The restaurant today is more on a higher-end 😳 – the Japanese restaurant NAOE (na – o – è) with chef’s choice menu only. Reservations are required in order to dine in here, so remember to book a table first if you plan to pay a visit. The ingredients and dishes are fresh and delicious. But considering the price point, it’s a bit under expectation. So I only give it a 3-star review.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
The location of the restaurant is super hard to spot. Although they sent the directions with their appointment confirmation, we still spent quite some time to finally get to it. But the service and atmosphere were 100% great as soon as we got in. The waiter welcomed us nicely. You can also choose to sit at the bar to have more interaction with the chef or sit in the table area to have more private space with your party. It’s not a big place but the dimmed lights and soft classical music build a comfortable environment. It instantly feels like you can start some deep conversation with someone lol.
Because its menu is omakase – chef’s choice menu only, you don’t have to make the order for dishes. They only provide the drink menu if you fancy some sake or tea. They also print your name on the menu. So if you’re there celebrating someone’s birthday or some special dates, you can ask the restaurant to put the person’s name on it to add even more special touches to your meal.
The first dish was Shokado Bento, which I don’t quite understand, to be honest. I have to admit that part of it might be that I’m not familiar with these ingredients though. Most of them were good with one or two exceptions. This whole meal was full of all kinds of special, never-tried-before ingredients and tastes. The good thing about it is that I got to try different textures and tastes, but the downside is the risk of finding them not up your alley.
The fish in this one was very tender and fresh, but the sake escargot was too alcohol-heavy to me. The thing that amazed me the most was the soy sauce on the side! We asked the waitress and she said that this was the chef’s house-made soy sauce. We even asked if they sell the soy sauce as a standalone product after we finished the meal because it was just so good (but they’re not selling them for now). It might be the best soy sauce I’ve ever tried so far, sweet, not too salty, with a special note to taste!
Other than the first few dishes which contained more unusual ingredients and would depend on your personal preference, the other dishes made with common kinds of seafood were all fresh and delicious. Dried mullet roe and raw oysters both were cooked in a simple way to express the original sweet flavor from the ingredients themselves.
Then it’s followed by endless (?) nigiri sushi. I picked the photos of three out of multiple different kinds of sushi as there were just too many of them lol. (The uni one was wayyy too good! It was very sweet with no unpleasant taste at all. I have to insert two pictures of it for its level of tastiness.) The portion that this restaurant provided was quite magical. Each of the dishes doesn’t look much on its own, but altogether it was a HUGE amount of food. I was so full that I had a complex feeling – looking forward to the taste adventure of the next dish, yet secretly hoping the next one would be the ending dessert lol.
With the last nigiri sushi served, the waitress, knowing that I was already very full, cheered me up saying that this was the last sushi and the next one would be the dessert lol. And then finally, this bitter matcha and the soft, mildly sweet cake came as the dessert. I can’t say if I like it, but it tasted good and was very special.
After that bitter-sweet dessert moment – surprise! There’s a second dessert with Castella and a scoop of sorbet. That sorbet was heavenly. Remember the delicious soy sauce earlier? This sorbet was made with soy sauce! If only I had a second stomach…
After we finished our meal, the waitress pulled out a list of all kinds of different restaurant recommendations and introduce them to us one by one. This could be really helpful if NAOE was our first stop, but we had already booked all our meals on this trip. I’ll save this list for the next visit to Miami!
In summary, the service and atmosphere here in NAOE are definitely perfect for special days like birthdays and anniversaries. The dishes are good but just not living up to my expectation considering the price. Other restaurants we visited during this trip might be more worth it. No regret visiting NAOE at all as I got to experience many special dishes, but might not want to pay a second visit. That said, the chef’s choice menu is often designed according to the seasons so maybe it just happen that the one we got was not for me. If you have the budget and are curious about it, you can still give it a try! And don’t forget to leave me a comment letting me know how you think 😉
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The Restaurants and Things to Do In Miami & Key West post has more Miami and Key West related traveling information and notes. Check it out if you’re interested!