Lario's on the Beach

Larios used to be our favorite restaurant. Our most recent experience placed it on par with any other beach front Mexican restaurant. \r \r On a blustery Sunday evening we were told seating was only available outside. This was nothing but a tourist trap trick of making the restaurant look busy to pedestrians.\r \r The once sweet and tasty Mojitos were just a bitter concoction one could get in any spring break bar. The size of the drink glasses also has shrunk recently.\r \r The pollo millanese was a tough piece of chicken that was clearly just a platter pulled from the freezer and reheated.\r \r The side of rice (arroz con moros) was dry and another reheated item, not freshly made.\r \r This restaurant's ownership needs to take a long look at what they've allowed to change recently. more

Larios has a fabulous atmosphere. They took reservations at the last minute and we didn't have to wait at all! The service was quick and friendly. The food was amazing...you must have the fried cassava, which melts in your mouth! Their cocktails were pricey, but worth every penny. My family and I had an great experience and would definately go there again. more

Lechon asado was awesome!! Dinner on the sidewalk was fun and busy. Very entertaining. Service was good. Don't recommend the tostones or the flan but otherwise, really enjoyed my experience. And I am a real Cuban! more

... too busy all the time and too much waiting. more

Food is good, service is not so great, also beware of the 17 percent tip automatically added to your bill. more

excellent cuban food. no annoying people trying to get u in to eat too ! excellent excellent excellent yummm more

Food was good. Service was bad but it was real busy. Would recommend. more

Eat on the sidewalk for best experience ... Inside just makes it another Cuban spot. more

Very Miami Beach: loud and expensive. There has to be better somewhere here! more

My hotel the South Beach Plaza Villas Hotel recommended Larios for dinner. It was only a short walk down Beach. We got there very very busy and we were up in the air on if Larios was worth the wait. Thank god we did we stayed. Larios is more then worth an hour or more wait. We were seated on the second floor. Larry and Efrin were there to welcome us. They asked us were we were from and had some some great conversation with them both. We ordered the Starters and they came in a very respectable time. They were to die for. This was only the first suprise of the night. We finished and had a little wait till the main course. I like that. There was no hurry to feed you and push you out the door. Then the best Cuban food I have ever had started to hit our table. Every single bite was total bliss of pure heaven. It was better then sex. I can not wait to go back to South Beach Miami and try everthing on the menu. I love Cuban food and have never had Cuban any better then this. The 2nd floor is more laid back and not as noisy as the lower level which had a DJ who was burning insents the were bad on my breathing. The outside patio is very very busy as well. I would ask for the 2nd floor and for Larry and Efrin to serve you. They are to bomb and very laid back and causual. I wanted to bring them home with me and keep them to myself.\r Things to get:\r Drinks: Mojito\r Starters: Masitas De Puerco and Fried Plantain Chips and the Potato Balls\r Main Course: Bistec La Milanesa and Churrasco\r Best Floor: 2nd Level\r Best Servers: Larrey and Efrin\r Price came up to 140.00 before tip for 3 people and we were so stuffed we needed rolled out. more

overpriced and tasteless. not bad for tourist that have never had actual cuban food. more

The food was alright but look out! Make sure you take your credit card receipt and keep it! Unfortuantely I did not keep mine. Otherwise I could call my credit card company and complain about our waiter at Bongos who changed my tip from 20% to 40%!!! more

Was in Miami before setting off for a cruise for our honeymoon. the day before we set off, we decide for lack of a better option to eat at Larios or Bongos or whatever its called. i heard that it was gloria estefan's restaurant, and couldnt decide wether that was a good thing or a bad thing. anyway, i dont know where to start. for starters the service was horrible. rude, impatient, and ignorant. the food was FUNKY. ceviche was luke warm and seemed like it had been sitting out. had an extremely gamey smell and even worse taste. when i tried to return it the waiter gave me a problem and i had to argue to even get it taken off my table. then the drinks came, watery, disgusting. for a supposedly ""authentic"" restaurant, they had by far the worst drinks i had in all of south beach. next the entree, the worst paella ive ever had, full of frozen seafood and a very strong weird seasoning that seemed like it was in there by mistake, and of course all this after waiting for 45 min to have it cooked. next my wife gets here disgusting 5 lb plate of pork that is absurdly portioned, especially considering that it is HORRIBLE tasting and seemingly was plated for an hour before being served. and the cherry on top is that within an hour after leaving, we both felt overcome with nauseau, and spent the next 48 hours throwing up and worse, much worse unfortunately. we had to delay our entire honeymoon by 3 days to recover, and still wasnt 100% after that. its ironic, because if you look at the shape of the menu it looks like a bongo on one side, and the other side that is plain white looks EXACTLY like a toilet seat up, which is EXACTLY what youll be looking into shortly after you eat here. look at the other reviews, how is this the only restaurant where 1/4 of the reviews complain of some kind of neaseau? SHUT THIS PLACE DOWN ITS DISGUSTING, UNSANITARY, AND AN ABSOLUTE JOKE OF A CUBAN RESTAURANT!!!! thought i'de share so you can avoid making the same mistake we did. Pros: on southe beach Cons: horrible overall experience more

In all honesty, some of these reviews are years old thus making the restaurant look bad. I went last year '07 in August with my then Fiancee after we took our engagement pictures (my 2nd time there, my fiance's 1st) and we both had a great time. Our waiter, was very prompt and fast in getting our appetizers along with drinks to us. The food was very tasty and as anyone knows Cubans cook with lots of spices making our food a delicacy to US. For those faint of heart or not used to Caribbean meals as such might not like it. The music was very nice although I must admit TOO LOUD but we enjoyed ourselves in our celebration. As a matter of fact for our post V-day we're going tonight as husband and wife! Pros: Location, Food, Ambience Cons: Music a bit too loud to be able to talk over dinner more

I went to eat at Larios on the Beach and had a wonderful experience. The food was excellent. I had the best churrasco steak in my life. The service was friendly and quick. The band with the fat lady singing was a bit of a visual turn off. I don't know if others that review are familiar with Cuban Cuisine, but a thin steak is authentic. Cuban food is full of spice, yes salt and greasy too, but for Cubans it is the way we like it. If you want to experience a lot of bland food, go elsewhere. Here you get the real deal. Change the live music to South Beach hip salsa, and you got a great destination restaurant. I would go back tomorrow. Pros: Great Authentic Food Cons: Horrible Visual of a very fat female singer more

Situated right along Ocean drive, overlooking beautiful South Beach, this restaurant (one of the several... more

Situated right along Ocean drive, overlooking beautiful South Beach, this restaurant (one of the several owned by Gloria Estefan) serves authentic ... more

I was there this past weekend with my family. The food was bad tasting all around. No one was happy with their food. I asked for vaca frita which is supposed to be dry and what they brought me was the oilest piece of meet ever. The food was very satly all around. I asked for a spoon for my son, and we had to ask another server because they other one never showed up. We had to ask for break and they it was given to us as we got our dinner. The waitress was always in the hidding. We complained about the service to the waitress and her lame excuse was that ""you came at a bad time when we had just changed shifts."" We were frequenters of the local restaurant but after this awful experience, we will no long visit this restaurant. We were sick to our stomachs the whole night. ...Burping garlic and onions. My mom left almost all her pork it was greasy too. \r :-( more

The best cuban resturant in town!Great bar and music,but the food is a must,excellent congri(rice and beans)chicken and plantains with authentic cuban Mojito(better than most).Flan is great and expresso is always hot.Nothing like it in Miami. Pros: OK Cons: Mojito a little expensive now! more

I just don't know what to say. I was happy to see that it was right on Ocean Drive, only b/c I wanted the experience of eating at a ""people watching"" place. We sat outside and it was nice. There were lots of empty tables but they treat you like there's a five hour wait. They throw the food at you and don't conceal the fact they want to open the table fast. I don't get it b/c with so many open tables, what's the rush? We specifically told the watier after receiveing our appetizer that we'd like to wait before ordering and he wouldn't leave us alone. The food was one of the worst meals I've ever had. My wife's fish was inedible. Really she couldn't eat it. We didn't bother to complain b/c they really don't seem to care. Give the money to charity. Such a waste. Cons: food, service more