Fine Dining in Surfside at The Surf Club Restaurant

The Surf Club Restaurant is Thomas Keller's first restaurant in Florida and one of the most old-fashioned fine dining rooms in Miami, in the best sense. It sits inside The Surf Club, the 1930 Surfside club that was once the playground of Miami society, and it serves Continental cuisine: Caesar salad mixed tableside, lobster thermidor, beef Wellington, coconut cake. In the 2026 Florida guide it holds one Michelin star, and unlike most starred rooms it serves an à la carte menu, so you can order three courses or just a steak.

The Surf Club opened in 1930, in the middle of the Great Depression, as a private club built by tire tycoon Harvey Firestone and designed by Miami architect Russell Pancoast. The Miami Design Preservation League describes it as the playground of the rich and famous in the 1930s, and the line the restaurant still quotes on its homepage sums up the mood: When I die, I don't want to go to heaven; I want to go to The Surf Club.

The original building is a designated historic structure, so when the site was redeveloped it was restored rather than replaced. It reopened in 2017 with a Four Seasons hotel, residences, a private club and restaurants, and Keller chose it for his first property in Florida. The restaurant celebrates the club's swinging '50s and '60s with a menu he describes as Continental cuisine interpreted for today's guests.

The renovation, completed after a full restoration of the original clubhouse in 2016, added three 12-story glass towers on the beach side, kept within Surfside's height limits, around the 1930 building. Preservationists, town leaders and the club's remaining members backed the plan, according to the Miami Design Preservation League, which is why the restaurant still sits inside Pancoast's original building rather than in one of the new towers. Walk through the restored public spaces before dinner, a reminder that this was a members' club long before it was a hotel.

The menu reads like a supper club from another era, cooked to Keller's standard. Start with the classic Caesar salad, prepared tableside for $28, or Oysters Rockefeller for $35. A jumbo lump crab cake with spicy mayonnaise is $34, New England clam chowder with razor clams and smoked bacon is $32, and hand-cut steak tartare is $38. Snack on deviled eggs at $5 each or French onion dip with kettle chips for $24 while you decide.

The signature main is Maine lobster thermidor at $92. For two, the kitchen offers Dover sole meunière from the coast of Brittany at $145, a roasted Crystal Valley Farms chicken with thyme jus at $88, and a prime beef short rib Wellington with sauce Périgourdine at $160. Steaks run from the True Ribeye at $125 to a $245 New York strip from Snake River Farms, a cross between Japanese Wagyu and Black Angus that serves one or two.

Pasta is generous here: fettuccine Alfredo with black winter truffle is $55, and the braised beef and forest mushroom lasagne is $46. Sides such as creamed spinach, cauliflower gratin and steak fries with seasoned salt are $18 each. Save room for pastry chef Nii-Ayi Evans's lemon meringue tart or coconut cake, the desserts the restaurant names as signatures.

Caviar is served with traditional garnishes, with Ossetra at $185 for 30 grams and Golden Ossetra at $225. The wine list was built by Michel Couvreux, beverage director for Keller's restaurants and a former head sommelier at Per Se and Le Bernardin, and it covers the major regions of the old and new world. The cocktail list nods to the cocktail culture of the property's past.

If a full dinner is more than you planned, the bar is the move. The restaurant accepts walk-ins at the bar and in part of the dining room, so a cocktail, the Caesar and the crab cake can be an unhurried evening without a reservation.

Dinner is served six nights a week. On Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday the kitchen runs from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm, and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5:30 pm to 10 pm. The restaurant is closed on Monday. Book through Resy, or call (305) 768-9440. Weekend tables in season go fastest, so a Tuesday or Wednesday is the easier night.

The room is run by general manager George Totari, who came from Washington's Cranes Spanish Kaiseki and earlier ran operations at the Michelin-starred Xiquet. Chef de cuisine Daniel Donado joined Keller's team in 2020 as a chef de partie and worked his way up to lead the kitchen. Gift certificates in $250 and $500 amounts are sold online, a useful present for anyone who loves a classic dining room.

The restaurant shares the property with the Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club, between Miami Beach and Bal Harbour. Arrive early and walk out to the beach behind the club, then follow the sand north along Surfside's low-rise shoreline, one of the quieter stretches of beach in Miami-Dade County.

Back on Collins Avenue, Surfside's small downtown along Harding Avenue has cafés and neighborhood shops, and Bal Harbour Shops is a short drive north if you want to window-shop. Time the walk so you return as the sun sets behind the club, then settle in for a 7 pm table.

Address: The Surf Club Restaurant, at 9011 Collins Ave, Surfside, FL 33154, inside The Surf Club next to the Four Seasons. Phone: (305) 768-9440. Hours: dinner Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm; Thursday to Saturday 5:30 pm to 10 pm; closed Monday. Recognition: one Michelin star, 2026.

Menu: à la carte Continental; lobster thermidor $92, Dover sole for two $145, short rib Wellington for two $160, True Ribeye $125, sides $18. Caviar: from $185 for 30 grams. Booking: Resy or phone; walk-ins at the bar and part of the dining room. Gift cards: $250 and $500. Chef: Thomas Keller, with chef de cuisine Daniel Donado.