Friends of Eater Share Their Biggest Restaurant Grievances of 2017

As we put a cap on 2017, Eater surveyed a group of friends, writers, and all around experts for their take on the past year. We asked them eight questions: from top standbys to top newcomers, from best meals to restaurants they’ve broken up with. All will be answered by the time we turn off the lights at the end of the 2017. Responses are related in no particular order; all are cut, pasted, and (mostly) unedited herein. Readers, please do add your survey answers in the comments.

Amber Love Bond (Eater Miami contributor): We keep being rob of James Beard Award winners! I know we've had some nominees, but Miami needs to take home an award or two. The chefs here have really step up the food culture in the last few years, and I think they deserve more recognition nationally. Brad Kilgore for a James Beard 2018.

Evan Benn (Indulge Miami): I'll remember 2017 as the year that all new restaurants seemed very loud and very dark, and that made me feel very old.

Giovanny Gutierrez (Chat Chow TV/Eater Miami photographer): The closing of Paradigm Kitchen crushed me. Needed more of that in my life.

Becky Randel (The Daily Meal/People Magazine): We really need to work on delivering amazing food at reasonable prices in a casual setting. Cities like New Orleans and Austin have been able to achieve this at a high level (i.e. not fast casual), there's no reason our top restaurants should all be so expensive and cater to the same crowd over and over. Paging real estate developers! The recent rash of Food Halls is a fun option, but there's a big hole in between those two extremes.

Belkys Nerey (WSVN 7): Parking!

David Rosendorf (Food For Thought): "Let me explain the menu to you". Let me guess: it's a big piece of paper with all of the food items and prices listed on it, and you're going to tell me that "they're all meant to be shared" (even though some might require a scalpel and tweezers to split among multiple diners) and "they will come out of the kitchen as they're ready" (even though some are clearly appetizer sized and others are clearly entree sized, but you're going to fire everything at once so six dishes arrive at the same time and cram them onto a table that only has room for maybe three).

Matthew Meltzer (Thrillist Miami): The rampant, fraudulent use of the term "farm-to-table." I guess I must have missed the sign for "Sysco" farms last time I was cruising through Homestead, since that's the name plastered all over the truck parked in front of that place that charged me $19 for a salad the night before because everything was "locally sourced."

Stacy Moya (Eater Miami Contributor): Too many “over the top” takes on what should be simple dishes. Sometimes too much is exactly that.

Virginia Gil (Time Out Miami): I'm not sure if this is a 2017 thing but I could do without the oversized portions of food that cost twice the price of regular dishes. Stop making me overeat. I also could do without Instagrammable food: this tastes like ass and has a bunch of artificial ingredients and preservatives but it's going to look amaze on your feed.

Carla Torres (Miami New Times): I'd need to go through our shared food calendar (yeah, we have a shared food calendar) and remember "oh yeah that meal sucked." For the most part, I try to erase anything bad I put in my mouth from my memory.

Olee Fowler (Eater Miami): The fact that there are still — in 2017, mind you — so few kitchens in South Florida run by female chefs.