Varanda’s Brasil Cafe

Despite the not so sterling reviews from other Unilocaler’s I decided to give this one a go since it was close to the hotel.
This is a bit of a hole in the wall, the difference between this one and others in the area is that this one is clean and provides excellent service.
I ordered the Picanha lunch special with beans and rice. For those unfamiliar with Picanha, it’s roughly equivalent to a rump roast and is one of the more popular cuts at Brazilian steakhouses. The steak was well cooked and had great flavor as did the rice and beans. For dessert I chose a traditional Brazilian Pudim de Leite (Milk Pudding) which is sort of a flan. The portion was very generous and really delicious.
The food was surprisingly good and the portions were enough to fill you up, service was very good.
As a note, keep in mind that gratuity is charged with the bill — I guess they got tired of being stiffed by foreigners that weren’t familiar with our tipping habits.

I was very excited to visit this place. BUT! the staff want pleasant one bit. I’ve never had brasil food so I asked the waitress what side would she recommend for our 1^st time. She looked ăt me like I was crazy. She said that she didn’t know. I will not being coming back. Customers are your future, act like they matter

Wow, was waiting for coffee 25 min until they bring. Paid $ 5 — what a service.
Place overall is just okay, food probably average — didn’t take a risk to try, but overall its very nice people working there, kind and polite!
My rating was based on atmosphere of personal, other than that you may judge when there.

UPDATE: Came here again for breakfast after another hangover and late night partying. Noticed that we were charged $ 3 more for the EXACT same meal we had the day before (I even had the receipt!). It seems like the prices charged do not match the prices on the menu card so be careful about that. The total bill was less than $ 20 so we didn’t want to haggle, but charging customers more for the same meal? Not cool! You have been warned!

Extremely disappointed. I’m Brazilian and took my husband here. Had the steak with onions and the steak was extremely chewy and difficult to eat. For appetizer we ordered the frango a passarinho and two of my chicken pieces were RAW. Fully raw! Manager saw and said sorry but did not take it off the bill. Paid a lot of money for food we did not enjoy at all and could not finish eating. Oh, also. Rice was hard as if it was undercooked.

Came here for breakfast around 10:30. The two ladies working the cash wrap were nice. They only spoke a little bit of English.
The timing of the food is completely off. My friend ordered a scrambled egg and spinach breakfast while I ordered a salad and her food came out about five minutes before mine. My second friend ordered yogurt and since her order was taking a while, she asked about it and they claimed they didn’t have it so they didn’t charge her for it. Why weren’t we informed? We had to ask about it to find out. A little ridiculous.
The three stars are for the taste and the service.

Overall this place borders between 2 & 3 stars, here’s why:
.My travel buddy gave the Picanha com Linguica 4 stars for taste, portion and presentation. It lived up to it’s reputation.
I ordered the chicken curry — 2 stars — it’s different…
For the service and the cleanliness — 3 stars.

Tell me how I come to a Brazilian restaurant and order everything BUT Brazilian food? …it happened.
I stayed cramped up in my hotel room most of the day recovering from a full time job of vacation drinking and decided I might as well shower and grab a small bite in the neighborhood. Up a couple blocks I stumble into Varandas. Like I said earlier I ordered a chicken caesar salad and a cubano sandwich.
I hate to be that guy that raves about foliage dishes but that salad must’ve been prepared by fairies from Fern Gully cause it was goddamn good. The chicken they used must’ve known how to fly… that’s how good it was. I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with the prior nights drinking or me being hungry because I’m always hungry, even after I’m full.
Wish I could report back positively on the cubano but it was just alright. Really lacked in flavor. It was put together nicely and big as hell. Ate only half of it and the other half was like a foot long. Should’ve ordered an actual Brazilian steak sandwich. Wasn’t thinking.
The place itself is pretty small but comfortable somehow. Service was fair but one thing I tripped on was that our drink glasses came with no ice. They chill the glasses but c’mon it’s Miami… that chill sweats off quick and ice isn’t a luxury. They also victimized me with the $ 2.50 bottle water. I don’t have rich taste buds so the pitcher water, fancy for tap, would’ve been fine.
I probably won’t be back in the area but a quick peak at the dishes in the business photos let’s me know it looks good. Give it a try.

The place is small, but inviting. The menu is varied with good descriptions. The presentation was good, but the portions seemed small. I ordered a sprite for $ 2.75, it was a 12 oz can with a glass of ice on the side. The server didn’t pour it. Once the food was out, my server never came back to check on me. Once I pushed my plate to the edge of the table, another server cleared everything away. I was most disappointed by the 17% gratuity that was added to my ticket, I was eating by myself and didn’t notice a note on the menu stating that. To top that, there was another line for a tip. If you don’t look closely, you’ll tip for mediocre at best service.

the food is bad and really expecsive it was my first time eating food there and trying Brazilian good the only bad thing is that there’s no parking for the restaurante

This review is just for their breakfast. Maybe their lunch and dinner is good but heir breakfast is not.
We were looking forward having a Brazilian restaurant and this experience was more than a mediocre American breakfast.
We ordered the Varanda special and an Spinach and cheese omelet. Both dishes lacked flavored and the side toasts were bad: toasted in one side and the bread was mushy. I never add extra salt to foods at restaurants but I had to in this place.
Their coffee is the worst I ever had. We ordered «café com leite» (latte) and they just poured old American coffee in a cup and reheated in a microwave (not kidding, I saw the lady when she did it).
I give them 2 stars because our waitress was nice. Never going back.

Just had the best picanha in town! The place is small but cozy and clean! I wasn’t expecting great food for a such small place.
Great service! Recommend picanha and feijoada! 5 stars home made food!

Walked across the street from my hotel for a late night bite with my mother, and was mostly pleased by the simple, but good food. We tried to order Brazilian Cheese Bread and Ham Croquettes for appetizers, but language barriers led us to cheese and ham croquettes. A disappointment, especially since some of the cheese croquettes were cold on the inside.
Yet the main dishes were pretty good. The Brazilian steak was tasty, as were the black beans and plantains. My mom really enjoyed the chicken curry. The portions are big enough to divide into two, which is good because it’s semi-​pricy ($ 14-​$ 19 a plate on average) for such a casual place.

Excellent price /​quality rate: good plain basic Brazilian food, not too expensive (for Miami Beach).
I had the steak with garlic, red beans and rice. Tasted real good, good portion for a hungry guy:-). Reasonable red wine (Merlot).

My fiancée had an AMAZING tilapia coconut stew, I had a completely bitchin steak with enough garlic to kill a vampire from fourty blocks away. Note. Order the iced tea. Its infused with lime and sugar and is delicious. Fried plantain and rice come with everything, a perfect neutral foil for the rich, base flavors.
Tiny, tiny, tiny little space, with portuguese speaking servers in a cute block only steps away from the beach. YAY!

This place was walking distance from our hotel. It doesn’t look like anything special but we were impressed with the prompt service and quality of the food. We started off with the meat and cheese empanadas which were delicious. For my entrée, I had the Churassco plate which was pricey ($ 18). It comes with rice, black beans, platins, and the 2 pieces of steak. The portion size for the price was good. It was on the salty side but from what I hear that is the Brazilian way of cooking. Add some lime and spicy sauce and it will level out your taste buds!

Varanda’s looks like a tiny Brazilian bistro up in Mid-​North Miami Beach. This is another place in Miami where they don’t speak much English. You have to speak Portugese here. They can probably speak Spanish better than English.
Even though it looks like a cheap café, the prices seem expensive. So don’t be fooled by the atmosphere. If you don’t stick to the sandwiches, expect to spend about $ 15 – 20. They also add tip to their final bill because these foreign turistas don’t pay any tip.
Their service is laid back and slow. They take their time. So if you’re in a hurry, I would avoid this place.
I tried their pichana. The plate looked huge! They gave me 2 huge chunks of rump steak, fat and all. It also came with a huge pile of rice, beans, and plantains.
The pichana tasted good. They seasoned it well. However, they grilled it to medium-​well to well done. I wished they asked me what temp to grill it. I prefer medium-​rare steaks. Oh well.
The rice and beans tasted great. The rice was seasoned well and had a nice, garlicy flavor.
The other food tasted decent as well. So their quality of food seems good.
They did have a problem with splitting the bill. So if you come here, just make it easier on them and have one person pay the whole bill. Or you can sit there as they try to figure out how to split the bill.
They seem expensive, but you get a ton of food for the price. Sometimes, you get so much food that you can’t finish it. I think they should decrease the amount of food and lower the price.

This place is totally un-​assuming. It is absolutely tiny and it was very empty. We were a group of 8 and I was very surprised when they were able to accommodate us.
The staff here speaks only Portuguese. We had trouble communicating with them and we speak spanish, but we made do. My first impression when I opened the menu was that it was on the pricey side. $ 15 for a paper thin steak is a little much in my opinion. Other than that, everyone was really happy with their food. Some of us got the picanha which was juicy and nicely cooked. My one major complaint is that we all got our food at different times. It came in a wave of 3, ten minutes later, the other 4 and my boyfriend got his plate when everyone else was finished eating. He felt really awkward and they apologized, but it still sucked. I think they have a small grill in the back and can only get so much on it at a time.
Most dishes came with rice, black beans and fried plantains, all were delicious.

Unfortunately, I disagree with Sharon regarding the cleanliness of this restaurant. Perhaps we visited on an off week, however the restaurant was in incredible disarray — several tables left with remnants of previous diners, soiled floors, fingerprints on glasses — despite having not a customer in sight. Because we were famished and really enjoy Brasilian food (hubby lived in Brasil for several years), we decided to give them a chance.
We ordered two empanadas as an appetizer, guarana to drink (Brasilia brand — not so good, but not the fault of the restaurant), grilled fish and picanha.
The empanadas ($ 2.5) were decent, nothing spectacular, but certainly edible enough. The grilled fish ($ 14) was fresh, yet lacked flavor. The star of the evening was definitely the picahna, which was served as a steak (not strips as another reviewer had mentioned), which was juicy and flavorful.
The reason that I’m still not sold on this place was despite the lack of customers (we were the only patrons in the entire restaurant throughout our visit), still the tables were left uncleared, we had to wait quite a bit to speak to the waitress, and even longer for her to bring us the check. Their attitude was incredibly lax and they didn’t seem to care about serving their customers, nor creating an enticing dining environment.

Ooooh yum. Truly amazing Brazilian food in this little hole in the wall. I got some kind of a breaded steak dish with good old fashioned rice and beans and I was not disappointed. The fried plantains were also on point.
My dining companion got a fresh squeezed pineapple juice and I imagine they used at least two pineapples for this $ 4.95 concoction.
Go here.
*Another tourist attraction was a group of young hoodlums sitting at one of the outside tables smoking cigs and drinking out of a flask. Party in the city where the heat is on.