The Fashionable Esq: Izzy's Fish and Oyster Bar, Miami

A new fish and oyster house has opened its doors for brunch, and dinner in Miami, giving established oyster bars like Mignonette a run for their money. Izzy's Fish and Oyster Bar is a pretty novel restaurant, by Miami standards; there are not too many places like it here. And guys, it's good.

This restaurant is such a welcomed change to the endless string of bad Italian restaurants that line South Beach. It's situated just south of 5th, and imports daily oysters from locations around the country. Daily imports means that you get true, fresh quality oysters and delicious New England fare.

With an impressive bar, and all of the accoutrements that go along with great cocktails, it's also no surprise that you can get a great drink or unique beer to wash down all the goodness. Despite being in the heart of South Beach, Izzy's Fish and Oyster Bar has anything but that touristy feel. It's beautifully decorated, in an upscale, nautical manner and maintains a quaintness about it. It was cozy inside, with great, flavorful comfort food.

Main Lobster Benedict, served at Brunch ($22).

Get the run down on the ambiance and food down below.

For our visit, we sampled a dozen oysters, served with a citrus, shallot vinaigrette. They were really fresh, meaty and not small. They were completely removed from the shell, no need to struggle with that little fork. We had Puffers Petite, Chatham, and Ichabod oysters.

Pricing for oysters: $3.50 for a single, $21 for a 1/2 dozen and $38 for a full dozen.

In between oysters and our next course we had a very light, flavorful and crisp snowpea salad. An unusual and delicious take on a palette cleanser that was topped with shaved almonds and a citrus vinaigrette.

Lobster Poutin, served at both brunch and dinner at Izzy's Fish and Oyster Bar, Miami ($17/18)

The lobster poutine was next. This was a crock of cheesy lobster morsels, melded together and topped with bacon, served over a bed of waffle cut fries. This dish was pretty much comfort food heaven.

Lobster Poutine

Lobster Poutine, Izzy's Fish and Oyster Bar

After that, we ordered The Salty Dog Basket ($MP), this is an Izzy's happy hour item. Happy Hour is daily, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM. During happy hour, you can get 1/2 off oysters,$6 fries and $8 sirloin burgers, among other bites. The Salty Dog is a basket of fried Vidalia onions, clam bellies, artichoke hearts and Atlantic Blue Cod. Everything is battered in a very flavorful batter and topped with an aoili made with Old Bay seasoning. I typically shy away from a fried basket of anything but this was so good. The secret to this dish is really in the batter. It was so crunchy and tasted delicious.

I hear the cocktails are wonderful, but we opted for some specialty brews from Peak Organic Brewing. The Peak Super Fresh, shown above, was a light crisp brew, which packed the punch of a traditional IPA but was less bitter.

Overall, we had great service and great food. We hope to be back to check out the brunch items (pictured below) because they look amazing.

Thanks, Izzy's!