This week on check, please.

South Florida a spot for the perfect slice in Fort Lauderdale.

I could still taste and smell the pepperoni right now.

An eclectic and charming cafe.

The banana butterscotch muffin.

Everybody at the table is like, wow!

And a place for fresh seafood in Pompano Beach.

It tasted so fresh I was going in between each dish.

Cultural culinary secrets and global flavors.

We have a passion for blending ingredients and seasonings from around the world.

Additional funding for check please.

South Florida is provided by George and Helen Weaver and the Friends of South Florida PBS.

I was like, wait, if Tennessee was a drink, this is it.

Everything was meant to.

Be a certain way and it was beautiful.

It just tasted very light and milky and delicious.

Nice food, spicy food.

And the beignets were the best.

Honestly, like the best shot I've ever had.

Hello, I'm Michelle Bernstein and welcome to check please, South Florida, the show where regular people from all over South Florida recommend and review their favorite restaurants.

So this is how the show works.

Every week we have three guests.

Each recommends his or her favorite spot, and then the other two go to check them out and see what they think.

This week, AVP of Operations Leah Singh says that her pick is the perfect spot to enjoy delicious seafood and a great atmosphere.

She says you'll be impressed with the fresh food and attentive staff at this Pompano Beach hotspot.

Administrative assistant Beverly Tow says that her pick is a fairy tale escape that will captivate you with its whimsical charm and delicious food.

Located in an equally eclectic Fort Lauderdale neighborhood, she says, you just won't get enough of this unique and charming gem.

But first, graphic designer Ed Hogan, who declares that he'll eat just about anything, says that his pick is far from ordinary and will satisfy the pickiest palate.

He says this spot is his family's go to for great food and great times.

It's located in Fort Lauderdale and it's called Patio Bar and Pizza.

Hi, I'm Brian Parenteau, owner and founder of Patio Bar and Pizza, located here in sunny Fort Lauderdale.

I used to drive by this place several times a day, and I love this old historic building.

Had a ton of character and I really enjoyed the visual aspect of it.

I liked that it was in a cool Flagler Village neighborhood.

Our menu.

It's like an artisan style brick oven pizza.

We do everything really elevated.

We use a sourdough starter and brominated unbleached American milled flour.

So we have a really, really good crust.

We use all high-quality ingredients Wisconsin cheese.

We use organic tomatoes, the freshest ingredients.

When we come up with really, really good pizza options that we cook in an authentic brick oven pizza.

I want our customers to feel relaxed, comfortable and excited to try our craft cocktails and our artisan style pizza.

Patio Bar and Pizza is an amazing bar that serves the best brick oven pizza in Florida.

So, Ed, you tell us that the menu's really small but impactful.

Tell us why you say that.

Well, it's mostly pizza.

They have a few appetizers and a few salads and not even much in the dessert.

But the star of the place for me is the pizza and the vibe.

Okay.

You walk into the place from the parking lot.

It's a very old Fort Lauderdale building, and then you're met by this courtyard of bistro lights and trees and Adirondack chairs and fire pits and relaxing.

Yeah, it is, it is.

And the vibe is great.

And then the pizzas with the sourdough crust just we keep going back.

So tell me about the pizza.

I think you had a white pizza.

Well, we've had all of them at different times, but our favorite is the white one.

And tell me about it.

It's got all the flavor and the crust is perfectly it's a sourdough crust and it's crispy and undercarriage thin.

Thick.

It's pretty thin.

It's pretty thin.

You also had meatballs this last time you went.

Yeah.

Tell me about them.

Yeah, they were great.

The sauce is great.

Highly recommend.

But we we love the pizza.

You love the.

Pizza.

Okay.

What did you all think about the pizzas?

Tell me about the pizza.

The pepperoni pizza.

It was like a generous amount of pepperoni.

I could still taste and smell the pepperoni right now.

Oh, my goodness.

It was a thin crust pizza dough.

The sourdough was perfect right in the center.

You know, it sometimes gets doughy.

It was perfectly evenly.

Had you been there before?

No.

First time.

And I really I was impressed with the pizza.

Beverly I had an amazing pizza as well.

The meatball and ricotta.

Remember which pizza?

Meatball and ricotta cheese.

Pizza.

Pizza.

Oh, yum.

Yeah.

Excellent.

It didn't weigh it down at all.

No, it was perfect.

And the crust is very thin.

So it worked out really well with the flavors all together.

And he also we shared three pies actually we had the soppressata and peppers, which is really good.

It's charred.

The sopressata is charred on top so it's extra good.

And then we also had the veggie, which was also very nice.

Just the most thing I like was the crust.

What did you think about the ambiance there?

I really liked the ambiance.

I was with two friends and we it's a nice place to have a drink.

We it was happy hour, so we actually had a say.

We saved a lot of money because it was $10 off of the pie and it was a few dollars off of each drink, so that was nice.

And how big.

Are the pies, by.

The way?

12, 14 14in.

Okay, a little bigger than individual.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

So tell me about dessert.

Dessert.

We had the mini cannolis and the tiramisu and both were perfect.

The ricotta cheese and the sugar was like a perfect balance with that little crunchy cookie kind of feel.

Homemade.

Yes it did, it did.

And the tiramisu was also equally good.

Creamy.

Chocolaty.

Misused.

Right?

We did.

What did you think about that?

It was it was perfect.

It was great.

You know, it was flavorful and cold and delicious.

Yeah.

Some tiramisu sues are very boozy.

It was a very boozy.

No, no, not at all.

You found it busy?

I'm busy.

Oh, I had a busy corner.

I think my corner was a little boozy.

It was good.

It was very good.

You're funny.

And patio bar and pizza was your choice.

Sum it up.

For us, please.

Uh, pizza and vibe.

Really.

The Adirondack chairs.

We sit and it's relaxing and just love it.

Perfect.

How about you, Beverly?

Delicious pizza, very warm staff and great patio.

Liam, if you're craving a nice pepperoni pizza, patio pizza is your place to go.

Beautiful!

Well, you can have a good time and enjoy a delicious brick oven pie at Patio Bar and Pizza.

Located at 901 Progresso Drive in Fort Lauderdale.

They're open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner.

Reservations are accepted where the average price for dinner without drinks is about $45.

I don't know about you, but I love salad, all kinds of salad, and I love to put proteins and salads and cheeses.

Cheeses kind of a problem for me because I like it so much.

So I wanted to teach you all a mediterranean salad.

At least that's what I'm calling it.

You can call it as you want.

It's kind of like a chopped salad.

Let's just jump right in and make the vinaigrette.

We're going to start with a little bit of dried oregano some powdered or ground garlic.

Same thing, but onion.

Throw in a little bit of red wine vinegar.

Nothing fancy.

Let's add a tiny bit of water to soften this because I'm going to add another acid, which is lemon juice, and I don't want it to be too strong.

So I kind of I always soften my vinaigrettes with just a little bit of water.

It really is my friend.

When making vinaigrettes the lemon juice, I always do fresh squeezed because we are making a beautiful salad and everything just has to be so fresh.

And then finally some oil.

Now I don't recommend you using any very fancy oils for this.

Um, a good vegetable oil.

I love having sunflower oil around avocado oil.

Grapeseed oil you can do olive, but I wouldn't recommend an extra virgin olive oil at all for this vinaigrette.

You want something nice and soft and delicate.

Make sure you remember the salt.

It's really important to add salt to your vinaigrette.

And then I love a little bit of black pepper.

Nice and fresh ground.

Just have some toasted black pepper and a grinder.

And there you have it.

So there's our vinaigrette.

And we're going to build the salad in this bowl like I said.

So for the greens the crunchy stuff we have some arugula.

And some radicchio.

Radicchio is a beautiful um bitter.

All right.

For the fun stuff I've got some diced provolone.

I have some little grape tomatoes.

I've got my favorite olive.

This is called a castelvetrano olive.

It's nice and briny without too much flavor.

Cucumbers diced up.

I kept the peel on because why not?

This is a fun mixed Mediterranean salad.

Keep it rustic.

I've got some of my favorite salami, and you can cut that up in any style or shape that you like.

And then finally, shavings of parmesan.

Let's go ahead and mix our salad.

And what I love is that you have all kinds of textures and flavors, levels of saltiness, a little touch of bitterness with this radicchio.

And of course, you know, the cheeses make it kind of rich.

And let's serve this beautiful Mediterranean salad.

And there we have it, a gorgeous Mediterranean salad for you and the family.

Now administrative assistant Beverly Toh is ready to introduce you to her charming and unique pic.

It's located in Fort Lauderdale and it's called Magnolia Cafe.

Hello, my name is Monica Hermanowicz.

I'm co-owner of Magnolia Cafe, located in Fort Lauderdale.

I was born in Poland and I immigrated to United States right after college, and I've been living in new Jersey.

And then we moved from new Jersey to Florida for about 20 years.

We always had this dream about owning a little breakfast spot in Florida, Florida, for the reason that everybody loves the weather and we just love, especially me.

I love to cook, so that was always in mind.

Eric is my business partner.

He is really the idea behind this location and the art force.

Previously we had a vintage shop in Wilton Manors, so most of the stuff it's based on that.

We love vintage, we love Americana art, eclectic, funky, little kitschy, but at the same time, we want to create the ambiance that people, when they come here, they feel like home.

The menu that I want to create, it's a small menu because my kitchen is very small, but at the same time we make everything from scratch.

We don't outsource anything.

I would like my customers when they are done dining here.

I would like them to feel full but still have a little room for dessert.

Magnolia Cafe It's fresh, healthy food with a dash of art and vintage.

So it's kind of a house that was turned into a restaurant, I believe.

So there's lots of little intricate rooms that you can dine in, and there's a courtyard outside and it.

Sounds romantic a little bit.

No, it's very eclectic place because on the walls there's lots of antiques and knickknacks.

So you could never go bored there.

It's very sensory oriented.

And is every.

Room a little bit.

Different?

Yeah, there's a larger room and then a smaller room, and I can see people wanting to go on their laptop and get some work done and have a coffee or a cappuccino.

Okay.

Well, tell me what you had this last night.

I had a few things.

I had a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll.

And then I had a dessert, a carrot cake, which was out of this world.

And I also had something to go.

I took some lox home, and it was intended for the next day, and it stayed fresh overnight.

And it was wonderful the next day.

And I had a hot chocolate as well.

Tell me a bit about what you thought about the ambience when you arrived.

There's a memory for everybody.

You could say, hey, I played that board game when I was seven.

Oh, I was that place in that country they have.

It's like, um, you feel a little bit like a Key West vibe, but then mixed in with garage sales from all over the world.

You know, it's like, great.

It's got like, just all sorts of unique something in every corner is different and unique.

Yeah.

How about you, Leah?

When you walked in, I.

Was impressed with it.

It's really adorable.

It's like a bric a brac meets antiques meets, um, all those old kitchen utensils we used to use back in the day.

It's like visiting a relative who's taking really good care of their collections.

Yeah, the food was amazing.

I had the magnolia waffle, so it's like, half savory, half sweet, right?

It was the best of both worlds, was it?

One side was the berries and the banana and a drizzle of chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

And the other side was like two perfectly prepared, um, fried eggs with like a massive dollop of very seasoned, like, smashed avocado.

This is all in one waffle.

Yes.

Wow.

Yes, it was perfect.

I ate it all, I inhaled it, yes.

And good for you.

I went twice and I ordered the same thing.

Oh my God.

Wow, she.

Liked it, I did.

I think she really liked it.

It was.

Good.

It's totally good.

What'd you have in?

Uh, we have few different things.

We went with the group so we could try a bunch of things.

The star, the one that kind of knocked everybody socks off was the banana butterscotch muffin.

Everybody at the table was like, wow.

We had avocado toast, which I think had probably the same avocado mash with an egg.

And that was excellent.

A turkey panini, ample.

Delicious.

What did y'all have coffees.

It's a self-serve coffee place.

Um, they also have smoothies.

That was really good.

We had a berry smoothie.

It was very good.

They also make their own desserts.

I know in house.

Did you all have desserts?

I had the carrot cake.

Right.

Very good.

Big piece with the cream cheese frosting.

And it was big enough to share.

I actually brought half of it home.

Right.

Nice.

Tell me a little bit about the service.

The service was attentive and really good.

I mean, it's a really interesting concept.

You walk in the menu is like on this big board by the front door, and once you order, you get in and you sit at your table and within ten minutes or so we got our food.

It was pretty quick.

Perfect.

Yeah.

How are prices.

There?

Good.

Yeah.

Very affordable.

Yeah.

Very reasonable.

Yeah.

Beverly Magnolia Cafe was your pick.

Sum it up for us, please.

If you like good fresh food and affordable prices.

Definitely.

You would want to check it out.

We'll go back again for sure.

Anytime it was fresh it was a counter service but it was still very attentive.

It was excellent.

Yeah.

A Sunday brunch destination, definitely.

It's a perfect, uh, landing point on a Sunday morning.

And I know what I'm going to have when I go.

Your eyes will be wooed and your taste buds will be satisfied.

At Magnolia Cafe, located at 1218 Northeast fourth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, they're open Tuesday to Sunday for breakfast and lunch.

Reservations are not accepted.

Where the average price of food without drinks is about $35.

And finally, AVP of operations Leah Singh is ready to share the fresh catch of the day at her favorite seafood spot.

It's located in Pompano Beach and it's called Flamingo Seafood.

Hi, my name is Will Parker.

I'm the owner of Flamingo Seafood here in Pompano Beach, Florida.

The idea for Flamingo Seafood came about purely out of necessity.

There were no real good raw bars and not a real decent place to get good shellfish.

Oysters are something that we highlight here in Pompano Beach, here at Flamingo Seafood.

I don't think anybody does a better job than we do.

We also have full service raw bar that includes in-season stone crabs, raw fish.

As far as location goes, I don't think you can find a better one in Broward County.

Anybody going east on Atlantic Boulevard just before the bridge, you'll see us.

That was an old gas station.

We converted it, brought it up to code.

And we're very proud of what we've done here.

So it sets our menu apart is we have a lot of unique items, things that you may not think of, like gorgonzola cheesecake, which is absolutely out of this world.

And, you know, most people think about that and they think of a cheesecake as a dessert.

It's more of a savory appetizer.

There's just a lot of fusion of flavors, but we allow the fresh fish to speak for itself.

Flamingo seafood is the quintessential South Florida raw bar where you can get fresh oysters, have a cold beer or cocktail, and relax after a long day at the beach.

A long day at work or just come and hang out.

So this is your favorite local spot.

Tell us about it.

What I really want to hear is about when you first walk in, and the design and the funky vibe.

Yeah, it's really cool.

It's a it's a location of a former gas station, which is such a weird place for a restaurant, um, huge lighting, concrete floors, floor to ceiling, probably at least 15ft.

Um, very, very open air.

Um, you could tell it's a garage.

It was a former garage.

If you look at the ceiling, you'll see.

I kind of love that.

Yes.

It's quite it's a it's a nice, um, repurposing of a of a, of a, of a some.

Of the best restaurants in the country are actually repurposed garages.

Believe it or not.

Yeah.

Um, one side is the restaurant and the other is, um, during the week, within certain operating hours, it's a seafood market.

So they're selling their fresh seafood on a daily basis to the locals.

That's wonderful.

Yeah.

And if you're up for a seafood, shellfish, uh, fresh fish the like, it's, it's a, it's a great place for anything you're craving.

And you sat at the bar.

Tell me from your viewpoint, what did you think about the place?

Oh, I liked it.

It's a kind of a, like a modern, contemporary industrial, like, they definitely did a lot with the space.

Everything looks like a 1970s gas station, but inside is, um, they redid it in a really nice way.

We did notice that they don't have a full kitchen.

It's a small kitchen, but the limited menu allows everything to be prepared perfectly.

But the one word I would have is fresh.

I agree with Eddie.

Very friendly, very fresh fish, extremely fresh.

Like it tastes like it just was swimming a minute ago.

Yeah.

And what did you think of the design and the repurposing?

It was a simple I mean, it was nothing fancy.

It was very casual eatery.

We sat near the window and when you look out, you can see where the gas pumps used to be.

All right, well, Leah, let's start digging into the food a little bit.

Let's talk about what you had.

For starters, we had the Gorgonzola cheesecake with an assortment of crackers and a nice dollop of, like, a ginger cheesecake.

It was a cheesecake.

Cheesecake?

Yeah, it's a piece.

A slice of a larger cheesecake with, like, nuts on top.

It was really good.

Sounds good.

And you had oysters, too.

We had oysters, roasted oysters with panko breadcrumbs and a little bit of butter.

Were they local.

Oysters?

Yes, I believe so.

They were really delicious.

I could be wrong.

I could be wrong.

Um, but yeah, we had two orders of that actually.

Um, and then.

For the tuna.

Poky nachos.

Yeah.

That sounds really interesting.

Yes.

I mean, nachos are kind of like, bad, you know, guilty pleasures, but.

Good.

Yeah.

Ahi tuna, chunks of fresh, plump pieces of tuna.

Um hum.

Wakami.

Yeah.

Seaweed salad.

Seaweed salad.

Exactly.

With the sesame seeds.

And, um, it had like, that really nice spicy mango salsa on top on some crunchy multigrain kind of tortilla chips.

Okay.

It was yummy.

That sounds spicy.

Sweet.

Yeah.

It hit all the senses.

Yeah, yeah.

I love creamy and crunchy at the same time.

It was.

And I had leftovers for the next day.

So did you.

And they worked out.

Yes.

Fine.

Okay.

Well yeah.

Tell me about your seafood sampler a little bit.

Oh, it was great.

It was ceviche.

I think they call it Tahitian ceviche.

Okay.

They're fish dip.

Do you know what makes it Tahitian?

I don't okay, citrusy.

I don't know what kind of.

Okay.

Fish dip fish.

Smoked fish.

Yeah okay.

And salmon tartare the highlight.

They were all great and they were all really fresh.

But the fish dip was unlike your normal restaurant fish dip.

No.

It's one of my favorite things to make fresh.

And, uh, like chunky.

And they serve it with not just like saltines, but an assortment of taro chips and crackers.

Like, not your typical.

And that was really great.

How were.

The nachos?

You had the same.

Oh my God, I.

Love those nachos.

Every bite.

You know how nachos.

Everything's piled on top.

Everything was everywhere.

They were.

They were really?

Yeah.

It was absolutely messy.

Yummy.

All right, you tell me, Beverly, about your salmon with maple sauce, please.

Yes.

Um.

So good.

It was a piece of salmon, and it was in a honey soy miso glaze.

And it was very simple, but I wonder if it was marinated because it was so flavorful.

And I really enjoyed that.

And then I also had another entree.

And because I wanted something sweet and something savory, so the savory, it was a lightly blackened snapper and it tasted so fresh, I was going in between each dish.

And the two of you had dessert.

Tell me about your dessert.

Yes, I had the rum cake to die for.

There was rum in there.

It was drizzling on the side in the sauce.

Yeah, it was good.

We took some home as well.

That sounds good.

And it was.

We just went traditional key lime pie.

And it was.

It was perfect.

Yeah.

It was excellent.

Okay.

Any drinks?

Yes I did.

Yeah.

Cosmo.

Oh, nice.

Very good.

Okay.

You.

I had the strawberry martini.

I think I had two.

Yeah.

I didn't know it was good.

The strawberry martini, it was really good.

Stephanie made it.

I think it was Stephanie.

Stephanie?

Yeah, she was terrific.

Yeah.

And just had wine.

It was great.

Okay.

Now, Beverly, you found the place to be a little bit pricey.

Normally, I don't mind going spending on fresh fish.

I'll spend a good amount of money.

But if there's no side dish that I would prefer if.

There's either a potato or a vegetable with it, but this was just a piece of fish on a plate.

So you kind of have to buy sides on your, you know, I mean, they're not expensive, the sides, but it just I would have preferred to have it on a bed of rice or a bed of angel hair or something.

So for that reason I felt that the prices were a bit high.

We had the same thought on ours, on our fish.

It was it was a little high and it didn't come with anything but and we were talking about this like it was worth it because it was just so good that it didn't need anything else.

Leah Flamingo Seafood was your pick.

Sum it up for me please.

If you're craving seafood, Flamingo seafood is a great destination.

It's local and it's, um, terrific food.

And slightly pricey.

But it was really good, so I think it was worth the price.

The vibe is cool.

What they did with the old building is cool.

I enjoyed it.

Beverly, go ahead and.

Sum it up.

If you love fish, I would definitely recommend it.

It's very tasty and very fresh.

You can enjoy fresh and delicious seafood at this uniquely reinvented spot.

Flamingo seafood is located at 2798 East Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach.

They're open daily for lunch and dinner.

Reservations are accepted for the average price for dinner without drinks is about $60.

We've had a wonderful time.

I want to thank my guests Ed Hogan, Leah Singh, and Beverly Tow.

For more about the restaurants and recipes featured in the show, or if you'd like to apply to be a guest reviewer, visit us at check.

peaceful.com.

And as always, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Join us next time for three new guests recommending three of their favorite restaurants right here on check Please South Florida.

I'm Michelle Bernstein and I will see you then.

Salut, everybody.

Cheers.

Cultural culinary secrets and global flavors.

We have a passion for blending ingredients and seasonings from around the world.