There can never be too many omakase restaurants, especially when a city’s latest debut is a super-exclusive, sushi den. James Beard Award-winning chef Paul Qui is behind El Secreto Omakase, a six-seat bar serving Tokyo-style sushi and Kyoto-style kaiseki—essentially Japanese haute cuisine—inside the Faena Hotel Miami Beach. Qui, who worked at Austin’s lauded sushi restaurant Uchi, alongside Tyson Cole before opening his own establishments in the city, knows his way around high-end omakase.
In Miami, he’s curated two distinct menus ($295 per person; 786-655-5600) for diners: one features high-quality seafood flown in daily while the other highlights vegetarian dishes. The former comprises sea urchin from Hokkaido, sustainable bluefin tuna from Baja and Sanuki Olive Wagyu from Kagawa Prefecture in Japan. In other words, very sophisticated stuff—not to be outdone by the Art Deco decor, bronze bar and gilded artworks by Juan Gatti and Amaya Bouquet.
El Secreto Omakase opens on June 1 and serves dinner Wednesday through Sunday at 6:30pm and 9:30pm. With only six seats available and two nightly seatings, El Secreto may have just won the title of Miami’s toughest reservation.
