Pilar Restaurant & Bar: fresh, tasty, from the sea
The biggest mistake you can make at Pilar is letting the outside fool you. This restaurant and bar is the "Cheers" of North Miami.
On the corner of a shopping plaza just North of Aventura Mall, this restaurant understands that great food doesn't have to break the bank. Chef and fisherman Scott Fredel picks the best fish of the sea to dish out for patrons.
Abstract paintings hang on the dark wood walls, and when the tan shades are drawn the softly lit room will leave your body relaxed and your stomach rumbling. The main dining room contains tables and booths for diners, and large parties are welcome. In the lounge and bar area, cozy booths make intimate dining possible.
Pilar's diverse menu includes appetizers, salad, meat, pasta, fish, and sides. The most popular starter is the Maple Barbecue Pork Rillettes, $8. A few other tasty appetizers are crab cakes, flash fried calamari, tuna tartare, shrimp cocktail, mussels, soup, or spring rolls, $4-$9.
The Pan Roasted ½ Chicken is a preferred chicken dish for diners. This $18 meal comes with mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach, but if you'd rather have a different side, the Pilar staff will prepare the dish to your taste. Steaks, pork chops, and barbecued beef brisket do not disappoint, $14-$32.
Since fish is really the way to go (I mean, you're in a fisherman's restaurant), try the slow-roasted salmon for $19 served with warm truffled potato salad and grainy mustard sauce.
The $22 seared scallops are cooked in buttery citrus goodness, perched upon a hill of sautéed spinach and roasted corn, and decorated with thin slivers of fried onions. You may not want to share.
Between egg-battered tilapia, broiled rainbow trout, sautéed mahi mahi or yellowtail snapper, seared yellowfin tuna, and grilled tiger shrimp, Pilar gives you a delectable sampling from the sea.
Happy hour is weekdays from 5-6 p.m.
- by Jessica Bates, Miami Reporter for HelloMetro
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