During our girl’s weekend in Miami, we wanted to do one nice sit-down dinner together. The other two nights, we knew we would likely grab sushi and wine from Whole Foods, and eat together on our hotel room balcony. Requirements for this dinner included: outdoor seating, view of the bay and amazing food & wine. After some searching, we came upon La Mar by Gaston Acurio ( link ).

It’s in the Mandarin Oriental in Brickell Bay and serves amazing Peruvian fusion.

There is indoor and outdoor seating, and the lobby inside has a huge wall covered in lush greenery. Definitely Instagram worthy.

As we sat down outside on the porch overlooking the bay, it was sunny and beautiful. And then this happened…

…Which I’m not complaining about. For those of you who have experienced Floridian thunderstorms, you know they’re weirdly beautiful and peaceful. And, typical of Floridian storms, this one was gone in less than 30 minutes!

La Mar has a lot of shareable tapas on the menu, so we started off with a couple of those.

First up: Ceviche Sampler.

Trio of the Clasico (fluke, aji limo pepper, leche de tigre sauce), the Criollo (calamari, shrimp, yellowtail snapper, leche de tigre sauce) and the Chifa (salmon, peanuts, ginger, wonton strips, sesame leche de tigre sauce).

Second on deck: Empanadas.

Aji de gallina, chicken, aji amarillo, pecans, manchego cheese).

I looooove empanadas. I’ve eaten many empanadas in my lifetime, so by now I know a good one from a bad one. This one was amazing. (Also my Peruvian friend gave these a 10/10 so you know it’s true).

And now for the entrees…

The Wagyu Beef Anticucho.

Served with chimichurri, beans & rice tacu-tacu, quail eggs and a rocoto pepper sauce.

It was wonderful. The combination of the quail egg yolk with the tender meat and savory tacu-tacu was fantastic:

The Corazon Anticucho.

Veal heart skewers with potatoes, choclo (corn), tari sauce and chalaca.

By the time dessert rolled around, we were all stuffed and anxious about squeezing into our dresses for LIV that night, so we decided to share one between the 4 of us.

We were caught between the El Chocolate en Texturas and the Beso de Moza (chocolate shell, strawberry and ricotta merinque, crispy quinoa & goat yogurt ice cream), but settled on the chocolate.

El Chocolate en Textures.

Chocolate brownie textures, foam, ice cream with 60% Peruvian chocolate, crystallized manjar drops.

For a delicious dinner on the bay, highly recommend La Mar.

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