Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Restaurant

The wine list feels like an afterthought at this marina hotel restaurant — the kind of selection a corporate beverage director emailed over three years ago and nobody's touched since. When the most interesting thing on the list is the view of the Intracoastal, you know you're in trouble.

This is textbook hotel wine program neglect: a short list heavy on big-brand California Cabs and Chardonnays with the occasional Malbec thrown in for "variety." Expect to see Kendall-Jackson, Josh Cellars, maybe a Prisoner if you're lucky. No boutique producers, no regional diversity worth mentioning, and certainly nothing that suggests anyone on staff actually cares about wine. The list reads like it was designed to extract maximum profit from expense-account diners who aren't paying attention.

The glass pour program is predictable and overpriced. You're looking at six to eight options max, all safe crowd-pleasers marked up to the point where you'd rather order a second cocktail. A standard California Chardonnay that retails for $12 will run you $15-18 per glass. Rotation? What rotation.