Otto’s High Dive (https://www.ottoshd.com/) opened over a year ago in what I consider Orlando’s best foodie neighborhood, The Milk District. The “neighborhood rum bar” quickly earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand award for “good quality, good value cooking.” It is only open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, but opens at 11 AM for brunch on Sundays (and is closed Mondays). Because Otto’s serves oysters and other raw seafood plus Cuban food, I had been wanting to try it ever since it opened, but finally made it in there with my wife on a recent Sunday afternoon. Neither of us drink, so we skipped the vast selection of rums and beautiful cocktails, but they looked really great, and I’m sure they were. But we arrived hungry and came to play.
Unfortunately for us, we were seated at one of the tiniest two-top tables I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. Even though we ordered a lot of food, it became a constant balancing act and rearranging game to make everything fit on the tiny table, to the point where plates were perched precariously as I tried to consolidate and stack everything I could. It should have been a relaxing and fun lunch, but the space didn’t really allow for that.
My wife ordered a Coke, and it was cool that they brought an icy-cold bottle of Mexican Coke (made with real sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup) and a glass full of crystal-clear ice cubes with lime wedges.
We started out with the ceviche, with cubes of raw yellowfin tuna, avocado, watermelon, mustard seeds, basil-chili oil, a splash of mezcal, and “leche de tigre.” Don’t worry, it isn’t real tiger’s milk (who would dare to milk a tiger?), but the citrus-based Peruvian marinade that “cooks” the raw fish in ceviche. It usually includes lime juice, onion, different chile peppers, salt, and pepper.
This was the crab salad: beautiful fresh crabmeat, chilled and mixed with avocado, pineapple, and lime, and served with long, thin, crispy plantain chips for spreading and/or dipping. 
It was a surprisingly generous portion: 
This was the bread platter with slices of Cuban bread (not toasted or grilled or anything) and one little plantain muffin. It was supposed to come with a third thing, but they said they were out of it, so they just left it off. Spreads include whipped, salted butter and guava spread. and I’m sorry I don’t remember the third. Neither of us would bother getting this again. 
I was perfectly happy with all the seafood and snacks, but the main reason we finally went to Otto’s was because they serve a 14-ounce chargrilled Prime ribeye steak with a spiced coffee rub, and that sounded amazing to my wife. She ordered it rare, like both of us always order our steaks, and it came out… very much NOT rare. Neither of us like to be “those people” in a restaurant, but it was an expensive steak, so we politely asked to send it back because it wasn’t rare.
At that point, the chef came out of the kitchen and told us that they use a sous vide machine to cook the ribeye, so it should have been rare, but trust me, it wasn’t, and we told him as much. Then he offered to cook the skirt steak rare with the coffee rub so it could take on the flavors she was looking for, since I guess they don’t sous vide that cut. My wife agreed, and she got this huge and lovely coffee-rubbed skirt steak with tostones, white rice, and excellent black beans, plus some pickled onions sliced paper-thin on top that I happily ate. 
I didn’t get a good picture of the interior of the skirt steak until we heated up the leftovers at home, but that’s how we like our steaks to look inside. 
Sadly, my wife still would have preferred the ribeye done to her satisfaction. That whole exchange shook us both, and even though we didn’t feel great about sending the ribeye back in the first place, a restaurant charging those prices, with a damn Michelin Bib Gourmand award, maybe should not put polite customers on the defensive like that.
This was rich duck fat bordelaise, garlicky chimichurri, and red pepper sofrito that came with the skirt steak. All three were delicious, especially with the Cuban bread. 
Being a glutton (as well as a glutton for punishment, apparently), I ordered a side of broccolini, one of my favorite vegetables, which was the seasonal vegetable during our visit. It was charred and topped with a romesco sauce that was really good. 
I don’t think Otto’s High Dive has its dessert menu online, so I snapped a photo of it: 
We decided on the toasted coconut rum cake, brown butter cake served with coconut lime curd. It was soaked with rum and set ablaze, which is always fun. It was delicious, and we chose wisely here, but I remain curious about the Florida orange tres leches too. 
And this was a quesito that I hastily added on. It was a perfectly fine little pastry, but I admit I’ve had better at places like Zaza and Vicky Bakery. 
So as if it wasn’t already painfully obvious, The Saboscrivner knows how to party. The food was good to great, but I admit it wasn’t the best time, and I don’t think I’d go back. Maybe Otto’s High Dive would be more fun and less stressful if you’re drinking. Then you might not care if all the plates don’t fit on your table, your steak is overcooked, and the chef gets big mad for politely, diplomatically standing up for yourself. But the place is a big hit, so try it for yourself and see what you think! Or don’t.
The Saboscrivner 