Foodie Find: Kosushi
It's both a Michelin star rating and a Latin flavor that elevates this South Beach sushi restaurant.
By combining traditional Japanese food preparations with fresh Latin touches, Kosushi in Miami Beach has managed to rise above the commoditizing of high-end sushi houses. The menu items – pulling ingredients such as citrus aji Amarillo – are not only creative, but also manage to deliciously celebrate a significant aspect of Miami’s culture, as three of Kosushi’s four locations are in Brazil. That means these fish and rice combinations created in Sao Paolo, along with a one Michelin star rating, separate Kosushi from other sushi houses in cities such as New York, London or San Francisco.
The space, meanwhile, manages to be both modern and cozy, with an open wood design lining the nearly circular walls. A sushi bar takes center stage and it’s lined with soft and simple modern chairs. Wine bottles line the back wall.
Thanks to the Brazilian flavors, the first course matches well with a fresh citrus cocktail. The yuzu hamachi with yuzu soy, ginger and garlic chips opened the meal with a fresh Lemon Lady, made with Grey Goose vodka served frigid with a twist of lemon.
The cold dishes here include crispy rice with either tuna, salmon or crab made of crispy rice cubes topped with creamy spicy tartar and masago. The salmon usuzukuri has ponzu, chive and red pepper sprinkles and the toro cilantro has torched bluefin toro, yuzu den miso and cilantro sauce. The wagyu aburi truffle is prepared with shimeji and the salmon usuzukuri with chive and red pepper sprinkles.
For small hot dishes, don’t miss the miso seabass skewers with den miso marinate. There’s also grilled prawn with olive oil, citrus and a side of clarified butter as well as baked cauliflower with creamy yuzu miso Parmesan. The salmon tartare comes with malanga chips and truffle lemon zest and caviar.
The signature nigiri is itself special, with an assortment of fishes touched with flavors such as garlic, ponzo soy garlic, flying fish roe, ponzu jelly. The more imaginative preparations include salmon belly and truffle. For maki, try the Miami ceviche, the Kosushi King or the shrimp tempura.
Main courses are filling and stay on theme. The Kamameshi is flavor rice in a pot with mushrooms, vegetables, shrimp and topped with organic egg and truffle butter and the tenderloin arrives with a sesame dipping sauce.
There is also an array of signature dishes beginning with “Dyo” which means “special in Japanese, and is a concept dating back to the first location when over 35 years ago the chef would create specialties on the spot. Today those some 15 menu items include dyo karasumi, dyo King crab, tuna avo, toro foie, salmon truffle and salmon toro truffle.
Lemon Lady
2 ounces Grey Goose vodka
1 ounce Triple Sec
Dash of simple syrup or agave
Fresh Lemon Juice
Brett Graff is SocialMiami.com’s managing editor and has been a journalist covering money, people and power for over 20 years. Graff contributes to national media outlets including Reuters, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Maxim, and the PBS show, Nightly Business Report. A former U.S. government economist, her nationally syndicated column The Home Economist is first published in The Miami Herald and then on the Tribune Content Agency, where it’s available to over 400 publications nationwide. She is broadcast weekly on two iHeartRadio news shows and is the author of “Not Buying It: Stop Overspending & Start Raising Happier, Healthier, More Successful Kids,” a parenting guide for people who might be tempted to buy their children the very obstacles they’re trying to avoid.
