MIAMI
Uchiko Brings a Fire-Kissed Take on Japanese Cuisine to Miami Beach
1759 Purdy Ave | Website | Instagram
By Eric Barton | March 11, 2025
There’s a thing that happens when a city gets a hot new restaurant: The name starts to float around in conversation, a friend texts “we gotta go,” and suddenly you’re hearing it mentioned in the kind of hushed, conspiratorial tones normally reserved for gossip about a co-worker’s secret second family. Prediction: Uchiko is about to be that restaurant.
Uchiko, which opened March 10 in Sunset Harbour, comes from James Beard Award-winning chef Tyson Cole and his Hai Hospitality group, the same team behind Austin expat Uchi in Wynwood. But while Uchi is about precision and balance, Uchiko is its fire-kissed, smoky, slightly wilder sibling.
Chef Jacob Yoder, formerly of Uchiko Austin, is heading up the Miami Beach location, which means he’ll be overseeing a menu where just about everything seems to have met an open flame at some point.
The Hearth-Roasted Lobster arrives dripping in umeboshi butter. A 4x Seared NY Strip Wagyu gets charred just enough to make it feel almost illicit. Even the sea bass, known here as Suzuki Taki, has been oak-grilled, as if to remind you that Uchiko is a place where food gets introduced to fire and then encouraged to stay a while.
For those who like their food with a side of theater, there’s the Hot Rock Wagyu, seared tableside, because why wouldn’t you want to watch your dinner cook right in front of you? And then there’s the Thai Sake Maki, a salmon roll that manages to sneak in nuoc mam and lemongrass oil.
The dessert menu comes courtesy of executive pastry chef Ariana Quant, and it’s about as restrained as a toddler in a candy store. The Milk and Cereal—a combination of fried milk, chocolate mousse, and toasted milk ice cream—reads like something dreamed up by a particularly ambitious child. Meanwhile, the Pineapple Upside Down Cake gets a dose of black garlic and rum ice cream, because subtlety is overrated.
As for the space itself, it was designed by Islyn Studio, full of textured concrete, sea-green marble, and teakwood shutters, with a glass block bar that catches the golden-hour light just so. There’s also a 12-seat private dining room, where the truly dedicated can whisper about their favorite dishes like they’re state secrets.
If you’re looking to get in before everyone starts name-dropping Uchiko at dinner parties, reservations are open now via SevenRooms.
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