After being cheerfully greeted by the hostesses, our party of four was shown to a table in the posh lounge area (and not in the main dining room upstairs as I’d expected). When I made the reservation, I remembered how “hot” Catch would get when full to capacity. Hot enough to often fill up, and too hot to eat comfortably. I’m not sure if the Byblos team corrected this during the remodel, but I requested their coldest table just in case. “Directly under an AC vent? Perfect,” I wrote in my OpenTable reservation notes. Now, I’m used to restaurants in Miami usually ignoring any requests or details written in the notes section when reserving. Because, you know,  Miami. Not at Byblos. Our waitress immediately came by and explained we’d been seated at the lounge based on my OpenTable request. Nice! Major brownie points in my book for actually paying attention.

I have to admit, I initially thought the restaurant would probably be “one of those SOBE types” that doesn’t last long. Blame it on too many years of bad experiences at South Beach “it” restaurants that looked great, but mostly employed inexperienced models, and failed to deliver. But I was wrong. Service throughout the night (by our lovely waitress) was on point. Any question our party had about the menu was answered quickly, thoroughly, and with the utmost enthusiasm representing Byblos in the best light. How refreshing!

The Miami Spice menu at Byblos worked a little differently than others. Each person chose two appetizers, one entree, one side, and one dessert. Of course, we also ordered additional items to round out the meal. YOLO, right?