Let's hear from you....

On our season 3 premiere this week, we feature some picks from our Broward viewers: a spot to grab an Irish brew & listen to an uilleannpiper....a romantic Italian retreat in a historic Dania home....and a Chinese dim sum joint for the more adventurous appetite.  What did you think of our viewers' picks?  Have you visited for yourself?  If so, what did you have, and would you rate the spot a hit or miss?  It's your turn to chime in and let us know.

Comments

[CP Producer]

Carlos, just click the link "be a reviewer" on our home page. Then, you will launch an online application. Fill out the information, including your top three favorite dining picks, and submit. Easy as pie. Thanks for watching!

[carlos alamilla]

i would like to be a guest on your show. How do I go about it?

[Dennis G]

Hi, I've been in the biz my whole life. After reading all these comments I wonder what some of these people do for a living. Do you have to talk to people constantly while they watch every move you make,no matter what kind of mood your in? I agree that they should ALL be keep clean. Next time try just stopping by & having a drink then look around & see if its the type of place you want to have dinner at. You can tell a lot about a place just by sitting at the bar. Thanx, the King of Bartenders,Dennis P.S. What about a show for your fav watering holes?

[Carole Pumpian]

We represent a new restaurant opening in early summer in downtown Miami...is there a way to feature the restaurant on your program?

thank you, Carole@CPumpianPR.com for the Apple group

[Joan Eubank]

Hi Michelle, My husband and I love your show. We watch the reruns on Saturday at 5:30 PM on channel 2 (WPBD) I went to your web to get the recipe for your Penne Ala Vodka and was amazed you are on Mon. & Wed. which we will definately now watch. We live in Stuart and wonder if you ever do reviews up in this area as I have a Few wonderful places in mind? Keep up the good work and we also want to dine in your restaurant in Palm Beach. Sincerely Joan

[Jerry Friedman]

Hi,
Love the show and look forward to seeing it every week. I was wondering if you could post the viewers review of the restaurants grouped within each restaurant. When you click on the name of the restaurant in addition to reading again what was said on the show about the restaurants we would be able to read what other fellow viewers of the show thought about the restaurant when they went. It would be easier than sorting though all the posts.

Just a suggestion

Thanks for all your hard work. I hope that one day I will be able to be on the show (I have submitted an application).

[CP Producer]

Hi, Maria. Sorry you were disappointed with our restaurant line-up. As mentioned before, we do our best to feature restaurants all across our viewing area. The hope is to encourage South Floridians to visit new places and learn about new neighborhoods, as well as other cultures and cuisines. However, if you take a look back at the restaurants we've featured since the series began(on the Restaurants page) you will find that most of the places featured over the last couple of years are in Miami-Dade and Broward, with Dade having a slight majority over the latter. For example, in Season 4, we'll be featuring 3 in Palm Beach, 4 in Broward, 5 in Miami-Dade, and 3 in Monroe (for our special season finale based in the Florida Keys.) If you're only interested in seeing exclusively Miami-Dade restaurants, those will be featured on 5/17 and 5/31.

[Maria]

Just saw your ad for the new season in the 'Miami' New Times...AGAIN for Broward and Palm Beach restaurants.... We stopped watching last season after the endless run of PB/Broward rests. It seems you are continuing the trend this season. Why bother advertising in Miami if you refuse to feature restaurants here?? There is a myriad of great restaurants in the Gables, Grove, Design District/Midtown and South Beach which are ignored--hardly see ANY of the Gables restaurants which have been around for decades. Used to be a great show---sadly, one-sided now.

[Juan]

Thank you for the great restaurant tips, but after reading the last two posts it makes me wanna really research where myself and family eat, we also look at the reviews at urbanspoon.com. But the DBPR website is really the best place to go, we checked a place that went to and it was closed by the DBPR Inspector and when we researched it online on the site it freaked me out. They were closed for not storing seafood and raw food properly no wonder people I know would tell me the place is awful has changed. Unbelievable that only to make a profit the publics' health is at risk.

[maria]

Yes SUSY is so right my husband and mother in law and myself got real sick from eating out if we would have checked the business online and read the violations we would not have gone there, there is a great segement on WPLG Channel 10 called Dirty Dining where this reporter goes to places you least expect have the most disgusting violations, mainly food not kept at the right temperature, lack of cleanliness of kitchen and employees washing their hands where food is rinsed, Wow that is why when we go on the boat we cook our own food or if we eat at home we make our own with our clean hands. So all you that frequent eateries try going to myfloridalicense.com and in the search type in the name of a restaurant and you will be shocked.

[susy]

michelle love your show, but if you want to know about a business and it's violations go to the department of business and profesisonal regulation website type in the name of a place to eat and when you read the violations you will never eat out again,some turn your stomach no wonder alot of people get sick mainly from bacteria from lack of cleanliness.

[Victoria]

Please get those sickly-colored green apples off the table. It compliments no one's skin tone, takes my eyes off the show so all I can think about is the sickly green apples, and kind of spoils it. Why not red apples (it's a color in the set anyway) or a diversity of fruit in the bowl? vb

[Jack]

We just came from El Carajo (slang for Crows Nest among other things!) Int'l Tapas and Wine and found the food to be outstanding. The special of the day - Seafood Stew was delicious, loaded with shellfish including 1/2 lobster tail and a very generous serving. We also tried the Chorizos Al Vino which was very good with their fresh and hot rolls. It is located in the back of a BP Gas Station just off US1 and SW 17th Ave - you can drive by easily without realizing it has a great restaurant in the back. However, once in the back, the tables are located in a quiet area looking over racks of wine. We had a great time and enjoyed the food. Thanks for reviewing it!!

[Carla Walker]

Tried The Field Irish Pub tonight. Arrived at 4:45 pm on Saturday night, plenty of parking and what appeared to be seating. No one greeted us at the door. When we found someone to ask if we should sit anywhere we were told to, quickly rerouted to the dining room, as the pub portion was reserved.
Onion rings were good, not fantastic. Salad was so-so. My husband had the Shepard's Pie, again good, but not fantastic. I had the Drunken Chicken, tasty sauce, veggies were lukewarm.
Last but not least, the bathroom, not nice. Would we go back? Certainly not if we were not in the neighborhood. By the way we drove 30 miles to get there.

[Alan Richards]

Went to Casa Bella Italian restaurant in Dania recently and was greeted by a friendly and polite valet attendant. The old farmhouse looks charming however it has a musty odor. The waiter was very attentive but the food is less than mediocre. The Caesar's salad was served on a cold plate as it should be but the dressing seemed as if it was from a bottled dressing from the supermarket; the garlic rolls that everyone raved about just okay because they had too much parmesan cheese on them which masked the flavor of the garlic, the clams oreganata had very little flavor. We ordered Eggplant Rollatini and a Combination Parmegiana which included chicken, veal, and eggplant. Both were very disappointing. The sauce on the eggplant rollatini was so baked on top as if it was reheated multiple times and the parmegiana platter was burnt on the edges. The coffee was good but served lukewarm and the only redeeming prize of the meal was the cannoli which had a crisp shell and a good tasting cream filling. I don't know how they got all these rave reviews from the food critics of the newspapers and magazines posted on the outside of their entrance.

[CP Producer]

Hubert...Unfortunately the Season 3 contest has ended, with the end of the new episodes. We'll be bringing it back next season (starting in May) so stay tuned and thanks for your participation!

[CP Producer]

Good news! All of Michelle's recipes for Season 3 are available online. You can find them posted on her recipe page. http://channel2.typepad.com/checkpleasefl/recipes.html Enjoy!

[Hubert Harriman]

Where's this week's contest question?

[STEVEN HARITON]

I ATE IN A PORTUGUESE RESTAURANT IN POMPANO BEACH.PORTUGALIA AT 900 EAST ATLANTIC AVE. WHICH IS A RARE TREAT FOR SOUTH FLORIDA,SINCE THE ONLY OTHER ONES ARE WAY DOWN IN MIAMI.THE FOOD WAS VERY GOOD THEY HAD A MARISCADA FOR TWO AND A PAELLA FOR TWO BOTH CAME WITH HALF A LOBSTER WHAT MADE IT OUTSTANDING WAS THE SAUCES ALSO THE PRICE $22.00. THEY ALSO HAVE COD AND GRILLED SARDINES AND OTHER DIFFERENT DISHES.

[Andrea Macatangay]

The show on the Stained Glass Pub was absolutely ridiculous. The problem is you need better critics (ok, just 2 out of the 3). You cannot compare pub food to Martorano's. Moreover, sometimes a restaurant or bar/pub has more to offer than just its food and drinks. Sometimes it is the atmosphere created by the owner and customers that makes it unique. I am a regular at the Pub, and would choose to dine there over a chain restaurant or another local pub/bar any day. The drinks are made well and priced well, and the food/menu is far better than any other pub I've been to in south florida. We have heard plenty of chain restaurant kitchen nightmares to justify one over the other. If the critics knew anything about the food industry, they'd realize that every eatery has had their advantages and disadvantages. And as for the crud and odor, Mia is really exaggerating the truth. We live in humid south florida, and everyone knows that once you wipe dust off, it comes back 30 seconds later!
I'm disappointed by the critics high expectations, poor judgment, narrow mindedness, and inability to judge a pub equally to other pubs.

[CP Producer]

J L -- Is there an error message you can capture and send to us so that we can try to correct the problem? If so, please e-mail it to us at checkpleasefl.com and we will look into it. Thanks!

[CP Producer]

Hi, Ray! Thanks for your feedback. Just wanted to let you know that we try our best to evenly disperse the restaurants throughout our viewing area, with a roughly equal number of visits to Miami-Dade county restaurants as to Broward and to Palm Beach dining spots. (In fact, we've had viewers e-mail us from Palm Beach county, where Michelle's most recent restaurant opened, asking why we don't feature more in that area.) As a community, we are unfortunately so geographically spread out. But, it is our hope to bridge the gap between the counties, so that we can all appreciate the wonderfully diverse culture and cuisine that South Florida has to offer.

[Ray]

We used to be an avid viewers of Check Please but the lack of Miami-Dade restaurants has been a turn-off. We have followed Michelle and her career here in Miami-yet she is ignoring our local restaurants. Every episode is either all Broward/Palm Beach or at least two. We will sadly stop watching and promoting it to our friends

[j l malkoff]

After hearing the rave reviews for Scorch's food, we went last night.

We both ordered the crab cakes which were tasty but could not believe the sweet potato fries and french fries were not fresh, but frozen, from "Cisco's" as one of the managers explained. When the waitress noticed that I did not eat them, she said that the mashed pototoes are home made. For the price of the entree, $19.50 for 2 crab cakes and frozen fries, we were very disappointed. The bread was not worth the calories.

[hubert harriman]

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