Foodie Find: Blue Matisse Restaurant – InterContinental at Doral Miami
A Peruvian-Inspired Lunch-Time Feast
Fresh, Peruvian-inspired specialties are a feast for the eyes – as well as your taste buds – at Blue Matisse Restaurant in the InterContinental at Doral Miami. Offered Monday through Friday for lunch, the small-plate delicacies, featuring daily ceviche specials, are drawing a dedicated audience of those who live and work in the City of Doral.
Peruvian-born Yoel Salini, the InterContinental Doral Miami’s Food & Beverage Manager, is responsible for the the success of Blue Matisse Restaurant’s reinvented luncheon buffet. Salini, Chef Muñoz and Elizabeth Prado, the cuisine team at Blue Matisse, change what’s offered for lunch every day with a luxurious display of ceviches, tapas and sushi, along with a carving station and a daily hot special. A completely new rotation of menu items is created every four weeks.
The Blue Matisse group believes that presentation is key to the popularity of the buffet. The small portions that make up the mouth-watering buffet of colorful Peruvian cuisine are inviting and give the guests the opportunity to try all the carefully-created tastings. Plus, guests can order a wide range of wines, as well as hand-crafted Latin-inspired cocktails, created by Matthew Phillips and Sean O’Connell, from the Nau Lounge adjacent to the restaurant.
To switch from typical hotel restaurant banquet-style fare to these more modern and upscale choices, the entire staff had to change its mentality and rethink the smaller menu and the importance of presentation. Blue Matisse’s lunch-time buffet now feels more like a stand-alone restaurant rather than an extension of the banquet services of a hotel.
The servers are friendly and attentive, and the ambience is relaxing with an interesting mix of businesspeople and hotel guests creating their own unique plates of Peruvian favorites.
Blue Matisse Restaurant and NAU Lounge is located at the InterContinental at Doral Miami, 2505 N.W. 87th Avenue. For reservations or more information, call 305-468-1392 or visit www.BlueMatisseDoral.com.
Onelia Collazo Mendive is the founder and publisher of GablesCentral.com, a news and culture website covering Coral Gables. She has covered the City of Coral Gables in print and online publications for almost a decade. She has particular interest in the Golden Gate and MacFarlane Homestead Historic District of Coral Gables. Onelia has covered the internet industry since 1999 and has worked as a web editor for various websites. She has covered the arts and cultural scene in Miami since 2007. In addition, she was awarded a National Press Foundation Fellowship for editors and writers program on E-commerce from Vanderbilt University in 1999, and was named a Fellow for the Knight Community Info Challenge Boot Camp in 2012. Onelia co-organizers a monthly Read to Learn Reading Circle and book drive in conjunction with The Children’s Trust, The Miami Book Fair and Books & Books. The Read to Learn Books for Free donates children’s books to 40 bookshelves in Miami including DCF, juvenile hall, and doctors’ offices. She graduated from Florida International University in 1995 with dual degrees with a BA English Literature and a BS in Communications.
