Dan R.'s Profile

Who is eating here that enjoys this food? Holy Moses, this place is bunk.  Everything is burned/soggy/bland/overly fried/quality of food usually reserved for prisons and elementary school lunches.  

If you must ingest something here, get a cup of Cuban coffee and tell your dining companions you're on a diet.

Eating at Creek 28 is like going to your fashionable friend's house for dinner--the friend who cooks imaginative food and makes the plates look so pretty, but keeps it casual so the focus is on the extra-delicious eating.

We ate a goat cheese appetizer, wrapped in phyllo dough--a tiny portion that surprisingly was plenty for two people--and for dinner we ate butternut squash ravioli, and a skirt steak served atop lightly sauteed spinach (translation: a spinach salad).  All was drizzled with various balsamic reductions.

You can taste the love in each dish.  It's like really good home cooking, where the chef is back there in the kitchen tasting everything to make sure it's perfectly delicious.  Last night, everyone working there was smiling, like they were happy to be there and enjoy the beautiful outdoor scenery with the crisp air.

The rich, flavorful food is such a welcome change compared to the lousy South Beach restaurants that serve bizarre-looking plates of food that taste like they came out of a box.

So yes, the back patio is cute, and the food is delightful.  This is a good date place.  The service is somewhat slow, but not in a rude way.  People just take their time at Creek 28.  Like I said, it's like being at home, there's no reason to rush.

I have long searched for boba tea in Florida--my beloved drink from Asia, the cups of sweet mystery liquid with a collection of chewy balls at the bottom.  What is it about boba tea that I love so much?  Dunno.  But love it, I do.  I am a 16-year old Chinese girl at heart I guess.

For the boba virgins: "boba teas" are sweet drinks in a variety of flavors that you slurp through an enormous straw, because at the bottom are chewy bits--usually balls made of tapioca (they can occasionally be little gelatin squares, all sorts of options!). As you slurp, you suck up one of the balls, and chew chew chew, with the flavor of the drink lasting longer.  Look at that, I think I answered the "why do I love boba so?" question. Ha.

I prefer fruit-flavored green teas, mixed with milk.  But you can get regular black tea, with or without milk/fruit, etc.

Boba is a Chinese drink, so it is easier to find in NYC and the various metro areas of the West Coast.  But not so much in Florida.  UNTIL TODAY.

This place appeared on my radar by accident, after a quick stop at the Pet Supermarket in the same shopping center.  The neighborhood is a disaster zone, but the little restaurant is clean & nice inside.  And is smells amazing with all the Thai food cooking.

Today was my first and only visit so far; bought a honeydew Boba, which came with sweet cubes of a Gummy Bear textrue, and slurped it down.  

Next time, I'm trying some of the food, they serve noodles and stuff.  And what flavor Boba should I get?  Watermelon!  Mmmm.

There is this weird trend in South Beach with people obsessing over "gourmet" hamburger restaurants, like they are the new big thing.  It's really just an excuse for a restaurant to charge $15 for a burger and get away with it.  But for the time being, I'll play along.
Burger and Beer Joint doesn't get too frou frou, they use really good beef but not in a snotty way.  You can get a $10 burger and it will be delish, cooked right and served properly; some toppings and stuff can bring you over $20, but you get what you pay for.

I recommend the friend pickle chips, which are void of any nutritional value but they taste good. The wings are hot and tasty--I also tried the smoky wing sauce, but didn't like it, stick to the traditional.  And the little corn dogs are typical corn dogs, in a good way.

The killers here: the "adult milkshakes," loaded with ice cream and liqueurs that are STRONG and so good.  Honestly this is really why you go.  And they're really big, you should share.

The ambiance is really nice--dark, simple but very nice.  It's refreshing going to a burger restaurant and sitting in a nice booth, like someone thought about what they wanted the place to look like.  It's not just a bunch of tables and chairs (I'm thinking about 8 Oz. on Alton right now).

I wouldn't partake in the baked potato salad, no one at our table liked it.

I've only eaten here once so I don't know if I just got lucky, or what--but I ordered Orange Chicken (not on the menu but they made it anyway!) and it is lovely grilled chicken, both white and dark meat, in a tangy orange sauce.  Not too sweet, not too heavy, and since it's not grilled it's not too bad for you.  Not too shabby!

Friend ordered pork lo mein--also healthy, perhaps not as exciting as it could be but that's what you get when it's not covered in grease.

Lots of people at this place, so that means people like it.  That's always a good sign for hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

Well, I take it back--I wrote a great review before, but I guess I caught this place on a good day that first time.

I have eaten here a few times since that delightful first foray, and it has been generally a dud.  Today I just had lunch--beef bourgingnon--and I literally got six little cubes of meat in my dish.  Six.  And they were each one very small bite, these were not cut-able cubes.

So I filled up on the free bread and called it a day.  For $13.50, it could have tasted spectacular, but it was just alright.

I wanted to love this place, but I am still really hungry...and why complain?  What are they going to do--count little beef cubes and give me two more?  That's stupid.  So I just left.  I'll go get a sandwich in a little while.

Imagine Chipolte, without the disturbing "aluminum belongs everywhere!" interior, with a salsa bar that has mango salsa.  That's The Whole Enchilada.  Had chicken tacos, they were good, we left.  I would write more but I got a free cup for soda from the nice person who worked the counter--our food was a little slow in coming, amid numerous apologies (and we didn't even notice)--so to take advantage of the free drink I pounded, like, six cups of root beer.  I am high as a kite right now.

Why did I go here again?  Every time I eat here I think "I am so not coming back to this place."  And then 8 months go by and I forget and I see the place filled with tourists, and I think "Oh, people are in there, it must be good" and I go in and regret it.

I bought a bowl of matzoh ball soup, with chicken--which amounted to two chunks of chicken that could fit into a tablespoon--and it cost $11 when the 15% tip was figured in.  Although my friend told me to not tip, as the service was so bad.  But that $1.50 wasn't a big deal, I didn't mind paying it.

I'll write about Jerry's again sometime in 2010, when I go again I guess.

Yeah, the bottles of soda were a nice touch.  Are they recycling?  Hope so.  Whatev--the food was really good, and the ice cream cone bar was a simple and delicious touch.  I love the sight of adult men walking around with their cones, topped off with stupid smiles on their faces like they were being SO naughty.  I may or may not have had two.

A few years ago when I lived in Brickell, I looked down my nose at The Conrad because they had a broken window that took forever to be replaced.  A hurricane knocked it out. Apparently it takes a long time to make the glass for an all-glass building that has curved sides.  So I never went in.

But that window has been fixed, and I was no longer threatened by feeling like I was entering the set of "Sanford & Son" if I walked inside.  It's a lovely business hotel, prim yet airy and bright.

I guess they just did a re-model?  The service was exemplary; hopefully they're not just new employees, and will become jaded as time goes on.  Whatever, I'd stay there any day over some crap South Beach, Shore Club nonsense bitch-fest hotel, based on the service I got today.

I have tried Charlotte Bakery a few times, based on recommendations.  This place is where non-Latin people go when they want to say "Oh, I found them most marvelous hole in the wall restaurant, and we had empanadas and they were FABULOUS," like they have a finger on the pulse of the city.

Yes they have a huge variety of stuff to eat, but really the empanadas are the same as the crap you can get in Walgreen's.   The baked desserts are pretty to look at, but they don't actually sell many of them so they just sit in the case and end up stale and bland.

The restaurant itself is just a room, seating is terrible, and the people who work there are just sooooo inconvenienced to help you.  One time I went here the bitch at the counter short-changed me AND PUT IT IN THE TIP JAR HERSELF.  This was shortly after I tipped her a dollar.  Not that it would be an excuse, but still, she really had no reason.

I have Latin friends who actually cook empanadas, and they agree this place is all hype.  The best empanadas are at Compass Market on Alton Road.  I don't know where they get them but they're pretty tasty.