Los Fuegos – Miami

los fuegos-miami menu cover

Los Fuegos – Miami in the exclusive La Faena Hotel is one of my most highly anticipated dining experiences. It is the stunningly beautiful temple of live fire cooking led by its prophet – Francis Mallmann.

mastodon
Damien Hirst’s Golden Mammoth

La Faena is the former Saxony Hotel fully renovated by the Faena Group and beautifully designed and decorated by famed director Baz Luhrmann with Catherine Martin. The extravagant decor, resplendent with red and gold is like a re-imagined movie set carried throughout the hotel and Los Fuegos.

Los Fuegos - miami

The restaurant and adjoining bar is huge, seating almost 200 at maximum capacity and regularly serving over 300 covers. Despite those large numbers, service is seamless, ever present, but unobtrusive. They invite you to linger and enjoy every moment of your visit.

Dining Room
Pre-dinner service tranquility
Private Dining
Private Dining

Dining Room Bar

As the evening wound down and things slowed we received an invitation to visit the kitchen and meet the chef. It is a marvel of engineering fueled by a wood live fire. The stove is designed to grill over open flame, griddle on planchas, cook in charcoal ashes and smoke meats and seafood from a single central fire.

service prep

los fuegos - miami kitchen

Our Dinner at Francis Mallmann’s Los Fuegos – Miami

plancha griddled octopus

Plancha griddled octopus with potato confit, garlic aioli, kalamata olives and fresh herbs enjoyed with a 2022 Chateau Sancerre.

roasted cauliflower

Roasted cauliflower with almonds, caper vinaigrette, fresh herb salad, crispy rice and cauliflower puree.

Empanada

Wood oven empanada stuffed with hand-cut filet and llajua sauce, a spicy Bolivian salsa.

Los fuegos - miami ribeye

Wood fire grilled prime ribeye with domino potatoes and chimichurri butter, paired with Chateau Ormes de Pez St. Estephe 2016 Bordeaux.

Without warning our table was covered with desserts. Despite our lame protests, Ezekiel said “you don’t have to finish all of them, chef just wants you to taste them”. Who knew Francis made so many delicious sweets?

dulce de leche pancake

Dulce de leche pancake with vanilla bean ice cream and burnt rosemary orange.

Los Fuegos - Miami alfajor

Los Fuegos riff on Argentinian alfajor -mille feuille laced with dulce de leche, honey and pistachio.

profiterole

A freshly baked profiterole stuffed with raspberry whipped cream and draped with chocolate ganache.

Did we finish all the desserts? Of course we did, but when we thought we were done, lemon macarons arrived!

lemon macaron

As a true carnivore Los Fuegos is a restaurant I would return to over and over again. Before that however, there is the trip to Buenos Aires and Patagonia for more research on La Parrillada style open fire cooking.