MIAReview
You’re coming to Lion & The Rambler in Coral Gables for food. And, yes, we realize this is sort of why you go to any restaurant. But here, food is really the reason to come. The dishes are creative, interesting, and, more often than not, work quite well. But as neat and clean as the small dining room is, there just isn’t much else to this place to focus on other than the plate in front of you.
This could be a good thing, if you are a person who loves to spend dinner nerding out over rare varieties of fruit in relative peace and quiet, or a not-so-good thing, if you’re looking for a dinner where you can dance in your chair a little and make flirty eye contact with a stranger across the room.
photo credit: Courtesy Lion & The Rambler
Lion & The Rambler calls itself a modern Californian restaurant, which essentially means it uses seasonal ingredients sourced directly from small farms, including a few local ones, as well as the chef’s very own farm. Although there are a few consistent dishes, the menu changes on an almost weekly basis, which has its pros and cons. On one hand, the heavily seasonal menu does dangle the promise of surprise over each visit. But certain menu changes aren’t always for the better. On one visit, our white asparagus ajo blanco was a spicy/savory/nutty masterpiece of a cold soup. On the next, its pickled cherries and picasso melon swapped out for white cucumber and husk cherry, it earned a mildly enthusiastic shrug of approval. The pasta options (there are usually about three) have been the highlight of all our meals here, so focus on that when you come.
Because the food is so much the focal point of this palace, it makes it easy to notice some of the more nitpicky details about each dish. You won’t get distracted here by Shazamming a track or chatting up a nearby table who looked too fun to resist. Lion & The Rambler almost has the personality of an art gallery—a cool one that serves free champagne and doesn’t suck—but an art gallery nonetheless. You come here to study intently whatever’s on the plate in front of you. Luckily, whatever it is, will be good—and occasionally great.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Courtesy Lion & The Rambler
Gratitude Garden Maitake
White Asparagus Ajo Blanco
photo credit: Courtesy Lion & The Rambler
Boniato Pelmeni
photo credit: Courtesy Lion & The Rambler