Top Stories and Reviews in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Delray Beach
Spotlight
HomeTown BuffetAfter reading all of the 1 star reviews on Yelp, you'd wonder why anyone would come here. So when I saw the nearly full parking lot, I really started to wonder what kind of crowd would be inside. It starts out similarly to the Golden Corral, with a winding area meant to accommodate a line to enter. No line today at 2pm. With bottomless beverage, the price for an adult comes to $11.11.
The place is one big room, with half of it the buffet and the other half booths and tables. The dining room is similar to Sweet Tomatoes.
The buffet area is more like a chinese buffet, with rows of buffet tables. One table is "comfort food", one has specialty items, there's a salad bar and a table with salsas and sauces, and theres a table with tacos, enchiladas, pasta and potato salads and fruit. [Full Article]
Fort Lauderdale
If you haven't been to Timpano in a while; you'll barely recognize it. Unfortunately, the changes are largely negative. Two years ago, Timpano's owners, E-Brands, were in bankruptcy. For a period of time, nobody knew if the place would survive. The Samba Room, also owned by E-Brands, had closed. Things were so bad that they stopped ordering matches. When Tavistock Group purchased the Timpano brand, there was great hope. The deep
If you haven't figured it out yet; The Royal PIg Pub is the new "it" on Las Olas. Teaming with ex-YOLO regulars, there's a new place in town for the grown ups to hang out, and it's taking Las Olas by a storm. Previously the Samba Room; The Royal Pig is a complete remake of the space, from a dark, clubby space with a smallish bar to a mega bar that runs from the rear kitchen to 20 feet from the front door. The Royal Pig is the first place
Tap 42 opened last fall and I went there just after it opened. Most people agreed that the service was terrible, and that chatter continued for months. They don't really have any dinner entrees, so I never thought of going there for dinner. I recently saw that they had a Beer Cheese soup, which reminded me of a place called the 56th Fighter Group on Long Island; the only place that I can remember on LI having it. So I thought I'd do lunch. Something
Anthony's is one of those places that presents a conundrum to me; it reminds me so much of Long Island that I want to stay away; the whole Gumba attitude; it's like an episode of The Sopranos without the gangsters. At night, this place can be a zoo, and it's one of those places where "friends" get preferential treatment. And there are a lot of friends. So you can see your 20 minute wait stretch to 45, as some VIP gets your table. It's enough so
Delray Beach
I'd heard about this place somewhere and since I was up in Delray Beach I figured I'd give it a try. It's a storefront in a strip mall; a modest place with typical pizzeria decor. But it is a restaurant with tables and booths, so you could eat in. I ordered a take out pizza, 1/2 sausage. I got there about 15 minutes afterwards and it was just coming out of the oven. One thing that struck me is that they really seemed to hope that I enjoyed
Boca Raton
With the big Presidential debate in Boca Raton, I thought I'd take a drive up to Boca and cross a big restaurant off of my to-do list; I've been meaning to check out Abe & Louie's for a while. With crushingly high dinner prices, and largely the same food available for less at lunch, lunch was a better option. The same company that took over Timpano's bought out Abe & Louie's; I don't like what they've done with Timpano's menu, but I'd never
Dickey's claims to be the largest BBQ franchise, which doesn't necessarily tell you anything. It means that there that they have a lot of locations. One good thing about franchises is that they're usually not dreary spaces that open with no printed menus and only part of their menu available; part of the franchise deal is usually decorations and posters, printed menus, and inventory. Dickey's is slightly subterranean; it's a small
Local News
On April 19, the "Tiki Beach Cafe" (the Tiki Bar restaurant at the Ocean Manor Hotel), was hit with another $800 fine, mainly for repeat violations of food stored at temperatures that is not safe. On May 1 they were inspected again, and they shut them down with 33 violations, many of them similar.
Liquid eggs stored at 60 degrees. Raw fish 
We have the menu.
The Restaurant People, operators of Tarpon Bend, YOLO and VIBE, have opened a 7000 square foot restaurant on the ground floor of the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach. The name of the new venue, S3, an acronym for Sun, Surf and Sand.
The build-out cost approximately $4 Million; as suspected, this restaurant is truly YOLO 
A Pompano Beach man was robbed in his home after a date with a women at YOLO and Vibe.
Police are warning wealthy middle aged men in Florida to be on the lookout for a seductress who is preying on unsuspecting targets. A woman who identified herself as 'Crystal' reportedly made off with over $100,000 worth of cash and luxury watches after 
It appears that Gilley's may have been a scam; their website has disappeared, there's no mention of them on the Seminole Hard Rock web site, and there's a disgruntled employee posting ripoff-reports about having never been paid for months of work.
I got some weird emails from them, and never got a single email on their "newsletter". Recent Openings
The Ignite Restaurant Group, owners of the Brick House Tap and Tavern gave up on that concept at this location and converted this space into one of their other brands, Joe's Seafood Shack. In 2006, the group acquired the Joe's Crab Shack brand from Landry's; this is a Crab Shack with a slightly different name to avoid a territorial conflict.
If 
Bouillabaisse is gone and a new Argentinean Bistro has been born. I never had any interest in Bouillabaisse; a french restaurant on E Commercial just didn't make sense to me. I'm not sure how an Argentinean restaurant fits in either, but they're open for lunch and I like the food better. The obvious shills are appearing everywhere; Everyone knows Coming Soon
Sonic is claiming to be doing a "spring cleaning", but whats really going on is a restructuring. Sonic the restaurant will be gone; they'll be doing take out only. The main restaurant will be the Atlantic Surf Club, an "upscale casual" restaurant with Filet Mignon Burgers, Oysters, Salmon tartar prepared three unique ways, gourmet pizzas, king crab 
Spaghetto Express is coming to the Shopping Center next to Costco in Davie.
This seems to bridge the gap between fast food and restaurant; the concept is quality food in a fast-casual, minimal service environment. A coffee shop / cafe environment with chinese menu style of ordering; pick your pasta, sauce and portion size. Take-out is included Closed
Sonic as we know it is closed. The restaurant will be the Atlantic Surf Club; Sonic will be take out only.
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Sonic Beach opened in Beach Place plaza to much fanfare and was really hopping when it first opened; it opened over a year late and there was much anticipation.
Sonic is known for their wacky commercials and odd menu 
Some things are inevitable before they even begin, but it appears that Suite 100 has finally given up. On Cinco De Mayo, and with the Sun Trust Jazz Festival in full bloom, The Suite was closed tight. Although there are chairs stacked inside, it seems unlikely that they'd be closed if they were still open. Their phone number has some strange message.