This week on "Check, Please!

South Florida," A cozy trattoria-style spot in Midtown.

Always delicious, always friendly.

[Michelle] A chef-driven sensation in downtown Miami.

Well, I've never been there before and I love Vietnamese food, I love Vietnamese food.

[Michelle] And the perfect meze platter awaits in Wynwood.

I thought it was small when I walked in and then I kept walking, I'm like, it's huge.

[Narrator] Cultural, culinary secrets, and global flavors.

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

[Commentator] Additional funding for "Check, Please!

South Florida," is provided by the Friends of South Florida PBS.

We were just really in heaven.

That was the best red curry I've ever had.

It was the snapper and it tasted so fresh.

I was going in between each dish.

The home fries were out of this world.

It was just perfect.

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 restaurant.

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.

Today we're coming to you from the historic Timore House in beautiful downtown Delray Beach, home to Dada, one of the very first restaurants we ever reviewed by our show.

Thank you Dada, for hosting us today.

At the table this week, we are joined by entrepreneur, Xavier Marrufo, whose pick is an eclectic and modern Aegean restaurant and bar, located in the equally exciting Wynwood district.

Senior technical recruiter, Marjory Remy, brings us one of the most sought-after restaurants in Miami, featuring delicious and authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

But first, chef, writer, and restaurant owner, Yaniv Cohen, also known as the Spice Detective, is ready to take us through a delicious tour of his neighborhood spot, located in Midtown Miami called Salumeria 104.

Ciao I am Chef Angela Masarin, chef and owner of Salumeria 104 in Midtown.

The concept behind Salumeria 104 is an authentic Italian-style trattoria which we are focused on the cold cuts or mean salumi: prosciutto, pancetta, mortadella, anything else.

We want to create an ambience that is a very simple place that you feel comfortable to come.

The most important you feel home.

The town is a very upcoming young neighborhood.

You know, a lot of young professional like me, I live in Midtown for eight year and I love the place.

And I thought this is a place where we miss a good food and a simple place.

For me, the staff is one of the most important thing because as I always say to my staff, you know, I'm probably gonna spend more time here with you than my wife and the kids at home.

So, let's start to have a great time and feel good about this place and serve the people that we having here as a family.

Salumeria 104 is an authentic Italian-style trattoria.

Yaniv, nice to see you again.

Nice to see you.

So, it's somewhere that you go to.

Yeah.

It's like one of your favorite neighborhood spots, right?

Yes.

That you frequent.

Yeah, it's easy, I live in Midtown.

Okay.

I've been in Midtown for 10 years and the restaurant has been open for 14 years, I believe.

That's a long time for It's a long time.

Wow, in Midtown it's been open the long?

In Midtown.

They're one of the first restaurants in Midtown.

Always delicious.

Always friendly.

You almost feel like you're going home.

Yeah, Marjory, what'd you think?

I thought the same thing.

The service was amazing there.

I mean, the waitress that we had, I mean, she paid attention to everything.

She picked up when I didn't like something and changed it right away.

And I got the feeling of the home.

Right?

'Cause there was a lot of families there, kids running around.

Yeah, a lot of families.

Xavier, first impressions?

Well, I've been going there for years, believe it or not.

And I've always loved that property.

The consistency, it's very difficult for a place for 14 years to have the same food five years ago 'cause you know, staff changes, your food suppliers change, et cetera.

I've never seen any change there.

The food's fresh, their pasta's delicious.

I love the color of their pasta with, it's like yellowish, you know?

It's like that old, the yolk.

Real egg pasta.

Right.

So Yaniv, tell me what you, sorry.

What did you have this first time, this last time that you went?

So, I actually took my daughter.

Okay.

And, you know, my daughter doesn't like eggplant.

And I said, let's try the eggplant Parmesan.

First time in her life eating eggplant.

And I cook with eggplant a lot.

Right.

She loved it.

So, to me that already tells you.

Right.

That they know what they're doing.

The flavors are there.

It melted in our mouth.

Did you have any pasta to taste?

Yes, I did.

We had the fettuccine al pesto, and they do it in Ligurian style, which has potatoes and green beans.

Phenomenal.

Marjory?

I had two pastas.

The first one I didn't enjoy.

It was a special.

Okay.

It was the crab with lemon.

Interesting.

And the waitress saw that I wasn't enjoying it.

So, she corrected it right away.

I mean, without having to So what did you have instead?

So, I had the black pasta with seafood.

Better?

Amazing.

Amazing.

My husband had the rabbit.

He loved it.

And that was also, I think a special for that day.

[Michelle] Did you have any salads or anything?

[Marjory] I had a Caesar salad, which was a very good Caesar salad.

And we also had a charcuterie board.

[Yaniv] Nice.

Yeah, they're known for that too.

[Michelle] That's what they're known for, right?

[Yaniv] Yeah.

[Xavier] Yeah, that's what they're known for.

That's why they're called Salumeria.

That's what I have every time I go, that board.

But this time I tried for the first time the Wagyu carpaccio, which is fantastic.

It was very refreshing, very light.

Simple.

It's simple.

Yeah, it was simple, straight to the point.

Refreshing, not too heavy.

And then for the entree, I had the black truffle pasta.

That was my first time having it.

Tiramisu, right?

Tiramisu.

Is that what you had?

Correct.

How was it?

It was great.

I loved it.

I mean, you can never go wrong with a good tiramisu.

Was it traditional?

Yeah.

Traditional.

Okay.

[Xavier] Nothing, but it was excellent, consistent.

Spot on.

Yeah.

They know what they're doing over there.

Any drinks from anybody?

I had a spritz.

Oh.

Which was very good.

Okay.

It was refreshing.

So, let's see, prices.

Let's start with you, Xavier, you probably had the more expensive, although Marjory, you also had seafood pasta.

I found it very fair.

I think the Wagyu carpaccio I think was 24 bucks, which is reasonable.

And then the black truffle pasta, I think it was 24, $28.

So I think You picked like the highest price on the menu.

Yeah, I found them very reasonable, considering how everything has gone up in pricing.

I found it very reasonable.

Very good.

What we should talk about is Midtown.

It's a busy area with lots of traffic.

Did you have a hard time finding parking?

I Uber'd.

Okay.

Just to avoid the parking situation.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yaniv, so this was your pick.

Sum it up for me please.

If you wanna go to a fun, delicious neighborhood spot that's been there for years, consistent with great service, great atmosphere, great for family, Salumeria is one of the top Italian choices in Miami, in my opinion.

Marjory?

I agree.

If you want great service, if you want a neighborhood feel, that's a great place to go.

And good food, good pasta.

Xavier?

I've always loved it, like I said, the consistency's always been great.

It's a great neighborhood place to go with a family.

They're dog friendly.

There's a park there.

Let's say you wanna do something after, there's places to have cocktails after and it's just, it's a home run every time I go.

Okay, well for traditional homemade Italian classics, you can visit Salumeria 104, located at 3451 Northeast 1st Avenue in Miami.

They're open daily for lunch and dinner.

Reservations are accepted.

And the average price for dinner without drinks is about $80.

Now, senior technical recruiter, Marjory Remy, is ready to respond to the restaurant that calls us to drink and feast.

It's located in downtown Miami and it's called Tam Tam.

Hi, my name is Tam Phan and I'm the chef and owner at Tam Tam in Miami.

So, Tam Tam started out in 2019 and it started out right in the backyard of our former house.

This is when Harry, my husband and I started dating and he had just come back from Vietnam.

And we both agreed that there's not a lot of Vietnamese options in Miami.

And so we wanted to, you know, host dinners and share our love for Vietnamese food to friends and family.

Seven sold out supper clubs later, here we are.

So, being in downtown has always been something that we wanted for a really long time.

When we were scouting for locations for Tam Tam, we were looking at Wynwood, Calle Ocho, but deep down inside we knew we wanted to be in downtown.

So, what I like to call the food here at Tam Tam, I like to call it progressive Vietnamese food with heavy inspirations from Vietnamese drinking culture.

We call it .

To me Tam Tam is my home.

It's a very personal space to me.

The name itself, Tam means heart.

And Tam Tam means two hearts and two soul that represent Harry and I, my husband and I.

We came together to create the space.

So, in a lot of way we always treat it like our own home.

So Marjory, so I know Tam Tam started as a popup, right?

But it became so incredibly popular.

Yes.

We should preface it right, by saying that it's not the easiest to get in because it's really, it does really well, but it's so worth it.

So tell us about Tam Tam.

It's so worth it.

I mean, it's a really chic place.

When you walk in, you feel like you're in a diner 'cause you have a large counter with little booths.

It's a small space, so it's not big.

They recently opened outside so you can sit outside.

Food, amazing.

Consistent.

It's a fusion type food.

Yaniv?

I was so impressed.

I felt like I was in Brooklyn.

Everybody's hipster, middle of downtown, great, lot of couples, young like students, downtown crowd.

The food was phenomenal, creative, delicious, authentic, flavors were great.

Thank you for recommending because I'm definitely gonna be back.

Yes.

Xavier?

I loved it.

It was my first time as well.

I've never been there before.

And I love Vietnamese food.

I love Vietnamese food.

And it's very hard to get good Vietnamese food down here.

Everything's an explosion, right?

Yeah, it's a flavor bomb.

Everything was a flavor bomb.

I had a delicious salad.

Which one, the Lotus.

The Lotus.

Oh the Lotus is amazing.

I had the Lotus.

Refreshing, delicious.

Tell me about the Lotus.

[Xavier] Acidic, sweet.

It's great.

It has seafood in it.

It has some shrimp in it.

I mean seasoned very well.

Great.

What else did you have?

[Marjory] I had the beef tartar, which was amazing.

Tell me about that.

Tons of flavor.

I mean, they give you like this little crispy... Rice.

rice cracker to have with it.

Just, I mean, bursting with flavors.

Yeah, that was one thing I remember very clearly, the flavors.

I had the grilled escarole salad, which was phenomenal and smoky.

I had that also.

Yeah.

I don't do shellfish, so they were able to switch things around for me.

Good.

And for main course I had the lamb.

It's like almost like a lamb lettuce wrap.

[Xavier] Really?

[Yaniv] And it came with a beautiful display.

[Marjory] Yeah, you can make your own meal.

So what else did you have?

I'm kind of ashamed to say it 'cause I went around lunchtime.

I had like three bottles of Vietnamese sake.

Oh yeah, I did that too.

Why are you ashamed of that?

That's great.

I think it's wonderful.

It was very early.

But it was great.

I walked out of there talking a little Vietnamese.

That's how many I had.

How are prices?

I found them reasonable.

Yeah, it's reasonable.

For downtown.

I found them reasonable.

I didn't, you know, I found them very reasonable.

All the places were very reasonable.

I'm pretty sure you probably took an Uber, but how is parking around the area?

It's downtown.

It's downtown, so there's no parking.

Yeah.

I know.

I work down there a lot, but you do find.

Parking.

Yeah, yeah.

There's street parking.

And there's a parking lot right next to the restaurant.

Okay.

Yeah.

How's service, do they kind of tell you what you should have?

Amazing.

I think they're amazing.

Help you around the menu.

Yeah.

The bartender was amazing.

Recommended, we spoke, was able to do some, you know, dietary changes for me.

Right.

Great.

Let me get your summary please, Marjory.

Tell me what you thought.

If you're looking for a chic restaurant where you can get good food with tons of flavor, Tam tam's a place to go.

Yaniv?

For me it was a revelation.

I love the authenticity.

I'm definitely gonna take some out-of-towners.

Who need some like Brooklyn, New York vibe there?

Okay, Xavier?

I loved it.

I'm so happy I found out about Tam Tam.

Definitely a place I would go back to again.

If you want to taste something different, like I said, there's not too many Vietnamese restaurants down here in Miami.

So, definitely a place that if you wanna switch up the regular Miami scene and the regular cuisine that we have here, Tam Tam's a way to go, hands down.

Okay, well for authentic chef-driven Vietnamese cuisine, you can visit Tam Tam, located at 99 Northwest 1st Street in Miami.

They're open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday.

Reservations are accepted, with the average price for dinner without drinks is about $65.

Hey everyone, if you have never made a spring roll, now is your time.

These are Vietnamese spring rolls.

They are a soft, rice paper, gluten-free, super healthy, super delicious.

And the best part about it is, once I give you this recipe, you can make it however you want to.

It's gonna be delicious.

Most important thing that you need is rice paper.

So, this is rice paper rolls.

They come a package like this.

And there's different sizes.

So, you choose whichever one you want.

I have one in water right now.

I have a little napkin as you can see on my cutting board.

And all we have to do is take it out of the water as they soften, and this water isn't especially hot, it's kind of room temperature.

The hotter you make the water, the faster they'll go.

So, I recommend you not for your first time just so that you can go at your own speed.

So, get it nice and dry on your napkin.

And I've got all kinds of really fun stuff.

Choose what you wish or all.

So here are rice noodles, also gluten-free by the way.

Rice noodles that have been tossed in some soy, sesame oil, sesame seeds for texture.

Here is some raw julienned carrot.

A little bit of julienne with the skin on cucumber.

I brought some poached shrimp because I love it with shrimp.

But again, you can make them your way or you can make them vegan.

You can make them vegetarian.

You can make them with cooked pork or beef.

I'm pulling some fresh mint leaves out and placing them down, as well as some cilantro leaves.

I go from bottom to top.

And you don't have to make them perfect.

You also don't have to fold in the bottom if you don't want to.

So let's make a simple one.

Keep your hand a little bit on the top part of it and then just slowly roll your way up.

And that's it.

It's done.

The beauty of these rice papers is that they're just very kind of malleable.

They're very soft and tender.

And so you can pretty much make any shape you like.

And I love to serve it on a Vietnamese nuoc mam sauce, which has fish sauce, some lime juice, chilies, a touch of water.

And that's about it.

So, please make your own Vietnamese spring rolls at home and make them your way and turn them into your special family treat.

Finally, entrepreneur, Xavier Murrofo is ready to share his favorite dishes from the contemporary and bustling spot located in Wynwood.

And it's called Doya.

Hello, this is Erhan Kostepen.

I'm the executive chef.

I'm the partner of Doya Restaurant.

The concept is Doya is about sharing small plates.

So, we like very large tables in the restaurant and we do have a lot of small plates to share and to enjoy with friends and family.

The modern Aegean concept is all about very fresh ingredients.

First of all, we use the best olive oil in the world.

Secondly, every item here that you see is made fresh daily.

We have a lot of vegan, a lot of vegetarian options.

On top of it, all the hot dishes we cook, we cook it either with wood or we cook with charcoal.

Wynwood is an amazing community.

People love each other here.

All the restaurants like very friendly.

We love each other.

We want people to feel like they're at home.

So, the pillows that we bring all the way from Turkey, the tables also, we create our own tables, large size tables.

The furniture, every single furniture came from Turkey at the same time as well.

I make sure I sit it, couple hours, enjoy my dish, and then make sure people gonna enjoy it at the same time as well.

I think Doya is all about love.

We cook love here.

We mix love here.

We serve love here.

And we just love what we do.

I think Doya is love.

So Xavier, tell me about Doya.

I love Doya.

I love Doya.

I was in Turkey for a month and when I came back, Doya just about opened up.

So, not that I wanted Turkish food 'cause I was there for a month.

So, I wanted no more Turkish food.

But about a month Don't you think it was about time though, that we have Turkish food in Miami?

Yeah, and it's a gorgeous spot, aesthetically.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

It is just a gorgeous place.

The garden.

Huge.

The garden, and if you look at the bar, the bar is huge.

It feels like you are in some big hotel in New York and you see this bar and it's a place in Wynwood.

You know, their cocktails are great.

Very authentic.

I have a question because it gets really busy, you know?

Yes, go ahead.

And the area gets really busy.

Yes.

So, how was it for you when you arrived?

It was very busy.

I did make a reservation, but I still had to wait.

I have to say the hostess was very kind.

The line was very long, which was great for them.

Was very happy for them.

Of course.

But you know, we had to wait.

What was your first impression?

I thought it was small when I walked in and then I kept walking.

I'm like, it's huge.

It keeps on going.

It couldn't stop going.

And then we sat in the garden.

Garden was beautiful.

I mean, it was just such a comfy, beautiful feeling.

Alright, let's talk about food.

What did you have this last time you went?

I had, forget the proper name.

It has a odd name on the menu.

It was basically a caviar type of spread.

It was a fish roe spread.

Oh, taramasalata.

Don't curse at me.

We're having a good day.

Okay?

Taramasalata!

That was very good.

Very refreshing.

I liked the breads that they gave with it.

They were Flatbread.

[Marjory] Let's just call it flatbread.

[Xavier] It wasn't a flatbread.

It was a very hard, almost like a long crouton.

Okay.

That was the best example I could give you.

They also gave you some flatbread, but it didn't come with that dish.

And what I found very interesting, and I've never seen this before on a menu, she recommended this to me, the waitress.

She goes, "You need to try the baby chicken wings."

And I go, "Baby chicken wings?"

You know, and she brought them out.

They were very, very well-seasoned.

For dessert I had the baklava.

Don't ask me if it was Turkish or Greek.

Don't ask.

Yeah, it was very thin.

Marjory, what did you have?

So, we had the seafood salad.

Okay.

Which was very good.

I mean, tons of flavor.

We had the hummus that was also really good.

We had the shrimp, the butterflied shrimp that they put it the wood fire.

That was very tasty.

It was a little hard to remove 'cause you couldn't really Oh, because it comes in the shell.

It comes in the shell.

It was really difficult to remove, but it was really good.

Well, use your finger.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I used the fork.

Come on.

But after a while my You eat your chicken wings with a fork too.

This is very odd.

I'm worried about this person.

That's what you ask a little bit of a hot towel for.

Anything else?

For entree we had the lamb, which was very good.

And what did you have?

Oh, we had the roasted beet.

Yep.

Which was great.

We ordered a bean salad, which I honestly did not enjoy.

Now, the waiter should have said, "The beans are not cooked."

They're soaked overnight, so they're a little harder.

Okay, yeah.

It's okay, but the flavor?

The flavor of it was great.

And the freshness was there.

Okay.

The sumac, the onions, perfect.

Okay.

We just, we were expecting something.

Of course.

Of course, you expected It happens.

You know, it happens.

We had a halloumi salad, which was great.

Good.

And fresh, simple grilled halloumi.

And then main course we had the whole branzino, which we love.

How'd you like it?

I loved it.

You like it?

It was a nice portion.

I'm not a fan of branzino.

Not a fan.

Look, you something.

It's more really fish.

Yeah.

Something, you're with a person and sometimes they really want a just plain, grilled fish and fine.

Eh, you know, it was simple.

But that's what we were expecting and that's what we wanted that night.

Good.

It came with a nice lemon olive oil.

Good.

Which we poured on.

It was very, it was flaking.

It was great.

It was fresh, we loved it.

Any Turkish coffee?

No.

No.

My husband had the tea.

He said it was very good.

And I had a martini.

It had a little apple in it, which was very, it wasn't an apple martini, but it had like, the taste of, it was very strong.

So, let's talk about prices.

What do we think?

Marjory?

Reasonable.

Reasonable for the area.

I mean for Miami, yeah.

For Miami.

I didn't find it, I found it very normal.

Very typical.

Nothing out of this world.

No.

Easy it to find?

Easy it to find.

Parking, I think they have a valet, right?

They have valet.

Valets outside.

Yeah.

All depends on the time of day you go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, Xavier, this was your pick.

So, sum it up for me please.

Fantastic, consistent, good ambiance, great food, great scene, great everything, I love it.

I agree, I mean, it's just a very chic, really, you know, trendy type place.

A great place to have a party.

Wonderful.

A great place for a party, birthday.

Nice tapas.

You can share, you can have it with a glass of wine or cocktail, fun.

Perfect.

Well, for a fresh and vibrant meze meal, you can visit Doya, located at 347 Northwest 24th Street in Miami.

They're open daily for lunch and dinner.

Reservations are accepted where the average price for dinner without drinks is about $75.

We've had a wonderful time.

I wanna thank my guests, Yaniv Cohen, Marjory Remy, and Xavier Maruffo, and our host for today's episode, Dada Restaurant in Delray Beach.

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

And as always, 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.

Salud, everybody.

[Commentator] Cultural, culinary secrets and global flavors, we have a passion for blending ingredients and seasonings from around the world.