MIAGuide
The Least-Chaotic New Year’s Eve Dinners In Miami
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
New Year's Eve is full of unusual traditions: choking down 12 grapes, running around the block, and stuffing your pockets with lentils. But going out for New Year's Eve in Miami often means a night of pure chaos. This guide is meant to steer you away from that. These restaurants are not only great, but they're doing New Year's Eve dinners that sound delicious—and will be reasonably calm compared to whatever's happening at E11even.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Emily Schindler
At the time of this writing, there are still tickets available for Boie De’s New Year’s Eve dinner, which is pretty amazing considering how hard it is to find a table on a regular Tuesday. So act fast. This $150 per person dinner consists of four courses and dessert. The meal starts with canapés, then risotto and rabbit terrine, tortellini in brodo, ricotta raviolo, monkfish, and tiramisu. We’ve had some of those things. They are very delicious.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
The Zitz Sum tasting menu makes a random summer night feel like New Year's Eve. It's that good. So we've got hope their actual New Year's Eve tasting menu will be pretty spectacular. It costs $125 per person (with an optional $45 beverage pairing), and the menu is up on their Instagram. We can personally vouch for the potato aligot mochi donut and the xiao long bao. They will probably be the best bites you've had in 2023.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
QP Tapas called their own New Year’s Eve dinner “chill” when they posted about it on Instagram. Don’t expect an over-the-top prix fixe menu. Just the same phenomenal food and great service as always—probably in a slightly more celebratory mood than usual. Load the table up with paella, uni risotto, charred lamb belly, okonomiyaki, and you’ll probably be full until February. Also, if you haven’t checked out the new cocktail program here (created by Kaiju), this is a great opportunity to change that.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
This peaceful upstairs dining room is always a safe bet for a relaxing dinner that'll make your tongue want to write a poem. The $125 per person menu is up on their Instagram—and will include celebratory foods like oysters, caviar, dry-aged duck, and a vanilla and salted caramel sundae. There’ll be no shortage of wine options, and a DJ who’s playing good music at a volume that won’t make you welcome 2024 with a migraine.
Krüs’ sister restaurant has a completely different menu for the same $125 per person price. The five-course menu includes a seafood platter, kaluga caviar with yuca sour cream, foie gras tetela, and dye-aged ribeye with tomatillo chimichurri and heirloom corn tortillas. Plus, corn flan for dessert. The Mexican spot (which is literally downstairs from Krüs) will also be popping open some wines they’ve been saving for the special occasion while a DJ plays ‘90s dance music.
The focus will be on the food at Ariete’s New Year's Eve dinner, not a secret surprise DJ set happening at 12:01. But you do have to be excited about the food if you’re going to book this because the multi-course tasting menu clocks in at $295 per person. The full menu is online, and includes a wild boar wellington as well as a pretty luxurious wine pairing option for an additional $295 per person. But even normal dinners at Ariete tend to be more memorable than 95% of our life’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, so fingers crossed this one lives up to the price.
photo credit: Adrian Gaut
All our meals at Bouchon so far have been relaxing, smooth, and conducted at a volume that wouldn’t offend an easily offended parent. And the straightforward French food is very good. Their New Year’s Eve menu is up online if you want to check it out. There are plenty of exclusive dishes, and you can pick from several options for each of the three courses—all for $245 per person.
This is Bouchon Bistro’s sister restaurant, and it’s a little more glamorous and appropriate for a special occasion. It’s also more expensive, clocking in at $395 per person if you want to eat in the first seating (6pm to 7:30pm), and a whopping $895 per person for the second seating (8:00pm to 9:45pm). The earlier seating includes four courses, and the second seating (let’s call it the Jeff Bezos seating) will include five courses in addition to inclusive of Regiis Ova Caviar, white truffles, and Dom Pérignon. There’ll be live jazz for both. We did say “least-chaotic”—not cheapest.
