Review: There’s Exclusivity and Pretty Excellent Dishes at a’Riva on Miami Beach
Photos by Eric Barton
★★★★★
By Eric Barton | Feb. 12, 2025
The open-to-the-public restaurant a’Riva is attached to Miami’s new members-only club, a place where joining will cost you four figures and backgammon night comes with a side of the prettiest people I have seriously ever seen in a city full of extremely pretty people.
The idea behind Harbour Club is to copy London’s private clubs in a two-story plumb-colored building in Sunset Harbour.
The main entrance opens onto a’Riva, a classy-looking Mediterranean restaurant with quite excellent dishes and a fresco on the ceiling that feels like you’re dining in a back room of the Vatican. The not-for-you portion of the building starts in the back with a speakeasy, then continues upstairs into a lounge and a second restaurant open only to members.
The entire space is full of more original artworks than your typical museum—this was my first time passing a Banksy on the way to a bathroom (photo above to prove it). There’s a separate members-only entrance down the street, but on the night I was there, some seriously handsomely dressed people were filing in through the restaurant for trivia night in the speakeasy and also a well-attended backgammon tournament upstairs.
Yodezeen designed the space to feel like an extension of the members’ homes, and Casa Tua’s former chef Michele Esposito runs the kitchen. Owner James Julius, formerly of Miami's other members-only restaurant ZZ's in the Design District, told me during a tour that Harbour Club already has 300 paying members, on the way to a thousand. Members pay five-grand up front and then $2,500 a year, although you can avoid yearly dues by peeling off $40k for a one-time payment—just remember there’s a tax penalty for cashing in a 401k.
If you’re wondering whether to join, I’d say it comes down to a formula something like: disposable income + need to socialize/proximity. Julius let me and my dinner companion wander the place after our otherwise excellent meal, and I was feeling serious FOMO catching the tail end of the backgammon tourney and the trivia—where else in Miami are people getting together for game night in a space as gorgeous as this?
As for the part of the building anyone can enter, a’Riva, I’ll break down the dishes I had below. Spoiler: they were all quite great.
Dirty Martini: $10
I’m in general a notoriously frugal person—for instance, this place suggests gentlemen wear a jacket, of which I own one. And so next time I’m at a’Riva, it’ll probably be during happy hour, when 10 bucks will allow you to choose from four martinis and three glasses of wine. This dirty version here was damn cold and just near perfect, honestly. I didn’t order food at the bar, but $12 for truffle fries at a private club sounds like the order for the frugal-minded.
Beef Tartare, $32
This started a definite trend at a’Riva, where dishes arrive with a Bert from Sesame Street hairdo of black truffle—a trend I’m not bashing. It’s topped with an egg yolk and an airy parmesan foam, all very good. You’ll need more chips, but that’s just a fact of life in general.
Harbour Club Caesar, $24
There’s a lot of Caesar salads in Miami these days, a trend I’m also not bashing, but this one is definitely dressed up more than most. That’s chunks of avocado on the side, a whole ski mountain of parmesan, and then breadcrumbs made from the very excellent focaccia that starts all meals.
Tuna Carpaccio, $32
Yes, this looks like steak carpaccio, and yes, I didn’t pay attention to the waiter, and so I took a first bite kind of surprised by it all. But this is a swell idea, subbing in thin-shaved tuna for steak and topping it with crispy sunchokes, yuzu, and truffle. There’s a lot of contrasting textures and a nice brightness to this dish. And oh, also black truffles.
Paccheri Veal Ragu, $32
When he asked for dietary restrictions, I forgot to tell the waiter that I don't eat veal on the grounds of not being a mean person; I blame being distracted by my friend's nut allergy. And so what choice did I have but to eat this tender, richly flavored veal ragu over paccheri pasta with a parmesan foam hatch-patterened over the top? I hate myself for loving this.
Sweet Corn Agnolotti, $34
A touch too sweet for me, this dish otherwise had a lot to like, with a ricotta-corn filling and, yeah, lots of black truffle shaved over top. I think this is one case where the black truffle largely gets lost. But with a dish this pretty, maybe I’m missing the point. Also, in this economy, we don’t want to start laying off truffle shavers.
Chilean Seabass Alla Pizzaiola, $55
If there’s a sea bass, whole or filleted on a menu, generally I’m ordering it. That’s especially true if it comes like this one, simply seasoned with fresh herbs and lemon and roasted in a hot pizza oven. There’s too much olive oil here, and I’d rather a crispier skin. But let’s call things even with those insanely crisp potato wedges served alongside.
Pistachio Gelato, $14
My friend with the nut allergy had to look on longingly as they poured the pistachio sauce over this tower of gelato. He continued watching as I spooned bite after bite into my piehole. Cold, creamy, decadent and nutty. What’s more delicious than a forbidden fruit?
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