Talula in Miami Beach

[A4th]

Can anyone give me input on Talula in Miami Beach in regard to type of food, prices, recommendation?

[ulterior epicure]

Has anyone been to Talula lately and would like to report on it? I'm debating between Ortanique and Talula... of course, Sardinia keeps coming up too. I know Michy's and Michael's are non-negotiable at this point.

markehorse, I know you've been lately...

[markemorse]

Has anyone been to Talula lately and would like to report on it?  I'm debating between Ortanique and Talula... of course, Sardinia keeps coming up too.  I know Michy's and Michael's are non-negotiable at this point.

markehorse, I know you've been lately...

←

ha, i have an old friend who calls me mr. horse....

yep, i went to talula in january, but we only ate at the bar...i'll hopefully have time to give you deets in a day or two...in short, we liked it a lot: great, friendly staff; a room that is approximately 319% more attractive than their website makes it look; and very good, interesting, realistically-priced food.

more soon....

[ulterior epicure]

Has anyone been to Talula lately and would like to report on it?  I'm debating between Ortanique and Talula... of course, Sardinia keeps coming up too.  I know Michy's and Michael's are non-negotiable at this point.

markehorse, I know you've been lately...

←

ha, i have an old friend who calls me mr. horse....

yep, i went to talula in january, but we only ate at the bar...i'll hopefully have time to give you deets in a day or two...in short, we liked it a lot: great, friendly staff; a room that is approximately 319% more attractive than their website makes it look; and very good, interesting, realistically-priced food.

more soon....

←

My bad, markemorse.

[markemorse]

Has anyone been to Talula lately and would like to report on it?  I'm debating between Ortanique and Talula... of course, Sardinia keeps coming up too.  I know Michy's and Michael's are non-negotiable at this point.

markehorse, I know you've been lately...

←

ha, i have an old friend who calls me mr. horse....

yep, i went to talula in january, but we only ate at the bar...i'll hopefully have time to give you deets in a day or two...in short, we liked it a lot: great, friendly staff; a room that is approximately 319% more attractive than their website makes it look; and very good, interesting, realistically-priced food.

more soon....

←

My bad, markemorse.

←

no problemo...

so, there we were, back in january, at the talula bar. i think it was a friday night, pretty late-ish, 10pm? we were still pretty jetlagged. the menu is modern american with a southern/southwestern emphasis. we had:

+++

Tartar of Ahi Tuna

Serrano chiles, cucumber, crispy rice, trout roe.

Grilled Shrimp Tamale

Fava beans, roasted poblano chiles, teardrop tomato vinaigrette.

Grilled Sonoma Valley Foie Gras

Caramelized figs, blue corn cakes, chile syrup, candied walnuts.

Daily Soup: Corn Chowder with Grilled Scallops

+++

i'm the sucka who ordered the tartare. i'm sure tartare is old hat to you 'mericans these days, but it's something that isn't as ubiquitous over here, so i ordered it an embarrassing number of times in miami. this one was the weakest part of our meal, because i guess...it's just tuna tartare. my bad. it was perfectly fine, the serranos could have been a tad more prominent.

the tamale on the other hand was really very great, perfect texture and finely tuned accoutrements. i only got a few bites of this.

the foie was eventually very good. the caramelized figs were presented on top of the corn cakes, and they displayed that sort of fig treachery (a term stolen from Chufi...actually she said "betrayal") where though figs sounded like a wonderfully creative and romantic idea during menu planning, they don't actually end up tasting like much or adding anything to the dish other than a confusing layer of tasteless novelty texture.

but: i said "eventually very good" because once you got past the fig layer, the corn cakes and chile syrup were my favorite kind of thing: corny, barely sweet, and chile-tweaked. And the foie itself rocked. This was good.

The best thing of the night was the corn chowder, we could've eaten a couple more bowls of this, creamy and a little smoky with scallops and a tiny kick. perfect.

+++

so, the food overall wasn't flawless, but the vibe was welcoming, competent, and non-scene-y, the service was spot on, and it just felt like a good place to just hang at the bar and nibble on creative grub at exceptionally fair prices. i mention the prices again because talula was just about the only "nice" place we ate at in miami whose prices seemed to acknowledge that the restaurant knew that you knew what a dish's relative worth was. so, yeah, i was impressed that they had a 9 dollar caesar salad.

we ate lightly this night b/c we thought we'd definitely be back for a full-on dinner, but we were both struck down by an intestinal bug a few days later and didn't get to do everything we'd planned (we also missed Sardinia, which we'd really been looking forward to).

hope that helps!

mark

Edited October 28, 2007 by markemorse (log)