I am a big fan of Bravo's Top Chef, so when there is a local restaurant by a top chef contestant in town, I try to go, whichever town I'm in. The Root and Bone in South Miami serves southern comfort food from a husband and wife team that were on in 2013. Known more for their evening meals, I wanted to sample the brunch menu and showed up shortly after opening at 10am on a Sunday. It was not busy for which I was thankful, only a few tables. I am a pretty standard breakfast eater, preferring the simple bacon, sunny side up eggs, sausage links and potatoes. Of course they did have the "American roots Breakfast" dish which would have all I wanted with the exception of scrambled eggs, but this was not a place to go for standard food and I wanted creativity.

I sat at the bar and had a course of the Drunken Deviled Eggs, and Smoky Bacon Board, which were both very tasty. Every morsel of these two dishes was delicious and they were well balanced with different flavors on the same plate.

The deviled eggs had surprising pink color to them due to the pickled beets giving it a slightly acidic flavor which brings out the dill that is important in the dressing. A not-too-crunchy chip was buried slightly below the top of the egg dressing giving it a nice texture. However, I truly enjoyed the smokey bacon board and felt by itself, it had a nice complemetnary set of flavors that lends itself to eating each piece of of food in succession to ready the palate for the next flavor, a very well thought out dish. The pieces of the bacon were very thick, probably double or triple the thickness of a thick center cut bacon from costco. The fresh/mixed pickles gave a nice sweet heat along with the marinated cheese to reset your palate for the next bite of the bacon. The fried pork skins was a nice touch as well giving a slightly crunchy, dry taste before the deep smoke of the bacon on the next bite. I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and felt it paired well with the drunken devilled eggs.

For the main course, I had the braised short rib meatloaf with eggs which was also absolutely delicious. I'm usually unimpressed with dishes that have short rib in them, generally because they tend to be underseasoned, but the veal demiglaze gave it a nice touch of flavor. The asparagus and eggs were a nice complementary flavor and nothing was overcooked.

Currently on my Mexican food kick as I try my second Mexican restaurant in Homestead, Casita Tejas on Krome Ave. This family run restaurant is well located across from the Seminole Theatre with a nice window view. It is heart warming to see a cottage industry of restaurants spring up in the past twenty years and I only anticipate the area to increa...

Miami is known as the gateway to Latin America, but even so it is mostly known for its Cuban food more so than other Latin cuisines. However there has recently been a large Mexican influx to South Florida and this is to Homestead's benefit. In business since 2007, La Cruzada has garnered praise as top Mexican restaurant for years. So I had to exper...

A favorite watering hole for locals with a good trivia night on Tuesdays and open mic comedy night on Thursdays, The Taurus has been around along time. With a menu that rotates ever so often, the pub/bar is from the team that operates Ariete, Chugs Diner, and others in the area. I could easily see myself frequenting this area after work for a wind ...

When it comes to South Florida, Asian flavors are lacking. This is probably due to location as it is literally as far away from East and South Asia as you can go. Ghee ( https://www.gheemiami.com/ ) is a bright spot in what is otherwise a desert for quality indian food.

The atmosphere is very trendy with somewhat loud jazzy music. The arrangements are very interesting and inviting with a wall of ingredients that surround a dark warm interior.  There is plenty of parking, which is validated, and plenty of outdoor seating. It was a very warm day when I visited so I decided to sit inside. There is a bar area where individuals can opt to sit which was full of older women when I went on a weeknight.

The staff was not up to the quality that I have been used to, although the waiter was excellent, the host and greeting staff seemed flat which was heartbreaking however I will chalk it up to being an off day. The waiter was superb in his recommendations to keep you away from all the same flavor profiles and allow you to sample a variety. It is obvious that there is a lack of sophisticated knowledge of nuanced asian flavors in south florida and the wait staff is well prepared to get you on the right track, if needed. The menu changes roughly monthly and there is a "this menu was printed on this date" at the bottom, which I appreciate and am excited about. What is really nice is that menu items are labelled if they are gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, or halal. Of course, non of these affect me as I have no dietary restrictions but I have plenty of friends who fret over this when they go out for food. What is even nicer is that the spice and ingredients are grown fresh from the family's farm in Homestead.

The menu includes a chef's tasting menu which also changes. I will definitely try this next time I go.

For my meal I had the Duck Confit Samosa with cranberry chutney and short rib dosa to start off. One of my favorite indian foods is samosa and I found this sort of ok but to my surprise the short rib dosa was extremely good.