These are the ones that are trendy right now in the city and almost impossible to get a table so make your reservations now!
Amara at Paraiso
Paraiso Bay, 3101 NE 7th Ave. / Miami, FL 33137 / +1.305.702.5528 / / www. Amara at Paraiso
Only during Miami Art Week/Art Basel, celebrity chef Michael Schwartz has created a pop up of his upcoming restaurant Amara at Paraiso. From Wednesday, Dec. 6 to Saturday, Dec. 9 on-site at Paraiso Bay, a residential private community located minutes from Miami’s arts, entertainment and design districts, guests will enjoy an experience served family style including snacks and cocktails for their table. It will be followed by four courses, as well as a selection of wine, beer and other beverages, all for $189. Batuke, a Brazilian band that mixes rhythms such as Funk from the 70’s with Afro Samba, Brazilian Big Band, Batucada, Soul, and R&B, will be performing live at the pop up each night.
Habitat
1 Hotel South Beach, 2341 Collins Ave. / Miami Beach, FL 33139 / +1.305.604.6700 / / www. Habitat
Habitat, the highly anticipated concept by Miami’s star chef/restauranteur chef Jose Mendin, and Angel Palacios, former chef de cuisine at La Broche, Sergi Arola’s (now closed) two-star Michelin restaurant in Madrid, just made its debut at 1 Hotel South Beach. The collaboration of these two chefs is a work of art, but I could easily detect the influence of Palacios, who I have followed for many years. A salt crusted cured foie gras, consisting of two beautiful lobes, were unexpectedly firm, lightly smoky and never lost its perfect texture, made even better when topped with tomato chutney. The hamachi aguachile, a tartare chopped hamachi mixed with fresh wasabi, guajillo chilies and watermelon has to be eaten with a spoon to fully enjoy its bursting flavors. A revealing dessert is the barba-papa, a gigantic cloud of coconut, hiding a treasure of pineapple and ginger sorbet, sheets of thin pineapple, defused by a bright fennel and dill syrup.
Three
50 NW 24th St. Suite 101 / Miami, FL 33127 / +1.305.748.4540 / / www. Three
James Beard Award-wining chef Norman Van Aken, the father of New World Cuisine, returns to Miami to open three culinary spaces, Three, No. 3 Social Rooftop Bar & Lounge and In the Kitchen with Norman Van Alken. All are collaborations with hospitality veterans Susan Buckley and Candace Walsh at Wynwood Arcade. Chef de cuisine Miguel Massens stuns with a crisp yucca and boniato stick dotted with sweet and savory guava gels, cracked conch chowder with hints of citrus, saffron, potato and fresh coconut milk, and a triumphant breast of roasted green circle chicken over sumptuous black garlic romesco and bell pepper essence with a perfect eggplant escalivada. Other dishes I have to mention because they were remarkably good were the brazilian xinxim shellfish blintz served with full flavored compressed tomatoes and cucumbers bursting with flavor and the oaky wood-grilled beef striploin with papas choreadas.
