The Host Table and Tap is right in front of your eyes on 4th Ave. (aka South Wilton Dr.), just a few doors north of Ramrod.
It opened more than a year ago, so I must have passed it dozens of times and yet never saw the sign. The front of the restaurant is tiny and unassuming, even though it is a vibrant blue. I only found out about it because of a posting on the What's Happening in Wilton Manors page on Facebook. When we walked in, we weren’t very impressed. There were four tables, all empty. We were about to leave when the owner asked if he could seat us. We looked around the room, and he then offered, “We do have a nice patio out back.”
The patio is bigger than the restaurant itself. One half is covered with old oyster shells, rather than gravel. Vines cover the fences and walls; it is the most charming of spaces, the kind of place where you could be in another country.
The menu is reasonably priced (mostly less than $15) and is divided into three categories: Bread, Bowl, and Pastry. Bread includes a classic breakfast sandwich on a croissant, avocado toast, tortilla wraps, or tacos (three to an order) made from cassava. Bowls come filled with fruit, with or without yogurt, a salad, grains topped with egg, and an egg atop a hash of turkey, bell peppers, and potatoes. Pastries, both sweet and savory, include biscuits, loaves, tarts, and croissants.
I had the steak and cheese sandwich, served on good crusty bread. The steak was tender, and the serving size was surprisingly large given the relatively small $18 tab. My husband’s Banging Fried Rice ($12.50), topped with a sunny-side-up egg, was proclaimed to be the best he’d ever had. The portion was so large, he brought half of it home.
Service was the only letdown. Not only did our server barely check on us, but there was a long wait for our food. And, when the bill arrived, the total seemed off. Both of our main dishes were priced much higher than listed on the menu, raising the bill by $12, more than 33% more than it should have been. We pointed out the error, and we got a corrected bill. Our server apologized, saying that she had charged us for what another table ordered. Sounds shady to me and left us with a less than good opinion of the place.
The Host Table and Tap
1522 NE 4th Ave, Fort Lauderdale
954-999-0468
Chef Experience Dinners
Arc Culinary's Emeril Lagasse Foundation Innovation Kitchen in Sunrise empowers people faced with barriers to employment to find happiness and fulfillment in their lives by training them to work in the culinary industry. One way they do that is by organizing Chef’s Dinners. They’re starting summer with two four-course meals. Burger Bash on Saturday, June 6, offers a meal of all burgers. It starts with a Korean BBQ burger with kimchi slaw and a side of sesame fries. The second course is an umami bomb with a pair of burgers, one made from ground short rib, with mushroom duxelles, Gruyère cheese, and a steakhouse burger topped with caramelized onions and blue cheese.
Then on June 18, it’s a taste of SoFlo, starting with Florida blue crab with avocado, grapefruit, and hearts of palm. A surf and turf pairing of pan-seared Florida snapper with sweet corn puree and grilled filet mignon with Key lime chimichurri for a main.
A sweet treat will end both meals. Tickets for the Burger Bash and SoFlo chef experience dinners are $102 for the chef’s table or $92 for communal seating (includes gratuity and alcoholic beverages). For tickets and more information, please visit ArcCulinary.com.
