FOOD

Gastrolab
Deconstructionist cuisine, redux.

Cafe Sambal   (Photo: Courtesy of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel)

New Yorkers have WD-50; Miamians did have La Broche. But shortly after its 2002 opening, the avant-garde Spanish restaurant closed; the city wasn’t ready for the laboratory-like menu of foams and wildly different preparations of the same ingredients. Now, after this year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival, at which Anthony Bourdain debuted his documentary about the cuisine, Decoding Ferran Adrià, postmodern dining is the toast of the town. This year Miami will get a second chance at Spanish deconstructionist dining with Karu&Y (305-403-7850). When the restaurant opens in July, chef Alberto Cabrera will feature Key-lime-poached lobster served with a tomato popsicle, and yellowfin tuna with a mille-feuille of crispy pineapple and coconut-milk sponge. For a taste now, try Café Sambal (pictured) in the Mandarin Oriental (305-913-8251), where former La Broche chef Gerdy Rodriguez modernizes traditional Asian fare (delicious asparagus tempura with ginger-mayo foam; grilled strip loin steak with potato in three textures), or Mosaico (305-371-3473), serving up dishes like seared duck breast with apples and pink pepper, created using techniques (Thermomix, Pacojet, sous vide, siphons, agars, gelatins, et al.) pioneered by Spain’s avant-garde chefs.
-S.B.

Michy's beet salad.   (Photo: John Loomis/Redux)

Openings
As always, Manhattan’s restaurateurs—Chodorow, Bouley—are opening South Beach satellites in rapid-fire succession. But it seems silly to go to Miami to eat New York food. Instead, try the best of the local newcomers: Quattro (305-531-4833), an Italian restaurant serving homemade pasta and fish imported from Italy; Novecento (305-531-0900), for mouthwatering grilled skirt steak with chimichurri sauce amid the kind of funky, late-night Latin scene you’d find at La Esquina; and Michy’s (305-759-2001), serving up exquisite seafood dishes (try the southern-fried quail with black-eyed peas, honey, and peaches) at over-the-causeway (read non-tourist-trap) prices.
-S.B.

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