Prezzo Restaurant and Martini Bar

My mother’s best friend (MBF) and i went here for a lunch birthday celebration, on the recommendation of a family friend. Every year MBF and i go out for the birthday thing, and there are rules. Rule one: new place, always. Rule two: get one of everything. Drinks, appetizer, main, and dessert, always. Rule three: enjoy the day!
After parking we walk up to the restaurant first thing i noticed… complimentary valet parking… Pretty nice although there was plenty of self parking right there… its the thought that counts right,… I guess on a busy night, or if your lazy this might come in handy.
We walk in and are seated immediately to a small table. Décorè is very nice, black tables, large white curtains pulled back, piano in the corner… with an excessively large picture of someone who looks like sean kingston? whoa yea that picture did seem out of place but the bar and the rest of the restaurant was beautifully elegant. Second thing i noticed, the black tables didnt seem well maintained. OUr table and the tables around us had large chips/​dents in them. When we were leaving they were setting up for dinner and the dinner guest get nice table cloths to cover these imperfections which was nice. if i was there for dinner. again its the thought that counts… just wish they had it for lunch too.
after we sat down we were soon handed a basket of bread… ahh the bread… the yummy foccacia with a head of roasted garlic. the even gave us butter along with it in the shape of little flowers. Little flowers? cute, really cute…
Drinks. Its a martini bar and grill so what do you get… a martini duh! and our waiter started rattling off a list of different martinis and i stopped him when he hit the one i wanted… a lychee martini. I have a history with lychee and alcohol and i was happy to be reunited with them. The martini was strong but very very good. I had 2 and i was feeling mighty happy.
so in following rule number two, I got to pick appetizer and went with the Blackened chicken flatbread. sun dried tomato pesto, spinach, chicken, and cheese on flat bread. soo delish, and HUGE. we had one piece and decided if we had any chance of getting to dessert we’d have to just pack this one up. it was basically a meal in its self. Moving on to main dish, i had the marinated skirt steak which came with veggies and mashed potatoes… oh those mashed potatoes were 5 stars alone. The skirt steak came with this pickeled chimichuri. it had this vinegary taste to it, which was good in small portions. again the portion was pretty large so to get to dessert we decided again to stop and pack it up if we were going to make it out of there alive.
So we ask for the dessert menu, and they all look delicious, Warm chocolate cake with ice cream and mango purée, Kahula Chocolate moose, poached pear, apple tart, and crème brûlée were just some of the ones i could remember. We ask our waiter for his recommendation and he said the apple tart or the crème brûlée. MBF was stuffed so she said go pick one… and for her love of crème brûlée thats what i went with. Before he left we asked out of curiosity how big it was and he said oh its pretty small and proceeds to shape out a circle with both of his hands, we figured that was do-​able and let him put in the order. About a minute later he comes out with the dessert and we noticed that he failed to mention a height in his description of small. Yes it was about the roundness he had alluded to in his description but this thing was 2.5 inches tall in a pecan praline cookie shell. This dessert was like the mashed potatoes, 5 stars itself. It was so good. I don’t know how we finished it all but we did, and it was delicious!
After we paid and left we walked around (the very empty) Loehmans Plaza to settle our stomachs. We talked and thought about our dining experience and settled on the idea that Prezzo was a nice place for lunch-​drinks, an appetizer, and dessert; any more and you might explode.
Overall ill say 4.5 (maybe even a little more) and ill round up the rest for that crème brûlée…

I went here with my boss and a former coworker for lunch. Its a nice place, nice décor. Piano in the corner by the window. Two bar areas. Not what I would call a rocking joint, but possibly a nice place to come for evening cocktails and dinner.
We were greeted very pleasantly by the hostess and immediately shown to our booth with little pillows — a cute touch.
Then the waiter weirdness began. There was one table behind us with a couple of people and three in front of us with some people seated also. The three tables in front were being served by a very present server. When I say present, I mean as in there. We sat for about 10 minutes before our server bounced up to ask us if we wanted something to drink. So my boss orders a bottle of flat water for herand before anyone else can order something off bounds Mr. Happy. We sat stunned.
After a few minutes we get the bus boy to go find him and bring him back and my boss scolds him for not asking what everyone else wanted and we finished our drink order.
When he came back with the drinks we had decided in advance to order our lunch before he disappeared again and so two of us were going to split a Cobb salad. So we got our order in and settled down to some nice focaccia like bread which was served with a bulb of roasted garlic (YUM).
The food was excellent. The Cobb salad was a great mix of lettuces, chopped chicken, avocado, tomato, bacon and served with a very chunky blue cheese dressing. More than enough for two people. Coming to the end of our lunch one of the girls decided she wanted the apple pie and so began the search for Mr. Happy again. He had come to our table when the food had been delivered to make sure everyone was ok.(didn’t ask if anyone wanted black pepper and someone did so we had to again ask the bus boy to help). Well Mr. Happy was nowhere to be seen and we had to get someone to go find him. And when he appeared he was inundated with requests, apple pie, boxes to go, check please and anything else we had decided that may be required before he disappeared into the great abyss. The guy had TWO active tables to cover. TWO!!!
The apple pie was delish. I’m not a big dessert eater but when I saw this I had to try it. A layer of very flaky puff pastry, on top of a bed of Carmel sauce, topped with some cinnamon apples and served with a scoop of ice cream. It was delightful and delishis!!!
An hour and a half for what should have been a 45 minute lunch makes me leery about going back here for lunch. But the food was good and so its a possible dinner spot. Tables outside for people watching.

I went here with my boss and a former coworker today for lunch. Its a nice place, nice décor. Piano in the corner by the window. Two bar areas. Not what I would call a rocking joint, but possibly a nice place to come for evening cocktails and dinner.
We were greeted very pleasantly by the hostess and immediately shown to our booth with little pillows — a cute touch.
Then the waiter weirdness began. There was one table behind us with a couple of people and three in front of us with some people seated also. The three tables in front were being served by a very «present» server. When I say present, I mean as in «there». We sat for about 10 minutes before our server bounced up to ask us if we wanted something to drink. So my boss orders a bottle of flat water for her… and before anyone else can order something off bounds Mr. Happy. We sat stunned.
After a few minutes we get the bus boy to go find him and bring him back and my boss scolds him for not asking what everyone else wanted and we finished our drink order.
When he came back with the drinks we had decided in advance to order our lunch before he disappeared again and so two of us were going to split a Cobb salad. So we got our order in and settled down to some nice focaccia like bread which was served with a bulb of roasted garlic (YUM).
The food was excellent. The Cobb salad was a great mix of lettuces, chopped chicken, avocado, tomato, bacon and served with a very chunky blue cheese dressing. More than enough for two people. Coming to the end of our lunch one of the girls decided she wanted the apple pie and so began the search for Mr. Happy again. He had come to our table when the food had been delivered to make sure everyone was ok…(didn’t ask if anyone wanted black pepper and someone did so we had to again ask the bus boy to help). Well Mr. Happy was nowhere to be seen and we had to get someone to go find him. And when he appeared he was inundated with requests, apple pie, boxes to go, check please and anything else we had decided that may be required before he disappeared into the great abyss. The guy had TWO active tables to cover. TWO!!!
The apple pie was delish. I’m not a big dessert eater but when I saw this I had to try it. A layer of very flaky puff pastry, on top of a bed of Carmel sauce, topped with some cinnamon apples and served with a scoop of ice cream. It was delightful and delishis!!!
An hour and a half for what should have been a 45 minute lunch makes me leery about going back here for lunch. But the food was good and so its a possible dinner spot. Tables outside for people watching.

I used to enjoy going to the Prezzo down in the Falls before it closed a few years back. When I found out that they had another located in Loewmann’s Plaza in Aventura I decided to give it a try. It is a different menu, but they kept a few key items, like the Apple Tart and some of the pasta dishes. (BTW, the Tart with the Cinnamon Ice Cream is a must for dessert here)
About the quality? It is a little inconsistent. The first time I went, the food was excellent, but after the second and third times, not so great. I went with my parents the last time and the food wasn’t simply up to par. For example, my dad ordered an eggplant pizza, but the waiter came back and said that they didn’t have any eggplant in the kitchen. Eggplant is a basic ingredient for most Italian/​Meditterenean food, how could they not have it stocked in the back?
Service all three times has been painfully slow and non-​attentive. It usually takes us 2 – 3 minutes to be seated when we get through the door, not because of huge crowds at the place, but rather because the hostess is not up front to take customers to their seats. Waiters don’t seem to huslle here, nor do they seem to pay a lot of attention to their customers. The past two visits, I’ve had food come out cold, suggesting that it had been sitting out for some time.
So in short, the food is tasty, the menu is just as good as the old Prezzo, but the restaurant is very poorly managed. Until they improve this, I won’t be returning.

i like this place, haven’t been there in a little over a year until tonight.
i honestly didn’t remember the restaurant being so pretentious, in both service and food.
the server seemed busy the entire time we were there even though we were the only new table in the restaurant, everyone else already had dinner or dessert on their tables.
my mom and i both ordered the belgian endive salad, i got it with chicken and my mom got it with salmon. i also asked the server to start with the potato leek soup. my dad asked for the burger and my sister got the greek salad.
the only obvious mistake was when the server brought out the soup together with everybody’s food including my salad. i did ask for it as an appetizer. i was really looking forward to it since potato leek is one of my favorites but it was so bland.
on to the salad. it was delicious, but in my opinion over priced for what i got. the salad consists of a bulb of endive cut into quarters with two small piles of tomatoes and a quarter sized serving of roquefort. there was nothing really exciting about it. it all looked kinda blah. that alone was 12 $ and to add a few strips of grilled chicken was an extra 5 $. my mom’s 2″ piece of salmon was and extra 8 $ to the same salad.
the food was really good, my dad loved his 16 $ burger, and my sister really liked her salad too which looked way more impressive than anything else we got. oh and i love (!) the bread with the roasted garlic, its absolutely to die for. everything was good, i just didn’t understand the prices. oh well, next time ill get something else.

There used to be a Prezzo in The Falls in Miami but it closed a few years ago. It was my favorite restaurant and I was crushed when it closed! I was meeting someone for dinner but the restaurant we were intending to go to was closed for a few days (what luck I have?!). We almost went to Ruby Tuesdays when I asked if there was anything else more unusual and my friend pointed out Prezzo!!!
I was so excited! I thought they were all closed! Yay!
We kept it on a budget, skipping the appetizer. I ordered the mushroom and ricotta ravioli and it was AMAZING! I loved it! I almost didn’t miss that all my old favorites were no where to be found on this Prezzo menu. The service was great, the atmosphere relaxing with a little excitement… they had an area for a band (though as this was a Monday, there was no band playing) We had cappuccino and crème brûlée for dessert (my absolute fave!). Had it been a bit cooler, we would have chosen a table outside…
If it weren’t so far away, it’d be my new (old) favorite haunt.

I didn’t eat here but was waiting with my mother for her friend to meet her. It was loud with music and it had a bar, so this place seemed like it was more than just a restaurant. Great… but all I know is that in the back there’s a big garbage place (next to its kitchen doors and they always leave it open). I used to work for a café there and whenever it was my turn to take the garbage out there, I’d always wondered, «Did people ever get sick from eating the food?» That loses two stars right there.

I have been to this restaurant several times now and can’t seem to decide how I REALLY feel about it. When I first moved to the area it was the first place people told me I needed to try. One night I stopped by because I can walk there from my condo; which is nice because I went primarily for the Martinis and didn’t need to drive. I had a friend in town from Malibu and I took her here for some drinks and apps. We were not starving. We ordered the calamari and a caprese salad to share. We also ordered several drinks. All the drinks were great and the apps were delicious too. The drinks here always seem overpriced to me. The food isn’t expensive but the drinks always seem to be. (Maybe I’m still used to drinking in a college town).
My problem with this place is the service. It is always sooo slow no matter how few people are in the restaurant. It always seems like you have to flag down servers and things often don’t come out how I ordered. One night my boyfriend had to leave me and my friend there and go to work even though he had almost 2 hours to eat. We kept stressing to the waitor that we were in a rush but by the time his food came he had to leave so he took two bites and boxed it up. I can never figure out what takes them so long.
The atmosphere here is nice. They often have either live music or a DJ and people even get up and dance as the night gets later. I have come back several time just because it’s the closest place to my house that serves alcohol (or at least it used to be) but I still think the service really ruins this place that would otherwise be a winner.