if they were short on staff or what, but it would’ve been nice if the waiter or maitre d’ would’ve explained the situation to us, whatever it was. Communication can create good will.
And it wasn’t just us. EVERYONE seemed to be sitting around, waiting and waiting for their orders to be brought to them. While waiting for our appetizers, we thought about leaving, but decided to stick it out. At least we enjoyed good conversation for 3 hours. We had to ask to have our water replenished, the table cleared, etc. It was a little late when they brought out extra help from other areas of the hotel to assist with distribution of orders. Overall, extremely unprofessional. You can have a bad night, but you should communicate this to your clientele. Oh, and the kitchen door slammed EVERY SINGLE TIME someone walked through it. It was so loud that it was impossible to ignore.
Although the food was good, I can’t recommend the place based on my experience. I have had much better service at fast-​food restaurants. It’s too bad we were deprived of an enjoyable meal.

SO CLOSE…
Tamara at the National Hotel is tantalizingly close to making the jump from a good restaurant to a great one. All the pieces are there, the beautiful, historic setting, a well-​balanced menu, a respectable wine list, and excellent service. The only thing missing is a chef that can execute and really make this place sing.
I started with the fricassee de calamars which was tender, succulent, and had me craving more. The only problem? Execution. I had a shard of the squid’s spine/​pen in my dish that was razor sharp. I’m lucky I escaped with my tongue in one piece.
For my next dish I had the bouillabaisse which salty to the point of being nearly inedible. I know this seafood rich dish is supposed to evoke the flavors of the sea, but not sea water.
The one highlight was my friend’s filet mignon with port wine sauce which was tender and juicy. Other than that, the meal fell short.