MIAMI

Review: Niño Gordo Is Miami’s Flashiest New Restaurant—But Is It Worth the Hype?

$$$$$ | ★★★☆☆

Article & Photos By Brandon Chase | Aug. 2, 2025

AUTHOR BIO: Brandon Chase is a Miami personal injury attorney who has a deep knowledge of wine and food, built by marrying into an Italian family. Email him here.

Brandon Chase The Adventurist contributor

There’s a red glow that hits your face the moment you step into Niño Gordo—like walking into a Tokyo alley as imagined by a neon-lit surrealist.

Fish tanks hum with jellyfish. Anime eyes blink from the wallpaper. Lanterns float overhead like low-hanging moons. Even the Toto toilet in the bathroom is part of the show. This isn’t just dinner—it’s a fully designed world.

Niño Gordo arrives in Miami trailing serious buzz from its Buenos Aires roots, where it earned a cult following for its eccentric blend of Japanese and Latin flavors—served with a side of maximalism. In Wynwood, the energy is unmistakable. The décor is wild but thoughtful. The lighting? Cinematic. The room? Charged. You can’t help but feel like you’re somewhere important.

And then the food starts arriving—and for all its promise, it mostly plays at half-volume.

Hamachi

Take the hamachi appetizer: beautifully plated, with cool slices of yellowtail beneath a tangle of crisped phyllo strips. The textures are on point—the soft fish against the crunch is clever and satisfying. But the flavor stops just short. There’s brightness missing. A bit of citrus, a punch of acid, a lick of salt—something to lift the dish out of its shell. You find yourself chewing, waiting for the spark, but it never comes.

The katsu sando brings more promise: slices of steak hugged between soft, airy milk bread. The bread is textbook perfect—pillowy, just sweet enough—but the steak inside is under-seasoned. It needs salt. Needs it badly. The richness is there, but it feels muted, as if the chef didn’t trust the cut to stand on its own.

Katsu sando

It’s frustrating, because there’s so much to like here. The service is warm and attentive. The cocktails are playful and balanced. And the space—well, the space is unforgettable. It’s hard not to be charmed by a room that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into a Japanese cartoon drawn by a neon-lit surrealist.

Squid and veal dumplings

Miso flan

But the food? It needs to catch up to the fantasy. Right now, Niño Gordo is a stunning scene missing a bit of seasoning—a restaurant with all the flair, all the drama, and just not enough salt. Still, I’ll be back, because any place bold enough to decorate with glowing jellyfish and install a luxury toilet deserves a second shot. Just… maybe bring a salt shaker.