This Texas import is a big hit in Wynwood. Now it has a sister restaurant in Miami Beach
Uchiko, which translates as 'child of Uchi,' is a new evolution of Uchi, the famous Japanese restaurant from Austin, which opened in Wynwood in 2021. Uchiko is one of the first restaurants opening at the Eighteen Sunset development on Purdy Avenue in Miami Beach's Sunset Harbour neighborhood.
Chef Tyson Cole of Hai Hospitality, the James Beard Award winner who opened the first Uchi in 2003 and went on to open locations in Houston, Dallas and Denver, said that bringing Uchiko to the Miami area just felt right.
'It feels natural to expand our portfolio with Uchiko, just across Biscayne Bay,' he said in a statement, calling Miami Beach 'one of my favorite cities.' Hai Hospitality also owns Uchiba, a Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar in Dallas, and Oheya, an upscale, 12-seat sushi counter in Houston.
Known for its nontraditional approach to Japanese cuisine, the upscale Uchi was at the forefront of Wynwood's ongoing shift from taco and pizza joints and craft beer bars to focusing on upscale restaurants. Uchiko, which has three locations in Texas, is somewhat less formal than Uchi, but still designed to highlight upscale Japanese cuisine.
The 5,380-square-foot restaurant, designed with teakwood shutters, bamboo blinds and copper light fixtures, features a glass block bar and an open kitchen, seating 207 diners. There's also a 12-seat private dining room.
Led by Uchiko Austin's chef de cuisine Jacob Yoder, who will be running the kitchen at the Miami Beach restaurant, the menu highlights dishes cooked on the yakitori grill.
The menu will feature a few Uchi favorites, like the sake crudo with salmon, leche de tigre, chili crisp and papaya or sushi rolls, but Yoder and his team will focus on smoking and curing techniques to highlight hot and cold dishes, like the hearth-roasted lobster with umeboshi butter, seared New York strip wagyu with charred snow pea leaves, and Japanese sweet potato with brown butter, nori vinaigrette and creme freche.
Guests will be able to order seafood, vegetables and steak prepared over an open flame — 'a key distinction between our two similar but unique concepts,' Cole said.
The Miami Beach Uchiko will also feature daily specials like hirame amarillo, thin sliced flounder with aji amarillo paste and corn nut furikake. There's a daily 10-course set omakase menu as well as a somakase menu, which can be customized to the diner's preferences. There are larger plates like an oak-grilled sea bass and bone-in short rib as well.
Uchiko has its own executive pastry chef, Ariana Quant, who will serve up the popular milk and cereal dish, made up of fried milk, chocolate mousse and toasted milk ice cream.
There's a full bar menu, with an emphasis on Japanese whisky and sake, plus drinks like the Uchi favorites the Subarashi with reposada, mezcal, lime and hibiscus agave and the Tsurai with tequila, passion fruit, Aperol and Thai chili.
The restaurant will offer maki rolling classes, a daily happy hour with a seven-course tasting for two and holiday-themed omakase specials.
Uchiko
Where: 1759 Purdy Ave., Miami Beach
Opening: March 10
Hours: 5-11 p.m. daily
Reservations and more information: uchiko.uchirestaurants.com or 305-995-0915
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