The River Oyster - Miami

I've been living in Miami for 3 Years and by far is my favorite restaurant up to date!

We had reservations for 7:30 on a recent Saturday evening. We arrived at 7:16. The hostess asked us to give her 10 minutes. That was not a problem. We found 2 seats at the bar and got a drink. Matt, the bartender asked us if we wanted menus and we told him that we had reservations. He told us that we were welcome to stay the bar if we wished. We kept watching the hostess as she walked past us several times but never told us that our table was ready. It is a very small restaurant and we were able to see from our seats at the bar that there were at least two 2 tops open. People who came in after us were ultimateley seated at those places. We just watched in amusement. It actually became a game to see if she was ever going to seat us at a table. The bartenders were awesome so we just decided to have dinner at the bar. It was at 8:05, almost an hour after we arrived, when I went up to the hostess stand and told her that we had just decided to eat at the bar. She asked me what time my reservations were for and I told her 7:30 and when we arrived at 7:16 you told us it would only be 10 minutes . She was frazzled and didn 't even apologize. I didn 't get the impression that the staff was thrilled with her either. She approached 2 employees while they were waiting on drinks at the bar and we watched them roll their eyes at her as she walked away. They were justified in their eye rolls. We found the whole experience funny but we probably would not have if there were not two seats at the bar and we were forced to stand for that long waiting on a table. The food was awesome and the bartenders made the experience even better. Besides the hostess, our dinner and bar experience was fabulous.

Went to River Oyster Bar to enjoy oysters, however they were not the usual fresh oysters one gets there and recommendations from waitress were not accurate.

We thought we had chose a restaurant with a water view. Or that, hopefully, we might dine outside overlooking the water. No. This restaurant is a block from the river. No direct views in sight. We didn't think the restaurant was all that special, and the costs were a bit high.

Food was excellent but the dining room needs an update.