Phil C.
Yelp
* 5 star food, ambience and service
* Basque and Mediterranean cuisine highlighting San Sebastien
* Elegant fine dining with an extensive wine list
* Some dishes are amazing
* May be the best new Spanish restaurant in Miami
* Plan on $100-200 per person plus wine
* Valet parking is $15
So why not 5 stars? I'm a wine conniseur so when I asked to pay corkage to bring a wine from my cellar for dinner I was disappointed that the answer the answer was no. I don't care if the fee is $100. I have bottles I've saved for a decade that I want to enjoy with great food. OK, it's their policy, only allowed for lunch. So I then went to look for the wine list online, there is none online. OK so I agreed to figure it out when I get there. When I arrived at Zeru I took a look at some wines displayed in a case between the entrance and bar area. They were a beautiful selection including Vega Sicilia Unico, Petrus, Latour, Haut Brion, some bottles costing many thousands of dollars. I was shocked to see them sitting in a non temperature controlled display case. Imagine spending thousands of dollars for a wine that is not stored properly and degraded in time. I don't understand why a restaurant that is so beautiful, has such great food, has spent millions of dollars on construction would allow this. So that's why I had to take away a star. I hope they address that.
Food 5 stars.
Nearly every dish was outstanding. You start with an amuse bouche of Watermelon with vinegar and salt that is way better than it sounds. The best way to experience the menu is to order about 4-5 dishes per person. The Pintxos that are listed as 4 or 6 pieces can be ordered as only two pieces to allow you to try many things, which is what we did and I highly recommend. The pata negra and parmesan croquettes are a crowd pleaser, crispy outside, a savory béchamel like filling inside with scrumptious ham and cheese. The mussel confit croquettes might be a little too fishy if you're not a mussels fan but we enjoyed them. The Bonito tuna, anchovies and avocado montaditos are a must have. Don't worry if you don't like anchovies, Zeru uses the best ingredients and the anchovies here are considered among the best in the world, Don Bocarte, not like others you may have had. If you're a bacalao lover you will want to try the black cod stuffed piquillo peppers, they are several notches above any bacalao you may have had before. The bluefin tuna tartar with black truffles was outstanding. Out waiter raved about the Tudela Artichokes with Idiazabel and pate negra, they were tasty.
Do at least order a half order ($40) of the Pata Negra Platter. It comes with four pieces of perfect pan con tomate along with a generous amount of perfectly sliced melt in your mouth cinco jotas. Most people don't get excited about vegetables but the vegetables with wild mushrooms here are prepared in a Josper grill and are a delicious way to stay healthy. I am a fan of Socarrat so we ordered the wild baby squid and prawns Socarrat in squid ink. My partner would have liked a little more crusty Socarrat in the pan but it was still delicious. Last but not least you MUST order the Manchego fondant for dessert. It is more of a savory dish, but if you try it you will insist on returning to have it again, I promise.
The wine list is presented on a tablet, is extensive, and organized very well. You can search by country, region, pairings, wine type, varietal or on a world map, and you can delve into details about the selection. Wine markups are about two to three times retail prices on average. It is quite a global selection, not just Spain, with Napa well represented with Insignia ($570), Peter Michael Au Paradis ($490), The Mascot ($400), Lewis Cab ($385, the Reserve I hope for that price), but you can find some simple wines under $100, give or take.
Hopefully they will reconsider their corkage policy for dinner to respect those of us with wine cellars and not let their trophy wine bottles sit in an unrefrigerated cabinet. With those minor details Zeru would truly live up to the Basque translation of their name, which mean "heaven".