From Japanese juiciness at Yamashiro, to a carnivore’s delight at Daniel’s and Rò, here’s where to nibble during Miami’s Art Week this year.
Yamashiro | 159 NE Sixth St.
A dish including sliced radishes and other veggies on a bed of ice. Courtesy of Yamashiro
Hollywood Hills hobnobbing haven Yamashiro is dipping its toes into warm East Coast waters for the first time. The Miami outpost of Boulevard Hospitality Group’s iconic Japanese restaurant, which has catered to the Los Angeles elite since 1914, opened in October within the ninth-floor rooftop lounge atop the Gale Miami Hotel & Residences at Miami Worldcenter in Downtown Miami.
Corporate chef Charbel Hayek and executive chef Gustavo Montes are serving many of the Japanese classics that made their West Coast dining room famous, reimagined with fresh South Florida ingredients. That means new menu items like branzino with chipotle dashi, corvina ceviche with tongue-tingling serrano chili and octopus amplified by yuzu and tomato.
House cocktails also blend east and west. The Samurai Negroni combines mezcal and nigori sake. The Beso Robado mixes rum and nori. The Fortune Teller marries bold flavors like Japanese whisky, yuzu, sweet chili sauce and blue spirulina in a glass. Kampai!
Salad, carpaccio, and drinks at this South River Drive eatery. Lea Gil/Courtesy of Bagatelle
Once upon a time, you bopped through brunch here in the Meatpacking. Your bubbly order may have even lit sparklers as the DJ spun in St. Barts, St-Tropez or Tulum. Now, the OG French bistro that taught you champagne and fist pumps count as calories has come to Miami.
Opened last month, directly across the Miami River from Garcia’s Seafood Grille & Fish Market, Bagatelle is serving high-energy joie de vivre under the supervision of chefs Rocco Seminara and Marco Estrada. The menu is divided between quick sur le pouce dishes — like sauteed razor clams and Chilean sea bass goujonettes — and finer fixings.
There’s a raw bar (langoustine and tuna tartare), salads (the Riviera is loaded with spelt, purple artichokes and goji berries), pasta (like linguine with tomatoes, calamaretti and dried bonito), surf (think: blue lobster thermidor) and turf (how about a whole chicken?), and, of course, caviar service. Come to pop bottles, stay for the sexy waterfront scene.
Daniel’s Miami | 1500 San Ignacio Ave., Coral Gables
A tray of Alaskan king crab claws on a bed of ice. Courtesy of The Louis Collection
Let’s get it out of the way up front: No one named Boulud was involved in the making of this upscale steakhouse. The Gioia Hospitality team at this recently opened sizzler — a sister to the Michelin-recommended Daniel’s, a Florida Steakhouse in Fort Lauderdale — has names like Tom and Kassidy Angelo (the owners), Daniel Bishop (the beverage director) and Danny Ganem (the culinary director).
Ganem is, in fact, the eponymous Daniel. Filling the former Fiola space, a couple dishes from that Italian restaurant — like the mezze rigate vodka pasta and basil Caesar salad — have been preserved, but Ganem’s new menu is all about steaks. That means affordable Australian skirt steak all the way up to monster wagyu tomahawks. On the side, they’re serving old-school steakhouse classics like lobster mac and cheese, oysters Rockefeller and Florida blue crabcakes.
At the bar, where there is now a TV (gasp!), a breezier atmosphere reigns. Head here for smashburgers, classic cocktails, even a squiz at the Dolphins game.
Green dumplings in a bamboo steamer. Courtesy of Brooklyn Chop House
A Brooklyn-inspired steakhouse by way of China with hip-hop bona fides? That’s just the sort of funky culinary fusion you’d expect from a playful hotel brand like Moxy in an artsy nabe like Wynwood.
Owned by Robert “Don Pooh” Cummins (a former MCA Records executive known for working with musicians like Jay-Z, Nas and Mary J. Blige) and hospitality entrepreneurs David Thomas and Stratis Morfogen, Brooklyn Chop House launched in NYC’s Fidi in 2018 before adding a Times Square location. Now it’s made its South Florida debut atop Moxy Miami Wynwood — opening just in time for Basel. Expect classic steakhouse offerings like dry-aged tomahawks and porterhouses served alongside Sino-snacks, including Peking duck and ginger beef. Sucker for a remix? The dumpling menu is loaded with creative fillings like “Philly cheesesteak,” “Reuben” and “Impossible burger” — fried or steamed in delectable dough.
Keep an eye out in the restaurant’s suave dining room and vibrant rooftop lounge for regulars like 50 Cent, Cardi B, Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx.
Rò Steakhouse | 121 Alhambra Plaza, Coral Gables
Fried pieces of steak on a plate with orange sauce, garnished with scallions and a slice of grilled lemon. Courtesy of Rò Steakhouse
If you need further evidence that Miami loves a steakhouse, look no further than Rò, the US debut of a celebrated Mexican team behind south-of-the-border restaurants Cienfuegos and 130° Steakhouse.
Opened in November, the restaurant fills a 7,000-square-foot space in Coral Gables’ Alhambra Tower. It’s helmed by chef Marcelo Palacios, previously of Prime 112 and BLT Steak at the Betsy Hotel. The concept is passionately primal; the team tapped Arkham Projects to create a “refined, cave-like atmosphere” where house filets, rib eyes and tomahawks can be seared over fire, wood and stone. Those elements, plus a bit of bronze, are mirrored in the cavernous design, where wooden roof panels reference rock formations and allow dappled light to filter through the slats.
But that doesn’t mean caveman slabs of meat are the only thing on offer. Stop by for tacos, truffle risotto, beef Wellington and scallion mac and cheese. Sorry, no Brontosaurus burgers.
A pan filled with red sauce, olives and herbs. Courtesy of La Specialità
Since opening on Milan’s Via Pietro Calvi in 1977, Le Specialità has fed authentic, old-school trattoria temptations (read: pizza and pasta) to fashionable faces. Now, Spicy Hospitality Group has given this special spot a Miami debut with a Rockwell Group-imagined space in the Design District.
The stated mission: Combine “Italian familiarity” with “fine-dining precision” in a 100-seat restaurant filled with terrazzo, green lavastone, striped leather booths, original art, Italian photography and a “radical retro chic” ethos. The result? A menu filled with branzino and bruschetta, pasta and pizza, and Milanese meats. Its particular pies include a margherita, a truffle and a piccantissima — with chili pepper pesto and pine nuts. Secondi should never be second best, and here it shines with branzino alla Siciliana, Dover sole meunière and veal Milanese.
The vino variations are also vast. A 260-bottle menu is loaded with Barolos, Barbarescos and Brunellos dating back decades.
Now that’s how you design la dolce vita.