Miami Spice turns 25 this year, and its return on August 1 usually means one thing for people who already live in Brickell: a good excuse to go back to the restaurant you keep meaning to revisit, now priced a little friendlier for two months. That's the normal script. This year's Brickell lineup doesn't follow it.
Look at who's actually running the freshest offers on the neighborhood's list and a different pattern shows up. The restaurants asking you to try them at a discount right now aren't the ones with a decade of goodwill behind them. They're the ones that opened this year, or barely last year, still building the reputation everyone else already has.
The newest names are the ones with something to prove
Seia, the Italian restaurant and private club perched atop 830 Brickell, opened its doors in March 2026 under the Bastion Collection and OKO Group. Five months in, it's already running a Miami Spice menu: a $40 three-course lunch with an optional wine pairing, or a $65 three-course dinner with charcoal-grilled artichokes, tagliolini al limone, and red wine-braised short rib on the list.
The Mexican, on Brickell Key, opened even more recently. The Dallas import from Monterrey-born entrepreneur Roberto González Alcalá served its first Miami plates on April 9, 2026, and by August it's making its Miami Spice debut too, offering a $40 lunch and $65 dinner Tuesday through Friday, with aguachiles, morita marlin tacos, and enchiladas suizas standing in for the wagyu tomahawks the Dallas flagship is known for.
Amazónico, the Madrid-born concept from Sandro Silva and Marta Seco that made its U.S. debut in Brickell this year, rounds out the trio. It's a new addition to this year's Spice program as well, with a dinner menu built around hamachi croquette, salmon tiradito, and a 48-hour slow-braised beef short rib.
None of these three restaurants existed when Miami Spice ran its 2025 season. All three are on this year's list.
| Restaurant | Opened | Miami Spice 2026 Offer |
|---|---|---|
| Seia (830 Brickell Plz.) | March 2026 | $40 three-course lunch, $65 three-course dinner |
| The Mexican (601 Brickell Key Dr.) | April 2026 | $40 lunch, $65 dinner, Tuesday through Friday |
| Amazónico (800 Brickell Ave.) | Earlier this year | Dinner menu new to the program for 2026 |
Eighteen months from opening night to established regular
Claudie offers a preview of where this year's newcomers are likely headed. The French Mediterranean restaurant from Riviera Dining Group opened at 1101 Brickell Ave in February 2025, and in the time since, it has become one of the neighborhood's harder reservations to land, known as much for its lemon-tree terrace and tableside gazpacho as for the crowd it pulls on a Thursday night. This year it's running its own Spice menu, a $40 weekday lunch or $65 dinner, Sunday through Thursday.
Eighteen months is roughly how long it took Claudie to go from opening-week curiosity to a restaurant Brickell residents already treat as an institution. If that timeline holds for Seia, The Mexican, and Amazónico, the restaurants offering the biggest discount right now may be the ones you'll be fighting for a table at by next spring.
The old guard is still on the list, just playing a different role
Brickell's longer-running restaurants haven't stepped back from Spice this year. Hutong, known for its Northern Chinese menu and one of the more theatrical dining rooms in the neighborhood, is offering a $35 lunch and $60 dinner, with dim sum, Peking duck, and ma la chili prawns on the table. Nusr-Et, the Turkish steakhouse built around wagyu cuts and tableside theater, is running a $40 lunch and $65 dinner, plus a $110 Reserve tier that sits well above the $95 baseline most restaurants are using for this year's new premium option. MAMO, the Italian spot with roots in SoHo, is the rare Brickell restaurant offering both lunch and dinner Spice menus seven days a week.
These are restaurants that don't need Spice to fill a room. They're using it to remind regulars what's on the full menu, or in Nusr-Et's case, to charge more for the version of the experience diners actually want. That's a different use of the same program than what the newest arrivals are doing with it.
Twelve years didn't guarantee a seat at the table
Not every long-running name made it to this year's list, or to this year at all. PM Fish & Steak House, the 200-seat Argentine steakhouse tucked into the One Broadway complex, closed quietly after 12 years in business, with no announcement to longtime diners. Named after Puerto Madero, the waterfront district in Buenos Aires, it was the only U.S. location for its parent company, which continues to operate several restaurants in Mexico. Its last visible activity, a November 2024 Yelp review and a December 2024 Instagram post, came and went without fanfare, and the closure itself followed not long after.
A dozen years of business didn't protect PM from disappearing without warning. That's worth holding next to the enthusiasm around this year's new openings. Brickell's restaurant scene adds names quickly, but it loses them just as quietly, and neither age nor reputation guarantees a restaurant will still be there next year.
How to actually use the next two months
Miami Spice runs through September 30, which leaves about seven weeks from today. A few things worth knowing before you book:
- The days each restaurant offers Spice vary more than people expect. The Mexican is Tuesday through Friday only. Claudie is Sunday through Thursday. Seia and MAMO run daily. Check before you plan a Saturday night around any one of these.
- If you're going to spend more than the standard $65 dinner, know what you're paying for. The new Reserve tier starts around $95 citywide, but Nusr-Et's version runs to $110 with a welcome glass of Champagne and a choice of filet mignon, New York strip, or butter-poached lobster.
- The newest restaurants on this list are still finding their footing. That's not a knock. It means service, pacing, and even parts of the menu may shift over the next few months as each one settles in, which is part of what makes trying them now more interesting than waiting.
Brickell's food scene doesn't hold still for long. This year's Spice list is as good a snapshot as any of a neighborhood that adds new names faster than it can build reputations for them, and loses old ones faster than most residents notice.
If Brickell is more than a good meal to you, whether you're weighing a move here or thinking about what your next chapter in the neighborhood looks like, Jonathan Garcia knows this market the way a longtime resident knows which restaurant just opened and which one quietly closed. Let's connect.