SUSHISAMBA Coral Gables

Meh, we came here because we tasted the crispy taquitos from this place during the recent «Taste of the Gables» event that kicked off Coral Gables Restaurant Week. They were pretty amazing — the second favorite thing we sampled at that event, so we decided to come here for dinner on a recent Thursday to have them again.
First, oddly enough, the crispy taquitos this restaurant featured at the «Taste of the Gables» event weren’t on the Coral Gables Restaurant Week menu here. Second, when we ordered them from the regular menu, we found that these small taquitos were priced at $ 6 each and were relatively tasteless when compared to the ones they’d featured at the event.
For starters I had the edamame while my partner had the miso soup, we had 4 of the crispy taquitos, an order of calamari and a tempura roll. For drinks I had a caipirinha and my partner a glass of pinot grigio, we then each had a pisco sour. All this with tax came to $ 101 before gratuity. We both left here content, but weren’t what I’d consider «full» and the food we had was good, but not great or excellent.
One positive was that, when we ordered the tempura roll, the server accidentally gave us a crispy shrimp tempura dish by mistake. When we explained that we received the wrong thing, he apologized, corrected the order and allowed us to consume this $ 17 tempura dish for free. Also, we sat at the bar on this night and were able to watch the playoffs on the flatscreens behind the bar which was a bonus.

Sat at the bar to eat. Only 2 other people at the bar and not too many people in the restaurant (maybe a total of 10). Bartender is slow to take your order and then slow to put the order in. He was just walking around, being inefficient. Not sure if it was his forgetfulness to put the order in, but food took a long long time to come out.
May give this restaurant one more chance.

Best Sunday Brunch I’ve been to in a while! Their bottomless brunch option is worth every penny. I tried the Quinoa pancakes which were delicious as well as the Lychee, Guava, and Coconut Mimosas. I definitely recommend Sushi Samba and can’t wait to go back to try other menu options!

Awesome experience! Great dishes, amazing flavor on the appetizers and rolls, and fresh cuts of sushi! The wagyu beef was an orgasmic experience of transcendental nature!!! Splurge on it!!! The selection of saki is one of the best I’ve seen and the service was top notch! Thank you Emi and Hayes for making the exercise of eating a gourmet journey for an epicure!

Delicious excellent food and service had sea bass which was amazing have to return back very soon.

We did a chef’s choice group meal thing and got a taste of many things. It was all excellent.

Loved the São Paulo and El Topo rolls. We also had the Ribeye Anticuchos and Crispy Taquitos. Everything was delicious! Our waiter, Cory was exceptional!

Amazing!!! Really really tasty and wonderful. The service was nice. I got the menu for brunch! Its worth it 30 $ of good food and good service. The ambiance was chill, low key and nice.
My favourite drink the «mora negra» try it you will love it. Its a good place to have a nice brunch on a Sunday afternoon!!.
This place is so much better than the regular places that you will find in miami beach, specially compared to the hotels. The budget i think is close to 50 $ per person, but it is worth it. No doubt i will come back to this place :)!!

I’ve been to a couple of these over the years but always though it was a bit gimmicky. Maybe the Chicago location is different than this one or I just didn’t have as many novelty items?
Although I did start with tuna tacos! They were good and fun to eat, the side sauce/​foam was great and should be saved to put on other things you might order.
Had a «Waygu» steak. Big disappointment! It was the chewiest piece of meat I’ve ever had. The one fail here at the samba.
Had a couple pieces of Salmon & Hamachi nigiri which were excellent.
One surprise was they had Hamachi Kama. That is the collarbone of the yellowtail that is grilled. You don’t see this often even at traditional Japanese restaurants. It was excellent!
Oh and I forgot the 3 slightly dirty martinis with blue cheese olives. The bartender made them perfectly and the olives were top end!

Very happy with our lunch here. And the inside of the restaurant was pretty empty when we came, so it made for a quick in-​and-​out.
The Peruvian influences are pretty pronounced in the sushi. Many of the options have some sort of aji or a mayonnaise based sauce. I found myself daubing off some of the sauces because it was a bit much for my taste, but I obviously still highly enjoyed the sushi. Very impressed by how fresh the sushi was — this is melt-​in-​your-​mouth type fish.
But two things stood out — the eggplant from the robata grill with Inca corn was really great. Note that the sauce the Inca corn was pretty sweet, which was surprising but not unwelcome.
Also the tempura string beans (which were brought out complimentary because it was on the slow side getting our food) were stellar. And the truffle aioli for dipping the string beans was ridiculously, ridiculously, good. Order something here that has the truffle aioli.
Had excellent service from Michael.
The only meaningful downside is the food here is quite expensive.

Loved this place! It serves a combination of Peruvian, Brazilian and Japanese food, I have been to all 3 countries and know that they are on target with the authentic flavors demonstrated in each cuisine through their menu. Could not order everything, but settled on the Sao Paulo roll with truffle oil. It is a combination of tuna, salmon, scallop and white fish, an explosion of taste with every bite. Very well done! Next was the Sea Bass anticucho, this was soft, juicy, flavorful, exceptionally cooked and served. Our main course was the Brazilian Moqueca! Like Spanish Paella, BUT Brazilian style. Cooked with dende oil and coconut oil, lot’s of seafood around a mound of very flavorful rice. Dessert is a must here too! The Samba split is a concoction of dulce de leche ice cream, caramel-​salted popcorn bits, caramelized bananas and berries, just wished there would have been more of it as I was sharing!!! Must also congratulate these folks on the service provided, our waiter was knowledgeable, had great recommendations and was very attentive without overdoing it!!! Sat on the front porch area because it was really cold inside, no problem though because it was a lovely night!

Great sushi, slow service. Recommendation would be the sushi samba roll and the coral gables roll.

Best sushis I’ve had so far. It doesn’t taste typical Japanese though, its more mix with Brazilian and Japanese which makes sushi and seafood dishes uniquely tasty !

The Sushi here is very respectable, the presentation is gorgeous and the servers are always checking on you. The place is huge and that’s probably why some people feel its always empty. It’s not Naoe or Zuma, but it’s a very good option in Coral Gables.

I know downtown Coral Gables has a lot of choices for lunch but you will not be disappointed here.
There house green salad with carrots, beets, and more was perfectly seasoned and super fresh. I also ordered the Hamachipeño roll which is terrific !
Mark the manager is very professional and personable and Elizabeth my server incredible.
I will return soon!

We liked this a lot. The service was great and the food tasty. The rolls we had were a tad small but very good. The quinoa side wad really great. We enjoyed the roasted pepper appetizer. Nice to sit out on the deck.

I am surprised at the reviews. The service and food are great, it was a nice end to my trip in Miami. I got the taquitos, caipirinha, viva samba, hamachi kama and purple potato. Everything was amazing. I especially loved the purple potato, my gosh! They did tell me to get the Peruvian corn, but it was sweet and not that great, they let me change it out without giving much fuss… and I got the purple potato. I would try all that I got, they were the best options on the menu, as they were advised by two of the staff and manager. I will definitely be back when I visit the 305 again:)

I went to Happy Hour with my friends last night at Sushi Samba and it was such a lovely experience. Chef David was very attentive and took an active role in making sure we enjoyed our meal. The food was amazing. We ordered steak, gyoza, and fish tacos. I’m usually very, very picky about fish but these tacos were to die for! The gyoza and steak were also amazing.
We left in a hurry to make it to an event and I unknowingly left my iPhone behind. When I came back hours later the manager (I believe his name was Mark) had it safety stored away. What a relief! Years ago, I left my phone at another restaurant for just a moment and it was stolen by a waiter immediately.
Sushi Samba has great food, attentive service, and is a place I can trust. What more can you ask for?

Amazingg food. Literally i cant wait to go back .best sushi ever !! N chocolate banana cake is a must!!! Cant wait to go back! Great service and staff!!!

Miami Spice is a wonderful time of the year. My coworkers & I were eager to try Sushi Samba since it made the top 5 list for restaurants in the Gables. It was a group of 5 girls on a Friday around 12:45p.m. The restaurant was quite empty which makes us assume that we will be in and out. Boy were we wrong!
Our appetizer came out rather quickly and we were impressed. I had the chicken meatballs which were good and I tasted the avocado as well which I loved the sauce in it. 3 of my coworkers received their entrée shortly right after. Everything went down hill from there. The sliders I ordered took over 75 minutes and that’s b/​c we had to remind the server that my food had not arrived if not he would have never noticed or asked. Once I got the sliders they were definitely not what I expected. The beef was full of fat, totally disgusting. The desserts were terrible too.
All in all it was a horrible experience and we will not be returning. We did try talking to the manager but he/​she was not available. Horrible service, horrible food, horrible desserts.

If I could give this restaurant negative ratings I definitely would, like –3 stars. I came here with my coworkers to enjoy the Miami Spice menu that sounded good. It was also rated top 5 restaurants for Miami Spice in Coral Gables. So obviously we were all pumped. It’s Friday around 12:50pm the restaurant is empty and we chose to sit outside to enjoy the nice view. The hostess did not give us the Miami Spice menu so we had to ask the server.
The server came by to say hi to the table, took our drink orders, made some suggestions and left for a bit. We finally placed our order 20 – 25 minutes later. The appetizers came out pretty quickly. We had the TSUKUNE (chicken meatballs) which were nicely presented and the avocado. The avocado shouldn’t be an appetizer item, it was not appealing at all. About 15 minutes later 3 out of 5 entrees came out. My coworkers mention that their food was ok nothing to brag out. 15 minutes later neither I nor my other coworker had gotten our food… 30 minutes later NOTHING… the server never came to the table to check if we had all received our food or if everything was ok. I had to flag him down to inform him that after an hour and 15 minutes we had not received our STEAMED BUN ‘BAURU’. When we did received it what a DISAPPOINTMENT. The beef was full of fat and barely any meat, the chips were soggy and tasted like grease.
The server apologized for the wait and offered a free dessert. At this point we did not want the free dessert. Just the check. He did not offer to comp our food so we asked for a manager. The manager was not available so we spoke to the Corporate administrator.
The whole point of Miami Spice is for restaurants to entice the customer to come try their food and to want to come back. Sushi Samba FAILED. Definetly not coming back even if the food is free.

Compliments to the Chef! We had a great experience here! The chef came over to greet us and we asked him to chose some of his favorite sushi dishes for us, he did not disappoint! We will definitely be back. The drinks were amazing as well — all around 5 stars!

Sushisamba is great! First off, the restaurant is huge, so you would rarely have to wait for a table. The service was great, nothing to complain about. The hostess initially seated us with this tiny table and I told her I wanted a bigger one, she was happy to accommodate me and I loved that. We started off with some unfiltered sake (which tasted great and it lasted throughout the whole dinner), then we got the yellowtail taquitos as appetizers and they were great! They were full of flavors and a lot of filling. I’d recommend it! then we ordered 4 rolls of sushi including Samba Coral Gables which is these little beads of crispy rice, which was not bad, but maybe not my cup of tea because of the sweet chilli sauce, then we got the El Poto and Viva Samba (both are flavorfully delicious! I love anything pepper!) but the Umami is my favorite, it’s so good!)
Honestly Sushisamba might seem a little bit touristy, I think that’s why it took us a while to finally try it out, but it was worth it. I really liked it!

I finally made it to Sushi Samba after rebelling against it for years. I always thought the menu was way too pricey for the food you were buying, and boy was I correct.
I finally gave in and wanted to check out the place for Miami Spice. I figured that’s the only time I will get the best bang for my buck while dining at Sushi Samba. I opted in for the tuna tiradito, salmon entrée and banana chocolate cake. Let’s run through each item, shall we:
Tuna appetizer: it was good. That is all, just good. You got 4 tiny slices of tuna on a dish the size of my palm. It was tasty, but nothing memorable.
Salmon entrée: this was actually quite good. Nice flavor with a unique cauliflower couscous and Japanese eggplant. Nice flavor and an original dish I haven’t seen before. Portion was small.
Banana chocolate cake: in the words of my dinner guest «this tastes like it’s burnt». There is a weird aftertaste to it that doesn’t mix well. I think it was good, but not what my palette was craving.
Overall, way too pricey for such small portions. The portions were great and left me feeling light and comfortable and not too stuffed, but they need to lower their prices.
I might go back for happy hour, one day. Not any time soon.

This is probably one of my favorite restaurants in town. I’ve come here a couple times, and the time that sticks out the most was Valentines Day. Mainly because I’m a little bit of a romantic but also because the service was phenomenal. The fact that it was a busy holiday, reservations only kind of night, and the server and manager made us feel like we were the only people in the restaurant.
The ceviche is a must, the grilled chicken, seafood platter, taquitos, drinks… I could go on. Try something new, or stick to the classics, you can’t go wrong.

For some time, I have used Unilocal in search of the best restaurants based off of the reviews of others. I rarely ever write my own reviews, but I am compelled to do so now. This establishment has turned into a part of my weekly routine and I will explain why. Everything about this place is amazing from the second you walk into it’s doorless entryway separating the interior from the outdoor seating. From your initial greeting to receiving your check, every step of the way is exactly how a restaurant should treat their customers. The menu is spot on with a great variety of dishes that I am not familiar with and could probably not pronounce if it was spelled out to me (which I love), and the ambiance from the lighting and light lounge-​style music is tasteful and relaxing, whether you are by yourself or with a group of people.
The staff is very attentive and knowledgeable of the menu items, especially Emi. If I want the best service, I ask for her. I always trust her recommendations on the menu items, as I have been proven time and again that she has very good taste in food pairings. The manager is a great guy and cares a lot about how his patrons feel about their meal. You can observe this personally as you notice him visiting each table to ensure his patron’s meal is being enjoyed.
The location is perfectly situated in the heart of Coral Gables and from what I have observed is usually the last restaurant to close on the weekends. If you want a delicious meal and unparalleled service, do not skip out on visiting this establishment, day or night!

This is a good sushi place right in the heart of Coral Gables. The food is really good, especially the taquitos, which I cannot seem to get enough of and have basically become the only thing I eat whenever I go.
The service is great! Everyone is really nice and the food always come out in time.
I also like their drinks and their mochi dessert! Very yummy.

I went with my daughter last Friday. The cucumber drink was so good. Very refreshing and light. I could have had a few of those but I was driving. We order the shrimp tempura, the viva roll and the chicken skewers. To be honest I didn’t like the roll. Very average. Everything else was good. The ambience was nice, they have a live DJ. I would return for hour.

Great sushi place in beautiful Coral Gables. Be careful sitting outside because there are lots of mosquitoes. They are super accommodating though, and have bug spray of you need it!
The samba coral gables is delicious!!! A little spicy but just wonderful. The sasa roll is wonderful too.
This restaurant is in the Westin Colonade so if you are staying there, be sure to eat there !

What a team this place has. They all know there food. Great service. And what a wonderful Manger tonight .
Will came back just for he great staff.

I had brunch here on a Sunday with a friend. The food was absolutely great. Who knew they had brunch?!
The resturant is very nice. I did think it was a bit weird to have to walk to the hotel part of the building for the restrooms, but the good food made up for that. Ha! I plan to come back again!