This Basque restaurant in Miami earned Michelin favor. Now it’s making a huge change

When Venezuelan-born executive chef Carlos Garcia arrived at Leku in 2023, he entered a kitchen where meat was king. Though it was inspired by the cuisine of Spain’s Basque region, the restaurant at the Rubell Museum in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood relied heavily on steak and pork and other meat dishes, serving dishes like suckling pig to eager diners.

Now, despite being recommended by the Michelin Guide in 2022, Leku is transforming itself to better reflect Basque cuisine. With the new name Leku Fish & Garden, the restaurant is focusing on the seafood that sets the Basque region apart, as well as emphasizing the importance of fresh produce (hence the “Garden” in the new name).

Restaurants add and subtract from their menus all the time, but a total overhaul is a huge change for Leku. But the shift fits Garcia’s skills well. Before opening his Caracas restaurant Alto, which spent several years on “The World’s 50 Best” restaurant list for Latin America, Garcia worked at three of Spain’s most famous Michelin-starred restaurants: El Bulli, El Celler de Can Roca and Mugaritz, a Basque restaurant San Sebastián.

Seafood dishes have long been a favorite of his, and working with farmers and fishermen to source the best produce and fish is something of a passion.

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“I’m very excited,” he said. “In Venezuela, I was working with a lot of producers. That’s special to me, knowing where everything is coming from. That’s the only way to have the best products. And chefs need to know because customers want to know.”

Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow of China Grill Management, who manages the restaurant with business partner Terry Zarikian and Garcia, said the evolution was brought about by “a perfect storm”: Garcia’s talents and interests, the fact that diners are more health-conscious these days and that Miami was in need of a fine dining seafood spot.

“I’ve always had this thing for fish,” he said. “When you think about Miami, we don’t have a lot of great fish restaurants. When I go to San Sebastián in the Basque region, which I go to quite often, the no. 1 thing I eat is seafood. Their seafood is so good and so fresh. You see the fishermen coming off the boat and walking up the hill to the restaurant with fish. It’s all about fresh.”

Zarikian agrees.

“We’re going to give everybody a chance to eat healthier, which is the way Basque people do,” he said.

The new menu is large and covers a lot of ground, from small plates and conservas (high-end canned seafood like sardines, squid, scallops and more) to vegetable plates like the gorgeous Coliflor de Colores, with orange, green and purple cauliflower with fresh and dehydrated tomatoes, pistachio pesto, basil, mint and spinach. Also a standout: the delicately smoked mushrooms tartare style, with chive and mushroom emulsion and peppers and topped with phyllo.

Small plates include the stunning tartar de vieira, Hokkaido scallops tartar served with Tobiko caviar, green apple, crispy onions and shimmering bites of uni, creamy scallops topped with a welcome, briny bite of the sea. Salpicon de Mariscos (clams, mussels, octopus, scallops, squid and shrimp served in a glass jar) are a perfect starter or snack, and there are also smoked mussels and crab rillette, snapper crudo and croquetas (cod, yes, but also Iberian ham and chorizo).

Seafood dishes include arroz de pescadores (fishermen rice with fish, mussels, clam, shrimp and chive); cod confit; turbot in garlic sauce. Diners can also order the fish of the day — Garcia is prowling the seafood markets daily — and have it prepared however they prefer it.

But Garcia’s creative side is best displayed in the offbeat dishes that confound expectations. A charcuterie plate becomes sea-cuterie, with salmon (and shrimp and tuna) where you’d normally find sausage or meats. There’s also an insanely creative tuna loin with coffee, Cabrales cheese and pine nut sauce, a dish you’re unlikely to find elsewhere in Miami.

“I was blown away,” Chodorow said. “I thought I wouldn’t like tuna with blue cheese, but it’s my favorite thing on the menu.”

The showstopper, though, is the Whole Fish Carlito’s Way, in which the chef takes a whole fish and cooks that same fish four different ways: pan seared, Jasper grilled, tiradito-style and in a stew that manages to be comforting and hearty without feeling too heavy. It’s designed for sharing, a perfect showcase of what Garcia and his kitchen staff can do.

Because it’s a labor-intensive dish, taking between 30 and 45 minutes to prepare, the restaurant plans to offer only three or four whole fish each night.

“It would be too tough to do 10,” Garcia said. “We’d need two or three more chefs. But if I can get five great fish, we’ll make five.”

Leku has also kept its wagyu picanha on the menu as well as its suckling pig and added an oxtail stew and chicken dish to appeal to diners who prefer meat. The famous Basque cheesecake remains as well.

Changing the entire style of a Michelin-recommended restaurant may seem like a bold move, but the team at Leku is sure the move is the right decision.

“No restaurant in the world has survived without making changes,” Zarikian said. “Change is good. You can’t stand still. You always have to make positive changes. Otherwise? It gets boring.”

Leku Fish & Garden

Where: Rubell Museum, 1100 NW 23rd St., Miami

Hours: Noon-3 p.m., 6-10 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; noon-8 p.m. Sunday

Reservations: Resy

More information: lekumiami.com or 786-464-0615