Pubbelly Sushi
Hi Uncle Steve,
Post two on the blog. Will eventually hope to migrate the old emails into the blog for archival purposes, but for now focused on catching up on the existing backlog. The flu (well, something) has been going around the office and I'm at home today.
Back on Jan. 20th (I said I was behind), I took Lauren to the newly opened Pubbelly Sushi in the Brickell City Centre. By way of background, I had earlier mentioned a bit of a mixup between Pubbelly and Pubbelly Sushi when we went to Pubbelly. And, of course, Brickell City Centre is the massive Swire property in Brickell with, among other things, an outdoor mall. And, on the fourth floor, the PB Boys have opened their second Pubbelly Sushi location, with hopes to open a third location shortly (I believe in Aventura).
We had a reservation, which was good because it was packed on a Saturday notwithstanding that the mall itself was pretty quiet otherwise that late (maybe 40% of the stores have not opened yet, including the movie theatre) and that the restaurant had just opened. It had opened so recently that they hadn't been able to get their liquor license in place yet. Which, apparently, means they couldn't sell liquor. This did not however prevent them from providing two drinks each on the house.
Pubbelly Sushi is meant to be family style, sharing plates large and small. We began with two drinks, the details of which escape me. But, I have a picture which says to me that Lauren had some sort of sparkling wine spritzer and I had a chipotle pineapple cocktail of some sort. They were both excellent and I eventually had a second of the latter, while Lauren went with a white wine. We also began with some charred shishito peppers in a miso-pistachio sauce drizzled on top. Shishito peppers are known for having high variability in their level of capsaicin, so Lauren large avoided them unless I tested the individual peppers first.
Next out came the White Fish Pubbelly Sashimi, a catch of the day in a passion fruit ponzu, pineapple, and serrano pepper bath (?). The fish was tossed with corn nuts, pickled onions, and a few other ingredients. It was... surprisingly bland.
We also had salt and pepper fried squid, which was delicious.
Next, we had the Screaming Orgasm, which, despite it's name, is merely seared bigeye tuna and masago roe over a bed of spiralized daikon radish and topped with a spice ponzu. Now, I've had this dish at their other location before with the same groans from my dinner guests that they couldn't believe I ordered that. And my recollection, though vague, is that it was an excellent dish ... and that it looked like nothing this dish. Even chalking up my failure of memory, this dish was a disappointment in so much as the flavor was bland, the ingredients could not stand up by themselves, and the bed of daikon, though edible, was dry and thus prone to being avoided. Not recommended.
Things went uphill from there though as we reached out last main dish and dessert. Our last main dish was a Wagyu Beef Tartare sushi roll (to be distinguished from their Yukke Wagyu Tartare, which did not have a roll). If you like beef tartares, I do recommend this one, particularly the side sauce, which was a ponzu with a poached egg afloat waiting to be destroyed tableside into the final sauce. It was interesting to say the least, a definite order-once, but perhaps not a repeat player.
And following up on the last review (and as will be seen in the next), Miami dessert chefs are just hitting it out of the park. Lauren had a green tea parfait of matcha mousse, with fudge brownie, fresh bananas, and topped with a creme brulee foam. And I had a black sesame soft serve. Both were very good and highly recommended.
Overall, our experience fell a bit short from my prior at their original location, which was stellar. I would suspect that part of it has to do with the fact that some dishes are just disappointing and we had a bad run selecting those dishes. On the other hand, no dish called a Screaming Orgasm should be that bland. And on the gripping hand, perhaps it's just a little growing pain. Our waiter was fantastic, and while he had some great recommendation, he also was the one who recommended that white fish.
Until next time...
Post two on the blog. Will eventually hope to migrate the old emails into the blog for archival purposes, but for now focused on catching up on the existing backlog. The flu (well, something) has been going around the office and I'm at home today.
Back on Jan. 20th (I said I was behind), I took Lauren to the newly opened Pubbelly Sushi in the Brickell City Centre. By way of background, I had earlier mentioned a bit of a mixup between Pubbelly and Pubbelly Sushi when we went to Pubbelly. And, of course, Brickell City Centre is the massive Swire property in Brickell with, among other things, an outdoor mall. And, on the fourth floor, the PB Boys have opened their second Pubbelly Sushi location, with hopes to open a third location shortly (I believe in Aventura).
We had a reservation, which was good because it was packed on a Saturday notwithstanding that the mall itself was pretty quiet otherwise that late (maybe 40% of the stores have not opened yet, including the movie theatre) and that the restaurant had just opened. It had opened so recently that they hadn't been able to get their liquor license in place yet. Which, apparently, means they couldn't sell liquor. This did not however prevent them from providing two drinks each on the house.
Pubbelly Sushi is meant to be family style, sharing plates large and small. We began with two drinks, the details of which escape me. But, I have a picture which says to me that Lauren had some sort of sparkling wine spritzer and I had a chipotle pineapple cocktail of some sort. They were both excellent and I eventually had a second of the latter, while Lauren went with a white wine. We also began with some charred shishito peppers in a miso-pistachio sauce drizzled on top. Shishito peppers are known for having high variability in their level of capsaicin, so Lauren large avoided them unless I tested the individual peppers first.
Next out came the White Fish Pubbelly Sashimi, a catch of the day in a passion fruit ponzu, pineapple, and serrano pepper bath (?). The fish was tossed with corn nuts, pickled onions, and a few other ingredients. It was... surprisingly bland.
We also had salt and pepper fried squid, which was delicious.
Oops.
Followed by a grilled octopus, sliced, in baby greens, with a fantastic sauce on top. Highly recommended.
We then had a Mexican style truffled corn on the cob: corn on the cob rolled in cotija cheese, a truffle crema, and yuzu. Delicious and highly recommended.
 |
| It came three to a plate. The other two disappeared. |
Things went uphill from there though as we reached out last main dish and dessert. Our last main dish was a Wagyu Beef Tartare sushi roll (to be distinguished from their Yukke Wagyu Tartare, which did not have a roll). If you like beef tartares, I do recommend this one, particularly the side sauce, which was a ponzu with a poached egg afloat waiting to be destroyed tableside into the final sauce. It was interesting to say the least, a definite order-once, but perhaps not a repeat player.
And following up on the last review (and as will be seen in the next), Miami dessert chefs are just hitting it out of the park. Lauren had a green tea parfait of matcha mousse, with fudge brownie, fresh bananas, and topped with a creme brulee foam. And I had a black sesame soft serve. Both were very good and highly recommended.
Overall, our experience fell a bit short from my prior at their original location, which was stellar. I would suspect that part of it has to do with the fact that some dishes are just disappointing and we had a bad run selecting those dishes. On the other hand, no dish called a Screaming Orgasm should be that bland. And on the gripping hand, perhaps it's just a little growing pain. Our waiter was fantastic, and while he had some great recommendation, he also was the one who recommended that white fish.
Until next time...
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