Written by RuinMyTrip Editorial from published research and official sources, not from a personal trip. It is not a traveler review and is never counted in the community rating. How we research.
restaurant · Miami
A 1913 Institution Built Around a Season That Runs 15 October to 1 May
Review of Joe's Stone Crab
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Share your experienceJoe's has been on the southern tip of Miami Beach since 1913, which in this city is close to prehistory, and it is built entirely around one ingredient with a legally defined season. Florida stone crab season runs from 15 October to 1 May. Outside it the restaurant is a different and lesser proposition, and inside it the wait can be long enough to reorganise your evening around. The thing worth understanding is that stone crab claws are harvested without killing the animal, which is returned to the water to regrow the claw. That is the reason the season exists and the reason the price is what it is. You are paying for a genuinely finite thing. There are three ways to eat here and most visitors only know about one. The dining room is the full experience and the one with the wait. The bar takes walk ins and is faster. Joe's Take Away, next door, sells the same claws to carry out and skips the entire queue, which for a lot of travelers is the correct answer: claws, mustard sauce, and a table you found yourself. It is expensive and it does not apologise for it. The side dishes are old fashioned American in a way that is either charming or dated depending on your mood, and the key lime pie has a reputation it mostly earns. It sits in South of Fifth, the quietest and most residential end of South Beach, which is a genuinely pleasant part of the island and a long way in spirit from Ocean Drive twenty blocks north.
What was great
One of the oldest restaurants in Florida, doing one thing with total conviction since 1913. The takeaway counter next door serves the same claws without the wait. South of Fifth is the most pleasant corner of Miami Beach. The claws themselves are a genuinely seasonal, genuinely finite product.
What nearly ruined the trip
Expensive, and the price moves with the catch. The wait in season can be very long. Outside 15 October to 1 May you are visiting an institution rather than eating the thing it is famous for. The side dishes are dated.
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