Ogawa

Somewhere in the middle of Ogawa’s 19 courses, it is hard to tell if the vibration traveling from your toes to your cranium is from the freight train rumbling by just five yards north or the euphoria induced after biting into sea bream marinated in cherry blossom leaves. 

You’ll wonder: How can a meal be this good? And then, when the check comes ($350 per person before tax and tip), you will understand: Oh, right, it has to be this good. But Ogawa truly is. 

As more and more multi-hundred dollar omakase concepts open in Miami, you have a right to be skeptical. But Ogawa has considered all the details and then some. Both the hospitality and food here operate on an astral plane. If you’re early (or the previous seating is running late), you’ll be invited into the peaceful back garden and offered a highball so carbonated that each sip makes your head feel like an inflating balloon. 

Guide

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Once inside the 11-seat counter, service walks that impossibly narrow tightrope between reverence and relaxation. Chefs bounce effortlessly from playful to focused, reading your emotional needs as if they were provided a 500-page memo on you the moment you made your reservation. The food is a perfectly paced march of plates that arrive at just the right millisecond to politely interrupt conversation and remind you who the star of the evening is. When it’s all over, the owner may even invite you back to the garden for a nightcap, if he senses you’re receptive to such a thing, and then scroll through his photos for what feels like 30 minutes to find a picture of a mango he once encountered in Japan. Because you simply must see this mango. And what a stunning mango it is. 

To see the team here so easily stick the landing on one of Miami’s most expensive omakase meals is like watching a pitcher throw a perfect game. Nine innings of no hits might seem a bit boring to the average bandwagon fan, and similarly, the skill on display at Ogawa might not feel so thrilling to everyone. You shouldn’t come here just to say you did. This is a meal for people who have been mentally planning a trip to Japan since their very first paycheck. For people who think chūtoro versus ōtoro is a very fun topic of discussion. For people who know that there is such a thing as a meal worth this much money, and can appreciate how rare that is.   

Food Rundown

photo credit: Ogawa

Omakase

A 19-course omakase is the only option at Ogawa. The meal is highly seasonal, lasts about two and a half hours, and much of it is sourced from Japan. Seafood is the focus of the dinner, which starts with a beautiful plate of sashimi and various small plates. The brief interruptions of fish come in the form of a tempura course and a dish involving a type of A5 wagyu they claim to be the only restaurant on the East Coast serving. Nigiri makes up the bulk of the evening—cuts like kinki, scallop, ebi, and sea bream marinated in cherry blossom leaves. We’re not sure what, specifically, you’ll encounter during your visit. But we are sure it will be phenomenal.