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Casa Juancho
2436 SW 8th St. Miami, FL 33135, 305-642-2452
Remember Epcot’s “World Showcase”? Entering Miami’s Casa Juancho kind of feels like going to Epcot’s version of Spain – but in a fun way. Inside the giant fortress in Little Havana, hams hang from the ceilings, musicians stroll around taking requests, and the sangria flows all night. For New Year’s Eve they’ll be offering a special set dinner menu that includes an appetizer, soup, salad, and a choice of entree. Also included: live music and a bottle of Cava for every pair of diners. Reservations recommended.
Mercadito
3252 NE First Avenue, Miami, FL 33137, 786-369-0430
Midtown Miami’s popular Mercadito will be serving its regular dinner menu this New Year’s Eve – which includes variants of chile relleno and huarache that would appease even the smuggest of foodies – from 5:00-6:45pm for the early birds. Then, from 7:30-8:30 they will offer a special $45 sharing menu, and after 9:30 there will a five-course dinner with a $45 open bar option. With 60 different tequilas stocked behind the bar, you’ll ring in New Year’s Eve right.
The Bazaar
1701 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33139, (305) 674-1701
If you’ve got money to burn, this is your spot. Housed in the SLS Miami Beach hotel, this restaurant by culinary star José Andrés serves a modern reimagining of Spanish cuisine. Who’s Andrés? He made Time’s 2012 list of the 100 most influential people in the world (for running his culinary empire combined with altruistic efforts; he feeds the homeless as well as rich people in D.C., Vegas, and the 90210). At $300 a pop, the prix-fixe New Year’s dinner is pricey, but you can expect delectable gourmet cuisine in an opulent dining room, a Dom Perignon champagne toast, and a discounted ticket to Hyde Beach. If you want the dinner experience but not the drain on your bank account, you can take the early seating – from 6-7pm – for a discounted price of $175. Reservations highly recommended.
Catharsis
1644 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL 33135, (305) 479-2746
This 80-seat dining room is perpetually packed for a reason. Offering a range of gourmet delicacies that includes pear and Gorgonzola ravioli, creamy polenta with homemade Bolognese sauce, fresh mozzarella, sautéed mushrooms, and white truffle oil, it’s hard go wrong. Their a la carte dinner menu is delicious enough, but on New Year’s Eve they will also be offering a prix fixe 5-course meal option. For $80 per person, you get a three hour open bar; for $95 per person you get open bar all night – so you’re free to sample every Italian, Spanish, Argentine, Chilean, French, and Californian wine in the house. Seatings are at 7pm and 9pm, reservations required.
Xixon
101 SW 22 Street (Coral Way) Miami, FL 33145, (305) 854-9350
The people are good-looking, the place is cozy, and the food is delicious. Whether you’re into almejas en salsa verde (steamed clams in green sauce), empanadas de atún (tuna), or Andaluz gazpacho, Xixón brings northern Spanish fare right to Miami’s back yard. Voted best Spanish restaurant in the city by the Miami New Times, the place is perpetually packed for dinner so be sure to make reservations for New Year’s Eve. I mean, their wine cellar has an automated wine dispensing machine – what’s not to love?
Area Code 55
16375 Biscayne Blvd. North Miami, FL 33162, 305-947-6202
If you are unfamiliar with the Brazilian restaurant style known as rodizio, you haven’t lived the greatest joy of a carnivore. And if you haven’t visited Area Code 55, you should hurry over there. From 8-11pm on New Year’s Eve, you can enjoy an all-you can-eat meal served by men circling the room with beautiful cuts of meat on skewers. There are chicken legs wrapped in bacon, top sirloin (picanha), top sirloin with garlic, flank steak, baby top sirloin, pork ribs, pork loin, pork sausage, and even roasted pineapple. It’s all perfectly cooked — with crisp exteriors and juicy interiors. Plus, there’s an all-you-can-eat salad bar that includes soup, a half-dozen salads, all kinds of cold cuts, fresh bread, and many other delectables. For $125 plus gratuity you can gorge yourself on all this food, enjoy an open bar, a chocolate fountain dessert, and a DJ for dancing the dinner off.
PM Fish & Steakhouse
1453 S. Miami Ave., Miami, FL 33131, 305-200-5606
The PM in this modern steak and seafood house stands for Puerto Madero, a hip port district of Buenos Aires. It serves nostalgia-inspired Argentine cuisine, including seared chorizo sausage, grilled provoleta cheese, crisp turnovers stuffed with spiced meat, fresh tuna, or black cod, and a shrimp/octopus stew with potatoes and olives that is so divine it will make you literally cry for Argentina. The prime steaks come in American cuts — tenderloin, New York strip, rib eye — but are assertively seasoned and grilled with the requisite gaucho spirit. And we haven’t mentioned the array of raw bar items (including oysters on the half-shell and a live, giant chocolata clam!), the tartare (tuna, salmon, striped bass), the sashimi and whole grilled fish du jour, or the extensive wine list and cocktails. A great place to ring in 2013.
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