Review of The Villa Casa Casuarina 4*

I cannot even give this place a star, it was that terrible! I visited there just last night (for the first time) and it was for a birthday celebration. I have been living in Miami for more than 2 decades now and this is beyond any expectations of horrible. When you think somewhere is terrible, this place surpasses that. We were all so excited to dine out at somewhere 'exotic' for a change and WHAT A LET DOWN! Firstly, don't go there if you're not bi-lingual, the waiters cannot even talk English (in America). Luckily, I'm bilingual so I thought this could save the night… but sadly NOT. It took them 1 hr and 15 minutes to bring the food. At the table one of the guests stressed and emphasized that she had allergies and asked for a change to the dressing and what did they do… bring it exactly like it was on the menu. That is downright disrespectful to your diners and incompetent on the waiters behalf or the 'chef' to not get a simple order correctly. In addition, 3 steaks were ordered at the table ALL MEDIUM — let me give you a little lesson — that means pink center and firm (for future reference). ALL 3 came RAW… yes you are reading correctly; RAW not rare (rare — red center and soft)! The centers of ALL 3 were red AND COLD! I mean do you even stick a thermometer into the center to check the temperature before sending that out! Again shows lack of care, concern and respect for YOUR guests — the ones paying YOUR salaries FYI! All steaks were returned to the kitchen. They took the steaks and right where we cut into them (when we noticed it was raw), they seared that part (ONLY) to oblivion and sent them back, 30 minutes later. Of course, we begin eating again and cut into the steak and guess what ladies and gentlemen… it's STILL RAW; just at a different part from the previous cut of the knife. This time 2 steaks were sent back and… you guessed it, the same thing AGAIN a 3rd time. At this point we just returned the steaks altogether out of sheer frustration. And they had the audacity to put ALL steaks on the bill even though 3/4 of it was returned and this bill includes a 22% service charge — customers should have the right to decide whether or not service was INDEED rendered and what was the QUALITY of the service; then giving them the opportunity to reflect that on the bill! Clearly this place has lost site of what's going on; YOU are providing a service — it is up to us, THE CUSTOMERS to judge that service appropriately, but in retrospect I totally understand; they HAVE to add service charge otherwise NO ONE will get paid ever seeing as the service is SO DEPLORABLE! I expected 5 star service from a place that should be so iconic but was sadly disappointed. I with certainty will NEVER be returning to this place. I also advise not going close to kitchen closing time because the entire restaurant apparently starts going downhill; through the remainder of our dinner (cake cutting), the manager was chasing the cat around which was extremely distracting, especially seeing as the cats were NOT appreciating this at all! In addition, there was a screaming match which ensued in the kitchen? I assume that was heard just on the greens (by the pool) when we asked for a box to pack the rest of the birthday cake. The box was brought 33 minutes later! Shake my head… TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! To be completely honest (and some may say this is going a little far… that's fine, it's my opinion) but I somehow feel like this has turned me off of Versace's collection a bit! Oh well… NEVER AGAIN!