The Carlyle Cafe

Food is just ok, good location but folks, DO NOT FALL FOR THIS PLACE, they are SCAM ARTISTS, they promise all kinds of deals and discounts that they will NOT honor. And yes their cocktails are massive but $ 45 a piece? REALLY? And there was barely any alcohol in it. THIEVES. To add insukt to injury, service is terrible. DO not go! Stay away at all costs.

When me and my girlfriend were here they offered us «today’s specials» which were dishes we could share. The menu did not say the price but we thought it would be around $ 36 each when the most expensive dish on the «real» menu was that price. The waiter asked if we wanted water (I thought she meant tap water) and came with a Pellegrino which they charged us $ 10 for!!! When we got the check we could not believe our eyes. Only the food had cost us over $ 100 and with the hidden taxes and fees it was way more than we ever could expect. Absolutely NOT worth it. Can not understand how they can charge that much for a dinner for two and one beer. Awful!!!

Went there with family that was visiting me in Miami. While it’s safe to say that they were ridiculously overpriced– so is everything else on Ocean Drive. It’s South Beach, after all. However it was definitely awful service. The staff was rude and their bathrooms were disgusting. The only positives are that the drinks were good and the view was awesome. I don’t think I’m ever going back there again.

This place had horrible service and very deceiving specials. The sign says 2 for 1 happy hour, the cocktail price on the menu is $ 19, but our drinks ended up being $ 29. Bathrooms were disgusting, there was a long hair on our salad (salad was replaced but we were still charged), and the small amount of chips we received with the ceviche were stale. There were numerous people trying to sell things (cigars, card tricks, club bottle service) while we were dining on the side patio.
Please don’t get got like we did! At least the drinks were strong!

I wish I could give this place 0 star. It’s a complete rip off.
Do not ever step in this place no matter how appealing buy-​one-​get-​one free sounds or how big smile waiters have, don’t fall in the trap. We paid $ 48 for two margaritas, and the bill comes $ 57 with 20% tip built in. The waiter gave us a lecture about his great service and watched us giving tip, and my nice husband felt pressure to give extra tip. We walked away paying $ 60 for 2 margaritas.
Watch out for this place.

Was seated immediately. Waited 5 minutes to have water brought to our table. The waitress came back in another 2 and asked for our menu to show someone else. Hasn’t been back since and it’s been about 15 minutes. Over this place horrible service.

It’s tough for me to give Carlyle Café a bad rating.
It’s in a great spot on the strip for people watching and they offer two GIGANTIC margaritas (with two coronas inside) for like $ 48 during happy hour.
Sure the prices for food are awful.
Sure the price for chips and guac that isn’t that good is $ 18.
SURE the service is some of the worst I’ve ever experienced.
But you get those giant drinks for next to nothing. I can’t in good conscience give this place less than 3 stars. As many negatives as it has, I’ll be back next time I’m in Miami for another margarita that is way too big for one person.

Run away!!! Bought one of their buy one get one free special margaritas for $ 118.00… yaas gurl $ 118.00. Now Im not cheap. If I had a least gotten drunk drinking that big gulp of corn syrup I would not be complaining, but they hardly put any liquor in it at all. Worst tourist trap I have been to in a long time. Shame on me for falling for it. Only saving grace was people watching.

I should have read the reviews before I sat down to entertain a friend I had in town. They are claiming 2 for 1 cocktail but if you want to order the small one they say «this one we only have for breakfast». Interesting i never thought of having a cocktail for breakfast but I guess it is what it is. They suggest you taking a 36 oz cocktail which if you want to walk out of this restaurant semi sober is impossible to handle 2 for 1. Food was not great either. All in all. Save your time and go somewhere else

It’s not horrible, but it’s not good. We sat down here because I was with dudes who absolutely couldn’t wait another second to eat and waiters were beckoning us to eat here (already a bad sign for a tourist trap).
The food took way too long to get here for how basic it was.
Corn flake french toast– passable, dry. The fruit cup on the side was all cantaloupe w/​2 small pieces of pineapple. Lame.
Eggs Benedict– did the job but nothing special. The roast potatoes on the side were pretty good.
The presentation was nice, our waitress was good, but the ingredients tasted like they were of the cheapest quality. There are way better options of places to eat in Miami. Don’t be lazy and look around. Oh and drinks were WILD expensive.

The food wasn’t anything special. My boyfriend and I ate breakfast here on vacation. We only came by for their $ 6.50 breakfast special. I ordered a baileys coffee and there was no price under it (I assumed it would be around $ 10 – 12 most since it was pretty small, and it was breakfast time).
Firstly the drinks took so long to come out. (It wasn’t crowded whatsoever, so a coffee and a coffee with baileys shouldn’t have taken so long anyway)
We got our food and it was okay, nothing special (our hotel ended up making us a better breakfast the next day). Got the bill and it was around $ 50 for two $ 6.50 dishes and a coffee and Baileys coffee. We freaked and looked at the check and saw my baileys coffee was $ 18!!! If anyone purposely buys this drink (that is the same size as a regular non alcoholic coffee), they’re ridiculous. The waitress let me return my drink because it was so hot outside I only had about two sips at that point (with maybe an ounce of baileys at most in it). Our bill went down to about $ 30– SO much more realistic since the tip is included already. Definitely won’t be going back, I should’ve read the reviews about how expensive it was– and it would’ve been nice if the waitress gave me a heads up when I ordered it, since we kind of made it clear we were on a low budget breakfast.

1. We ordered 2 beers, they brought 2 biggest glasses without clarifying — $ 14 each.
2. The food was ok, nothing special.
3. They forgot to use 50% discount. I reminded about that — they fixed it.
4. After that they simply charged the same amount of money TWICE. Good that I had push notifications from my bank, they voided the second payment.
Conclusion: don’t go there if you don’t want to have problems.

DONT EAT HERE! iTS a Rip OFF! They charge 4.50 $ for a CUP Of HOT WATER plus tax and 20% service charge already included. Yes it is just HOT WATER not HOT TEA! GO somewhere else unless you want to be surprise when you get your bill after your meal. See the receipt I posted.

Wish I had read these reviews before I let my friend talk me into going here because he was pressed to have the paella, which I’ll admit was tasty, but my mama can make it just as good for waaayy less. Look, I get it, it’s South Beach. But come on, man! I wanted some calamari and a side of wings, but all they had was the large portions of both. Okay, fine. I’ll get it and eat the rest later. So I ordered both apps with a virgin Miami Vice… I repeat — calamari, wings, and a virgin frozen drink. One of my friends had the paella and a Sam Adams, and the other chicken wings, chicken tacos and a long island tea…$ 240 bill… say what now!!! My virgin drink was $ 18. $ 18 freakin dollars — highway robbery. The food was okay, not $ 200 worth. I spent $ 70 on lunch there for some wings and calamari. Oh, and the waitress forgot to put in my friends order… but they include automatic gratuity… smh. Then, we’re paying and my friend has a chip on his debit card, same as me and our other friend. Waitress comes to table and says she needs him to give her his pin number because he has a chip card. *scratches head* HUH!!! No ma’am. That was just kind of the icing on the cake…
Not worth the money. Go somewhere else.

They will rip you off !
Check your bill!
We got charged way too much. First of all, we came during the day so it was supposed to be 50% for food and drinks buy one get one free.
So we sat down, ordered one plate of grilled mix — and two classic martinis.
Once the check arrive I was shocked!
175 $!!!For that?
First of all I saw that they charged us for both of the martinis.
And the mixed grill plate was 105 $! They came back with the check. Now we only got charged for one martini.
My mood was already bad since I couldn’t check the real price of the grill mix– they don’t have prices on the food menu!
Anyhow we walked away– it bugged me– I turned around and asked — now a different host — she said the grill mix is 55 $ so my boyfriend came and went to talk to another waiter– who said that’s true 55 $ and then I told him well we got charged 105 $ and he said oh yes you had a different mixed grill?! Well what about the 50% off?
Waste of time!
Will never come back !

One and a half stars really, but will round up to two just because this is the place where they filmed The Birdcage.
After we had been encouraged to dine with them for lunch happy hour (half off entrees and 2 for one drinks), we sat down and ordered. As they brought out two massive mojitos, it is the when I had the time to open up Unilocal and see what people had to say.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS and TOURIST TRAP are pretty good summations of this place. They don’t tell you up front that they are bringing you a $ 49 Mojito to your table and unless you read the fine print, there is also 20% service charge tacked on to the bill. It was then we asked how much the specials we ordered were, and were told the happy hour price worked out to $ 27 an entrée.
The service was mediocre at best
The food was fairly decent. (Though I would never pay $ 55 full price for my entrée)
The view was nice.
The overcharge misleading way they sell you on a cocktail flat out stinks.
I’d pass this place up if I were you. I wish I had read the Unilocal reviews before we sat down. $ 129 for lunch for two people was way not worth it.

Really, not very good. We should have known this was a shakedown place when they offered 20% off when we walked by. Someone in my party took the bait, so we tried it. We sat down to a table that hadn’t been wiped down, with a featured menu with no prices. I scanned the menu and noticed they add 20% gratuity your bill.
The food wasn’t particularly good. Someone ordered an unpriced sampler platter. Everything was dry and had no flavor. I got the steak tacos and they were decent, The bill for 5 people was $ 250ish. The unpriced featured menu items were over $ 50.
With all the restaurants in the area, try this place last. I wish I had. Good restaurants don’t rely on being shifty to get business, they let their food speak for itself. A couple of blocks up the street, there’s some funner places with better atmosphere and food.
I won’t be back.

do not go there even if your life depends on it! way overpriced and awful quality!
They brought the bill charging extra money and tip included.
They don’t have the price of the huge cocktails on the cart and they are very expensive for a bad quality of mojito.
The Sandwich was the saddest, you can see why on the photo.

I read some of the reviews and they all said this restaurant was terrible, there were so many restaurants on the South Beach most sought after main drag, what should I do? I walked up the steps and saw the poster of the movie «The bird cage» starring Robin Williams, I liked that movie, I even loved more the French original version «La Cage aux Folles», well, the «bird Cage» was filmed in the Carlyle hotel Café, I was sold, after all, you are getting a piece of history here, this Café is probably the best if not the only one with tables right on the sidewalk and an upper level which offered the better people watching.
The Carlyle could use a little makeover, it was not magnificent as portrayed in the movie, the walls needed a fresh paint, the furniture was old but where we were sitting, it was fine, it was not so outdated.
That said, the history and location should not be the only reasons to come here as I was aware a lot of ripping off of the tourists going on, I saw the ½ off price during happy hour, ½ off everything, drinks and food. I made sure twice at the entrance and before I ordered, luckily I did that, apparently some Unilocalers got baited and switched, the server said only on the special menu (picture attached), it so happened that was exactly what I wanted, paella de mariscos, ½ price with lobster= $ 27, that was fair as I paid $ 75 just the day before, that included a flamenco show but $ 27 was the real deal.
The drinks: I also had to make the server repeat it twice, $ 30 buy 1 get 1 free, that basically made it $ 15 per either mojito or margarita, considering it was a gigantic size, that was also reasonable. One Unilocaler was really p.o. he paid $ 30 for 1 drink, well, had I come 1 min after 6pm, that would have been the price, same as everywhere else, the entire South Beach strip ganged up on the tourists, take it or leave it.
The Margarita was too sweet but that was corrected with a lot of fresh lime, it was delicious after that. The mojito was fine so for $ 15 each, the lovely weather and the view, it sure was enjoyable.
Paella con mariscos came with a huge lobster tail, I did not taste the saffron but the paella was moist and the lobster really fresh, it was as good as it got, you cannot compare it to what was in Barcelona but for Miami, it was definitely a 4 star paella.
I rate this a 3 star overall because of the ½ price on food and drinks, if it were full price, I would agree with most Unilocalers that it should be a 2 stars. That said, I still recommend this restaurant for all the above reasons, the history, the amazing people watching and finally the price, just don’t come after 6pm!!! There are no cheaper place on the South Beach Ocean drive for lobster paella. Dale, dale! (Cubano rapper Pitbull motto).
I uploaded 19 pix, 1 was the poster of the birdcage movie, why are only 10 were showing on the mobile devices, my Iphone, but all the pix showed on the desktop.

Horrible service. Couldn’t even give an honest opinion of the food because it took over an hour for French toast! Stay away!!!
Update! Finally got our food. The French toast was good but not great. Smoothies are mediocre

Wir hatten zwei Abende in Miami Beach und wollten unbedingt auch einmal gemütlich am Ocean Drive sitzen, die Leute beobachten und gut essen. Daher sind wir den Ocean Drive von Anfang an den Restaurants vorbeigegangen und hatten direkt zahlreiche gute Angebote (einen Wein umsonst, Bier für die drei Begleitungen und mich, Cocktails 2 für 1 usw.). Irgendwie hat uns das Carlyne Café angesprochen, wo uns erstmal frisches Wasser für 1 Dollar pro Person (all-​you-​can-​drink) gebracht wurde. Gerne auch Wasser mit Kohlensäure: Äußerst angenehm ohne Chlorgeschmack! Ansonsten waren wir auf die 2 für 1 Cocktails aus, an denen kein Preis und keine Größe ausgezeichnet waren. Hinterher haben wir gesehen, dass ein Cocktail 1l (!!!) umfasst. Die Stimmung wurde daher bei einem Liter Margartia, Mojito etc. schnell gelöster und lustiger und den zweiten Cocktail (man hat nochmal die Wahl auf andere «umzuswitchen») wollten wir dann auch noch haben. Auf der Rechnung erwarteten uns dann 25 Dollar für einen Cocktail (den zweiten gab es umsonst). Die Kellnerin wollte uns eine Fisch-​und-​Fleisch-​Platte für 60 Dollar pro Person verkaufen, die wir aber abgelehnt haben. Ich habe mich für wunderbar «käsige» Gnocchi im großen Spaghettiteller für 18 Dollar entschieden und das New York Steak für 26 Dollar war lecker. Die Pizzen Sicilian und Carstyle waren aufgrund des «harten» Käses nur durchschnittlich (je 16 Dollar), aber in die Richtung «Italienisch», also keinen «dicken amerikanischen Pizzateig». Als Vorspeise war Bruscheta für 8 Dollar gut (vier Scheiben für uns vier), wobei es zusätzlich noch Brot auf Kosten des Hauses gibt. Leider war unsere weibliche Bedienung ein wenig «ruppig».
Der Ocean Drive ist am Abend einfach nur wunderbar und das Restaurant nur bedingt zu empfehlen (es gibt genügend Auswahl entlang der Straße!), wenn man sich nicht die teuersten Speisen «aufschwatzen» lässt. Und noch eine Warnung: Die Cocktails sind nicht nur groß sondern auch gut mit Alkohol gefüllt.

Das beste am Restaurant ist draussen auf der Terrasse zu sitzen und die vielen Leute zu beobachten.
Das Essen war nicht schlecht, aber auch nicht super.
Die Preise gehen (die HappyHour Specials sind günstig: 3.99 $ für Starters, die recht grosszügig waren)