Front Porch Café
Coffee
Crispy Bacon
Blueberry Scone
House Ricotta and Orange Marmalade on Toasted Pumpernickel
Fresh Fruit Bowl with Yogurt and Granola
Granola Pancakes with Seasonal Berries, Whole Wheat Flour, Oatmeal, Almonds, and Honey
Challah French Toast with Orange Zest, Cinnamon, Powdered Sugar
Selected largely based on its location at the far end of Ocean Drive a Tuesday morning breakfast at The Front Porch Café was undoubtedly the most ‘touristy’ spot on a recent Miami dining agenda and with construction delaying arrival to the point where I entered the humid space famished after a long morning run the experience was a mixed one at best, service strained and disinterested as beverages languished for refills while the majority of the cuisine was merely decent considering the cost – an issue thankfully mitigated by a gift certificate from restaurant.com.
In reality a hotel restaurant with an outdoor patio for those opting to see and be seen in the salty ocean air, it was just after 9:30 that our trio finally arrived at the sizable restaurant and finding the inside slightly more pleasant than the warm and wet ‘porch’ it would not be long before menus were delivered – the eventual order unfortunately delayed by quite some time but eventually delivered by back-servers as the young woman presumably captaining our table split duties between inside and out.
Notably needing to spend $50 amongst three people in order to receive $25 off it was with bacon and a blackberry scone that the meal began and although the fried pork was relatively standard stuff the scone was fluffy and dense, a hefty helping of berries packing the interior just as mixed fruits filled an enormous bowl of unsweetened yogurt and housemade granola, the addition of overwhelming melon a bit of a bummer though the pineapple, strawberries, and blackberries made for a better than average breakfast parfait.
Moving on to entrees it was in a duo of wholegrain pancakes studded with granola alongside chunks of orange-tinged challah that we invested the majority of our appetites and although the artificial maple syrup seemed somewhat out of place given the café’s ‘fresh’ focus the flavors and textures were pleasant enough, the flapjacks hefty and toothsome while the French Toast was lightly sweetened with a soft center and pan-griddled edges, a direct contrast to the meal’s best plate of crispy pumpernickel smeared in rich ricotta with housemade marmalade, the later plentiful enough to be scraped atop the French Toast thus negating the need for any Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima…something the kitchen should consider offering, even if at a further elevated cost.
http://www.frontporchoceandrive.com/
