BarMeli

Super cute place, amazing food and service. The grilled octopus is a MUST!
Fair price, good atmosphere, I hope this place is here to stay!

One of the best discoveries so far in this neighborhood. Discovered it via Unilocal and decided to go and grab a bite and taste some wine (they have a great variety). The tapas looked amazing, we had as an appetizer dates with cheese and prosciutto (very good!). I decided to go with the «Scottish salmon“and I can assure you haven’t try something like that before. The flavors were mediterranean and sooo fresh with a delicious crust. We also tried the cod casserole, it came with tomatoes, capers, etc and it was delicious as well. Finally, we decided to have some sweet and they mentioned the coconut cake was their specialty… Well it truly is. It was AMAZING!!! Our servers were phenomenal. You need to try this place, you wont regret it!

Amazing! just found this place and my girlfriend and I had a great time. It was packed on a Wednesday but the service was great. The food was delicious and as soon as you walked in you felt like family. I can’t wait to go back.

Cozy spot off the beaten track. Plenty of free parking
Excellent and friendly service. BUT best of all was fresh, tasty fare. We drunk them out of our favorite «Estes» Turkish beer. Hope they restock before we return.

BarMeli is by far one of my favorite spots in all of Miami. Every item on the menus is fantastic, the wine selection is great, and the owner/​host is wonderful! The dishes our friends usually rave about are the octopus, the stuffed piquillo peppers, and the lemon coconut cake.

Feel like home!
Well. I think that places like this where the owner entertain and gave the best wine with such as great attention is priceless.
Price is good and the cheese on fire is just out of control!

I go to a lot of restaurants in Miami and this is eh. The food was mediocre and the service wasn’t good either.
I also saw the owner being RUDE as hell to one of the customers. These are people who pay for food, pay your servers and basically pay your paycheck, lady. Have a little respect. You acted so unprofessional. I’m sure there were others like me that heard it and will never return.
Then I come on here to Unilocal and I see that the owner basically has a cookie-​cutter phrase she uses on every bad review: «You disrespected our restaurant.» 1. I’ve never seen an owner do that on Unilocal.Real business owners actually respond in a productive way to get paying customers back to the restaurant. Before people even come here you can tell she’s rude just from her responses on here. 2. You can’t say that to me because I had no interaction with you. I just saw you being rude to other patrons. Then I got up quietly and left.
There are plenty of cute little restaurants in Miami with better food, better service, in better areas and have much better owners than this place.

Enjoy the great selection of well priced wines to go along with some great food. The food is super healthy and good. There is a great selection of tapas all at a reasonable price. This is one of those places you say «I wish I would know. You were here months ago»

This is a cute cozy place. The wine selection is very good, the host and owner is very nice and friendly. The atmosphere is nice and relaxing, I would definitely come back the music and prices are reasonable. It was four of us and we sat at the bar.

BarMeli its an experience on its own. Music is great and the wines from all over the world are great. They have a saying here that goes like this:
«Go ahead and WINE a little»
PEOPLE THIS IS A MUSTTTTTTT DRINK!

This cozy little spot has tons of character and was a great date night location. I was lucky enough to have the owner serve my boyfriend and I at the bar. She could tell how indecisive we were about the meal and wine selection and was so eager to help us choose. She helped us sample a few wines since we are by no means wine connoisseur and select one before committing to one.
As a vegetarian, I was really excited to see that they had an entire veggie selection on the menu and I ended up ordering the veggie casserole, flat bread with eggplant, and the feta and eggplant dips. Everything was delicious and tasty! My only very small complaint is that the pita chips that were brought out for the dip were pretty crunchy and I prefer soft pita. Not a big deal though.
Although the owner was one of the only two servers I saw there that night and had a completely packed restaurant she was incredibly helpful and didn’t show any signs of stress. I loved the service, food, and ambiance here!

It’s hard not to really like this place, I’ve been here quite a few times. It’s a great place to come with a few friends, go with a date, or catch the happy hour after work. Make sure to check the restaurant’s hours before visiting because they are not open every day of the week and their hours change the days they are open.
It’s a really low key place usually, but this place gets really packed when they have live music on Friday and Saturday nights. The restaurant is on the small side. The ambiance can be really quiet and relaxed, or it can be really high energy and fun depending on when you go.
Anyway, you come in and sit at the bar or one of the tables. They bring you a menu, and drink service is pretty fast. The Greek beers they serve are light and refreshing, and the sangria is really strong, but I don’t mind ;) Those fruits stuck at the bottom of your glass of sangria are saturated in alcohol, so don’t forget to eat them!
All the tapas I’ve had here are really great. You’ll definitely want to try everything. Some of the highlights I remember are the prosciutto wrapped dates (delicious!), boquerones (anchovies on crostini — order if you like salty food), grilled octopus (yumm and comes with a little salad), Greek salad (delicious, classic salad), and flat breads (order if you want something filling).
The service is really friendly and you’ll often see the owner of the bar working there. She is a woman with curly hair and always wears a long dress.
Parking wise, they have a really small parking lot in front of the restaurant. If you come here when it’s busy you will definitely have to park in the street.
Here you’re probably gonna spend around $ 25 per person which includes drinks… and the only reason this restaurant doesn’t get that 5^th star is because I think the quality of food is better at other restaurants I’ve been to, but those restaurants were also more expensive. But overall, awesome and I will definitely continue to visit this restaurant!

Love the place! Very casual and friendly oriented…
Food is
Gread and wine fabulous!!! Great selection!

After moving to Surfside, I opened Unilocal and decided to try all the restaurants with good reviews, Bar Melissa was up there and rightfully.
It’s located in a not great strip mall I’ll give you that.
The ambiance was fun with a guy playing the guitar and singing. And he was good so it was enjoyable.
Obviously it’s tapas style. Everything we tried was good. Service was very friendly.
A good experience.

I love walking into a restaurant that immediately gives off a nice vibe, not because its trendy, but because its cozy and warm. The menu is composed of Mediterranean tapas. We ordered way to much, but everything was delicious.
Grilled Octopus 5 stars
Prosciutto wrapped dates 5 stars
Sagnaki (Fried Cheese) Table side show 5 stars
Ribs 4 stars (fall off the bone good)
Lamb Loin Chops 4 stars
Lemon Coconut cake 4 stars
Food and service excellent. This a great choice to come in a group to try a little bit of everything.

My bestfriend is obessed with this place and is always talking about it so yesterday we both had free time and decided to make the drive over for happy hour. The restaurant is cute and cozy and for it being a tuesday it was considerably full.
The prosseco we had was wonderful and the food was excellent. As for food we went all our. We had an order of the Fetta & Hummas dip, Saganaki which was of coursemy favorite, something about fried cheese that gets me everytime. We also had an order of the bacon wrapped dated and the roma flatbread. Everything was what I expected and more.
Plenty of parking and the owner was attentative and very sweet. My only complaint is that its such a far drive for me that I can’t see myself coming here very often. Besides that I would recommend anyone in this area to try this spot out.

‘Discovering’ gems like BarMeli is (part of) what makes Unilocal so useful. For a long while, this stretch of 79^th was fairly dormant. But with housing prices increasing all over the city (and people leaving the city), it looks like there’s a new, northward migration and at the head of the movement is your new, favorite tapas spot.
Part of why it works so well has been discussed in other reviews: this ain’t Liza’s first time at the rodeo and she commands a dining room with charm and precision. This begins (almost) as soon as you sit down. With a check-​in offer that greets guests with a glass of wine, how can you help but to be in a good mood for the very beginning. It’s a smart move, as well. Wine (especially free wine) loosens you up, gets you hungry and prepares you for a fun, adventurous evening. Come to BarMeli with a group of friends and you’re guaranteed to have a good time.
But, you may not be guaranteed to share your tapas. Why? Because they’re delicious and you’re going to want them all for yourself. The program works by dishes coming out of the kitchen when they’re ready, not necessarily in the order in which they were requested. That keeps the food hot (or, cold as the case may be), the guest on his/​her proverbial toes and the conversation moving («ooh, look at that!» «May i try it?» «No!» (stabs hand with fork). Particular standouts are the 5 dip combo (5 dips served with pita: whipped feta, roe, white bean hummus, eggplant, and tzatziki), the merguez (Moroccan lamb sausage) and the St. Tropez salad (spinach, dates, walnuts,
gorgonzola, and orange). But, as I distracted my tablemates and picked off their plates, there doesn’t seem to be a bad choice on the menu.
Do yourself a favor: get off the beach. Get out of Brickell/​Wynwood. Discover food and service that will make you feel happy, appreciated and keep you coming back. You won’t feel as though you’re in Miami. Or, perhaps, this is how you *should* be made to feel whilst eating out in Miami. Maybe, that.

Break away from the mainstream and transport yourself to Greece for the evening with this neighborhood treat. I came here for my birthday and boy does this tiny place pack a a ton of culture. The food was fresh and excellent. We danced around the restaurant to live music and broke hand painted plates with the owner/​hostess with the mostest, Liza. The violinist came to the table, played me a specialized song, and then wanted a tip, I mean how much more Euro tourist can you get?! Loved it! We were truly transported to Greece for the evening, a birthday dinner I will always remember!
FOOD HIGHLIGHTS:
LAMB FILO ROLLS (a must! If you are familiar with Israeli meat cigars, this is its twin, we had to get a second order)
FLAMING SAGANAKI (the best I’ve had in a long time and they will flame it in front of you!)
AMALFI FLATBREAD (simple yet delicious)
GREEK SALAD
I can’t wait to get back to really attack the menu. We were with some picky eater guests at the time.
They also have a wine tasting night on Thursday’s with some lite bites but we had driven for the evening or else we would’ve opted for getting wined down.
Until next time… Opa!

This place is just so darn cute. The owner is super friendly, the happy hour deals are great, and the location is handy. The food stuffs are great, though I feel slightly over-​priced. In particular, the zucchini w/​feta and mint is a little on the high side, as well as the octopus. Though both of those dishes are amazing, I’m not sure that the price is quite right. For a glass of wine, and a small appetizer, though, this place has it! I went here on my last night in Miami — so obviously one of my favs of the area!
One of my top favorite things about this place is the $ 5 wine options for Happy Hour. They usually have 2 red and 2 white options. That alone makes this place top my favorite places in Miami.

I have been wanting to check out this restaurant for a while, and I am glad I finally got the chance to. I will definitely work this place into restaurants that I frequent even though it is a bit of a drive for me. The place its self is small, dark and cozy. Everything we had was outstanding.
We had the spicy feta dip & hummus, saganaki, the barcelona flatbread, grilled octopus, lemony chickpea salad, meatballs, lamb sausage and bacon wrapped dates. Everything was outstanding, with my favorites being the flatbread, the saganaki (of course, I have an obsession with cheese) and the bacon wrapped dates.
The free glass of wine with Unilocal check-​in was a nice touch.
I can’t wait to return, definitely want to check out their happy hour specials!
PS. the owner (lady) is really nice, and pretty, she said they will be opening sundays because of the world cup. So, if you’re craving some delicious greek food on a sunday give them a call, they might be open.