01/07/09

Food is ok but keep your credit card receipt!

by pbalk

The food was alright but look out! Make sure you take your credit card receipt and keep it! Unfortuantely I did not keep mine. Otherwise I could call my credit card company and complain about our waiter at Bongos who changed my tip from 20% to 40%!!!

12/19/08

BEWARE, UNSANITARY THEY NEED OT BE SHUT DOWN!!!

by zonin222

Was in Miami before setting off for a cruise for our honeymoon. the day before we set off, we decide for lack of a better option to eat at Larios or Bongos or whatever its called. i heard that it was gloria estefan's restaurant, and couldnt decide wether that was a good thing or a bad thing. anyway, i dont know where to start. for starters the service was horrible. rude, impatient, and ignorant. the food was FUNKY. ceviche was luke warm and seemed like it had been sitting out. had an extremely gamey smell and even worse taste. when i tried to return it the waiter gave me a problem and i had to argue to even get it taken off my table. then the drinks came, watery, disgusting. for a supposedly "authentic" restaurant, they had by far the worst drinks i had in all of south beach. next the entree, the worst paella ive ever had, full of frozen seafood and a very strong weird seasoning that seemed like it was in there by mistake, and of course all this after waiting for 45 min to have it cooked. next my wife gets here disgusting 5 lb plate of pork that is absurdly portioned, especially considering that it is HORRIBLE tasting and seemingly was plated for an hour before being served. and the cherry on top is that within an hour after leaving, we both felt overcome with nauseau, and spent the next 48 hours throwing up and worse, much worse unfortunately. we had to delay our entire honeymoon by 3 days to recover, and still wasnt 100% after that. its ironic, because if you look at the shape of the menu it looks like a bongo on one side, and the other side that is plain white looks EXACTLY like a toilet seat up, which is EXACTLY what youll be looking into shortly after you eat here. look at the other reviews, how is this the only restaurant where 1/4 of the reviews complain of some kind of neaseau? SHUT THIS PLACE DOWN ITS DISGUSTING, UNSANITARY, AND AN ABSOLUTE JOKE OF A CUBAN RESTAURANT!!!! thought i'de share so you can avoid making the same mistake we did.

• Pros: on southe beach
• Cons: horrible overall experience

02/15/08

Hmmmm Delicious!

by PrttyLady25

In all honesty, some of these reviews are years old thus making the restaurant look bad. I went last year '07 in August with my then Fiancee after we took our engagement pictures (my 2nd time there, my fiance's 1st) and we both had a great time. Our waiter, was very prompt and fast in getting our appetizers along with drinks to us. The food was very tasty and as anyone knows Cubans cook with lots of spices making our food a delicacy to US. For those faint of heart or not used to Caribbean meals as such might not like it. The music was very nice although I must admit TOO LOUD but we enjoyed ourselves in our celebration. As a matter of fact for our post V-day we're going tonight as husband and wife!

• Pros: Location, Food, Ambience
• Cons: Music a bit too loud to be able to talk over dinner

01/16/08

Greatest Cuban Food In Miami

by alvimar

I went to eat at Larios on the Beach and had a wonderful experience. The food was excellent. I had the best churrasco steak in my life. The service was friendly and quick. The band with the fat lady singing was a bit of a visual turn off. I don't know if others that review are familiar with Cuban Cuisine, but a thin steak is authentic. Cuban food is full of spice, yes salt and greasy too, but for Cubans it is the way we like it. If you want to experience a lot of bland food, go elsewhere. Here you get the real deal. Change the live music to South Beach hip salsa, and you got a great destination restaurant. I would go back tomorrow.

• Pros: Great Authentic Food
• Cons: Horrible Visual of a very fat female singer

01/07/07

Bad service and food

by smiles1104

I was there this past weekend with my family. The food was bad tasting all around. No one was happy with their food. I asked for vaca frita which is supposed to be dry and what they brought me was the oilest piece of meet ever. The food was very satly all around. I asked for a spoon for my son, and we had to ask another server because they other one never showed up. We had to ask for break and they it was given to us as we got our dinner. The waitress was always in the hidding. We complained about the service to the waitress and her lame excuse was that "you came at a bad time when we had just changed shifts." We were frequenters of the local restaurant but after this awful experience, we will no long visit this restaurant. We were sick to our stomachs the whole night. ...Burping garlic and onions. My mom left almost all her pork it was greasy too.

:-(

10/18/06

Best customer service from friendly long term waiters

by dremiamifl

The best cuban resturant in town!Great bar and music,but the food is a must,excellent congri(rice and beans)chicken and plantains with authentic cuban Mojito(better than most).Flan is great and expresso is always hot.Nothing like it in Miami.

• Pros: OK
• Cons: Mojito a little expensive now!

At Latin diva Gloria Estefan's lively Cuban eatery, the food takes a back seat to the scenery.

by Contributor

The Scene
Inside, the restaurant turns into a makeshift salsa club, with music blaring over the animated conversations and the sounds of English mixing with Spanish. Because of its locale on Ocean Drive, Lario's is a great place to bring someone who's never experienced the Cuban culture or cuisine.

The Food
The classic Cuban dishes get a so-so rating from the Cubans, but a better one from those who aren't as fluent or well-versed in the cuisine. The portions here are larger than life, as are some of the restaurant's patrons who come here for the sidewalk scenery and the deliciously prepared black beans and rice.

01/30/06

SOOO BADDD

by spurry

I just don't know what to say. I was happy to see that it was right on Ocean Drive, only b/c I wanted the experience of eating at a "people watching" place. We sat outside and it was nice. There were lots of empty tables but they treat you like there's a five hour wait. They throw the food at you and don't conceal the fact they want to open the table fast. I don't get it b/c with so many open tables, what's the rush? We specifically told the watier after receiveing our appetizer that we'd like to wait before ordering and he wouldn't leave us alone. The food was one of the worst meals I've ever had. My wife's fish was inedible. Really she couldn't eat it. We didn't bother to complain b/c they really don't seem to care. Give the money to charity. Such a waste.

• Pros: none
• Cons: food, service

01/23/06

So sad, but it was awful...

by amymow

Despite bad reviews, my husband and I went here last night. We should have listened. Service was prompt, band was great (too loud to speak over though) but the food? Completely awful, one of the worst 10 meals ever. Such a shame. I had the fried balls with ground beef in the center, they were still frozen, which told me they microwaved them. I politley asked if they were supposed to be cold, the waiter took them back. The next set came out, same problem, cold in the center. I gave up. I got breaded steak for entree, awful and uninspired - a slab of extra thin beef deep friend on a barren white plate. It was hard to look at. Beans and plantains on seperate plate, completely cold. Gloria Estefan should definately get out of this biz, it was just sooo awful...

• Pros: good music, prompt service
• Cons: cold food, uninspired food

12/18/05

Larios is "Lousy-Ohs"

by mhb1954

Just left Larios: the staff, especially the hostess, seemed too self-absorbed to give caring service, food was mediocre. The pork culets were tough, and the cuban sandwich was like from an inexpensive deli. The waitress never asked what we thought of the food. It took a long time to get iced tea refills. When I couldn't get the waitress' attn, I finally got the hostess' attention; she might as well have been a statue: her reaction to being asked for more iced tea indicated that her role was solely to be the grande damme of hostessing... she couldn't be bothered with such trivia... !!! I was also irritated by the guaranteed tip. I would definitely not recommend Larios/Bongos and if I were Gloria Estefan, I would stick to singing music and forget about running restaurants.

• Pros: Location
• Cons: Service, Food, Tips