Restaurant Review: The Raleigh, Miami

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posted on 8 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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The ambience and service at The Raleigh along with the wonderful weather in Miami makes this outdoors brunch spot a great place to enjoy a nice brunch with friends and family or in our case, play bridal shower games.

When planning a bachelorette getaway, South Beach, Miami is usually on the list of destinations to party it up. Why? For one, you’re basically in an international country without having to leave America -It’s heavily influenced by Cuba. Secondly, there is a beautiful beach with tons of eye candy all around. Lastly, the nightlife is fun and interesting with options of chilled out bars to Bougie wannabe hangouts.

The restaurant scene in Miami has exploded of the past decade with new restaurants springing up left and right every month. The melting pot of residents and visitors has brought an array of sophisticated and tasty cuisine. We all flew to Miami for a dear friend’s bachelorette and bridal shower combo weekend. For the bridal shower, the bride-to-be wanted to have brunch at a Miami-esque venue either poolside or beachside with endless mimosas. After a lot of research, we picked the Restaurant at The Raleigh as the venue to hold her bridal shower. It was Miami-esque because it was in one those upscale hotels on Collins Avenue, brunch was poolside, and they had an endless mimosa/bloody mary option! As soon as the bride-to-be walked in she said, “this is exactly what I wanted!” There was also another very large bridal shower party there so we felt comfortable that we picked the right spot for the occasion.

The Restaurant at the Raleigh has a variety of dishes to pick from on their brunch menu which makes it a great choice for a group of girls who want to try different things. The crabcakes with pomegranate reduction and green apples was a perfect combination of tartness, sweetness, salty seafood-ness, and crunchiness. The truffle fries were loaded with truffle oil, garlic, and parmesan – a crowd pleaser.

One of the signature items on their brunch menu is the lobster eggs benedict and all of us wanted to order it! Much to our disappointment, they were “out of it.” I ended up ordering the Cantimpalo, Manchego, and Caramelized Onion Omelette. Cantimpalo is a Spanish pork and beef sausage with heavy black pepper and cumin flavors. It tasted like a less spicy version of chorizo and went well with the eggs and manchego cheese. Some of the other girls ordered different items including the egg white omelette or the short rib benedict and they were satisfied with their meal.

Another let down were the bloody mary’s. A few of us opted to get the bottomless bloody mary’s and although the first one was great, the ones after that were just wrong. Perhaps the bartender changed and the new one thought bloody mary’s are supposed to be very sweet and garlicky. I wasn’t a fan – show me the tabasco! We ordered all of the desserts on the menu to share and all were delicious but, I’m always partial to sticky toffee pudding!