Even When Full Moon Hides, The Ritz Rocks

Lesley Elliott

​This past Saturday night marked the return of the Full Moon Party to SoBe's Ritz-Carlton, although sadly, weather conditions were uncooperative (cloud cover and rain made those telescopes a bit useless). Nevertheless, party goers turned out in full force to sample the newest menu bites of recently hired chef de cuisine, Andrew Balick, who is currently in the process of overhauling the offerings of the DiLido Beach Club.

The party runs every month from now until May of 2012; each will have a "mythological legends" theme, a DJ, and a slew of entertainment from professional dancers to live music. Super charged cocktails will run you $12, kind of a drink discount for South Beach. We loved a fancy liquid nitrogen number made by mixologist Ramsey Pimentel called the "Moon Goddess," because, well, it smoked and sputtered and caused a commotion at the bar.

The next one is on November 11, so check out the highlights of our first tasting after the jump.

Lesley Elliott

​We are definitely looking forward to seeing Chef Balick's new menu debut, particularly after a sampling of Korean style short ribs with a charred brussel sprout kimchee ($12), and shrimp grilled on the robata with Japanese eggplant, marinated in ginger and sweet soy ($18). In fact, everything was so delicious that the only criticism we can think of is that there was a slight sauce overkill - wasabi ketchup spilled onto our fingers in an overwhelming burst when biting into Kobe beef sliders ($16) and a green goddess type of dressing on a beautiful tuna tiradito ($15) dominated the other components.

Lesley Elliott

Korean style grilled short ribs with brussel sprout kimchee and spicy aioli.

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Lesley Elliott

Robata grilled shrimp with ginger marinated eggplant and sweet soy.

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Lesley Elliott

Tuna tiradito with green goddess dressing, mojo-soy vinaigrette and crispy lotus root.

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Lesley Elliott

Kobe beef sliders with caramelized onions, grilled shitakes and a wasabi ketchup.

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Lesley Elliott

Kumomotos with yuzu mignonette, truffle and Asian pear.

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