The dining room at The Mexican, which is opening on Brickell Key.
Ruben Cabrera
A glamorous Dallas restaurant that was named one of the world’s most gorgeous restaurants is coming to Miami.
The Mexican, which was praised as one of the most beautiful restaurants in the world by Unesco, opens its doors in April on the water in Brickell Key. And as its name and location suggest, it will serve upscale Mexican cuisine with a flair for the dramatic (and an eye toward authentic Mexican hospitality).
Owner Roberto González Alcalá, the Monterrey businessman and president of Intelectiva Restaurant Group who opened the original The Mexican in 2022, echoed the sentiments of almost every out-of-town restaurateur about coming to Miami, saying that the opening “felt like a natural evolution.”
The interior of The Mexican, a new restaurant opening on Brickell Key. Ruben Cabrera
“The energy of Brickell Key, with its waterfront setting and international community is the perfect home for our vision,” he said. “We’re not bringing just another Mexican restaurant. We’re bringing the soul, complexity and genuine hospitality of Mexico to this new location.”
This is the first foray outside the Dallas flagship for The Mexican, which opened in 2022 in the city’s Design District (yes, Dallas has one, too).
The new restaurant is more than 10,000 square feet with room for more than 330 diners throughout its indoor and outdoor spaces. Designed by Cancun-based designer Paulina Morán, who also created the look for the award-winning Dallas restaurant, the Miami Mexican also strives to reflect both a traditional and a contemporary Mexico, with floor-to-ceiling golden double doors, a tequila gallery with hundreds of rare bottles and dramatic circular installations.
The bar at The Mexican, a restaurant opening on Brickell Key. Ruben Cabrera
The design, which also features a central bar, makes use of limestone archways and geometric tile as well as floor-to-ceiling windows that offer views of the Brickell skyline and Biscayne Bay. On the patio, you’ll find covered seating, a second bar and lower-level seating where diners can sit next to the water on clear nights.
For the most part, the menu follows the original Dallas, including popular offerings like the barbacoa de arrachera, slow-cooked skirt steak; ribeye aguachile and lobster elote, a luxe treatment of traditional Mexican street corn that adds Maine lobster to the mix.
The Mexican serves a wide variety of other dishes like roasted cauliflower with truffle, habanero ash and toasted pistachios and wagyu Spinalis steak. The Miami restaurant will also have a few local-only items you won’t find in Dallas, like the tuna Tomahawk.
The view from the patio of The Mexican, a new restaurant opening on Brickell Key. Ruben Cabrera
As for beverages, expect classic drinks and specialty cocktails like the Mujeres Divinas, infused with hibiscus and damiana; La Nina Fresa, which blends strawberry and ginger; and margaritas made with aged tequilas.
Barbacoa de Arrachera, slow-cooked skirt steak, is one of the highlights of The Mexican’s menu. The Mexican The Mexican
Where: 601 Brickell Key Drive, Suite 100, Miami
Opening: April 7
Hours: 5-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and Sunday; 5-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; bar opens daily at 4 until 11 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and Sunday and until midnight Thursday-Saturday
Reservations: OpenTable (starting March 15)
More information: www.themexican.com
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Connie Ogle loves wine, books and the Miami Heat. Please don’t make her eat a mango.