Fine Dining in Miami

When Colombian chef Juan "Juanma" Manuel Barrientos first set foot in Miami, he envisioned opening a stateside outpost of his fine-dining restaurant Elcielo. Today he has two: one in Brickell and a second inside the SLS South Beach. Like its sister establishments in cities like Bogotá and Washington, D.C., the Brickell restaurant is centered on a multisensory tasting menu known as "the Experience"; the SLS location gives diners an à la carte option to create their own gastronomic journey. Standout moments remain the same in both dining rooms, from plucking tufts of spice-dusted yuca bread off branches from the edible "Tree of Life" bonsai tree to bathing your hands in melted chocolate before devouring the "Chocotherapy" dessert.

The venerable grand dame of dining is usually reserved for marriage proposals and graduations. The food is French, but it's far from traditional. It's served in trendy and tasty appetizer-size portions so diners can assemble their own four- or six-course grazing prix fixes. Menu items include indulgences such as seared foie gras, king crab, seared duck breast, and seared black cod with lobster polenta. The fare is expensive, but compared to a round-trip ticket to Paris, the price to dine inside the legendary Biltmore Hotel is relatively reasonable. Indeed, Palme d'Or is a good reason to break out the dressy outfit and celebrate for no reason at all. How very French. Insider tip: Palme d'Or's dress code is "smart and elegant, to fit in with the unmistakable charm of this culinary icon." That means leave your Gucci pool slides at home and dress in a way that would make your mother proud for once in your life.

SushiSamba Miami Beach is the less talked about older sister of Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill. It's a warm and stylish space with a dominant sushi bar occupying the center. The room is so imbued in an orange hue that if Mario Batali ever removed his trademark clogs here, he'd never find them. Michael Bloise (Wish, American Noodle Bar), executive chef these days, has perked things up, but the long-underrated cuisine hasn't been tinkered with much. Japan, Brazil, and Peru are still the spheres of gastronomic import (Chef Bloise is French/Vietnamese). The menu offers all sorts of possibilities, starting with "aperitivos" and small plates. Don’t miss crisp tempura green beans with black truffle-garlic aioli; a Xin-Xim of rock shrimp-stuffed chicken breast; or braised oxtail gyoza. Also on tab are ceviches, tiraditos, sushi, sashimi, creative rolls, and other raw bar offerings. Also steaks, proffered in churrasco form or Wagyu. For dessert, go with suspiro limeño, a dulce de leche flan layered with port cake and crowned with roasted meringue ice cream and almond crumble. Tuesday-night cosplay, a long-time Samba tradition, is when people dressed in outrageously wacky costumes act out some inner character while whirling awkwardly about the room. Actually, this occurs nightly here -- it being located in South Beach and all -- but Tuesdays it gets synched to music. SushiSamba is fun, but the cuisine makes it more than just another pretty face.