M Bar

• Cuisine(s): Tapas
  Price: $$, $$$
• Payment Types: All Major Credit Cards
  Alcohol: Full bar
• Parking: Meters

Description

A spiffed-up corner hangout from Jack Mancini, M Bar's plate glass windows and 360-degree bar offers a slew of vantage points for people-watching. Flat screens animate overhead at the bar. Orange accents, dark floors, and leather upholstery warm up the 3,500-square-foot space. Apparently there's a garden as indicated by the Handcrafted Drinks From the Garden list, which features herbal, fruit-forward cocktails such as the East Las Olas with Mount Gay?Eclipse, cilantro, mint, kiwi, lime, and simple syrup ($13). It's a salad in a pint glass that's big on flavor but needs a tweak of refinement; soggy greens aren't an ideal condiment. The drink menu also chronicles a solid collection of hand-crafted beers and wines by the glass as well as a laundry list of -tinis. The menu, arranged by small, medium, and large plates -- with call-outs such as foie gras PB& J and lamb lolly pops -- makes it abundantly clear this tapas place isn't simply Spanish tapas. Despite the riffs on childhood food, the cuisine at M Bar isn't child's play. Brother sister chef team Kevin and Lauren Anderson showcase a huge menu with an extensive ingredient list in its first go-round of the farm-to-table concept, with ingredients that may be local, but many of which are in season elsewhere. Take the super fresh hamachi with an umami miso butterscotch and shaved cucumber ($6), though at three bites, they're not kidding about small plates. We swooned over the sweetbreads, a play on chicken and waffles garnished with a fried quail egg ($13). Despite that the dish is overdressed- potatoes AND hazel nuts AND a waffle? It's pretty freaking delicious -- as guilty a pleasure as the plate that lends inspiration. A stunner is the charred octopus, creamed fresh hearts of palm and sea beans ($7). More conservative diners can gravitate toward flat breads ($8-$10), farm burgers ($8), or a good ol' New York strip ($38), though if the Andersen's ambition prevails, they'll be missing out on a series of compelling flavors.