NOUVELLE ORIENTAL WITH A VIEW By Joel Chusid It’s hard to concentrate on the food when you have such an exquisite view of the glistening downtown Miami skyline. Cafe Sambal, located in the new Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Brickell Key, an islet connected to the city of Miami by a short bridge, provides just that. Lunch on the outdoor terrace was a thrill for the senses. This is the perfect place for a power breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We did lunch on a sunny, warm yet breezy December afternoon. Fresh vegetables and seafood dominated the appetizers, including she crab soup, sambal crab cakes, fresh stone crab and oysters, and asparagus, portabella, and corn salad. Pizza with crab sausage, shitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, and Asian pesto was an example of three unique pizza combinations. For main courses, we tried the Macadamia-encrusted mahi mahi, a seared salmon filet, and grilled eggplant, red onion and tomato on a pesto brioche, and a Mandarin "pad thai", a dish of Chicken rice noodles with egg, bean sprouts, scallions, garlic, and peanuts. The fish and meat dishes came with heavenly wasabi mashed potatoes. Desserts were indeed sinful, with a wide selection of chocolate, cheesecake, and fruit tart concoctions, plus wonderful chocolate chunk cookies and biscotti on display at the entrance, got the better of us. Service was prompt, and the restaurant, relatively new, appeared to have already developed a noontime following from the nearby Brickell business district. Prices were fairly high for lunch, with appetizers ranging from $5-$14 and main entrees $10-$29, the latter for Singapore chili crab cooked in a wok. Café Sambal. Mandarin Oriental Hotel. 500 Brickell Key. Miami, Florida. (305)913-8288. Fax (305) 913-8337. Open daily 630am-1100pm. Get more "Jetset Dining with Joel Chusid" here. Do you have any questions, comments or suggestions? Email: jwdineline@aol.com Copyright © 1998 Inter Active Media Solutions. All Rights Reserved. The interactive components of this site require that you use a current browser version of Explorer; be sure to maximize your window out so you can see the entire page. This page was created by Inter Active Media Solutions.