The Strand At Carillon Miami

Great atmosphere and vibes at the hotel but the food and service are lacking as the reviews suggest. The seabass was decent but sauce too sweet. The asparagus burnt, the broccoli no garlic flavor as promised. They checked on us a couple times.

The view is quite nice and the restaurant is cozy and comfortable. The staff were wonderful. I ordered the smoked salmon benedict and it was cooked well. The knife sliced through it very neatly and it was yummy! The whole wheat pancakes were okay.

At beach, but no view. $42/for piece of mediocre branzino- with nothing else on the plate except fresh rosemary- which just highlighted that the fish did not seem fresh. Cocktail and main course both came during appetizer. When I complained, they offered to keep the fish warm while I ate appetizer- and this with completely empty restaurant.

The service and ambience was excellent. When I made my 2:45 reservation, I didn't realize that the kitchen closes between lunch and dinner service. So when I sat down I was told that the kitchen would be closing in 10 minutes. I felt a bit rushed to place my order and eat quickly (the check was dropped off immediately after my food arrived). I got the salmon poke, it was good but not *amazing*, and quite overpriced.

Sadly, my experience wasn't great. The hostess was very friendly and recognized from my reservation that I was celebrating a birthday. The plan was to have breakfast gazing at the beach before the spa services I booked at the same location. The server was in a pretty bad mood apparently. But even worse she was inattentive. When the coffee and eggs arrived cold and I had questions of any sort, she could not be found. I eventually asked another server to send over a manager who was very apologetic and rectified the problems the best she could. She did however try to say that my reservation had been cancelled since I wasn't there at 9 am, but I was actually 10 minutes early to my 9:30 am reservation and showed her proof of my reservation time and the confirmation messages. So it didn't make sense for that excuse to have been offered. And the experience of frustration, poor treatment and wasted time could not be reversed. So it would have been nice had she offered to take off an appetizer or make any adjustment whatsoever but she did not and it was a missed opportunity to show excellent service and win over a guest. As I paid the bill, I asked if it would be presented to the manager to confirm she had an opportunity to do that if she so desired and she did not. It was only after I paid and shared my disappointment that she deducted $10. The view was beautiful and I enjoyed the meal after the issues were corrected more than an hour after my arrival. I made sure to enjoy my birthday in spite of the lack of good service. The lady working the valet was downright rude though. I mean very rude. To be in the hospitality industry, it takes a little more concern about the guest experience than what I witnessed here today from various staff persons along the way.