Brasserie Laurel

If you’re a sauce person with a particular interest in French fine dining, Brasserie Laurel will deliver dishes that showcase a mastery in saucery. Just don’t expect an actual laid-back Brasserie experience. The very formal restaurant inside the perpetually under construction Miami Worldcenter looks like it was designed by someone who wears a three-piece suit to sleep. But if you’re just here for the food, it won’t disappoint. The pork collar sits on a shiny, crimson pepper sauce infused with guava—a beautiful color we’d use for hair dye, nail polish, or to replicate a murder scene. The steak bavette comes in a faultless bordelaise sauce, and the parisian gnocchi is piled on a typhoon of buttery goodness. So maybe don’t come here for a fun dinner, but do come for perfectly executed French food with hints of local Miami ingredients throughout.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Sofía Grad/Ariete Hospitality Group

Parisian Gnocchi

These toasty, velvety, buttery puffs are like edible Egyptian cotton sheets. They’re topped with fried leeks thin as dental floss for a little crunch. It’s the kind of heavy dish that warrants buying thousand thread count sheets for the nap you’ll want to take after.

photo credit: FujiFIlmGirl

Foie Gras

Think of it as a French take on chicken and waffles, only with foie instead of fried chicken, canelé instead of waffle, and a tangy berry reduction instead of syrup. The best way to eat it is to combine everything in a single forkful and pretend you’re in Paris having a delicious bite before catching a matinee.

photo credit: FUJIFILMGIRL

Escargot

The puff pastry to escargot ratio is accurately calculated to have just enough buttered pastry for each herby snail. Is this the royal equivalent of a bowl of cereal?

photo credit: Sofía Grad/Ariete Hospitality Group

Grilled Pork

One of the best cuts of pork we’ve ever had on top of one of the best sauces we’ve ever had. Order this.

photo credit: Sofía Grad/Ariete Hospitality Group

Wagyu Steak Bavette

The steak, while great, is really only here as a tool to help mop up the delightful bordelaise sauce it comes with.

photo credit: Sofía Grad/Ariete Hospitality Group

Calabaza Mille-Feuille

More like a trois-feuille instead of mille, this dessert is light and has a lemony punch. We only wish there were more feuilles for texture so it eats less like a raw merengue.