Ocean Bar & Bistro

Not good. Calamari was average. The marina has zero flavor. Decent steak sandwich but incredibly poor service. Not rude, just not good. Food came out at different times and server was just not good at his job.

The Ocean Bar & Bistro is the main «in house» restaurant at the Miami Beach Resort and Spa. Like the rest of my stay at this hotel, nothing was quite worth the price.
The dining room itself is very nice. Based on the other reviews of the Miami Beach Resort, it and the lobby must have been remodeled recently. Everything looked really nice, floor to ceiling glass windows that overlooked the pool and the beach. Glass chandeliers, a nice white piano for ambient music (although I never heard it playing,) new carpets and nice looking chairs at the tables.
And the menu… the menu looked outstanding when you were reading the descriptions.
But the dishes failed to live up to the Traditional American menu (with a slight Italian leaning.) Chicken, steak, salad, soup, few pasta options, several sandwiches. I had the Spaghetti carbonara the first night. The sauce was made using an olive oil base instead of a cream base that many other places use. I actually prefer it in this more traditional way though so that was a plus at first. It had pancetta, or what I assumed as pancetta instead of bacon like a lower class place might serve. The problem is I couldn’t taste the pancetta. The parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top over powered the flavor of the rest of the dish. The noodles were over cooked and rather slimy, I know this is how most Americans like them, but this was too far for even American taste. The sauce was good at first, but started tasting off really quickly, I assume as the extra water from the noodles started to dilute it.
The minestrone soup was OK, but tasted like it had been busted out of a can. It had that way over salted flavor that makes you think of preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients.
Second meal was one of the two steak dishes. Being the more expensive one, and hoping that the previous night’s meal had been a fluke, I ended up sorely disappointed. The meat tasted like it had been microwaved at some point. It was cooked right from a visual standpoint, but considering the cost it seemed like a tough piece of meat to be serving in what I consider an upscale establishment.
The best part of both meals was the little Italian rolls served on the side. They had a bit of that sourdough taste to them, but were still soft and bread like unlike real sourdough. A little butter on them was great, although a side of balsamic vinegar and oil would have been even better.
Service the first night was atrocious. Our waiter was constantly running around, but didn’t seem to be actually doing anything. Getting water refills was near impossible. Bread didn’t arrive until half way through the meal. Salad plates didn’t get cleared away until after the main dish was served. Several times the waiter was by the front door talking to some gentleman in a suit. He may have been a manager, but if so I didn’t see him doing any work either. Another waiter seemed to be doing a lot of work, and one bus boy was working his tables too.
The second night’s service was a bit better but still pretty spotty even with a different waiter. On the other hand, the bar service… and quality of drinks were both better then I expected it to be after two dinners there.
While the furniture all looked like it was new, expensive, and comfortable it was actually very uncomfortable. My back was hurting badly after sitting in the dining chairs during both meals. The couches in the bar area looked incredibly inviting, especially after a long day on my feet in the sun working. Instead they were stiff and uncomfortable.
The last thing that bugged me is that the check had an automatic 18% gratuity added to it. I get that this was for the number of tourists who come through and don’t realize that tipping is customary… but it’s still a bit annoying, especially when I wanted to leave a lower tip due to the bad service.
Unfortunately, this is one of the only dining options nearby. As far as I can tell the hotel on one side has nothing, nor do the condos on the other. Unilocal shows more options down the road, but they’re either extremely expensive, too touristy, or closed by 9pm.