Starlite Cafe

While at wet willie’s the day before we saw the huge drinks here and decided to make a trip here the following day. It was poring down raining and no one wanted to move so we had to wait a while. While waiting, the manager gave us a free shot. It was so strong, I was holding up the wall instead of it holding me, lol.
When we finally were seated, we ordered drinks, I had the Miami Vice and my bestie had the Strawberry Margarita. The drinks were good and sneaks up on you. We ordered the Fish and Chips and Paella. Paella-​Delicious. Fish and chips– average. It was cold and just tasted… fried.
I didn’t realize until afterwards that the drinks were buy one get one free. Even with that our bill was $ 103. I almost fell out. I don’t mind paying for good food, but this was definitely a ripoff. The 20% service charge and the overpricing was ridiculous. Also, I didn’t notice my bag was getting wet while we dined there in the rain and because of that my iPod and phone was water damaged and doesn’t work. It’s not necessarily their fault, but it put a bigger «damp» to my experience.

Beware!!! Stay away!!! This place is a scam!!! They are involved in a credit card scam!!! After giving the waiter my credit card to pay the bill, he stole it!!! The waiter strategically placed two of his friends next to our table. When it came time to pay the bill I handed the waiter my card, within a few minutes I see one of his thug friends get up from the table and the waiter begin to look under the tables as if he had lost something. At this time I did not know my card was missing. The waiter continued to put on an act as if he was looking for something for about five minutes. Finally, I decided to question the waiter about what he was looking for and he told me my card! After 20 minutes of the watching the waiter pretend to look for my card I told the waiter I wanted to speak to the manager. His response was GIVE ME A FEW MORE MINUTES TO LOOK! He refused to go get the manager! I had to go to another employee to ask for the manager! The manager eventually came but he was rude, non-​apologetic and not helpful! He did not offer any sympathy nor an apology. He didn’t offer any percentage off our bill. He was more concerned about the drinks remaining on our table after midnight on SOBE. I guess this is customer service in SOBE. He even had the audacity to accuse someone in my party of having the card. I eventually called the police. The police came and the waiter lied to the police about receiving the card! When the police were there the manager was no where to be found! So beware stay away from this place! If you must use your credit card watch the waiter like a hawk or else you will never see your credit card again!

Two main things you should know about this place great drinks good food outrageous price I ordered the seafood pasta it was so good and so expensive but I would order it again my friend ordered a carbonara and it was not good at all we ordered the Miami vice for drinks and they were the best drinks I had the entire 4 days I was there. There are a ton of places to eat and drink there I wouldn’t rush back to this place but I definitely would go back just beware of the price tag!!!

The drinks are great, but beware the price tag!
We got a strawberry mojito and a piña colada. But we didn’t know they were both gigantic, so we wound up with two drinks the size of our faces. The mojito was good, if a bit too syrupy. The pj a colada was great.

By no means go here! If you want to charge what they do you have to have better service, food, and a bathroom not done an alley!!!

Wow. RIP OFF.
No prices at all in the menu. Ordered a coors light 20oz and a mimosa. You’d like that 2 drinks like this would be maybe $ 6 and $ 9 being that you’re in south beach. NOPE.
Mimosa was $ 44
Coors light was $ 19
If you want some fried cheese to go with it…$ 8-​$ 10 bucks.
Overall. Overprices, weak drinks and sub par food.
Check my reviews to know I’m not a 1 review bitcher. I don’t complain all that often but this place… Avoid!!!

OMG. Do not go to this place. I wish I could put 0 stars. *Extreme Discretion Advised*
My boyfriend and I stopped and tried this place after walking down Ocean Drive being bowled at by hostesses. We found this place and it seemed like they had what we both wanted at a decent price. WRONG.
Where to begin? First, I asked the waiter what’s a good drink he would recommend and he shirts me off saying I don’t know.
Secondly, after I ordered the Bahama Mama it was EXTREMELY sweet (it tastes like a whole bottle of Malibu and a squeeze of orange was put in. I had to ask the waiter for some orange juice and lime juice to Balance it out CAUSE HE WOULDN’T TAKE IT BACK!
Third, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY my boyfriend tells me don’t look down (so what woman wouldn’t look down) and what do I see.. MUTANT COCKROACHES!!! CRAWLING UP OUR TABLE!
Fourth, after moving to another table after the waiter tried to persuade us to STAY at the roach infested table, our food comes. AND ITS COLD. The food goes back.
Fifth, the bill comes and its $ 120! With $ 20 gratuity!!!
I almost passed out. Like are you serious? They didn’t even attempt to discount our bill. On the gratuity line I put «you’ve got to be kidding me»
Never again.

If I could, I would give this place no stars. The service, ambiance, and hookah were all horrible. And the prices were absurd, circa $ 50 per hookah. If you’re thinking about stopping here, don’t.

Starlite Café was the WORST dining experience I’ve ever had. The food was less than mediocre and way overpriced. My family of 3 ordered tgi Fridays type food — quesadilla, cheeseburger, Cuban sandwich and the bill was 140.00!!! We were duped into their 2 for 1 happy hour but weren’t told a tasteless daiquiri was 35.00! And sodas were 4.50 each. Our buns were stale; our fries were old dry and reheated. Our waitress — P Marisel sucked as much as the food. After she took our order she never came back to our table — not to see how the food was, not for refills. She disappeared until I asked for the check. When we received the check it was evident why her service was so HORRIBLE — a 19% gratuity was already added to the check. Don’t go to Starlite Café unless you have money to blow and don’t care about good food or good service.

Bar Hopping in South Beach during WMC/​UMF #4
Pros
This place had hookah which definitely set them apart and the variety was decent
Draft beer was also an option and served in gigantic glass mugs (no note on which are draft or on size and cost)
Cons
Mozzarella sticks tasted like they were from a package and not house made
Bathrooms were disgusting (floors were covered in urine)
No price on drinks!!!
Service was spotty (first girl was bad, the one who took over was on top of her game and really appreciated her)
2 beers + hookah + 1 app + 20% tip = $ 110 for two people
Overall Thoughts
Unless you have a ton of money to spend I would avoid South Beach for drinking

This review is only for the drinks! I understand that it can be pricey BUT is MIami, as a local Im used to pay $$$ for drinks. if you go to Brickell or Downtown miami the prices on a lounge or bar are between $ 10 to $ 15 and we are talking about 10oz drinks the most. so you end up drinking 2 – 3 drinks if chillin with your friends.
when @ Starlite, the big drinks were $ 45. and they gave us 2×1! so we ended up paying $ 22.50 each for huge drinks! the blue margarita was strong and delicious and the hubby was VERY happy with his enormous mojito.
Service was good too, great place to chill before the beach, after that drinks I took a great nap on the beach: D
if you cannot handle that much alcohol they also have a a med size drinks for $ 25 they said it was a 32oz.
we will be back for sure!!!

I suppose the one star was warranted because the food was edible at best. But please ask the prices before you order, don’t assume anything. The service was terrible they had one guy working every table poor guy he look like he was going to pass out. I Still can’t get over the 55 dollar broken over priced hookah. 279.00 for 4 items off the menu boy what a rip off. If you don’t ask the price because there not posted they will not tell you.

Food Quality: Average-​High
Service: Poor seating, poor communication, lengthy waiting times and one must go out of their own way to attract the attention of the servers.
Pros: By South Miami Beach. Food is plentiful. Drinks are good.
Cons: Where do I begin. First, the automatic gratuity is 19%. Second, many menu items dont include a price because the establishment itself is fraudulent (i’ll expand on this later. Third, they argue with their customers and care much more about profits than rapport. Lastly, if you’re going to pay for a view then there should at least be a nice view. You can’t see the beach well from here, talkless of the ocean — you can see people walking.
** My bill was $ 725. This was for 4 meals and no drinks at 50% (new years special). That means that the bill would have been $ 1450 originally, with an automatically added 19% tip (i.e. a tip of almost 300 dolalrs for abysmal service).
Advice: Walk away. Go eat somewhere else then return to the beach if you would like to see it. I know fine dining and have paid $ 200 a plate when its worth it. This is NOTHING like that, so do not waste your time. Perhaps share a drink or smoke hookah here if you’re willing to splurge, but anything else is an outrageous idea.

It was one of those infamous scorching hot sunny Saturdays on South Beach and since friends were visiting from out of town we stopped here because it was one of the few restaurants offering hookah along with outdoor seating on Ocean Dr.
The service is entirely too slow, we were seated for about 15 minutes before a waiter (we flagged down) came over to greet us and then another 10 minutes before we were given menus.
We shared a strawberry/​mango cocktail with 3 shots of patron, I ordered the chips and guacamole (very small serving but the guacamole was very tasty). E ordered the crabcakes, there were two crabcakes and they tasted like they had been frozen.
S ordered the mussels, I didn’t try them but she said they were pretty tasty.
I’m not sure what the total bill was, but I’m guessing over $ 100. I would suggest coming here for people watching, hookah and cocktails. Get your food from somewhere else like Sugar Factory on 12^th & Ocean, TGIFridays on 5^th and Ocean or Big Pinks on 1^st and Washington.
Additional Notes:
–All of the drinks are for sharing with 2 or more people. No individual size libations are offered.
–The menu doesn’t have any prices on it.
–Service is very slow.
— Valet is offered and for about $ 60 you can keep your car parked out front. The ppl who opt for this usually have flashy cars and love showing them off.
–South Beach is directly across the street.

Avoid this place! It takes you so long to be waited on once you’re seated. The waitress we had screwed up our bill, refused to correct the issue or take ownership of the mistake, and forced us to sign the credit card transaction. To sum it all up the food wasn’t even that great. I will never return.

We came because of the happy hour and after ordering noticed that it was all lies. The prices were off the roof with happy hour cocktails as you could get two for 45 $. The long island ice teas we had, the other one was lame and didnt taste anything. As I mentioned about this the waitress filled my glass with black rum and ended up tasting completely shit. I cant imagine how this is possible at Ocean drive. And yeah food was decent. Avoid at all cost!!!

The atmosphere is like any other Ocean Drive restaurant at night. My friends and I were fooled by the «buy one get one» deal with drinks! Learned our lessons… There are no prices whatsoever on the menus. We ordered 3 drinks– which cost $ 45 each! The waitress ignored all questions and did not tend to us when needed. We ordered a side of fries which cost $ 10 for a single serving! Who knew?! The drinks were bad. We also had hookah which was $ 30, not complaining. The service was bad, the added gratuity was worse! On the plus side, the hotel is comfortable and clean! Not the café however…

Drinks are 2 for 1 but don’t be fooled — each person has to order a drink to get the second one free.
Drinks are huge but just alright. I’d stick to the (plain) mojito or piña colada.
Also ordered mozzarella sticks and they were gross. Don’t recommend ordering food here…
Hookah was fine though.

$ 3.99 for appetizers: we had calamari and bruschetta. Both were actually good! I couldn’t believe it because the reviews were so bad. Then we got the bill and I understood. They don’t post the prices for their drinks because one drink is $ 25! We only shared one so it was fine. Nothing spectacular, but probably better than 1.5 stars.

if i could give this place NO STARS I absolutely would! You couldn’t pay me to eat her a again.
We ordered drinks & then dinner. All of a sudden a thunderstorm rips through Miami & we’re sitting outside. Instead of helping us our waitress runs for cover & leaves us outside to fend for ourselves. A hostess apologizes & tries to help us find cover. Its only outdoor seating.
They leave us standing in a door way to eat an appetizer that they should have just taken back as a courtesy due to the situation. the entire moment is ruined. I ask the girl for the check several times & she ignores me. when she finally gives me a check she has all the items we ordered on it even though we didn’t receive them. she goes just give me $ 75 & forget the rest. umm. we only have 2 drinks & 1 shitty appetizer. I request a manager who ignores us, punches something up on the machine & hands her a new receipt that miraculously equals $ 75… yeah right you scheming bitches! GRATUITY was included & this bitch gave herself a $ 15 tip for doing absolutely nothing! When I requested to speak to a manager I was told shes too busy to talk to you right now.
WELL GUESS WHAT! MY MONEY IS TOO GOOD TO WASTE ON EVER COMING HERE AGAIN. P. S. THE DRINK FUCKIN SUCKED YOU NEED A NEW BARTENDER & THE BRUSCHETTA WAS NASTY! GET A NEW CHEF! BETTER YET JUST GET BRAND NEW STAFF! Just keep the Hostess, shes the only one with customer service skills.