Ola - Miami Beach, FL

Had a request from a friend traveling in Miami for a spot to eat dinner.

Much like LeBron, I too took my talents to South Beach last year...albeit for a quick stopover on a way to a better place, and despite ESPN's urging, I opted not to have my decision to connect through Miami versus New York City televised in an hour long special.

So my recommendation for one night in Miami Beach is a place that I went to late last year, a Latin American restaurant named Ola.  So this place is a block up and over from the Delano in South Beach, putting it smack dab in the middle of Doucherville, USA...THE Capital of all douchebags.  However, the vibe here, while trendy, which you have to be in order to make it down there, is not overly so, and doesn't come off pretentious at all, and seemed to be filled with rather normal (keep in mind relativity here, this IS Miami after all) people, generally an older crowd but not gerries, just late 30s through mid 50s, upscale and reasonable.   Normal shirts for the most part, not the skin tight unch unch unch variety.  The place has a decent vibe too.  It's not huge, has a nice little bar to sit at, and isn't too noisy or quiet.  Perfect.

The place is also very well regarded for its Latin American cuisine and its seafood, particularly the ceviches.  My Lovely Wife, Mrs. Gordo and I decided to split a couple of these, and then an entree.

We did the Fire and Ice ceviche, which was cobia tossed with sour orange, thai chiles, cilantro, and fresh  jalapenos, over pear granita.  This one was really good, and had decent heat but I would have expected more from something with two types of chiles as this has.  It wasn't quite as good in our mind as the other one we had, the Wahoo ceviche, pictured below, but a large part of that might have been my disappointment that I could still feel my tongue when I expected this second ceviche to be putting out a fire...

Thinly sliced Wahoo with watermelon jalapeno juice, basil, cantaloupe, topped with a cucumber sorbet.  Yeah, it was refreshing, and I was happy to see not overly sweet.  The red onion and jalapeno in it did a nice job of offsetting the sweetness of the other ingredients.

The entree we got was also very good, but a departure from the freshness and lightness that these seafood dishes exhibited.  We did the Puerco Asado, or braised pork.  It was served in a black bean broth with fried yucca, and a lemon / cilantro mojo.  Really, really good, but if I had to do it again, I'd probably go with either a seafood or a beef dish, as we saw several of them and they looked incredible.

I'd recommend what we had, but given the reputation of this place and the quality of what we had and otherwise saw, I'd say just pick what looks best to you and go for it.  You're unlikely to be disappointed.

Wait a minute.  Can't forget about...DA BOMB:

Semi-sweet chocolate mousse with toasted hazelnuts covered in a caramel and chocolate sauce.  Come on, I don't have to tell you that was incredible.

Good cocktails and wine list here too.  We started with a pisco sour and a pomegranate mojito.  The pisco sour was great, but the pomegranate mojito was too sweet for both of us.  I took one for the team though and downed it quickly for MLWMG before we moved on to wine.  Thank you me.

Summary

Atmosphere:  trendy, but upscale and classy and about the food and not being seen, good for a date, good for a business dinner, good for a meal with friends

Food:  Latin American

When to Go:  dinner

Crowd:  dressy, 30s, 40s and 50s, without an overabundance of chest hair and diamond cutters

What to Get for the First Timer:  split a few of the ceviches and pick an entree that looks good