Great Taste of the Grove: Panorama Celebrates Fifth Consecutive Win

By Laine Doss Mon., Apr. 16 2012 at 10:06 AM

All photos by Laine Doss

Belly dancers perform at the Great Taste of the Grove.

If the iffy weather deterred some people from coming out to the 22nd annual Great Taste of the Grove, held this weekend at Peacock Park, it was their loss.

Saturday's cloudy and windy day only served to make the outdoor fest cool and pleasant. In fact, without the Miami sun blaring down, event goers ate, drank, and partied in comfort.

The event, which featured food from nearly two dozen Miami restaurants along with cocktails, music, and kiddie rides, was well attended with an easy laid-back vibe.

The restaurants participated in the annual Taste competition for the titles of Best Presentation and Best Taste. Winners were announced for both Saturday and Sunday. Panorama at the top of the Sonesta Bayfront Hotel, won Saturday's best taste prize for their cevicho mixto and tempura shrimp, making this their fourth consecutive win. Jaguar Ceviche Spoon Bar & Latam Grill won Saturday's best presentation prize for their ceviche display.

Panorama was awarded Sunday's best presentation title, while Atchana's East/West Kitchen took the nod for best taste.

Panorama's executive chef Christopher Cramer makes sure his food is perfect.

Jaguar Ceviche Spoon Bar & Latam Grill presented several ceviches, including the Vuelva a la Vida and the Black Market.

Location Info

Venue

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Peacock Park

2820 McFarlane Road, Coconut Grove, FL

Category: General

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We Recommend

belly2abs

Bellydancers were provided by Belly2Abs

Ledy

It was Great! we had a blast...

Beast

They has white and red wine at $7 a glass

BVSC

I hate to say this and it's obviously just our opinion, but we found the majority of the food pretty mediocre to downright bland, not to mention a tad on the expensive side. $5 entry wasn't that crazy but we payed one vendor $5 for a plate of french fries and El Rey de la Paella charged us $8 for a plate of yellow rice with some bland veggies, a closed up mussel and a single shrimp, needless to say we had a hard time referring to it as Paella. George's avocado tar tar was tasty and reasonably priced at $4, but nothing to rave about. Overall, the food at the event did not impress us one bit. Shortly after the event began we spotted people wandering around looking to sell off their unused drink tickets to other people. The final straw was our attempt to get something to satisfy our sweet tooth only to be turned away from the only dessert booth we spotted because it was a Blackberry sponsored booth and we don't own Blackberries! We ended up ditching after about 30 minutes and heading to the Peacock Cafe for some smoothies and delicious dessert.

Mack

We had the same experience! It was terrible. The food was carnival food with almost zero healthy, vegetarian or vegan options. On top of that, I can't believe they call themselves a food & wine festival, yet there was NO WINE at all (!). Never again.