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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I signed up for a wagyu kaiseki experience, but what unfolded over the course of two hours was somehow still surprising in its execution, attention to detail and breadth. Chef Haruka Katayanagi really created eight entirely different courses featuring a single protein, each one more intricate and developed than the last.
Karyu, the U.S. outpost of Tokyo’s Michelin one-star Oniku Karyu, is a 10-seat counter in the Miami Design District, hidden behind a nondescript entrance across the street from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. The contemporary space blends traditional Japanese craftsmanship with modern materials (think oak finishes and terrazzo details), but its overall restraint keeps the focus on the food.
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Much of the preparation happens before you. Broth is carefully poured into bowls of katsuo dashi for the opening beef soup, Kobe beef tenderloin is gingerly placed atop toasted milk bread for the beef cutlet sandwich—the best bite of the evening—lightly seared beef is chopped and mixed with golden Japanese egg yolks and kissed with grated three-year-aged Gruyère cheese before it’s spread over lettuce and a shiso leaf… and so forth. It’s dinner and a show starring executive chef Hiroshi Morito and his fellow cast of protégés who’ve relocated from Tokyo for Karyu.
Admittedly, I lost steam after the puréed soup of local sweet corn—the only vegetarian course—but the seriousness of it all kept me going. Karyu is the only U.S. restaurant to feature wagyu sourced from Ueda Chikusan, a family-run ranch dedicated to raising prized Tajimaguro cattle. The aforementioned soup? It took six hours to make following a 20-year-old recipe. The main course of grilled chateaubriand—an exquisite piece of steak—is grilled over petrified tree coals from Hiroshima in a Kama-Asa grill, which dates back to 1935 and still works and looks like new. While the Yukitsubaki rice served alongside the beef curry (portioned according to each guest’s preference) is cooked using water from Japanese snowfall.
The curated beverage program follows suit with a selection of wines and sake picked to make the marbled beef shine. The glass of 2023 Bandol rouge I tried was among the limited producers available, and Karyu is the only restaurant in Florida to carry it by the bottle and glass.
A delicate shaved ice with seasonal fruit (strawberries for us) capped off the two-hour, $350 experience. It can feel like a bit much, like diving headfirst into the RFK Jr. protein-heavy food pyramid. But what special occasion dinner doesn’t feel indulgent? At least at Karyu, the extravagance is paired with cultural reverence, thoughtful hospitality and a meal you truly cannot experience anywhere else.
Karyu is open Wednesday through Sunday with nightly seatings at 6pm and 8:30pm. Click here to learn more about Karyu and how we curate and review at Time Out.