The Continental Miami

After having eaten at David Chang’s new Momofuku Nishi in Chelsea, NYC, earlier this week (disappointment), The Continental blows Mr Chang out of the water, unintentionally and without the same horrible «we are in Chang country» Kool-​aid that every patron and employee is drinking when they eat at one of his establishments, more often than not willing themselves to believe what they are experiencing is something unique and special… when it’s usually not.
Cheesesteak eggrolls ARE special! Little gem salad is special! Hong Kong fooey is special! The portion sizes are great too — ugh to NYC tiny plates!!!
Only cons would be the sugary, gimmicky cocktails (could take some tips from the superb Broken Shaker) and the Korean Fried Chicken was a miss only in that it was sweet, not spicy, and lacked a kick it required. Service could use some refining as the restaurant was half full and empty plates sat at tables for too long. But it is SoBe…
Came for dinner, breakfast and happy hour in a 24 hour period! Highly reco for bfast over Beachcraft at the 1.

«Meh» is the exact word to describe my opinion of the Continental. Some really nice touches, but overall just bland considering the price point. I can’t even make a list of pros and cons because they all kind of blend into one giant lukewarm vendiagram. Here is an overview:
1. Cool location in northern South Beach with great architecture and appealing (though more and more repeated and less original) art-​deco-​meets-​contemporary-​Miami-​meets-​Ikea décor.
2. Mixed and eclectic crowd, though it does seem like this is where SoBe girls go to feel artsy and alternative once Basel is over and where you are likely to encounter more man-​buns than in an L.A. bikram yoga class.
3. Decent food… not exceptional, but not bad. And simply unacceptable for the prices. $ 14 for a yogurt and granola parfait (same size as Starbuck’s essentially) and $ 20 for a rather sparse plate of steak & eggs is disappointing, even by SoBe standards.
4. On the subject of pricing, the real kicker is a $ 17 for valet. Seriously?!
5. Service is friendlier than most SoBe spots of a similar nature. But everything took long and most requests needed to be reiterated several times.
In other words, it’s certainly not a terrible place to go but by no means a place you must check out.

I am disappointed. This place has such great reviews but our experience was not good.
We got two appetizers and a main dish to split. Appetizer 1: spring rolls were overly salted. Appetizer 2: hummus and pita we hard. You probably can’t imagine hummus hard but it was. It was easier to take a piece by fork and place it on hard pita. Not the way I expect hummus and pita be. We got lobster, shrimp, and scallop to split as main dish. Scallops were rubbery hard — overlooked. And everything was overly salted. It didn’t not help even when we tried to ‘dilute’ with white rice.
The only good thing was the wine — happy hour white and red wine were tasty hence the two stars.
I’m very disappointed. My boyfriend has been talking about this place ever since we got to the hotel and the vibe seemed good. Unfortunately it doesn’t live up to the reviews I’ve seen.
Another thing — my boyfriend did not want to stay for desert — that means really not good.
I will not go back.

The food was nothing short of yummy but the service definitely left something to be desired.
We sat down and the manager came by and took our order after a little while. Throughout dinner we had to flag down random people to get utensils, plates, water and our missing dish. We honestly had no idea who our waiter or waitress was all night. Very strange. Never had an experience quite like that.
The food was very good though. My favorite was the duck banh mi and the Korean fried chicken. Just delicious. Oh and for dessert the Cracker Jack ice cream was by far the best decision we had made in a long time.
Because the food was so good I can kind of overlook the lacking customer service but I really wish the service was good so I could give them 5 stars. Oh well.

I really felt gypped by this place. We’ve been trying to find a place in South Beach where we’d get some great, quality food and ambiance.
This place had a cute veranda, and a very snazzy interior. Nothing out of the ordinary for South Beach though. The high prices put us hoping for a great meal. We got two appetizers — wagyu skewers and fried artichokes. Both were delicious, but waay overpriced and portions were small. The prices were 17 an 17, respectively.
Then, we both got the backyard burger. It literally was McDonald’s on a cutting board, with french fries. Sesame bun, american cheese, a rather tasteless patty, pickles, ketchup, and mustard = Big Mac. Ask for lettuce and tomato to be added? An extra charge. The burger plate itself was $ 17!
That being said, our waitress was rather nonexistent and did not seem appalled at all that we went through most of our meal without napkins.
Save your money for another South Beach restaurant!

Great service. Fresh ingredients. Lousy bar service and cocktails.
Get the burrata salad – one of the best I’ve ever had. The steak al carbon was a HUGE portion and was fantastic!

I made reservations for our last meal of 2015 and this place did not disappoint. We were a group of 8 girls, which for some restaurants is hard to accommodate but the continental had no problem at all. The hostess was very friendly and polite, she found us a very nice long table in their back patio and the atmosphere was perfect.
Being that it was new years eve; one can think the service was going to be sloppy or the food mediocre… but this place totally proved me wrong. Our waitress was right on point, she even gladly divided our checks individually and had no problem taking care of our large table. Now onto the food… the portions were quite big, each of us ordered something different, from nachos, to shrimp tacos, to tacos al carbon, and 2 other Chinese dishes… and they were all very well executed! All my friends were very happy with their meals and raved about this place… and guess what.prices.are quite affordable for the location and the ambiance. so yes… this restaurant will def see more of me in the future.

Located in the Aloft Hotel, which BTW is a cute and super trendy new hotel, The Continetal is a retro tiki hut inspired restaurant that is super nice.
I was not impressed by the menu at first sight but i was wrong. The food was great, tapas style but big portions for tapas!
The pastrami fried rice, burrata, and dumplins were delicious!
There is sitting outside and inside and on a nice night, outside is where is at. We came here for a quick bite before a show at The Fillmore, and it was perfect. I would say however this place is more suitable for lunch or brunch.
The cocktails were great! i had the dragonfruit mule and it was very refreshing. Good place to visit after the beach or during a nice day.
Décor is retro and very cool. Service was ok but i found the staff super young. Nothing wrong with that, it just doesn’t scream luxe restaurant. However, it was all good.

I love the retro atmosphere of this restaurant. What a great chic décor!
I was at this place for brunch/​lunch which they recently started offering. The hostess was so very pleasant and gave us a couple of table options to choose from. We settled for a table outside.
We were doing a power lunch and told the hostess so while we were seated. Promptly after that, our waiter showed up and told us that they will do their best to get our orders to the table as soon as possible since he had been informed by the hostess that we had limited time for lunch (GREAT SERVICE — GREAT ATTITUDE)
We had the Backyard burger and the Turkey Club. Both of which were delicious and came with matchstick fries — YUM!
My burger tasted so very retro (I don’t know how else to describe it really — this sweet and sour and savory taste). All the ingredients were fresh. They seem to get their bread from ZTB which is another plus in my book.
There were so many great sounding desserts on the dessert menu however sadly we did not have time for desert.
We were in and out of this place in less than 45 minutes which was PERFECT timing on their behalf!
Highly recommended if you are in Miami Beach and looking for a retro meal.

Man. Sometimes going out for a bangin’ ass meal doesn’t have to be with your babe. There are certain times when you gotta let loose with your buds and get some serious bro time in. Welcome to my life last weekend. It was Phil Wagner unleashed.
Work was a serious buzzkill the whole week. My boss had a major case of the ZERO CHILLS! I was trapped in a steel cage gnawing at the lock trying to break free. So what did I do? Booked a last minute flight to Miami. Anytime life gets you down, the only prescription is a trip to the 305.
I called into sick on Friday. Told them I had a serious case of diarrhea. When a guy tells his boss he has diarrhea it’s like a woman telling her boss she’s on her period. No one EVER wants to hear that and who would ever make that up. You can’t argue with ‘rhea. What if my boss said, «I don’t care, get your ass in here anyway!» Then, I go to work clenching real hard all day and either spend the day working from the john or I crap myself. A boss would never want brown on his or her hands. So it was pretty easy to email my boss at 6AM Friday about my doody issues while sitting at the airport.
My bud picked me up in Miami and off we went to Souf Beech. Man. Missed this city. It has it all. The four Bs. Babes. Beers. Blunts. Beaches. It’s a magical place really. Where a prince becomes a king. Where clothing is optional. Where the green does all the talking.
We hit up Nikki Beach and just got bombed sipping on Landsharks. They didn’t have ‘Ronas. Thought that was whack but whatever. After my fourth ‘Shark, I was over it. Was feeling real good at this point. The single lady sitch was subpar. Seemed like all the doods with ladies were paying by the hour if you catch my drift. By our fifth ‘Shark, we got kicked out. Apparently, the beach chairs were $ 20 for the day, but we’d already been on them for hours so didn’t make sense to buy. Don’t remember much but taking off my shirt and shouting, «Lemme ‘shark it out.» Man, what a way to start the day.
Somehow it was already 4pm. Guess time just slips away in Miami. That’s why it’s so damn good there. You never really know what time it is. Why should you anyway? At some point I do remember passing out on the beach so that could have been all of 20 minutes or 2 hours. Who knows? Who cares!
Next stop HH at Monty’s in Coconut Grove. You want to talk about a place where the vibes are the chillest, the drinks flow like the salmon of Capistrano and the babes are alway down to clown, then Monty’s is your spot. It was HH so the drinks were basically pennies. We started pounding PK3s. That might have been a bad move because I’m pretty sure those drinks have like 7 of different alcohols. If you are «finna get loose» then kick back with a few PK3s. Guaranteed to make any evening go from 0 to 60 in no time flat!
We met up with a bunch of my buds from when I lived in Miami. It was good to see the old crew. Some are married. One is getting ready to have a kid. Sometimes I look at my life and I’m like, «Oh, hell yeah! No ring. No kid. No problems!» That’s how I live, but love my buds for life.
So we started chattin’ up a few babes, really laid it on thick. Telling them they were so hot, so hot that they could def date a Miami Marlins player. We got digits, but pretty much told them we’d be in Souf Beech the whole night and said we’d text if we felt like calling them up to the big leagues.
Next stop Souf Beech and a little dinner at The Continental. It was six of us and we got a res for 9:30, day of, which was clutch. Of course we kept the drink game going. I got the Dominicana Old Fashioned, which was too damn sweet like someone had poured a whole thing of Malibu in it. Wish I’d gotten the Dragonfruit Mule like my bud. (We gave him soo much crap the whole night for drinking a pink drink but for real, it was good.) What I really should have gotten was the Bump & Rind because there ain’t nothing wrong with a little Bump & Rind.
Next thing I know we order some appetizers the Tuna Tartare Spring Rolls and the Fried Bufala Mozz. Things were getting blurry at this point but I do remember the waiter explaining to me what Pigs In A Blanket were. It’s like bro, I was once 7 years old and ate PIAB every day after school, so I think I know what they are.
Dinner was a blur.
I woke up the next morning at my bud’s place. Don’t know how we got home. Apparently we went to some club. There were A LOT of scandalous pictures on my phone. The rest of the details are not for you. Get your own life!
The only SFW pics I can share are from dinner. Apparently, I ordered the Korean Fried Chicken and one of my buds ordered the Crispy Whole Snapper. Don’t know what anyone else ordered cuz there’s no photographic evidence. Now that I think about it the KFC was soo dank. Real crispy but not too crispy to the point where it’s like all fried and no chicken. Def a good balance and the flavor was real bold.
Continental I’ll miss you. Until next time, don’t go changing.

Average and below, very hard to find a good restaurant in Miami beach.
The Goods: Restaurant style is great, 50’s style, music choice was good, service is good.
The Bad: I left hungry and with a burned food flavor in my mouth, over cooked or burned. Small size portions. The duck was very testy, but, again, small portion on lame sticky fried rice.
Some items are good but most are just not tasty. Super expensive!!!

This is the only Continental that I haven’t been to. The décor is very similar to the other ones. It’s located by the river in the upper South Beach area. Love the location. And the staff are very professional and friendly.
We came here for brunch. I had the Cuban omelette and it was amazing. The home fries were great. The buttermilk pancakes were really good too. The turkey sausage omelette was ok.
We just wish the Big Bang is available in this Continental too. That’s our favorite brunch choice!

My boyfriend and I ventured here on our first night in Miami, shortly after checking in and dropping off our bags. We wanted to kick off our Miami Beach trip with some good cocktails and a nice meal, so we chose The Continental based on all the great reviews. We arrived around 9pm on a Thursday night and although the restaurant had a few patrons, it was surprisingly fairly empty. We were greeted by the hostess with a warm smile and chose to sit inside to avoid the heat.
The service here is great. We were greeted within minutes and everything we ordered came out promptly. Our server also had an enthusiastic attitude throughout our entire meal and was friendly without being overbearing.
I chose a specialty cocktail from their menu: the Astronaut – peach vodka, tang rim. This was delicious!
I think the food is where this place tries but falls oh-​so-​short. Between my boyfriend and I, we decided on the following:
Tuna Tataki — tomato, crispy ginger, citrus soy
Sizzling Seafood Wor Bar — lobster, shrimp, scallops, sizzling garlic sauce
Pork Belly
The tuna tataki was delicious. The tuna was fresh and the plump tomato added a sweetness to the dish. The ginger added a bold distinction, and the citrus soy perfect offset the fish. This was my favorite part of our meal and because it was the first dish to arrive, I had good expectations for the following two dishes. Next, my boyfriend’s pork belly dish arrived. This is a beautiful dish, served on a gorgeous plank of wood with yucca fries. The pork belly was supposed to be «crispy», but we soon discovered that a few pieces were overcooked and extremely hard. I feel the dish could have been done much better and it was a waste to have such a beautiful presentation for food that didn’t quite make the mark. The most disappointing piece of our meal was the Sizzling Seafood Wor Bar – this was a splurge at $ 28 but I thought, hey, we’re in Miami Beach – we should get seafood! The meal does arrive sizzling, but sat in a thick cornstarch sauce that reminds you of amateur Chinese restaurant cooks. There were a few pieces of seafood but definitely not an overwhelming or generous portion, and with everything sitting in this thick, salty sauce, you quickly lose interest. There’s definitely no «wow» factor in this dish.
Overall, we dropped over a bill here but I’m sad to say it was the most disappointing restaurant on our recent trip. I’d come back for drinks and maybe skip the food.

So much good stuff here. Very cool spot, convenient to the hotels if you’re traveling. Food and service was AMAZING! One of my colleagues was over-​served but they handled him masterfully. For the record, we were the first customers to ever try the rum punch bowl. 16oz of booze (for four people) but priced about the same as a vodka tonic at the Fontainebleau.
Super eclectic menu, but everything is magnificent. Here’s my reco — curated by me (to share with a group): cheesesteak egg rolls, tea smoked spare ribs, Hong Kong fooey, crispy artichoke, grilled lamb steak, tacos al carbon and the Peruvian duck. You can thank me later. BTW, don’t skip the duck, it’s the bomb… and if they aren’t servin the punch bowl, demand it!

I dined at this location on two occasions while staying at the Aloft Hotel in south Miami. The restaurant is located right next to the Hotel. They do Breakfast Brunch on the weekends. Which btw was simply marvelous!
The food was plentiful and delicious. The staff goes above and beyond to make sure it’s right for you.
I also had the pleasure of trying dinner here which again was superb, as well as the service and recommendations from the servers on both occasions. They have indoor and outdoor seating.
We opted for outdoor seating on both occasions. I just wish that they served breakfast every morning but who knows maybe some day. I would definitely recommend and return again if staying in the area :)

Just stopped by for cocktails
Gabriel the bartender — you’ll know him by his AMAZING biceps was our master creator of our libations
Got the florida daiquiri
He made the most beautiful concoction
But he wasn’t finished
Then for his encore he made the Hemingway daiquiri
Stout Grapefruit perfection
My friend ordered a simple double ketel and lemonade
Gabriiel took it to the next level and prepared a drink that was not simple but a work of pure art…
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary– is that little extra!
And Gabriel has it in spades
If the food experience is half as good as our bar experience
I’ll be the most loyal regular customer you’ve ever seen…

I may be somewhat biased here, as all I need to do is to swim across the Collins Canal from my apartment and I am at the Continental, though as someone who fills suitcases with tortilla chips on my visits to Chicago, good food always transcends distance.
The Continental has a few spaces to enjoy your meal… an outdoor patio facing the action of Collins Avenue and «inlet» of Collins Canal (if only the city would keep this water cleaner), a somewhat loud but exciting inside dining area reminiscent of America’s obsession with Hawaiian statehood, a quieter and more intimate back outdoor seating and a poolside bar.
The menu is a hodgepodge of cuisines, ingredients, plate sizes and calorie counts, but I have yet to try something here that wasn’t delicious. The standouts for me are the tuna tataki crispy spring roll… you get all the crunch of a fried spring roll, without the burnt lips or overcooked meat, as it is served cold with spicy raw tuna stuffed inside. This dish is fun, unusual but also somehow familiar. Korean Fried Chicken is a large half bird portion, lacquered with a sweet crust and served with pickled veggies and the cheeseburger, though traditional in its preparation, is downright delicious. One of my favorites is the Peruvian duck chifa fried rice, though one of the pricier dishes on the menu, its rich and hearty with a tangy and fiery sauce. I only have tried one dessert here and it was the dessert I would generally not choose, Chocolate Cake… not a big cake fan, don’t require a lot of chocolate in my diet and generally prefer desserts that are less sweet. That being said, you get a giant portion of chocolate cake and you will finish it with one other person, somehow, even after an amazing dinner. It is exceptional!
On to drinks… I am a huge tropical drink fan but also somewhat of a drink snob, so this drink menu could have gone either way for me, but I have to say, these are exceptionally tasty tropical drinks. Ask your bartender about sugar content as some drinks are a bit too sweet for my personal tastes and others may be too potent for yours. Service here is always on point… friendly, attentive, fun but not overly formal or stuffy.

My friend Michelle picked the Continental for her birthday and I enjoyed to the tune of 4.5 stars! For starters, service was excellent with both the manager coming by our table to greet us and out waitress giving me an opportunity to practice Russian («Otlichnyy restoran») The cinnamon and Dominican rum Old Fashioned was nice and strong, a perfect nightcap. I also enjoyed the caprese salad with fresh fruits, as well as green salad I sampled.
My main course was their juicy «Backyard Burger» slider and thin cut crispy fries. Though a tad on the small side, my slider was flavorful seasoned. Kudos also to the kitchen staff for the moist chocolate cake they brought out for the Birthday girl.
The vibe is a funky post 50s with low ceiling and tiki kitschy décor. Funky and fun!
The reason I’m holding off the fifth star is their chicken dishes. I was looking forward to their Korean Fried Chicken. However, as our very knowledgeable waitress informed us, it’s seasoned with a fish sauce. That and allergies don’t mix. We tried getting the sauce on the side, and found out that it wasn’t posible since the chicken is marinated in it. Please consider this slight change.

The Continental is the kitschy tiki bar-​slash-​diner-​slash-​American Chinese restaurant that Miami Beach never knew it needed. Located on the west side of Collins in the newly opened Aloft Hotel, The Continental oozes charm. Everything about the place has been curated with such care, it’s hard not to be impressed when you walk through the doors and you’re welcomed back in time to the ‘60s.
After being seated — either at the front patio (with tabletops that look like Chinese checkers boards), inside (with Formica tabletops), or out back, your first mission must be to check out the specialty cocktails. Each has an amazingly tasty description, accompanied with a picture of the glassware the drink is served in. Of course, there’s a legit tiki option. I opted for the dragonfruit mule, which tasted just like a typical Moscow mule, but had the dragonfruit’s typical hot pink color. I’d try other cocktails before ordering it again.
The menu is broken up into typical categories, with the exception being the «Chinese Specialities» section. We opted to share several small plates and an entrée to maximize our dining experience. Our meal started with the tuna tartare spring rolls, which, while tasty, weren’t anything special. Next we had the little gem salad, which had awesome grilled peaches and pistachios, but the amount of goat cheese and dressing really drowned out the other flavors. Next time I’d ask for the dressing on the side.
The soft shell crab bao buns followed, and these were really tasty. Served 3 to an order, with a portion of perfectly fried soft shell crab, spicy mayo and fresh slaw on a tender bao bun, I would order these again in a heartbeat. Our meal concluded with the main dish — the Korean fried chicken. This was really tasty, and was a huge portion to boot! It’s apparently only half a chicken, but this chicken seemed to be double the size of a normal one. The chicken pieces were cooked perfectly, and the soy-​garlic «lacquer» offered a good combo of sweet and heat that I really enjoyed. I would definitely order this again.
Service was very good, which I hope is a trend that continues. Our waiter was very attentive, and we were checked on by at least 2 managers during our meal. The price is about typical for dinner on South Beach — expect to spend about $ 50+ for a filling meal and a drink, including tax and tip.
Stephen Starr is having a pretty good run in South Florida these days. The Continental is another solid feather in his cap. The kitschiness is unique and inviting, the setting is beautiful (right on the intercoastal), and the food is solid. I’m looking forward to returning, and to checking out their future brunch options.

Stopped by this new joint after many different people raved about it.
The atmosphere is great. An amazing date spot. There is outside and inside seating, all with a great ambiance. Very modern 80’s.
The staff is incredibly attentive. Noticeably attentive. All of them, not just your server. It was nice, being taken care of so well.
The food comes in big portions, big enough to share, but yummy enough you don’t want to! There is a lot of fresh seafood on the menu, mostly with Asian influence. We tried the Lobster fried rice, the steaming seafood dish, Vaca Frita and the pot stickers.
The food was all very fresh and so tasty! We were not disappointed by the rave reviews, and I would recommend this new spot to anyone :)