Jatto

The menu at Jatto is a little liar. Sometimes you can give it the benefit of the doubt—maybe it really does think that risotto is a savory rice pudding with mushy, burst grains, or that thick, chewy chunks of octopus count as “octopus chips.” Other times, the menu is a victim of straight up you-should-know-better ignorance, like with an oddly sweet pikliz that shockingly misses the mark given Jatto’s proximity to so many great Haitian restaurants. But there are times when the food arrives and it’s quite obvious that the menu’s pants are on fire. We are still trying to figure out who refers to pig tails as “suckling pig tips.”

But even the menu descriptions that are somewhat accurate still result in disappointment. What arrives at the table is very flashy, but mostly amateurish. Expensive ingredients are wasted on half-baked ideas, like a goblet of foie gras Dippin Dots that’s nothing but a tragic waste of foie gras. Beyond just a lack of technique, Jatto also seems to be unaware of what certain culinary terms actually mean. And while the menu appears to be influenced by local flavors, the food tastes like an out-of-towner’s fantasy of Miami—with no understanding of the nuances of all the cultures that call this city home. All that’s lacking is a Pitbull reference. The only dish that Jatto gets right—choclo sauteed in butter and Chinese five-spice powder topped with sarsa criolla—can be recreated at home with a few ingredients and a few minutes.

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Everything else about a meal here is uncomfortable. The walls in the dim dining room are painted a depressing shade of gray-green that feels at odds with the colorful menu descriptions. If you decide on an early dinner, you may walk into an empty restaurant and feel like you're breaking and entering, or get sent outside to wait at the bar, which actually might be Jatto's only saving grace. 

The cocktails are one of the only things we like here. The MDCPS Cafeteria Punch has a name too good for any Miami native not to try, and it’s a tasty clarified punch made with bourbon, Cynar, and tropical fruit. But, there are other places in Wynwood where you can enjoy an interesting cocktail with better food and friendlier service. For now, we’ll treat this restaurant like so much of the graffiti on Wynwood’s sidewalks and just keep walking.

Food Rundown

Choclo

Perhaps the only reason we'd come back to Jatto would be to sit at the outdoor bar and order this while drinking one of the very creative (and good) cocktails. But it’s almost painfully simple for the type of restaurant Jatto claims to be. Still, if nothing else, it’s a clever entertaining idea that you can easily recreate at home with a bag of frozen choclo kernels.

Suckling Pig BBQ Tips

At Jatto, this translates to two pig tails smothered in a forgettable barbecue sauce that could have come from a bottle. It’s on a bed of oddly sweet Haitian pikliz that lacks the heat and complexity of the real thing.

Rabo Encendido Risotto

This isn’t as much of a risotto as it is a savory rice pudding flavored with citrus. The grains have all exploded to the point that it borders on congee. The mound of porridge hides a couple of tablespoons of shredded meat that could be oxtail but could also be ropa vieja from Blue Sky. It tastes like something you’d find at a Little Havana tourist trap.

Dippin Dots

Most everything at Jatto at least tastes okay—except for this dish, a sort of sundae with frozen pellets of foie gras, a savory pastry cream, diced fruit, and wine gelee. The foie is unseasoned and the other elements are as useful to this dish as a space heater in August. After a few bites, everything starts to melt into a puddle of liver soup. It’s poorly conceived, poorly executed, and such a waste of foie gras that we almost want to cry.