You know a destination restaurant is worth the effort when not a drawbridge, cargo train, nor interstate construction can come between you and your meal.
Such was the case when a gaggle of Grove- and Gables-based Tweeters severed the data stream for a few hours to taste real life in the skilled hands of NAOE Chef Kevin Cory. The hike up to Sunny Isles Beach was never more worth it, despite the City of Miami's valiant effort to the contrary.
Timed to the cadence of ocean waves, Cory is invigorated by classical music as he orchestrates your omakase experience. For the diner, the result is zen to the ear, and to the palate. First a bento box, then the encore. Until you say "Uncle!" or raise your white napkin flag, pieces of tender nigiri painted with family-brewed shoyu will flow. Uni from Santa Barbara is a burst of briny ocean in your mouth. Ankimo, monkfish liver, like two coral coins minted to melt as they hit the tongue. Would you like more slices of tender orange clam? Just slide that olive wood paddle from Germany towards your conductor. Linger in a seafood spell and you may see the shape of a whale, T-Bone steak, or even a violin in this receptacle. Watch transfixed, as it glides back and forth, across the nightly-sanded hinoki slab, like a jeweler's velvet tray inside which rest a pair of sparkly, precious gems.
So too can the imagination be a powerful antidote to the crawl home on I-95 South. How about what we could do with a Samurai sword to thank those who think it's a great idea to raise signage during dining and outing rush hour? Oh how the mind wanders when a caravan of canisters locomotes its way across North Miami Avenue where you've been detoured from 79th Street! Only in Miami, we tweet. For now, we'll go with the flow.
NAOE
Reservations via Open Table
(305) 947-6263
175 Sunny Isles Blvd.
Sunny Isles Beach
