BYBLOS
- mommythefoodie
- Sep 3, 2017
- 3 min read
Food: 4.5/5 Ambiance: 4.5/5 Service: 4.75/5 If you've been joining me on this journey, you know I'm from Panama but currently live in Miami. When I get homesick, two types of food take me right back and feed my soul: Latin food and Mediterranean food (I know, it's random, but I've had more hummus and kibbeh in Panama than I care to disclose). So when a friend recommended Byblos for Miami Spice, my heart skipped a beat. Off we went :)
We began with the baked hummus (topped with wagyu). Yes, Byblos, yes. The hummus was decadent and the beef just elevated it. Spectacular. I may or may not have licked the plate.
The chicken kibbeh was next. Though it was certainly very tasty, my love for the aforementioned hummus blinded me. Don't get me wrong, I still downed it, but the hummus was much yummier.
Lamb ribs. Ribs in general make me giddy, but lamb ribs 😍. The molasses gave this dish the most amazing sweetness. And I don't know what it was coated with but the crunch was the perfect combination to the super moist rib. Yum yum yum.
Roasted Brussels sprouts with tahini and fried Halumi cheese followed. Everyone at my table loved this dish, but I for some reason can't commit to Halumi. I LOVE cheese, but Halumi and I just don't jive. That's all.
The sweet jeweled rice was another story altogether. This dish was a thousand percent up my alley. For starters it was a carb ❤️ but it was so much more. It had almonds and barberries (what's a barberry you ask? it doesn't matter). Super mega yummy.
Similarly, the mjedra was stunning. Perfect rice with a bed of crispy onions and a nice big dollop of labne. Wow.
My main dish was the middle eastern fried chicken. As a friend said, it's fried chicken, but it's magnificently seasoned and fried. Delicious.
My husband had ordered the short rib kebab but they ran out (blasphemy). They offered him a flank steak instead, which was okay. A note on service: you may have noticed I gave Byblos a 4.75 rating in service. Here's why: our server, Arturo, more than made up for the short rib snafu. For dessert, I asked him if we could have their hazelnut mousse (which was not on the Miami Spice menu) instead of the desserts on the list. He didn't skip a beat. He brought us the hazelnut mousse AND brought us enough of the other two Miami Spice desserts for everyone at the table to try them both out. Needless to say, Arturo impressed the hell out of us.
The hazelnut mousse was spectacular. I'm not a huge fan of mousse, but this was something else. It had a hard shell and once you broke the shell with your spoon, the most insanely fluffy Nutella tasting mousse was revealed. Lordy.
The baklava ice cream sandwich was next and yes it tasted as amazing as it sounds. Smothered between two cookies, and doused in hardened salted caramel. Be still my heart.
I loved the first two desserts so much I never thought the cheesecake qatayef would stand a chance. Wrong. Maybe the best dessert on the table. Fried, delicious dough filled with cheesecake and topped with strawberries. Words don't do it justice. Byblos, I will absolutely be back. As they say in Panama, "barriga llena, corazón contento" (full belly, happy heart). Address: 1545 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL
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