Memorable Minitures: Miami’s Top 5 Sushi Restaurants

Those that love sushi know that finding a great sushi place in town can be a hit or miss experience. Here’s a list of South Florida’s top 5 sushi places to ensure every sushi meal under the sun is a truly a hit.

Nobu

Almost everyone has heard of Nobu. Located in the heart of South Beach, Nobu is located in the cool and sophisticated Shore Club premise guaranteeing itself as one of the hottest spots for locals and visitors alike. While the restaurant space is somewhat small, the food and service makes a huge impact. This outpost of infamous Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s Japanese cuisine draws upon his classical training at sushi bars in Tokyo and his life abroad in Peru, Argentina, and around the world culminating in an exciting new trend in Japanese cuisine. With an expansive menu where anything you select is bound to generate buzz around the table, Nobu Miami continues to be one of the top sushi places on the beach.

Tel. 305 695 3232

Nobu Miami is located in The Shore Club at 1901 Collins Ave. Miami Beach, FL 33139-1911

 

Bond St

While surpassing Nobu’s reputation and menu selection isn’t easy, Miami locals also love Bond St, a sleek sushi restaurant and lounge deemed by Zagat Miami has having “the best sushi tuna on the planet and fabulously creative sushi.” Bond St is also known for its unique health-conscious menu which consists of some of the most memorable flavors in Miami. House specialties include spicy tuna rolls with chili mayonnaise, fresh sundried-tomato and avocado rolls with garlic ponzu oil and green tea salt, lobster tempura rolls with yellow tomato dressing and chive oil, and sesame crusted shrimp rolls with orange curry Dijon. Tuna and lobster and shrimp, oh my!

Mike Hiraga, executive chef for the Bond St Miami, exquisitely executes the recipes and dishes created by Bond St New York’s executive chefs Hiroshi Nakahara and Linda Rodriguez. With over 17 years of culinary experience, Hiraga has overseen some of South Florida’s most sought after sushi restaurants and has even trained and worked alongside notorious chefs such as Wolfgang Puck and David Bouley.

Tel. 305-398-1806

Bond St is located in the basement of the Townhouse Hotel at 150 20^th Street, Miami Beach, FL 33139
 

Sushi Samba

Bond St. and Nobu certainly have the appeal of being located in such close proximity to the ocean, but just a few steps away, Sushi Samba is located on one of the most infamous pedestrian streets in Miami, Lincoln Road. The incredible amount of foot-traffic that Lincoln Road sees on a daily basis is certainly a testament to just how much potential that restaurants, such as Sushi Samba, have in terms of business. Sushi Samba has stepped up to the plate and comfortably enjoys its prime location with seemingly endless lunch and dinner business. Walking down Lincoln Road, it’s not hard to find Sushi Samba—look for the bright orange umbrellas and bustling indoor and outdoor tables. Sushi Samba offers lunch, dinner, dessert, party, and even kids’ menus, so there is certainly something for everyone here.

Highlights of Sushi Samba’s dinner menu includes rock shrimp tempura; blue prawn tobanyaki; a raw bar featuring items such as king crab legs, lobster, shrimp, and clams; a samba dromo roll with lobster, mango, tomato, chive, crispy rice, soy paper, and peanut curry; Maya samba roll with shrimp, avocado, tomato, and tomatillo salsa; and a Brazilian vegetable samba roll with brown rice, grilled pineapples, palmito, collard green, and red ginger.

Tel. 305-673-5337

Sushi Samba is located at 600 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139

Café Sambal

If you’re still in Miami but want to escape the vibrancy of South Beach for a while, head over to Brickell Key for a delightfully luxurious sushi dinner at the Mandarin Oriental’s Cafe Sambal. The smart-casual waterfront restaurant offers both indoor and outdoor dining with unmatched views overlooking Biscayne Bay. I visited Café Sambal during Miami Spice and sat outside even though it was drizzling just to enjoy the views—of course, the friendly staff pulled over a giant umbrella anyway, but still, the views are certainly worth it.

Café Sambal offers a original menu of contemporary Asian cuisine, and as their website says, “the restaurant is as much as treat for the eye as for the appetite.” I concur. The restaurant offers delicacies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and guests enjoy an incredible Sushi and Sake Bar which features an extensive menu of delectable sushi and a very impressive selection of sake by the carafe or bottle allowing diners to get the real experience. Additional meal choices include Korean-style Kobe Beef Skirt Steak, Chinese Duck Trip, and Singapore Chili Prawns.

Tel. 305-913-8288

 Café Sambal is located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at 500 Brickell Key Drive, Miami, FL, 33131

 

Morimoto Sushi Bar

If you happen to be slightly North of Miami’s featured sushi hotspots, pass by Morimoto. Located in the Boca Raton Resort & Club, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s sushi bar is exquisitely simple, which may be surprising considering who runs this joint, but simplicity can speak volumes when you know what to do with it. Enter Morimoto.

While some patrons find the main menu at recently opened Morimoto’s a bit lacking in variety (not in flavor, mind you), the real supreme deal is when you enter the world of extraordinarily fresh fish flown in directly from Japan at least one per week. Head sushi chef Takao Soejima previously worked in Morimoto in Philadelphia and has clearly learned a thing of two (or a thousand) from Chef Morimoto. Suggested appetizers include (but certainly are not limited to) a staple Morimoto dish, tuna pizza on grilled tortilla; rock shrimp tempura (already a divine creation, wait until you try Morimoto’s); and whitefish Carpaccio, a more traditional dish spiced up by a pool of ponzu-like sauce.  

Tel. 888-543-1277

Morimoto is located in the Boca Raton Resort & Club at 501 East Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL, 33432