Rating: Maido Japanese Rest 4267 NW 107th Avenue, Miami, FL 33137 Phone: 305-592-4002 Maido is a little Japanese Izakaya located in Doral, FL run by a pair of great chefs – Hiroshi and Genya. Genya spent many years working at Matsuri in nearby Coral Gables before the team opened up Maido Japanese Restaurant in the [...]

Rating: Sushi Joe 9557 Northwest 41st Street Doral, FL  33178 305-591-4312 Sushi Joe is a hidden treasure in a vast sea of mediocrity that is the mainstream US sushibar scene today. In an unassuming strip mall in Doral, Florida we found this cross-cultural modern bastion of interpretive sushi run by the humble sushi master called [...]

Rating: Sakura Japanese Restaurant 440 South Dixie Hwy. Coral Gables, FL 33146 305-665-7020 Sakura Japanese Restaurant is a nice looking place right on US1 in Coral Gables. We decided to go try it out and see how it stacks up. The guy working behind the counter is Japanese, which guarantees nothing, but always makes me [...]

So here’s the lineup for our saké tasting next wednesday night. A flight of five sakés chosen to sample a wide variety of sakés since this is an introduction to many. Exploration is the theme here, these are all very distinctive brews; hopefully each person is going to like some much better than others. I’m [...]

OK I know a lot of people who love sushi. Ya think? And there are loads of wine enthusiasts in South Florida – just ask Matt Horbund (@mmwine) But I rarely run across people who are serious devotees of saké. Why not? Is saké appreciation limited to cold-weather places and nobody told me? Is there [...]

Beau Timken of True Sake covers a lot of the basics of Sake in this, my absolute favorite sake video ever! I highly recommend watching this whether you’re a beginner or a sake connoisseur. Beau discusses the three basic categories of sake, different styles, talks about sake rice and the philosophy of milling it and [...]