Pilar

Tried to have dinner here at 7:15 on Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Closed and appears to be out of business.

Arrived at 7pm on a Thursday and they’re closed. Doors locked, lights off, nobody home. What gives?

We had the best dinner last night. Tuna two ways, lobster bisque, rock shrimp risotto, filet mignon, short ribs and dessert. Thank you to all! A great experience and definitely will be back.

Congrats Erika and Anne… Anne… I will not call you Amy anymore… You 2 girls do this place period! I will give you both the 5 stars! Friday even though you did not have raw tuna unprepared, Erika, your tuna tartare wrap was unbelievable!!! Very very good! Tasty, not too dry, not to moist, it was just wonderful! I am glad we go there several times a month! Even though you were short staffed, you made the place feel taken care of… My «heavy» ice tea drinking always had my glass full… By the way they have a great «fruity» ice tea which is pretty good… So, all in all this place is one we will come often! Congrats girls one more time.

Great food! Great Service! They were slow so my friend and got to sit at the large booth! #VerySpacious!

If I could give 100 stars I would! This was such a wonderful place! We ate out side… Great service, great people, amazing food, awesome drinks, great music, and such good desert!!! This place made our vacation. We will definitely be going back!!!

What a great find! The snapper, scallops and salmon were fantastic! Presentation was very nice and surroundings were comfortable. Our waiter Alex did a great job — knowledgable and attentive. A diamond in the rough!

It might not be fair for me to review Pillar. I clearly ordered the wrong thing. The scallops at the table next to mine looked amazing. The hamburger a few tables down with the meatloaf looked good. The mac and cheese, which we tasted, was incredible.
So, I do plan to go back again to give it a fair try. I liked the atmosphere and the owners were caring. It felt personal.
The problem is that the place was understaffed. No waiter came by to make recommendations. (although the water was filled promptly and often) We waited for a long time. So, when the person from the front desk came by to take our order, we did not want to delay things.
The salad that my wife and I shared was great. It was really fresh, had herbs and was extremely tasty. I had the tuna tatare, which is a favorite fish of mine. To be fair, my standards are high and this is not a place that specializes in fish. Unfortunately, this tatare was bland and a little oily. Somebody with me had brisket, which was stringy. The mac and cheese side dish was great. My wife’s salmon was dry.
But, things looked good enough that I will write it off to a bad night. My four stars are because it was a nice place, friendly, comfortable and a lot of people were happy. Next time, it will be the scallops.

We stopped in here during a shopping trip for some lunch. The restaurant is pleasantly decorated and has a nice atmosphere. The lunch menu wasn’t long but included a sliced steak sandwich (which I had) and a chicken Cesar wrap. Service was friendly and attentive, but the food took a long time to come out, especially considering the place was mostly empty. The food was tasty, but prices were pretty high for what we got. Enjoyable oudoor seating and a mostly pleasant experience, I’d probably go back if I’m in the area.

I knew enough going into Pilar to know that the drink prices may be expensive. I got a rail gin and soda and the bartender made me a decent pour of aristocrat and soda. my guy doesn’t do rail anything, so he got a not-​rail bourbon. Imagine our surprise to see that his good drink was $ 12 (reasonable enough, really), but my Aristocrat was $ 10 a drink. Seriously? I can get an entire bottle for $ 8. unreal. I would have stepped up my choice if I had known that the rails were that expensive and the not-​rails were actually reasonable.
The food was fine, nothing special. my burger was overdone, which was frustrating since the couple next to us had burgers that were cooked properly. no big deal, and I’m certainly not stressing that.
service was good, but we sat at the bar so it was easy to get taken care of… it’s mostly just that $ 10 rail. I know it’s a tourist town but give me a break!

Amazing dinner! Everything was great from the tuna tartar to the brisket. Service was awesome, Zack, the bartender did a great job and Erica, the chef made sure we were happy with the food and well taken care of.

Stopped by last night before catching a movie at Aventura and was greatly pleased with the whole experience.
Nice ambience with live music and attentive service, especially from the Manager who was always checking if everything was ok.
Food was DELICIOUS! Best.Crab.Cake.Ever. I need to go back and have another one of these. The texture was amazing, and flavors were on point. The green apple slices gave it a subtle crisp and acidity which complemented it quite well. My fiancé and I also had the soup of the day which was a corn chowder and their signature Nanny’s Brisket. Meat was cooked perfectly and the Smoked Mac ‘n Cheese was delicious.
Last but not least we tried the Fried Oreos. YUM. Comes with a side of chocolate fudge and vanilla ice cream. Can’t get any better than that.
All in all, a five star experience. Wishing the best to this hidden gem! It’s definitely a must-​try.

Food is excellent!!! What a chef!!! Weird location but great chill atmosphere and a suave intelligent staff. I’m coming back.

I stopped in for a quick drink with a girl friend of mine. Happy hour was still available so we sat down in the bar area near the front.
We were seated immediately. The bartender came over himself gave us bar bites and drink menus. My table was a bit woobly so he fixed it as well.
Happy hour specials are half off wines with an asterisk and $ 5 beers. Duvel which is one of my all time favorite Belgian beers was available. I was over the moon!
I ordered the sliders which were $ 6 during happy hour. The meat was delicious and they came with fries.
The crowd was rather older but it was a nice ambience for catching up with a friend since it was not too loud. The service was great. I will definitely go back perhaps to try dinner,

Excellent place — great food, fantastic service, classy ambience
Will go there again
The drinks were great too
Everything had a style to it

Always nice to add a review to what seems to be a growing list of great reviews.
We hit Pilar last week and had a fantastic dinner. The staff was warm and attentive, and we really dug the vibe. I’m never upset about easy on the eyes servers.
Dad loved his fish tacos and chicken. We shared celebratory delicious Matzoh Balls as the restaurant had a fantastic Rosh Hashanah family meal menu. Picky vegetarian me had a delicious quinoa dish with grilled veggies… thanks to Chef Erica. The quinoa was nutty and flavorful and Rock Star baby housed it. He enjoyed everything.
Yummy bubbly to top it all off… lovely.
We’ll be back to visit Pilar!

Great little restaurant in an unexpected location.
After a typical «What do you want to eat?» Question we finally decided on looking up local restaurants who were part of the Miami Spice. We picked Pilar based in their dinner menu.
When we arrived, we were greater immediately by the staff. They were friendly and outgoing. The restaurant was pretty empty at first but as the night progressed, the tables filled up.
The service and wait staff were in point. They where very attentive and were really nice. All staff were constantly making their rounds around the tables to ensure all your needs were meet (eg: water filled, table cleared, etc). Our waitress was very knowledge of the menu and made great recommendations. I have to say, her service was on point!
The food was quite good!
The table bread was served with two choices: regular white sour dough bread and a raisin bread. They were served at room temperature. We would have preferred them warm, but I guess it’s just a preference.
As our Miami spice appetizer, we ordered the Smoked Mac&Cheese and the Three Shrimp Cocktail. The Smoked Mac&Cheese was creamy it did lack the «smoky» flavor. Overall, it was still delicious. The three Shrimp cocktail was fresh. The cocktail sauce perfect. They served it with some Caynan Pepper which you can mix to give it the right amount of Kick you desire.
The main course was the petit Filet with Asparagus and the Lobster Risotto. The filet was over cooked to our taste. We asked for rare but was served medium well. Lot would have also been seasoned a little more but the stake gravy sauce made up for it. We really enjoyed the sauce so much, we dipped the asparagus in it! The Lobster Risotto was great! They put two lobster claw pieces in the middle as a presentation. I would have like to have had more lobster in the risotto but then again, you can never have too much lobster with anything. The risotto was very flavorful and mushrooms chucks were delicious! Needless to say, we are every bite.
The dessert with the Miami Spice was either Chocolate Chip cookies with Hagendas Vanilla IceCream, Chocolate Pie, or Key Lime pie. We opted for the Chocolate Pie and Key Lime pie. The presentation of both dessert was really nice as both topped of the personalized little pies with whipped cream. Both pies sat on a raspberry sauce. The chocolate pie also had chocolate sauce as well. The raspberry and chocolate were perfect. The raspberry sauce and Key lime pie might seem a little off putting but when you combine the flavors… It was a party in your mouth!
While at the restaurant, I «checked in» on Unilocal App. We got a free side dish of Mama’s Latkin (Potato Pancakes). They were a little over cooked but over all they were good. It was served with sour cream and a homemade apple cinnamon sauce. the sauce was thick and added some flavor to the potatoes. Great side dish or appetizer to order.
The décor was homie and cozy. Great place in an unexpected location. We will be going back again. Will defiantly recommend this restaurant to friends/​family.

Really surprised about this place and more surprised about finding a decent restaurant in barren Aventura.
Especially since this restaurant is located on a strip mall. But i had read good reviews here on trusty Unilocal and decided to give it a try.
Honestly, we went in there because there was a wait at another restaurant we first tried to go into for dinner on a Friday evening.
We were greeted warmly by the manager which was very nice.
The décor is nice and place was busy. Typical Aventura crowd (older people having early dinner).
Our server was polite and nice and we were promptly attended.
We saw that they were offering Miami Spice menu, which looked yummy so we decided to go for it.
The menu was varied with nice options. I had the iceberg lettuce salad and the salmon with quinoa and i thought it was excellent. Salmon was not dry, which is a relief as not many places know how to cook salmon!
Hubbie had the lobster risotto. I had a bite and it was quite tasty.
the dessert was chocolate ganache and it was very good.
Manager came to our table to check everything was all right.
Overall, nice dinner for Aventura standards. Give them a try.

I went to Pilar last night for the first time and found the food to be quite exquisite. As a native New Yorker I am quite particular about my food but felt Pilar exceeded my high standards.
The fish tacos I had as an appetizer were the best I have ever had, my main course, Lobster Risotto, was prepared beautifully and was also quite delicious. The desert was a wonderful cookie sandwhich that reminded my of the homemade kind my mother would prepare for us when I was a child.
My overall experience at Pilar was excellent, the meal was delightful and the staff were extremely friendly. I look forward to my next meal there when I am back in South Florida

To tag this place with the name Pilar is to me an insult to the good namesake of Hemmingway’s boat.
My dining experience at Pilar was one of the worst ever. In fact it’s probably the only restaurant that I’ve ever been at in which I could find nothing redeeming. One would think that by virtue of the law of averages there would have been something Pilar could have gotten right but it they didn’t.
First off we were seated by what turned out to be our waiter, but then he disappeared. When we finally got his attention his words were «Sorry, but I forgot about you.» At that point we should have forgotten about him as well as Pilar and simply gone elsewhere but unfortunately we didn’t.
I ordered a Caesar which came knife chopped, not hand torn and with a dressing that failed to coat even half of the romaine lettuce. The waiter did come, asked if I cared for ground pepper and when I responded that I did, merely gave two ¼ cranks from the grinder and walked away.
There was no salt or pepper on our table or on any of the tables and though we had bread dishes, no offering of bread.
The martini I ordered arrived totally plain Jane, no olive, no twist and though the martini itself had been chilled the glass hadn’t.
For an entrée I had the yellow snapper which was served without even a slice of lemon or other citrus, with none being offered, about a teaspoon of some sort of bland icky lackluster sauce on a bed of old has been fibrous woody tasting asparagus I would say only suitable for consumption by termites.
Then as for interior décor, all I can say is cheap and dated but in keeping with what one might expect within the setting of South Florida strip mall.
In summary I must say that I’m rather astonished at some of the glowing prior reviews and in light of what they have had to say can only assume that either something went horribly wrong during my visit or that the place has slipped, and slipped rather badly. I hope some others will revisit and review the place because I would certainly never risk the experience of going back.