“We’re in Miami. I feel like we should have seafood on our last night,” The Bride said.
I agreed. Since we were staying on the eastern side of Wynwood to gawk at street art, a quick search of the interwebs, some hearty recs on Reddit, high-fi/lo-fi vibes, and close proximity (20 minute walk), we chose Mignonette.
Mignonette sounds like a steakhouse, and they do serve steak, but they describe themselves first and foremost as an oyster bar and seafood restaurant. The place hits our sweet spot: really good food in a lo-fi space. I wouldn’t call the 100-year old building a dive by any means, but you can feel comfortable coming in shorts and a t-shirt. The Michelin Guide describes Mignonette as a “high-grade, low-key spot for seafood,” and they are spot on.
Appropriately named owner and chef, Daniel Serfer, a Miami native, first opened Blue Collar at a hooker motel in 2012 in MiMo and then Mignonette in 2014 in a transitional purgatory between downtown and Edgewood. In addition to the chef, the restaurant has an artist, Reed van Brunshot, a Peruvian/Dutch visual artist who attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
We started with the salmon crudo ($23) which arrived speckled with pomegranate seeds and swimming in citrus sauce. Light and festive, the dish was a refreshing way to start the meal. For mains, The Bride ordered the Florida Black Grouper (with trinity [onions, carrots, and celery] and charred maque choux apple brandy; $41) while I tried the Red Fish (with andouille crust, bomba rice, and shrimp-lobster consomme; $38). Both dishes were amazing with crispy skins, soft pillows of fish, all haloed above a foundation of veggies, rice, and demiglace. For dessert, after learning the Key Lime Pie had run dry, we went with the Heath Bar Butterscotch Bread Pudding with cayenne whipped cream ($10). The bread pudding was delicious, but the combo sweet-hot of cayenne in the whipped cream was epically good.
All in all, we highly recommend this place. We will gladly seek it out on our next visit!
mignonette; 210 ne 18th street, miami, florida; (305) 374-4635
austin wanderlist 