Last year the Matador in the Edition Hotel was the new hot spot in Miami. This year I predict the newly remodeled One Hotel and its new restaurant Beachcraft ( now closed, replaced by Habitat by José Mendín) will be wildly popular.

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s new restaurant was a great dining experience.

The gorgeous One hotel is located at 2377 Collins Avenue. It previously was the Roney Plaza, the Perry and the Gansevoort Hotels. This new incarnation had a beautiful ambiance to it. Whitewashed walls, open shelves with white porcelain, driftwood and glass. The décor of the restaurant fits in with the hotel’s motif. There are many seating areas, including inside and out, as well as a few private rooms to dine in. The bar was also extremely popular for dining. The décor was modern and very tasteful a la “Florida” style.

The food focuses on American farm to table style, with sustainable seafood and produce. They list their choice farms and purveyors right on the menu.

Our food overall was excellent. When you enter the restaurant you pass a beautiful Raw Bar, and the menu has a strong seafood influence. There were choices for the Carnivore as well.

We enjoyed the bread by Zak the Baker served with a wonderful raisin butter. This was an $8 charge on the snack part of the menu. The Ricotta and veal meatballs were insanely delicious. We also tried the Tuna Crudo with fennel, serrano peppers and red shiso. The Octopus with avocado, black chili, jicama and cilantro was cooked perfectly. It was charred on the outside and tender on the inside. All the pasta choices sounded great but we opted for the one vegetarian choice of Lumache which was a small snail-shaped pasta with fava beans, asparagus, pecorino cheese and salsa verde. It was excellent.

For our main courses, we tried food from the “ Grilled “ area of the menu. We had the Grilled Tile Fish, and the Key West Shrimp in a coconut sauce. Our companions went for the Lamb and Chicken dishes. The sides were on the small side for sharing, but we tried the heirloom grains and snap peas and the potatoes with Lamb fat.

For dessert, we shared the Chocolate Bread Pudding Croissant, the Citrus glazed donuts and the winner for me, and an excellent Panna Cotta.

My only complaint was waiting over 20 minutes to be acknowledged once seated. It actually took waving my napkin frantically to get noticed. But, from there on in, it was smooth sailing.

The menu had a lot of interesting choices. Dishes featuring seasonal produce, pristine fish and seafood, beef, lamb and chicken as well as homemade pastas and pizzas and salads. Again I would appreciate a little less salt on the food.

This is a must try restaurant, highly recommended. I suggest reserving early over the holidays. We also checked out the rooftop bar which is a fabulous place to hang with your friends and have a drink. It has a great atmosphere.

Happy dining,
Shanea

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