A few weeks ago my friend Alyssa and I went to Miami to visit my friend Spencer who is in law school at the University of Miami. It was a great, relaxing trip! Miami is gorgeous, the weather was beautiful and warm, and we had some DELICIOUS food!
After our plane landed Spencer picked us up from the airport and we headed to the beach. The water was an amazing clear blue-green, and it was super warm!
The View from Spencer’s Apartment
Following our fantastic day at the beach we got ready and went to Perricone’s Marketplace & Cafe for their Thursday pasta special. I kid you not when I say this is the best pasta place I have ever been to. Every Thursday they have a $10 pasta menu, and everything sounds delicious! I am quite possibly the most indecisive person on the planet and absolutely could not decide what I wanted. Luckily for me, the three of us decided we would get three entrees and share them! (Also, sorry about the picture quality, it was dark in the restaurant!)
We ended up ordering the Penne with Grilled Chicken, because who doesn’t love pasta and chicken and feta and sun dried tomatoes and olives?
And Fiocchi Gorgonzola, because purse-shaped pasta sounds fun, and pear, four cheeses and a walnut gorgonzola sauce was just too interesting to pass up. This was by far the BEST dish of the night, don’t get me wrong, everything was delicious, but this absolutely took the cake. If you ever find yourself in Miami at Perricone’s you HAVE to order the Fiocchi Gorgonzola. Do it. You won’t regret it. I Promise.
And last but not least, the ravioli, because it’s a classic and coral pink sauce sounded yummy and pretty!
For dessert there were more fabulous choices.
But in the end, chocolate deliciousness won out in the form of triple chocolate layer cake. Tiramisu, chocolate mousse, and chocolate ganache, what’s not to love?
It was FABULOUS! One of Spencer’s friends who came along got the Homemade Apple Cobbler, which looked delicious as well.
One day we walked around the downtown area and spotted this place called Montaditos (which Spencer informed us was a chain in Spain) for a drink. Spencer and I both got sangria (which was AMAZING) and Alyssa got a beer called Mahou. They came in really cool mugs too!
A fun fact about Miami: happy hour goes from 4-8 because people in Miami don’t eat dinner until later. Because of this fact we decided to go to Blue Martini for drinks and appetizers one night since their happy hour specials are half off all drinks and discounted food. We ended up getting the baked brie with fruit, which was creamy and delicious.
They also had a very impressive drink menu, but we mostly stuck to the Treats portion of the menu.
Between the three of us we tried the Cake Pop (a new martini consisting of Three Olives Vanilla Vodka, Champagne, with a Splash of Cranberry Garnished with a Sprinkled Rim) which was probably my favorite, the Almond Joy, the Caramel Swirl, and the Three Chocolates.
Spencer, Me, and Alyssa with the Three Chocolates and the Cake Pop
Almond Joy
Caramel Delight
We also went to a delicious dinner at Doraku, a really great sushi place. We started out with a lychee martini and some white sangria which were both delicious.
Then we ordered the salmon carpaccio, a rainbow roll, a Philadelphia roll, and the spicy tuna chili roll. In our haste to eat I forgot to take pictures, but we did order a second spicy tuna chili roll, which was our favorite roll of the night!
Our final night we joined up with a bunch of Spencer’s friends to celebrate a birthday. We ate at a restaurant called Dolores but you can call me Lolita, which was also really good! At Dolores Lolita every entree comes with an appetizer, so once again we decided to get three seperate entrees and appetizers and split them. For our appetizers we ordered the spinach artichoke dip, the smoked salon and guacamole crostini, and the Asian vegetable spring rolls.
For our entrees we got the “Skinny Lolita” – grilled chicken, sauteed spinach and cherry tomatoes, the “I can’t believe it’s not pasta” – zuchinni pasta with fresh mozzarella and cherry tomato sauce, and a fettucine alfredo (which was delicious with the chicken).
All in all it was a great trip with amazing food and I can’t wait to go back!
