South Florida Master Thread

[Adam101]

House of Dog, Mozart, Fresko, Shemtovs

From what I understand house of dog is not exactly kid friendly

[Sowhat]

Not sure if I did or not. But if you're getting a rental car that for like four dollars per day that you use it they will give you an automatic Sunpass

I don't understand?

[Adam101]

I don't understand?

I'm not sure about the roads and the sun pass but I do know if you Rent a Car there is automatically one in there and if you use it they will charge you about four dollars extra per day

[mochada]

From what I understand house of dog is not exactly kid friendly

Been there during the day and families were there with kids sitting outside.

[CS91]

I'm not sure about the roads and the sun pass but I do know if you Rent a Car there is automatically one in there and if you use it they will charge you about four dollars extra per day

Even for the days that you don't use the Sunpass. At least that's how it is with Hertz.

[Adam101]

Even for the days that you don't use the Sunpass. At least that's how it is with Hertz.

-1 with me I rented from alamo

[ilherman]

Does anyone have experience with the local rental cars? Do they ask for ID when booking with corporate codes?

[yakrot]

Does anyone have experience with the local rental cars? Do they ask for ID when booking with corporate codes?

i was recently with someone in national at FLL and they did not ask

[rookie]

Any good breakfast places near a mall?

[yelped]

Does anyone know of any shuls, breakfast place, grocery near Biscayne park?

[rookie]

How is the service by feugo? Can I be in and out within an hr? Appitiezer, main and dessert?

[Crazy tools]

How is the service by feugo? Can I be in and out within an hr? Appitiezer, main and dessert?

I was there when they were packed. Service was excellent. I was totally blown away.
I would assume you can be out within an hour if you order right away.

[srulky]

I was there when they were packed. Service was excellent. I was totally blown away.
I would assume you can be out within an hour if you order right away.

+1

[mochada]

Does anyone know of any shuls, breakfast place, grocery near Biscayne park?

It's about 8-10 min drive from The Shul & the surrounding kosher restaurants in BH/Surfside.

[srulky]

Mini TR for quick 3 day/2 night Jaunt down to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami. ). I’m not going to write negative restaurant reviews here because of LH.
 
Spirit airlines to FL, went smoothly and was on time flight. Booked a car through Costco travel saving at least 20% below anything else I had seen (although prices did come down on the regular Alamo site -  started at $90 for a standard car for 3 days but had come down to $66.) Through Costco Travel I paid just $51. At FLL took shuttle to Rental Car HQ and checked in with no line at the kiosk. Was given any choice of car I wanted by a very jolly employee with an overload of cars during the low season, so drove out in a Chrysler 300 with keyless entry and leather seats. The Camaro we originally tries was so uncomfortable so I took the next decent car we saw.
 
Headed to Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale to daven. Very nice Shliach runs it and its open all day. We had tried some of the other Chabad houses in the area which we thought were closer to us but they were all closed at 11am! After davening went for a very late breakfast/early lunch to Café Emunah. It was empty which is never a great sign,  but the food was decent. I had the tuna wrap ($10) and my wife had a salmon salad ($15).
 
Then we headed to the beautiful W Hotel of Fort Lauderdale. Parking is officially $35/day but we found parking right next to the hotel in front of a building under construction and took the risk of parking for free.  We did not get towed and we were there in and out throughout our 3 day stay with no problems.

I had booked with SPG points and paid extra points (2500 per night) to upgrade from the standard “Wonderful” room to a guaranteed partial ocean view in the “Spectacular” room, although I really wanted the full ocean view. Thankfully we were upgraded to a beautiful “Fabulous” room with the full ocean view. Originally they placed us on the 8th floor which overlooked the large pool which I found very unappealing, after asking to be moved up they went all the way and gave us an amazing room on the 21st floor. Sometimes it pays to be a bit persistent.
 
Early check-in at 1:30 pm was a real bonus and the special line and personal treatment as an SPG Gold member was very nice. Dinner was at Levy’s of Hollywood, where I had the most delicious, if not hard to handle, shwarma of my life. My wife was totally overwhelmed by her Pargiot (dark boneless chicken) Lafa. The food is delicious and plentiful and quite affordable.
 
Shachris at Chabad (really quick) after which we got to enjoy the beach before it filled up.  We spent our afternoon at Bill Braggs National Park on the tip of Key Biscayne which is off the tip of Miami Beach. It’s a beautiful drive but you need a Sunpass to enter for the toll. Alamo told us we can use a Sunpass for $3.95 per day aside from the toll and to avoid the hassle we just opted to use it. Bill Braggs has $8 entrance fee (CC accepted) and has amazing views of the bottom tip of Florida where you get a full almost 360  degree view of the water. You can rent bikes (cash only - $10/hour, $15/1.5 hours) and you can enjoy the paths up and down the water and the small inlet where some boats dock. Its very flat and a very enjoyable ride. We saw plenty of iguanas, raccoons, and some large spider webs.  There is also a lighthouse you can explore and a beach if you are interested.
 
Mincha and Maariv at the Chabad Yeshiva in South Beach was a surprise. Who built a yeshiva in the middle of South Beach?  but Mincha, shiur and Maariv was enjoyable. Dinner followed at 17 (free parking behind the restaurant with a pass you can get inside), which we got a Groupon with the extra 20% off which helped. Its not super cheap but the food was quite good. My wife’s favorite restaurant this trip.  The mushroom soup was authentic and delicious, the Sushi was fresh and creative, and the Quesadilla was also very tasty.
 
Our 3rd began as Day 2. We then planned to go to buy some stuff for the kids and with the weather being so nice, we wanted a boatride on the water. Someone had recommended to check out Swap Shop, a large 80 acre flea market. Turns out that a large portion of it is people selling junk out of their cars and trucks. There is an indoor portion with some organized stores but a lot of riff raff all over. There is also a produce section where you can get a fresh cold green coconut chopped open by a wiry man with a huge machete for just $3. We had a hard time finding anything till we came across some decently priced watches. Overall I would not recommend this as a stop. It had the feel of a poor Carribean/African open air mall full of junk. It was interesting but not overly productive.
 
We then headed to the Jungle Queen which rated high on Trip Advisor, but I would be hard pressed to recommend it (the Water Taxi might be a better option). Found tix on Groupon (2 for $33 which saved us a bundle off of the $27/person standard price). Its officially a 3 hour boat ride up the New River in Ft Lauderdale highlighting the millionaire mansions and other homes built along the river. Thousands of people live along the water, some being man made to encourage people to settle in South Florida. Personally I found it boring. The homes in Ft Lauderdale don’t compare to the celebrity appeal of the Millionaires Row in Miami – Star Island, Fisher Island, etc. There is also an hour-long stop at a small island with some parrots and other small tropical animals. It was was small and we were done in about 5 minutes. There is a cafe there for snacks as well. One nice thing was a short alligator show. The hour ride back was a good time to catch up on some sleep.
 
Dinner was highly anticipated and we were surprised to hear that we had to be lucky to get a table inside at Feugo at its new Aventura Waterways location. It was nice to be able to make and update (traffic….grrrr) reservations online.  As a loyal DDF’er I had to try out the Pastrami eggrolls and the pulled beef flatbreads. They were both delicious, but not as good as I had fantasized based on Dan’s and JJ’s recommendations. Feugo burger with its sunnyside up egg was delicious. The ribsteak and other dishes we ordered were nice. We felt $6 for fries and another $6 for a bowl of rice was a bit much and were surprised at the final bill but overall everything was delicious and a great vibrant restaurant.
 
From dinner we headed to MIA airport. Our first time there, I found it too big and spread out. We had booked First Class tickets on American but found even the Priority line to be very long and barely moving. The plane took off late and arrived even later. Upon arrival we waited almost a half hour for the luggage to be unloaded, and a half hour later we realized our luggage did not show up. Apparently it had never made it onto the plane, despite having priority status. So we arrived home at 2:30 am and did not get our luggage delivered the next day (Friday)  till after Shabbos started. But it was nice to be home.

[Joe4007]

Nice write up.

I’m not going to write negative restaurant reviews here because of LH.

What does negative restaurant reviews have to do with Lufthansa? 

[FlyFirst]

 
Then we headed to the beautiful W Hotel of Fort Lauderdale. Parking is officially $35/day but we found parking right next to the hotel in front of a building under construction and took the risk of parking for free.  We did not get towed and we were there in and out throughout our 3 day stay with no problems.

I asked one of the valet parking guys if I can park there, so he said 100% GUARENTEE that you will get towed.

nice TR thanks!

[yelped]

It's about 8-10 min drive from The Shul & the surrounding kosher restaurants in BH/Surfside.

Thanks!

[srulky]

I asked one of the valet parking guys if I can park there, so he said 100% GUARENTEE that you will get towed.

nice TR thanks!

obviously it's not 100% there was no reason why we should have been towed. There were parking spaces marked, there was no sign. The worker on site sa7id people were parking there. Obviously nothing is guaranteed but it worked for us. Also would you really trust the valet who you are taking $ from?

[yakrot]

+1 to bill baggs it's a nice pleasant activity, I always recommend ppl to go and rent bikes there