26 Sushi & Tapas

You might think a restaurant that keeps kosher is hamstringing itself, limiting what it can do as far as ingredients, techniques, and flavors. You understand how wrong you are shortly after starting a meal at Surfside's stark-white 26 Sushi & Tapas. The place is run by the Chang family, and patriarch Fernando has long been trusted by Miami's religious Jewish community as the city's best kosher sushi chef. Yet it's his children — Valerie and Fernando — continuing his legacy. The siblings butcher more than a thousand fish a week while deploying sweet-and-sour pickled daikon and carrots to spin and deepen the flavors of a classic corvina ceviche. The biting, round notes meld beautifully with piquant leche de tigre, while the nutty crunch of crushed peanuts with a dash of sesame oil fills out each bite.