COTE Miami
COTE wasn’t originally on the docket.
I had driven to Miami from Palm Beach to dine with a friend at Shingo earlier in the evening. But… by the end of that meal, we were still famished. A 23:00 reservation at COTE materialized. We wandered through a couple bars in the meantime — Kaiju and Café La Trova, notably — and showed up at the restaurant just before midnight.
At first glance, the entrance felt almost kitschy. Miami’s signature gloss was there, exaggerated. But I’ll admit, the revolving door basking in the pink glow was oddly fun. We stepped inside and were greeted by a bustling room anchored by an expansive, glowing bar. One espresso martini in, I softened to the scene.
Let me be clear — COTE is not your typical Michelin experience. The service doesn’t have the polish. The décor, the seating, the noise — none of it aspires to the haute formalism one might expect. But when the food hit the table, none of that mattered.
It was late, and we had one objective: meat. We ordered two Butcher’s Feasts ($78pp), the American Wagyu NY Strip ($92), and the Kimchi Wagyu “Paella” ($34). I won’t speak much on the last — a misguided abomination — but the rest was genuinely fantastic. The beef was deeply marbled, rich, perfectly cooked, and well-paced.
To pair, a 2014 Hermanos Peciña Señorío de P. Peciña Crianza from Rioja ($35/glass) — expressive, bright, and just lifted enough to keep pace with the fat. An honest pour (they call it a party pour), and a welcome surprise.
TEST
That said, there’s an unmistakable air of control here. I wasn’t even allowed to cook my own meat. The server — confident he knew better — intervened with a kind of overbearing insistence. When I tried to take the tongs myself, he rushed over and physically stopped me. At that point, it stopped being dinner and started feeling more like performance. We attempted to add another cut toward the end but were promptly denied — “too much food,” we were told, with a shrug.
Still, for what it is — a loud, late-night Korean steakhouse experience with just enough edge and a very real sense of indulgence — it worked. Not perfect, but at that hour, exactly what we needed.
COTE Miami
Visit WebsiteChef de Cuisine: ME ft. Jeffrey Beauchamp
Location: Miami, Florida
Date of Visit: 06.07.2025
One Michelin Star
