South Beach Dining: Ice Box Cafe

I'm starting to discover that portions in South Beach are huge -- and while prices may not seem to be "bargains," many times you can easily share a dish between two people. This is certainly the case at Ice Box Cafe, where we were overwhelmed by the size of each course, and ended up eating embarrassingly little of our (delicious) main courses. Luckily, they were happy to wrap up our dessert to take with us.

This casual cafe has both indoor and outdoor seating, and is located just steps from the main pedestrian area of Lincoln Road. The menu changes frequently, featuring well prepared creative American dishes. They offer a 3-course prix-fixe dinner for $33, as well as an a la carte menu. (They also serve brunch and lunch.) All the dishes we sampled were loaded with flavor, from the coffee rubbed sea bass cheeks to the chicken milanese and the pan seared rainbow trout. The slice of cake we brought home with us and later tried consisted of layers of chocolate mousse, coffee flavored crumbs and cheesecake covered in a chocolate ganache -- too rich for my personal tastes, but Dan really loved it.

The restaurant has a wine/beer license, but no liquor license. For starters, they serve champagne cocktails with fresh juice -- the watermelon/champagne combination was especially nice and not overly sweet. The wine list was sufficient, and reasonable, with many bottles under $30. I throughly suggest checking out this restaurant and recommend that most diners should pony up the $3 sharing charge and share the prix-fixe menu between 2.

Ice Box Cafe
1657 Michigan Avenue (just north of Lincoln Road)
South Beach, Miami
305-538-8448