MIAReview
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Zitz Sum
Included In
On multiple occasions, we have left Zitz Sum convinced we’d just eaten the best dish Miami has ever produced. And then we’ve never seen it on the menu again.
This is both the thrill and tiny frustration of this restless restaurant buried inside the lobby of a Coral Gables office building. The frequency of edits on its menus requires a printer with a Ferrari engine. But they get away with it by making miracles far more often than mistakes.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Since January 2021, this has been one of our favorite restaurants in Miami. With each passing month, it gets harder to explain why, because Zitz Sum gets harder to define. To use their own language, they are an “Asian-inspired” restaurant with a menu that blends “love for Japanese food looked through the lens of Italian ingredients and technique.” Usually, we hate when restaurants claim entire continents, and we hate the vague use of “inspired” even more. But here’s the incredible thing about Zitz Sum: they really do deliver on the promise to put half a world’s worth of flavors on a plate.
Crab gnudi in a sake beurre blanc. A potato aligot and hokkaido uni mochi donut. Crudos with wasabi, kumquat kosho, hibiscus, ajo blanco, aguachile, nori cured kampachi, and tonnato (not all at once, although that feels like something they’d try).
We have loved these things with the intensity of a hormonal 15-year-old. Then we’ve never seen them again. This is not as sad as it sounds. There are no highs and lows at Zitz Sum. There are highs, and then there are moments when a crudo lifts you up to kiss Neptune on the cheek.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Learning to love this restaurant like we do means accepting change. Zitz Sum requires a patient diner fascinated by food and willing to make multiple trips. You’ve got to do the $125 10-course tasting menu at least twice, and always order the bao, even though nothing will ever top the crispy version stuffed with oxtail we had that one time (and never again). We don’t usually send tourists here because this restaurant reveals its full glory to regulars, which we understand is a lot to ask of a paying customer. But what it gives in return is true, wild, unpredictable excitement within a Miami dining landscape that can feel allergic to risk and aggressively predictable.
Take our word for it, as people who have climbed to the golden peak of Zitz Sum and felt the full force of its sun. When it's at its best, there’s no one better. And it’s worth the persistence to witness that.
Food Rundown
The menu at Zitz Sum changes frequently (to say the least), but here are a few examples of the kind of dishes you might find here.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Bing
You are 1,000% ordering the bing bread, a cloud-soft sourdough pancake that comes with miso and honey butter. We have considered hiring a lobbyist to convince them to use it for a burrito.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Bao
This bao has been a mainstay on the menu, although the fillings inside are always a surprise. The one with braised wagyu oxtail will always be our favorite bao child, but we've thoroughly enjoyed every version we've encountered, which are seared to a crisp on one side and usually come with some sort of mad scientist dipping sauce that works incredibly well.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Crudo
There will—god, we hope—be a crudo on the menu when you visit. No idea what it will be, but order it. Zitz takes this restaurant cliche and infuses it with the kind of out-of-left-field flavors that make you want to ask for the menu again so you can see what exactly just made your mouth so happy.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Tartare
This tartare situation has evolved a lot since we first met it. The most recent version comes served in a hollowed out ramen egg with dashi aioli and little sprinkles of crispy potatoes. It's almost in the deviled egg family tree—but, like, the most successful, impressive branch of that tree.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Wonton In Brodo
Time for a brief history lesson: Zitz Sum actually started as a pandemic dumpling pop-up. When the restaurant opened, a decent chunk of its menu was devoted to dumplings. This wonton is the lone survivor of that era, and it's great. The wontons are stuffed with chicken thigh and float along with oyster mushrooms in a parmesan and matsutake shoyu broth.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Crab Gnudi
Just when you thought the passport of Zitz Sum's menu couldn't handle another stamp, here comes Italy. There is usually some sort of pasta option on the menu here. On our last visit, this specific gnudi was swapped out for blue crab mochi cavatelli. Did we like them both? Yes. Do we often look up at the sky and wish to have this crab gnudi back in our lives? Also yes.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
Tasting Menu
The 10-course tasting menu at Zitz Sum is the best way to embrace this place in all its whiplashing glory. The $125 investment has never let us down. It (of course) changes often, but usually opens with outrageously fun bites like a potato aligot and hokkaido uni mochi donut, or a smoked salmon and french onion dip taiyaki. From there you move on to some menu favorites and by the time dessert arrives, you will feel like a water balloon—but a very happy one.