DeVito’s
It’s Miami Spice Month in Miami, which means one thing; it’s time to get out and eat. Our first pick was only natural seeing as how our good friend’s father is part owner along with award winning actor Danny Devito. We like to keep it in the family, so we hit the beach to finally see what DeVito’s, the new celebrity owned Italian chophouse, was all about. Our reservation was for 6, yet the maitre’d sat us at a table top for 5. After a nostalgic game of musical chairs we had a chance to check out the dining room. It was only natural that the rich mahogany walls were peppered with plasma TV”s displaying The Godfather… on repeat. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that was DeVito’s idea.
The Miami Spice menu is a set menu for $23 during lunch and $36 during dinner. You usually have a choice of either 2 or 3 different dishes for each appetizer, entrée, and dessert. After a quick read over the short menu, I knew one thing was clear; I was definitely ordering the Italian meatball appetizer in a homemade Pomodoro sauce, topped with a thick round slice of ricotta. The mammoth meatball came in a steel skillet drenched in sauce, which was pretty good, but nothing special.
The sad part about it is the meatball was actually really good, but the cheese served on top was ice cold. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but the lukewarm temperature definitely hurt the overall enjoyment of the dish. Luckily, they kept the fresh oven baked crusty bread coming to mop up the hot sauce. As I handed the last half of my meatball to my brother for him to devour, I saw a crispy pyramid of oniony fried goodness. I announced to the table that we were ordering onion rings, and after everyone turned to see the stack on the line waiting to be delivered to some other lucky patron, nobody dared argue.
The onion rings arrived, and within seconds a fight broke out. As people struggled to gather as many rings as they could, the breading fell off the onion faster than Josh’s mom’s clothes on a first date. It was as if the two elements had never even come into contact. Either the onions were too wet or the proportion of ingredients in the batter was off, but luckily the curry ketchup and spicy mustard dipping sauces were good enough to make gerbil nuts taste good.
Next, it was time to order the entrée. The choice was between either a citrus chicken with chiles, rigatoni with ricotta cheese, or Chilean seabass topped with lump crab meat, dressed with a creamy and seductive berenaise sauce, and served with steamed asparagus. There was a debate at the table about which sounded the best, and I immediately crossed off the rigatoni. “I didn’t come to a place with a reputation like this to have pasta,” I thought to myself. I mean pasta is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s rare that you are ever WOW’d by it. Through the process of elimination, I went with the seabass. Little did I know, I was about to have one of the best fish dishes of my life.
The fish was tender, light and flaky and would have been delicious alone on its own merits. The large lumps of crab were sweet and rubbed down with a Cajun spice, which added a really nice contrast of flavor. But it was the berenaise sauce that stole the show and really took the dish from good to unforgettable. To top it off, the plate was drizzled with a sweet balsamic reduction that was to die for.
Nobody ordered the chicken dish, but two of my friends ordered the rigatoni. I pitied them as they sat with unsatisfied looks on their faces while listening to me moan as if I was enjoying the best sex of my life. “How’s the pasta,” I asked my friends with a self-satisfied smirk on my face. Needless to say, they quickly regretted their decision to play it safe. Fortunately for them, we also ordered two orders of parmesan truffle fries off the regular menu. They made me feel like what I imagine a crackhead feels like once they get their first taste of that sweet rock. The fries themselves were a bit soggy, but again the truffle oil made up for the poor execution.
I still wasn’t over my seabass when the dessert showed up. We had the choice between Tiramisu and a Chocolate Chip Pistachio Covered Cannoli served with a scoop of blood orange sorbet. My friend, still muttering obscenities about the pasta, decided that it was time redeem himself and save the remainder of the meal. So, he went with the tiramisu. “How could you pick tiramisu over a cannoli,” I asked. You can pick your friends, you can pick your meals, but you can’t pick your friend’s meals. I mean he’s my best friend, but the kid doesn’t know how to order. “We’ll see whose dessert is better,” he whispered under his breath.
Judgment time arrived and I have to admit, the creamy whipped topping and chocolate shavings made the tiramisu look pretty tantalizing. But when I took my first bite of my cannoli, a tear fell from my eye… my lips quivered….it was love at first bite. This is not to say that the blood orange sorbet wasn’t amazing as well, but the sweet velvety cheese was more succulent than a fine Italian Cadburry egg. Yet again, my friend watched in agony as he played with his tiramipoo.
All in all, the meal provided an incredible array of flavors only to be matched by the important lesson learned. Happiness is all about the choices we make, choose wisely.
Devito South Beach LLC
www.devitosouthbeach.com
150 Ocean Dr
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 531-0911
Get directions
It’s Miami Spice Month in Miami, which means one thing; it’s time to get out and eat. Our first pick was only natural seeing as how our good friend’s father is part owner along with award winning actor Danny Devito. We like to keep it in the family, so we hit the beach to finally see what DeVito’s, the new celebrity owned Italian chophouse, was all about. Our reservation was for 6, yet the maitre’d sat us at a table top for 5. After a nostalgic game of musical chairs we had a chance to check out the dining room. It was only natural that the rich mahogany walls were peppered with plasma TV”s displaying The Godfather… on repeat. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that was DeVito’s idea.
The Miami Spice menu is a set menu for $23 during lunch and $36 during dinner. You usually have a choice of either 2 or 3 different dishes for each appetizer, entrée, and dessert. After a quick read over the short menu, I knew one thing was clear; I was definitely ordering the Italian meatball appetizer in a homemade Pomodoro sauce, topped with a thick round slice of ricotta. The mammoth meatball came in a steel skillet drenched in sauce, which was pretty good, but nothing special.
The sad part about it is the meatball was actually really good, but the cheese served on top was ice cold. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but the lukewarm temperature definitely hurt the overall enjoyment of the dish. Luckily, they kept the fresh oven baked crusty bread coming to mop up the hot sauce. As I handed the last half of my meatball to my brother for him to devour, I saw a crispy pyramid of oniony fried goodness. I announced to the table that we were ordering onion rings, and after everyone turned to see the stack on the line waiting to be delivered to some other lucky patron, nobody dared argue.
The onion rings arrived, and within seconds a fight broke out. As people struggled to gather as many rings as they could, the breading fell off the onion faster than Josh’s mom’s clothes on a first date. It was as if the two elements had never even come into contact. Either the onions were too wet or the proportion of ingredients in the batter was off, but luckily the curry ketchup and spicy mustard dipping sauces were good enough to make gerbil nuts taste good.
Next, it was time to order the entrée. The choice was between either a citrus chicken with chiles, rigatoni with ricotta cheese, or Chilean seabass topped with lump crab meat, dressed with a creamy and seductive berenaise sauce, and served with steamed asparagus. There was a debate at the table about which sounded the best, and I immediately crossed off the rigatoni. “I didn’t come to a place with a reputation like this to have pasta,” I thought to myself. I mean pasta is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s rare that you are ever WOW’d by it. Through the process of elimination, I went with the seabass. Little did I know, I was about to have one of the best fish dishes of my life.
The fish was tender, light and flaky and would have been delicious alone on its own merits. The large lumps of crab were sweet and rubbed down with a Cajun spice, which added a really nice contrast of flavor. But it was the berenaise sauce that stole the show and really took the dish from good to unforgettable. To top it off, the plate was drizzled with a sweet balsamic reduction that was to die for.
Nobody ordered the chicken dish, but two of my friends ordered the rigatoni. I pitied them as they sat with unsatisfied looks on their faces while listening to me moan as if I was enjoying the best sex of my life. “How’s the pasta,” I asked my friends with a self-satisfied smirk on my face. Needless to say, they quickly regretted their decision to play it safe. Fortunately for them, we also ordered two orders of parmesan truffle fries off the regular menu. They made me feel like what I imagine a crackhead feels like once they get their first taste of that sweet rock. The fries themselves were a bit soggy, but again the truffle oil made up for the poor execution.
I still wasn’t over my seabass when the dessert showed up. We had the choice between Tiramisu and a Chocolate Chip Pistachio Covered Cannoli served with a scoop of blood orange sorbet. My friend, still muttering obscenities about the pasta, decided that it was time redeem himself and save the remainder of the meal. So, he went with the tiramisu. “How could you pick tiramisu over a cannoli,” I asked. You can pick your friends, you can pick your meals, but you can’t pick your friend’s meals. I mean he’s my best friend, but the kid doesn’t know how to order. “We’ll see whose dessert is better,” he whispered under his breath.
Judgment time arrived and I have to admit, the creamy whipped topping and chocolate shavings made the tiramisu look pretty tantalizing. But when I took my first bite of my cannoli, a tear fell from my eye… my lips quivered….it was love at first bite. This is not to say that the blood orange sorbet wasn’t amazing as well, but the sweet velvety cheese was more succulent than a fine Italian Cadburry egg. Yet again, my friend watched in agony as he played with his tiramipoo.
All in all, the meal provided an incredible array of flavors only to be matched by the important lesson learned. Happiness is all about the choices we make, choose wisely.
Devito South Beach LLC
www.devitosouthbeach.com150 Ocean Dr
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 531-0911
Get directions
