Sushi by Scratch Miami

The Restaurant

Sushi by Scratch Restaurants Miami occupies a converted house on Charles Avenue, a side street tucked behind Main Highway, with no signage and a deliberately speakeasy-style entry that opens onto a dim foyer where guests are met with a complimentary cocktail before the doors to the counter open. Inside, ten seats sit in a single line facing the chefs, who work in clear sight for the entire seventeen-course service. The room was awarded a Michelin star almost immediately after opening, an unusual recognition speed for any new sushi restaurant in the United States.

The Sushi by Scratch concept — built originally by chef Phillip Frankland Lee and his team in Los Angeles — runs an omakase that departs from edomae orthodoxy. The seventeen pieces of nigiri are constructed with house-aged fish, finishing salts, and an arsenal of toppings that read more like fine dining than traditional sushi: smoked uni with caviar; blue crab with salt-cured egg yolk; A5 wagyu nigiri torched at the counter and finished with truffle. Each piece is placed individually, by the chef, on the guest's stone slab — a one-to-one delivery that turns the meal into a sequence of small conversations.

The format is $185 per person, plus a 20% service charge, with two pairing options: a five-pour beverage flight ($85, mixing sake, cocktails, and beer) and a sake-only six-pour ($110). Three seatings each evening (5pm, 7:15pm, 9:30pm) keep the room at exactly ten covers and the pacing tight. For Coconut Grove visitors looking for the most concentrated Michelin experience in the neighbourhood — and for solo diners specifically — Sushi by Scratch is unmatched: a counter format in which eating alone is not just acceptable but optimal.