Añoranzas (South Beach)
Phone: (305) 538-1196
Colombian Tavern with nostalgic tropical music. Open Wednesdays through Sundays from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. 247-23rd  St,. Miami Beach.

Bermuda Bar & Grill
3525 N.E. 163rd Street, in the Intracoastal Mall in North Miami Beach.
Phone: (305) 945-0196
Latin nights have been moved back to Thursdays.
Cover charge: $10 after 10 p.m., ladies in free before midnight. Although it gets a bit overcrowded after 11 p.m., the crowd is quite friendly and welcoming. This is definitely a place for Cuban Casino dancing, but people are quite accomodating of other styles (good news for visiting folks.) Music is roughly made up of 40% Salsa, 40% Merengue, 20% Bachata. Dress code is quite relaxed (jeans are allowed), but many dress to impress. There is plenty of parking space. My only complaint is the flashing lights that sometimes come and go. Final Grade: B+

La Bodeguita del Medio
833 SW 29th Avenue # 3, Little Havana, Miami
Phone: (305) 649-9313
Jueves a domingo 4 p.m. - 3 a.m. Música en vivo... trovadores! Guateque Campesino (décimas improvisadas!) $10.00 cover. Great food, beer, wine, and the best mojitos in town. Call in advance if you would like to reserve a table.

Bongos
601 Biscayne Blvd.  Phone: (786) 777-2100, Miami. American Airlines Arena.  This is the new club owned by Gloria and Emilio Estéfan.  It is a spacious, modern restaurant that turns into a nightclub on Fridays and Saturdays.  Around 11 p.m. they remove the tables to create a dance floor under the lights and speakers.  Mixed techno-pop, rock and Latin sets.  Live Salsa band on the outside terrace, but the surface is concrete, which isn't good for dancing.  Inside is very crowded and you will most likely wait to get in.  Arrive early, have dinner and stay for the dancing to avoid the crowds.  Special thanks to Martin Pollard for this information!
Every Sunday - 3 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. - SALSA!

Club Mystique
7250 NW 11 St. 305-262-9500
Directions: Take 836 and exit on 72nd Avenue, Next to the Days Inn Hotel. Formerly the Spirit Lounge.
Now called Café Mystique. See review above.

Cristal Nightclub
also known as Club Cristal
1045 Fifth St., Miami Beach.
Phone: (305) 604-2582.
Noche Internacional Sábados are Saturdays, when the club usually features live performances by Latin artists. Call because the venue changes to hip-hop, reggae, etc. 
CLUB REVIEW: 
This club is located in Miami Beach, on 5th Street, in the historic Art-Deco district.  Parking is expensive, but available either by valet or park-it-yourself across the street, if you arrive early enough. VIP passes are only good during certain hours, and not valid for certain events.  The dance floor is very nice, and the downstairs area looks bigger than it is because of the mirrors on one wall, floor to ceiling.  The club has ample bar service, and security was readily visible.  Maybe too visible. The only drawback is the poorly lighted stairs.  They could do with some of those little lights like the movie theaters have to light the aisles...I saw two people trip and fall.  With the disco lights flashing all about, it is very difficult to see the stairs.  Over all, decent music, good dance floor, nice ambiance!
Cristal Nightclub's grade:  A- (no lights on stairs) 

Gil's Cafe
216 71st Street near Collins
Miami Beach, (305) 867-0779
Wednesdays 8:00 p.m. Swing Night
Thursdays through Sundays Jazz and Latin music

Havana Dreams Café/Restaurant
9735 NW 41st Street (West of Univisión)
Phone: (305) 716-4999
Fridays and Saturdays beginning at 10 p.m. $10.00 cover.

Ilusiones Supper Club
12540 SW 8 Street,  Phone: (305) 220-5705
DJ music, including salsa, cumbia, and merengue, Fridays and Saturdays, 9 p.m. until 4 a.m.

La Covacha 
One of the most varied musical venues in Miami, where you can hear salsa, merengue, soca, songo, samba and even gaitas. Good happy hour on Fridays. Part is open air, under a thatched roof.   10730 N.W. 25th Street, Miami. Phone: (305) 594-3717 
New Times Magazine says: "For auténtico Latin sabor, La Covacha is number one. Inside, the open-air dance floor rivals that of Havana’s famed Salon Rosado. Typically, local Latin clubs cater to a specific sound and crowd, but La Covacha owner Aurelio Rodríguez has wisely taken a pan-Latin approach. on Friday and Saturday the place pounds with a mix of new and old salsa, Cuban classics, merengue, and vallenato, which alternate with disco, house, and Latin rock favorites out on the patio. The dancers range from thirtysomething yucas to South American teenagers to older couples out for a turn around the floor, all of them united by the desire to let loose."

Mango's Tropical Café
900 Ocean Drive
Miami, FL 33139
Phone: (305) 673-4422
A neon jungle with salsa, samba and merengue, right on
the beach. Lots of tourists who haven't a clue, but
love the beat! This is a great place to go have a
drink, socialize (and participate in the 'meat market'
if you are into that), but that's about it.
The reason we mention Mango's is because every tourist
that comes to Miami wants to go there. It's world
famous! An unfortunate side effect is that a lot of
out-of-town Salseros think this is a Salsa club, and
it is not. Do not get me wrong. I like the place, but it's not a
Salsa club, and that's what this list is all about. In
summary, as a place to hang out, I give it an A. But
as a place to dance serious Salsa, I'm forced to give
it an F. We can't have it all, can't we? :)

Mojito's - Special Advisory <-- click to read
11402 NW 12th Street, Miami. Phone: (305) 406-1002. 
In the Dolphin Mall off of the Turnpike South.

We did a review of Mojitos a while back... BUT sometimes you need to update things. This place was a lot of fun when Carlos was still around, but not long ago, my partner came from Atlanta with about 20 of his students from his school, SalsAtlanta. We called in advance to see if they would be able to serve dinner to a large party. The woman who answered the phone said, "We don't have the capacity for that many people. You'd be better off going to La Covacha."

When Julián told me that, I went there personally early on to see if they could at least give us a break on the cover price, seeing as how we have supported this club from back when it first opened up and was practically empty. The students from Atlanta had heard about this place the night before from some locals at Club Mystique and were enthusiastic about checking it out.

When I asked to speak with Carlos, I was informed he was no longer there. I was told that Alex was the manager and I asked to speak with him. He never even showed his face, but the elderly woman I spoke with was very brusk and emphatically said that she would not give us a break on the cover price. Patiently I explained to her that we were a global website and that we had given her establishment the equivalent of thousands and thousands of dollars in free advertisement when they first opened up, that we had always supported her club and that, at the very least, she should give a large party of ours the "gentileza" of a discount. She said, "No les voy a dar un descuento". When I asked her why, she said, "Porque no los necesito."

That's right, folks, she said she doesn't need us. She said she makes more money with the people who come to eat there. When I reminded her that she had told my partner that he should take his large group and eat elsewhere, she said that she did not have the capacity to take care of a large party like that.

Now, none of this makes much sense to me, but it certainly does spell the beginning of the downfall of this club. That sort of (total lack of) hospitality is just like shooting yourself in the foot business-wise. There weren't anywhere near as many people as the last time I had been there, so I venture to bet we are not the only ones this elderly woman has treated so rudely.

Strangely enough, I left, since after that kind of treatment I was not about to let my date plunk down $20 for the cover charge, try and cram my dancing into the small space left over from the tables with diners and have to pay extravagant prices for fru-fru drinks.

We ended up going to RUMBA ON 6 in La Pequeña Havana, and had a GREAT TIME on a balmy, clear evening under the stars, listening to rumba live, and dancing in between the Guaguancó, Columbia and Yambú played by Daniel Ponce.

Palenque Nightclub
(305) 644-7376
1115 Northwest 22nd Avenue, Miami, FL 33125
Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at
Palenque Nightclub you will find Salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, punta and more.

Rancho Gaspar
16480 NW 117th Avenue, Hialeah Gardens. 305-827-1659
From the Miami New Times: "Snaking down the dirt roads to get to this ranch off the Florida Turnpike at Okeechobee is half the fun, especially after dark. Tires hug the earth as cars squeeze between oncoming traffic and the crops crowding the fields. Weekend party animals give way to four-footed friends during the week. Horses drink water out of troughs in the parking lot. For recent immigrants Rancho Gaspar brings memories of La Tropical, the huge open-air emporium on the outskirts of Havana that holds the world's record for the longest-lasting salsa party. The crowd looks much the same as you'd find at La Tropical, with a high spandex count and more than a few glints of gold teeth. Families abound, from babes in arms to abuelitas with walkers. Out in the barn, the four-to-eight-year-old crowd has a monopoly on the pool table. Teenagers smooch in the pasture. The fun begins at three on Sunday afternoons, with music and pony rides. One or two Sundays per month musical acts such as Cuba's Manolín (el Médico de la Salsa) and the Dominican Republic's Oro Solido play live. Saturday nights a DJ spins salsa hits from Victor Manuelle to Issac Delgado, with the latest in merengue and bachata thrown in. Who cares if owner Gaspar Olazabal is a bit gruff at the door? The bartenders and waitresses are friendly, the beer is cheap, and the food is plentiful."
Note from Jacira: I'd heard about Rancho Gaspar for years, but I am glad I finally got out there to see it for myself! It really is a bit hard to find. Take Okeechobee way out west to the first street west of the Turnpike South. It is not marked! That is NW 117th Avenue. It doubles back east for about a block then turns north. Watch for the big sign on the fence that says "Rancho Gaspar". Ignore the garbage that has been illegally dumped alongside the road. Keep going until you see the white wooden fence on the left-hand side. That is the parking area for Rancho Gaspar. Dress comfortably and prepare to get dirt between your toes if you wear sandals! Good Cuban food: masitas de puerco, tostones, congrí, etc. and cheap beer! This is as close as you can get to a Cuban venue in gringolandia and is the only place in Miami that plays Timba that I know of ...also a fair amount of Reggaeton lately.

Señor Frog
Phone: (305) 448-0999
3048 Main Hwy,. Coconut Grove
Thursday nights this restaurant packs in a college crowd looking for Latin music. You can order food up to 10 p.m. but dance until late. Admission is FREE.

Sundays on the Bay 
(305) 361-6777
5420 Crandon Blvd, Key Biscayne.
Latin music Fridays and Saturdays.

Taj
Phone: (305) 444-5333
3339 Virginia St,. Coconut Grove
Friday salsa, merengue and disco from 7:30 p.m. 
to 11 p.m. Marco's Club on the Grove.   

Típico Dominicano
Phone: (305) 634-7819
1344 N.W. 36 Street
DJ music, Friday, Saturday, Sundays from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. 
This place plays a variety of Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Cumbias and American disco in equal parts.

Tropigala
Phone: (305) 672-7469
Hotel Fontainebleau Hilton.  
4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
Wednesday through Sunday at 8:30 p.m. $20, $39 with dinner. Tropical Nights show, beginning at 10 p.m. Orquesta de Gabi Gabriel. See their website for information on shows: www.clubtropigala.com