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.
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.
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.
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.
Our Dinner at Francis Mallmann’s Los Fuegos – Miami
Plancha griddled octopus with potato confit, garlic aioli, kalamata olives and fresh herbs enjoyed with a 2022 Chateau Sancerre.
Roasted cauliflower with almonds, caper vinaigrette, fresh herb salad, crispy rice and cauliflower puree.
Wood oven empanada stuffed with hand-cut filet and llajua sauce, a spicy Bolivian salsa.
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 with vanilla bean ice cream and burnt rosemary orange.
Los Fuegos riff on Argentinian alfajor -mille feuille laced with dulce de leche, honey and pistachio.
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!
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.