A one-time foodie capital of the United States, Miami, Florida has oodles of excellent places to eat across its waterfront footprint. Given its ocean adjacency, it also tracks that a lot of those spots would serve superb seafood with calming coastal views. The Rusty Pelican, a few miles southeast of downtown Miami in Key Biscayne, has both on its prime marina perch.
The Rusty Pelican is a phone-eats-first kind of place if there ever was one, so charge those devices before you arrive. You also want to be sure to sit outside or at least near a window for the postcard perfect look at the lovely Biscayne Bay and the city skyline. And you’ll very likely have to pay a price to make sure that you do. The restaurant offers both standard reservations that will place you with the luck of the draw, as well as a premium seating option that lets you choose your spot for a fee that might hover around $30 depending on your desired time and party size. Sure, the peeping fee rivals the price of some of the Rusty Pelican’s menu items, but when the vistas are such a big part of the appeal, you might want to make sure they’re actually in the picture. It also takes some of the headache out of the hard-to-get restaurant reservation tips and tricks that one might have to employ at a waterfront restaurant elsewhere.
What to order at the Rusty Pelican when your phone is finally satiated
The Rusty Pelican’s bar is equally adept at specialties and familiar hits, and its food selection is vast and varied enough to appeal to most palates. It serves all the fish, squid, and bivalve preparations becoming of its environs, in addition to salads, steaks, chicken, and novelties like caviar frites. But the real showstoppers, as they often are, are the seafood towers.
Served in petite or imperial proportions for two or four (for $100 or $190, respectively), you can expect the Rusty Pelican’s seafood towers to include items like raw oysters, poached shrimp, lobster, crab salad, ceviche, sashimi, and nigiri. It’s an excellent way to get a little taste of a lot of different things and, as long as snapshots are also in order, seafood towers always photograph nicely, too. You can also come by during sunset happy hour, when tons of tipples are $8 or less, the oysters are $2 a pop, and golden hour’s lovely rays are technically free…