Maple & Ash
Restaurant · Park West
699 NE 1st Ave, Miami, FL 33132
"Maple & Ash is a performative restaurant that puts on a terrible show. “I don’t give a f*@k” is the name of their $225 tasting menu, but it feels like the steakhouse’s philosophy. The Chicago transplant landed in Downtown’s Miami Worldcenter armed with multi-themed rooms featuring giant chandeliers, candelabras, and a menu that curses like a rebellious tween. It seems to care very much about looking cool. But instead of edgy, this steakhouse comes off as try-hard and greedy. Maple & Ash desperately tries to impress you with the illusion of luxury—things like free chips and caviar, bubbling seafood towers, panoramic views, and complimentary cocktails. But the chips are stale, crustaceans are drowning in salty chili oil, that welcome cocktail tastes like baby tears, and the “view” faces a giant bowling alley. Their baked and loaded potatoes are pureed into white clumps laced with stringy short rib, and the tough sweetbreads could double as stress balls. Then there’s the upselling. It starts with an $85 cocktail and doesn’t stop until you’ve declined every caviar blini, extra steak sauce, dessert wine, and espresso thrown at you. video credit: Virginia Otazo video credit: Virginia Otazo video credit: Virginia Otazo video credit: Virginia Otazo video credit: Virginia Otazo Pause Unmute Some reservations are exiled to the crowded pink bar. The lucky ones sit in the main room eating leaky agnolotti and chewy steaks on white tablecloths, next to men with wedding ring tan lines and their dates. Quasi-famous people and folks with metal credit cards have the privilege of dining under a palm tree chandelier in front of the kitchen. Servers will attempt to charm you with free stuff. But it tastes awful. And the freebies don’t make up for the aggressive upselling, or the salt-swollen hands and deflated bank account you wake up to the next morning. Dirty words, champagne sabers, and caviar don’t impress a city with a long list of clubstaurants like Miami. To survive, Maple & Ash should give more Fs about the food and treat people less like ATMs. Food Rundown Fire-Roasted Seafood Tower Their cheapest tower is $140 and comes with one shriveled oyster, one scallop, one limp shrimp, a crab claw, half a mealy lobster, and a few clams. It’s all swimming in chili oil so salty you’ll ask them to leave the water pitcher. In an unwelcome twist, they dump even saltier pasta into the oil. PlayMute video credit: Virginia Otazo Fork & Knife Caesar Salad You’ll only need to lift your fork a few times to finish this tiny salad. It tastes like it came from a grocery store kit, and no knife is needed. PlayMute video credit: Virginia Otazo Pillows Of Love When you stab the agnolotti with your fork, it hocks a ricotta loogie from its salty, undercooked pasta body before collapsing on the prongs. photo credit: Hass and Hass Classic Ribeye Surprisingly, not salty. But the $6-$12 accompanying sauces you’re pushed to order are. And the steak is tough even when cooked medium rare. PlayMute video credit: Ryan Pfeffer I Don’t Give A F*ck Tasting Menu This tasting menu is $225 per person and changes at the whim of the kitchen, but usually involves an appetizer, the atrocious seafood tower, steak, fish, a side, and dessert. These dishes are available a la carte. So if you want to be in charge of your own terrible destiny, go that route instead." - Virginia Otazo
"Opened in 2015 in the Gold Coast near Morton’s and Gibsons, this lavishly built steakhouse paired a reverent attitude with a playful, consumer-first approach to fine dining—centering on steaks while rejecting old rules. It requires reservations and has expanded into South Beach, Miami earlier this year. The operation has weathered an acrimonious split with former investors and related litigation, reorganizing under a reformed company and pursuing further expansion, including a potential space in New York." - Ashok Selvam
"Chef Danny Grant’s opulent Chicago steakhouse, Maple & Ash is known for its opulent decor and extravagance from its giant crystal chandeliers to its “I Don’t Give a F*@k” tasting menu for $225 to its 61 page wine and cocktail menu (that includes a $7,000 Port, and $85 Old Fashioned, and a “splash” of Louis XIII cognac — there’s nothing subtle about this restaurant. Fortunately, Maple & Ash has the goods to back all this pomp and circumstance up: Its Chicago flagship earned a Michelin star for its wood-fired steaks and fresh seafood. If you want to ball on a budget, check out the Tower Hour from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., where you can nab a seafood tower for $45, $3 oysters, and a $15 martini." - Laine Doss
"Chef Danny Grant brought his Chicago concept to Downtown’s Miami World Center with a pricy, theatrical steakhouse service. The restaurant is best known for its quoted tasting menu, "I Don’t Give a F*@k," a $225-per-person chef’s choice that can include wagyu beef, fire-roasted shellfish, and more; the decadent experience continues with the restaurant’s famous towers of seafood, ice cream sundaes, and even espresso martinis." - Laine Doss
"Opening March 13 at the Miami Worldcenter, the newcomer — a two-story, 22,000-square-foot venue the group calls their “largest and boldest project yet” — promises “unrestrained luxury” through wood-fired, dry-aged porterhouses, wagyu beef carpaccio, veal sweetbreads, fire-roasted seafood towers and more, and will offer the provocative “I Don’t Give a F*@k” tasting menu where diners allow the chefs to control the evening. The opening comes despite investors suing the owners over alleged misuse of $7.6 million in Payment Protection Plan (PPP) funds; when asked about the lawsuit, a group representative said, "We have no comment on the pending lawsuit. Our focus remains on our restaurant concepts, our guests and the upcoming [Miami] opening." At the helm is chef Danny Grant, who notes: “When we developed [the concept], 10 years ago, in Chicago, there was no shortage of steakhouses there either,” and adds, “My background comes from fine dining, so when we were developing the brand as a wood-fired steakhouse, we thought, let’s take some of the things that are amazing about going to a steakhouse, and then let’s eliminate some of the things that are a little dated.” The opulent dining room is designed to feel transporting: “We wanted the restaurant to feel transporting — like you’re stepping into a new world,” says Grant. “It’s over the top in design and feel. When you walk into the restaurant, it feels like we’re welcoming you into our home.” Interiors are covered in luxury fabrics and candlelit tables and are anchored by the Upside Palm, a glittering chandelier resembling the area’s iconic palm trees. Unique to the Miami location are intimate “nooks,” including Bar Bocuse (a cozy space for sampling caviar and cocktails) and Petit Bocuse (where diners can interact with the chefs)." - Erin Perkins
