Catch Miami

I went on a date and it was okay. Nothing that I ate was amazing it was just good. The service was good. I wouldn’t return.

When we heard that Chef Hung Huynh opened a restaurant in Miami Beach, we ran to try it. He was one of our favorite chefs on Top Chef. His talent could not be questioned! And, so, we’ve been to Catch several times now. Always excellent!
Located it the heart of Miami Beach at the James Hotel, valet parking can get a bit backed up. Once parking is out of the way, however, it’s a short walk to the entrance of the restaurant.
There are some tables downstairs but, you’ll want to sit upstairs away from the bar, kitchen and Miami humidity (front door always open so much warmer downstairs).
We have always made to wait at the bar but it is spacious and not that big of a deal… except it can get warm down there. Eventually, once you go up the stairs, this one good looking dining room. Dark motive. Dark wood furniture. Candles and very dimmed lighting. Just excellent! This The exposed brick walls and great looking oversized lamps just give this place a great look.
The first time we dined here it was just me and the wifey. It was pretty empty upon arrival but you could not find an empty table by the time we began sipping our wine, which we brought for a corkage fee of $ 30. The second time we were a big group… maybe 8 of us. (PS: this place is great for big groups. It’s always loud and they have great table setups for bigger groups)
As for the food, we’ve had it all. Everyone wanted one of them… we got ‘em all!!! (Sorry — Miami Heat reference)
The pretzel bread with mustard butter was a perfect start. The catch roll was just fabulous. The tuna tartare with crunchy rice cakes was excellent as well and I usually don’t love tuna tartare. Solid ceviche and even better scallops with cauliflower purée. We finished off a great night with a «Bucket of cookies» which was a super cool dessert with chocolate chip cookies, fried oreos, etc. The peanut butter cup soufflé was best in show!
Absolutely great meal with solid service and great background tunes! We’ll be back to this one as often as we can for sure.

Catch is an unambitious seafood restaurant located on the ground floor of the West tower of the James hotel. I had a dining credit at the hotel I needed to use, and it seemed like a better option than Florida Cookery.
On Collins, there are a lot of overpriced style-​over-​substance restaurants. This one isn’t particularly overpriced, and it’s not without substance. The problem (?) is that it is simply nothing out of the ordinary. The sushi is OK, although the options veer far too heavy towards tuna. The flavors of my Catch Roll (highly recommended by the server) certainly did not pop out. I was surprised at how flat the dish was.
For a main, I had the Mahi Mahi, which was a good piece of fish, although again the seasoning was unmemorable and flat. The presentation was poor, with the small portion of fish accompanied by an uninteresting bunch of greens.
Dessert brought out the Key Lime Donut, which was good tasting, although I would have added a bolder ice cream or sorbet to pair. The donut itself was also far too dough-​y for my taste – it lacked air and was a bit tough.
Service is fine, but do not expect to receive fast or proactive refills. One thing that I find most egregious at restaurants is charging for soda refills without making it clear that is the case. One easy way to do this is to pour from a bottle, or to remind customers of the policy. I rarely complain about prices, but $ 4 for a last-​minute top up of Coke is ridiculous. It’s the sort of nickel and diming that I never understood from restaurants. Nobody is going to get wasted on Coke, but people do really appreciate refills. Why annoy your customers for an extra $ 4 here and there? Other than the refills, prices are about what you would expect for a slightly above average place on Collins.
Your best bet for trendy sushi/​seafood in the neighborhood is Katsuya in the SLS. The interior of the restaurant, service, and food quality are all lightyears ahead of Catch. Then again, if you’re staying at the James and don’t want to walk very far, you could do a lot worse than Catch. Just don’t drive out of the way to go there. It’s not worth it.

I fell in love with Catch immediately!
This place is amazing. and on all levels. The food, staff, and ambience were all top-​notch. It was one of THE BEST dining experiences I have had. EVER.
The food is out of this world. We had crunchy rice cakes and mahi mahi wonton tacos to start. Both were incredibly delicious-​like an orgasmic explosion of flavors. In fact everything we ate here produced similar reactions! Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we had the sautéed snapper with lobster mashed potatoes and truffle fries for dinner. All I can say is. WOW! The snapper was cooked to perfection and the lobster mash was beyond words. truly amazing. The highest quality seafood and ingredients in everything we tried. The truffle fries were addictive-​we couldn’t get enough.
To wrap up this amazing meal, we had the «Hit Me Chocolate Cake». I mean, this was an experience of all the senses. the dessert was stunningly beautiful and the depth of flavor was unparalleled. Hands down-​the best dessert I have ever had.
The staff were also all welcoming, extremely helpful, and very nice. The manager went above and beyond to make sure our evening was perfect. The level of attentiveness was beyond exceptional. They make your feel at home even though you are at one of the most exclusive restaurants in South Beach.
All in all, I can’t recommend this restaurant enough. It is ideal (and very romantic) for a date, or going with a group of friends, or dining with clients and colleagues. I will most definitely return then next time I am in Miami. This place deserves all of the great reviews it has received and much success!

I was there a week ago with one of my client.
I tried to Catch New York before, and this one here just opened not long ago in Catch Miami.
Thought I will go and tried it out.
The location is great, next to The James Hotel Miami
The restaurant have a small outdoor area, few tables, and a mid size space inside and also upstairs, great place for group party.
We ordered the Crispy Shrimp for starter
This dish here is pretty good, similar like the one at P. F Chang.
Another dish we ordered is
Sake Chicken Lettuce
This dish here is pretty good, very tasty.
My main course I ordered Sautéed Snapper
Now this one here is delicious, the fish was so crispy, just perfect
Great place to bring friends or client here
The reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 is, is the waiter is little too aggressive, my client saw someone driving a Ferrari, my client said is a nice car, and the waiter started to telling us a story, at one time, someone pulled up a Ferrari, and the restaurant manager wasn’t impress and told the «customer» to move his car.
To me, this maybe a good story to tell his girlfriend to impress her, but is not a good idea to tell the customer.

Nice location on the Collins strip, we had a nice table on the patio facing the street. Food was very good! The sushi rolls and tuna rice cakes were fresh and delicious. Service was a little off this night (they were understaffed) but they MORE than made up for it with a complimentary round of drinks and dessert along with some extra pretzels and honey mustard butter. I’d come back every visit for the pretzel & honey mustard combo alone. I would drink the butter it’s so good. Trust me.
All in all great restaurant (and cool bathrooms!) — I would recommend it.

Stop! I hope this is the first review of Catch you read because many other reviews require some explanation.
Catch is a place for people who like food; it is about flavor, texture, and taste. All these people who have contributed to Catch’s overall low star rating do others a disservice and deny diners a good meal. Indeed, when people like Andrew Zimmern complain about Unilocalers, it is due to the culinary neophytes who do not appreciate what Catch is.
Now, I had a wonderful experience at Catch (like many of my fellow Elites, which should be noted), and I can honestly say I had one of the best dishes I have had in Miami. As an entrée, I ordered the grilled octopus prepared with bits of Spanish chorizo and micro greens. The texture contrast and flavor that the grilling created in conjunction with the Spanish chorizo flavor was phenomenal! The presentation on the plate further lent itself to the experience by ensuring all pieces if the dish were present in every bite. This is a must try!
In addition to my octopus, I ordered the truffle fries. The people with me first looked at me like I was odd, but they ended up devouring the fries. As a truffle fry fan, I can say that these were some of the best I have had, which was only confirmed by the fact that my friends left me wanting more.
Finally, we ordered a series of deserts. The Key Lime donut was divine, as was some fruit dessert someone at my table ordered. Of particular note was this fake coconut that was constructed with coco powder and had a wonderful balance of flavors. Superb!

We have been wanting to try this place for some time. The head chef was on Top Chef a few years ago so we knew the food would be good. We were right. IT WAS AWESOME. We went for Valentine’s Day and did make a reservation a few weeks in advance, but when we arrived we were sat immediately. When you first walk in, the place looks so small, but they took us upstairs where there were tons of open tables. The service was fantastic from the second we walked in the door until we left. Our waiter was very attentive and nice, anyone who dropped food off explained what it was and offered to refresh drinks or anything we needed.
I absolutely love that they serve things tapas style because there were so many things we wanted to try. We ended up getting 3 appetizers, an entrée, two sides and we were stuffed!
The noteables:
The small pretzels they put on the table were out of this world. I think I ate about 6 of them :/​
Salmon Belly Carpaccio– AMAZING, I will definitely get this next time
Mahi Mahi Wonton Tacos (guacamole, tomatillo, lime) — very small order but SO GOOD!!!
We shared a filet as our entrée which was more the enough
I had the mashed sweet potatoes. very good!
My fiancé had the applewood bacon brussel sprouts– I dont like brussel sprouts but he LOVED them.
I drank the Neptune and it was very yummy
The bad:
Parking was a nightmare. We used the valet at the hotel next door, but since it was Valentine’s Day and there was a lot of construction we ended up waiting 30 minutes for our car.
GREAT, COOL place.

Getting into the restaurant is a little awkward to say the least. One valet lane which is at the hotel entrance which is 100 yards away from the restaurant entrance with no passage through the hotel to the restaurant. This is not good on rainy nights like tonight.
Décor is beautiful. Service was good but not well coached. Not once did the servers get the drinks or the meals to the right places. Nor did anything come out together. This is pretty basic blocking and tackling that every high end restaurant should get right.
To start they give you mini and I mean mini soft pretzels that are delicious. One per person. Good thing we asked for seconds cause my cobia entrée was so small I could have died of mal nutrition if I didn’t have the extra little pretzel. I never complain about portion size. In fact I preach not to expect large portions at fine dinning establishments. But this was just over the line. My cobia was without exaggeration literally the size of a good piece of sushi. I had 2 small forkfuls and it was gone and with absolutely nothing else on the plate I felt ripped off at 31.00. Maybe I was suppose to eat it with chopsticks so it wouldn’t seam as small as it was.
So as I said to the manager who asked me how the food was on the way out, the food was delicious but we are starving and won’t be coming back. So very much like his wait staff that couldn’t find the right places for each dish or drink, the manager couldn’t find right words to say such as here’s my card give us another try and when you do desert or drinks are on us.
So when I have one slice of tuna sashimi, one eel sushi and a cobia entrée that was the size of my piece of eel sushi and my wife had two sushi rolls and a Caesar salad no deserts or coffee and the bill is 150.00. My advice is to go somewhere else to spend your money on dinner.

I really thought this place was quite good. I wanted to try it because I always thought that Hung’s food looked really good during his season on Top Chef. So off we went for our anniversary dinner. This place is primarily (but not exclusively) seafood. And tasty seafood at that. We had the lobster rolls and the crab spaghetti as appetizers. Both were great. The bread on the lobster rolls was superb and the spaghetti was one of those dishes that gets tastier with every bite. They also give you complementary homemade pretzels here with a butter-​mustard sauce. Very tasty.
For entrees, we had the scallops and cauliflower and the snapper with lobster mashed potatoes and a side of bacon brussel sprouts. The scallop dish is what he used to win top chef, and as you may expect, it was quite good. The star of the meal was the snapper dish. It was perfectly cooked and so rich and savory. Really a great dish. The brussel sprouts were good, but probably my least favorite thing we had here.
Dessert was a key lime pie doughnut with coconut ice cream. So tasty.
They have a sushi menu we didn’t even touch here. Be careful because they kind of slyly include a 20% gratuity automatically onto your bill here. Sit outside and watch all the South Beach weirdos wander by as you eat. Good stuff here!

Catch is one of the best new restaurants in town, hands down. Serving up fresh seafood in a variety of different forms — sushi, small plates, bigger entrees, and even a la plancha, with a carefully curated cocktail list to boot, Catch is firing on all cylinders.
Catch’s menu is perfect for sharing dishes among a group (or even just a couple). The sushi rolls and appetizers mostly come with an odd number, so keep that in mind while ordering (depending on your party size, natch).
Some favorite cocktails include the Iris (a grown-​up greyhound), the Zeus (with a fresh, cucumber flavor), and the Fortuna (rum-​based with St. Germain, served over a mound of crushed ice).
My two meals here (thus far) have focused on sharing small plates and sushi, with only a light dip into entrée land. Favorite sushi rolls include the Hellfire (spicy tuna with pear) and the Shorecrest (spicy tuna with salsa verde). The tuna tacos are also phenomenal — fresh tuna chunks loaded in a crunchy wonton shell — delicious! The kampachi crudo with yellowtail and pineapple is also great — very fresh and light.
The crispy shrimp, crunchy rice cakes with tuna tartare, and dungeness crab spaghetti are my favorites from the «hot» appetizer menu. The crispy shrimp have just a touch of spice in the slightly-​sweet sauce they’re bathed in. I’m a sucker for tuna with crispy rice, and Catch’s is outstanding — definitely a must-​order for me! The dungeness crab spaghetti is unique and loaded with bits of fresh crab meat. This tends to be a wee bit salty, so sodium-​phobes watch out!
For sides, you can’t go wrong with the lobster mashed potatoes or the parmesan truffle fries. The bacon brussels sprouts are good, but no where close to the best in town.
Even though you’ll likely be too stuffed for dessert, you should give the bucket (bouquet?) of cookies a shot — a little pail exploding with homemade fried oreos, macaroons (the coconut kind, not French macarons), biscotti and more — there’s a little something for everyone here. The key lime donut is also quite tasty, as is the deconstructed banana split.
But here’s the real kicker about Catch — the prices are shockingly reasonable! Each time I’ve gone, we’ve each gotten 2 rounds of cocktails and left the table absolutely stuffed, yet not spent more than $ 80 per person, tip included! Now that’s just crazy, especially for the location and the quality of the food!
Service is also great — the staff is eager to make sure you have the best dining experience possible. If you’re driving, valet is likely your best option, though there are several parking garages in the surrounding blocks. On a weekend night, however, valet is likely to be just as «cheap» as self-​parking in this area.
Catch is a new player on the South Beach dining scene, and it’s food totally lives up to the hype. A new favorite, for sure!

EXCELLENT! I will be adding this to my beach favorites for sure. Arrived a couple of minutes late to our 7:15 reservation on a Friday night. ***Allow additional time to deal with tourists driving, construction on Collins and to find parking*** We used the valet at the hotel because we were already late and that was a faster option. I got checked in at the front by none other than Mr. Hardy Hill from Big Brother 2. (BB geek here sorry!) Still very hot and I swear it has nothing to do with my 5 star rating.
I requested upstairs seating (thanks Melanie!) although there is no bad seat in the house. The place was still very empty but they were turning a lot of people away citing a long wait time. They have outside seating as well as a downstairs area and upstairs. It seems as if they took over an old small hotel entirely. The downstairs looks like a hotel lobby except it’s filled with a bar and dinner tables and chairs. They also have a prep area downstairs and the bathrooms. The upstairs is darker with very cool lighting and décor. We were the third table to be filled. Because of this it seemed like there was at least a dozen waiters and staff just standing around with nothing to do. The reason they were turning people away (even though initially it looked empty) is that it filled up pretty quickly within the next 20 – 30 minutes and by the time we left the place was just bursting at the seams. I went last week and our waiter said they had only been open for 3 weeks. Well, you could not tell. This looked like a solid Miami Beach staple that had been there for a while and performed WAY better than those that have been there that long! All of the tables have a raised metal lazy Susan right in the middle which I wasn’t a fan of so I took ours out. Service was pretty flawless the entire night.
This is what we had:
Pretzel bread + mustard butter– a perfect start
Catch roll– fresh, hot, cold, delicious crab, salmon and miso honey and topped with a shaved jalapeño? (it sure looked like it!)
Tuna tartare + crunchy rice cakes– a great sensory treat of cold, savory wasabi with a crunch ending.
Ceviche– very citrusy, shrimp and snapper, refreshing and one of the standouts.
Scallops + Cauliflower purée– unexpectedly delicious. Was that cilantro in my cauliflower? the purée has a great consistency with pistachio and a tamarind brown butter.
Dungeness crab spaghetti– tomato, scallion and flying fish roe is just full of flavor and is cooked perfectly. You cannot stop eating it!
Bucket of cookies– chocolate chip cookies, brownies, fried oreos and more. M
Peanut butter cup soufflé– faint!
Simply outstanding. I would just suggest having the tuna tartare BEFORE the catch roll. The catch roll is spicy and numbed most of our tuna tartare experience. Everything was cool, fresh and delicious. We ate everything slowly and just enjoyed bite after bite. Did I mention everything above was for just two of us? The pretzel bread is complimentary and the basket brought only two. I just had to ask for more. It is piping hot and surely laced with crack. It went perfectly with the mustard butter. By the time the scallops came we were sure that we could not fit anything else in but we sure did. J U S T D E L I C I O U S!
Everything was timed perfectly with plenty of people coming by to check on us and make sure we had everything we needed or to clear out the table etc. At one point I had a couple of bites left of the scallops and the spaghetti. At least three people came by to take the plate away and clear the table. Um, I know it looks like we are done but there are still a couple of good bites on those plates. Don’t touch! if that’s not a sign that everything was great, I don’t know what is. Are we sure they had only been open three weeks? It just didn’t seem like it. The only negative to me seemed to be that there is no upstairs bathroom. It’s quite far away. There is an elevator option too. I felt badly because the waiters kept going up and down the stairs balancing full plates. What a workout! We ended with cortaditos. When we complained that they were not hot enough they brought us new ones instantly that were done just right!
As we walked out we could not believe just how crazy packed it was. The place has a great vibe and energy. The music they played was mixed but mostly older 80’s-90’s stuff that I doubt half the people there even recognized. It worked though. Everywhere you looked people seemed to be immensely enjoying themselves. The crowd was all over the place age wise. There was a bachelorette party right in front of me, a couple in their 60’s or so to my right and a couple in their 20’s to my left. Very mixed. Everyone was dressed to the «trendy» nines too. This is not a casual spot (at least not for dinner) so don’t show up in a tee and shorts. It’s definitely an IT spot but an IT spot that truly delivers. It’s not all «looks» like a lot of things on the beach. Welcome to the neighborhood! I am so happy you are here!

We dined here the other night (I believe the first night it opened). We had reservations for 7:15pm and when we showed up we were the only table in the entire restaurant. We were seated downstairs literally like in a doorway. We asked to be seated upstairs where it was MUCH nicer. They told us that they were «fully booked». If we did not have a reservation, I would have left it at that. However, we had a reservation. So what does «fully booked» mean then?! We were all pretty annoyed at that because even if they were fully booked with some magical reservations that we did not know we had to make, we would definitely be in and out before any of those showed up as the restaurant was completely empty.
Before sitting down, a friend of ours ordered a glass of champagne and they opened a brand new bottle. When we all sat down, she decided to just order the bottle. They would not let her get the bottle as they told her that she either needed to order a brand new bottle or order another by the glass. I tried to reason with them as well saying that the restaurant was not full and I’m sure that no one had another glass from the same bottle. I didn’t see why she would not be able to just get the whole bottle. Finally, they were able to give her the bottle. We also ordered a bottle of red wine. It was excellent (a tempranillo from Spain). The wine list was very small but I hope that it is because they just opened. Hopefully they will add more later on.
They brought us this AMAZING bread with equally amazing butter and unfortunately a person at our table had an allergic reaction to the butter. I was a little agitated as the staff basically told her to walk to Walgreens and get medication and that they could not do anything for her. She went into the bathroom and there was hair all over the sink. A slight bit of a disaster but the food did make up for most of the night.
I ordered the spaghetti with crab to start and the scallops as my main course. The waiter informed me that the scallops were what Hung Huynh won season 3 of Top Chef with. Both dishes were excellent. I don’t particularly like scallops but I decided to try them out and I was definitely not disappointed. Both were a must try!!!
The service was pretty good. I was surprised. Request Yoinkel if you can! He was super sweet. You could tell that he really took an interest in serving our table which is hard to find ESPECIALLY in Miami.
They did give us a complimentary dessert because of the hassles that we encountered throughout the night (although I really felt a complimentary dessert was not really sufficient but at least it was a nice gesture).
I definitely know that we will be back as the food was amazing but I think that we will have to come back in a few months when the kinks of the restaurant have been worked out. We will also have to I guess request the upstairs dining room.
Some tips:
* Request Yoinkel as your server
* Request upstairs seating
* Order the scallops and crab with spaghetti

Food and service was exceptional. We loved the sushi rolls and the crispy rice tartar was incredible, a must try if you go. A little pricy on the drinks but overall I would go back again.