RESTAURANT NEWS | PALM BEACH
Niwa in West Palm Beach Pairs Chefs From Two Michelin-Starred Restaurants
By Eric Barton
6:57 a.m. ET, Aug. 2, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
West Palm Beach is getting a 20-seat Japanese restaurant where two Michelin-starred chefs will put Florida Key lime, mojo, guarapo, and stone crab to work alongside fish flown in from Tokyo.
Niwa: Japanese Cuisine & Tea Garden is scheduled to open in October, with a menu developed by Masayuki Komatsu, the sushi chef behind Miami’s Michelin-starred Ogawa, and Osmel Gonzalez, executive chef of Michelin-starred Emelina in West Palm Beach.
The restaurant will be the latest from Álvaro Perez Miranda and his APM Restaurant Group, which operates several of our favorite restaurants in Miami, including Ogawa, Hiyakawa, and Midorie. APM had originally planned another Midorie for the space before deciding to develop something specifically for West Palm Beach.
Komatsu and Gonzalez are starting with the structure and sourcing of Japanese cooking, then working in the citrus, smoke, mojo, and guarapo that show up in South Florida kitchens. Fish imported from Tokyo’s Toyosu Market will anchor nigiri, hand rolls, raw preparations, donburi, and hot dishes.
The early menu includes thinly sliced Japanese sea bream with yuzu kosho, ponzu, and ikura; cold somen noodles in dashi with Florida Key lime; mojo-marinated wagyu with lime and sesame; and steamed black cod with guarapo, negi, turnips, and smoked chile oil.
Florida blue crab will fill hand rolls with citrus mayo. During stone crab season, the claws will come with Japanese mustard and sweet miso dressing. There’s also charcoal-grilled eel over rice with Japanese pickles and an omakase plate that gathers the chefs’ nigiri and sushi selections into a single presentation.
Niwa means “garden,” and the restaurant plans to earn the name with an outdoor tea garden and a Japanese tea program developed with JoJo Tea. Inside, walnut, celadon green, Japanese lanterns, ceramics, and commissioned artwork will surround just 20 diners.
The restaurant will sit across the street from Emelina, giving Gonzalez one of the easier commutes in fine dining and also give West Palm Beach a talented culinary team working both sides of the same block.
