Fifty Restaurant & Lounge - CLOSED

• Cuisine(s): Contemporary
  Hours: Sun-Thu 11:30am-11pm, Fri-Sat 11:30am-1am
  Price: $$$ $$$
• Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
  Attire: Casual
  Features: Patio/Sidewalk Dining, Takeout
• Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Reservations: Accepted
  Parking: Lot Available

Description

Put simply, the food at Fifty is better than just about anywhere else on Ocean Drive, and it compares favorably to local restaurants far from South Beach as well. There are all manner of intriguing ingredients and treatments on the moderately sized, progressive American menu. Wild rice tabbouleh is sprinkled with roasted tomato dust. Rack of lamb gets splashed with chili pasilla-cacao sauce. Pan-roasted grouper soaks in an exotic mango-cardamom water. There are even three types (and colors) of highfalutin' salt placed upon each table -- though the food is seasoned with such aplomb that you may never get to sample any. No dish exemplifies chef Roly Cruz-Taura's inventive and well-executed cuisine better than plantain-crusted crabcakes, with pure, sweet, juicy lumps of peeky toe crab leaking from the brittle shell and into a luxurious pool of beurre blanc. "Twice-cooked" duck drumstick features confit-style meat sliding off the bone and into a hearty, mud-color puddle of bacon-smoked split peas. "Crispy crackling Kurobuta pork osso bucco" brings plump morsels of pork possessing the same slow-cooked sumptuousness as meat freshly peeled from a pig on a spit. Other reasons that Fifty is nifty: affable service, an excellent collection of boutique California wines, an exciting selection of American farmhouse cheeses, and delectable miniaturized desserts by fast-rising pastry chef Carolina Romero. Try her signature tres leches Boston cream pie, a teeny toylike tasting of milk-and-sugar-soaked cake capped with thin lines of custard and chocolate.