Los Fuegos Friendsgiving Dinner: $129 Sunday Asado at Faena

Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann, at 3201 Collins Avenue inside the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, runs a Sunday Asado that works as a ready-made Friendsgiving lunch. Every Sunday from 12 pm to 4 pm, the restaurant serves a Grand Parrillada of flamed meats, fish, seafood and sides, followed by a buffet-style dessert spread, for $129 per person. The Faena's own event page describes it as a meal for dining with friends and family, which is exactly the point.

Francis Mallmann is the Argentine chef known for cooking over open fire, and the restaurant's page says his style was shaped by the landscape around Lago Moreno in Patagonia. At Los Fuegos, that approach comes through in a Patagonian fire dome and a menu built around grilled meat and seafood. The setting is the Faena Hotel, with a poolside veranda terrace where live music often plays, and the hotel brings the glamour that the Faena District is known for.

For a Friendsgiving, the Sunday Asado is the format to choose. Instead of ordering a la carte, the table receives the parrillada with skirt steak, slow-cooked hanging prime ribeye and other flamed meats, plus fish and seafood, all served to share. The dessert spread is set up buffet style, so the group can graze and talk long after the grill has gone quiet.

The asado is $129 per person, and prices exclude tax and service charges. A beverage package is $65 per person, with a two-hour limit, which suits a group that wants wine with the meal without counting glasses. Add-ons include a 9-ounce skirt steak for $65, tiger prawns for $45 and Australian lamb for $75, so a table can upgrade the parrillada with one or two extra plates for the middle of the table.

Lunch is the secret advantage of this format. A Friendsgiving that starts at noon on a Sunday leaves the evening free for travel, family plans or simply a nap, which matters on a holiday weekend when everyone has somewhere else to be. It also means the group eats by the pool in daylight, with the ocean a few steps away, which is a very different holiday from a dark dining room in late November. For friends visiting Miami from colder cities, that contrast is the whole appeal.

For a group of eight, the asado plus the beverage package comes to $194 per person before tax and service. An honest call: skip the add-ons on a first visit, since the parrillada is generous, and save the extra spend for a second round of the beverage package if the lunch runs long. Because the drinks package has a two-hour limit, plan the arrival so the whole group sits down together and gets the full value of it.

For a Friendsgiving dinner on a weeknight, the regular menu also shares well. The Prime Ribeye Steak with domino potato and chimichurri is $112, Mallmann's Beef Tenderloin Milanesa is $88 and the Prime Angus Skirt Steak is $76. The Australian Lamb Rack is $85, the Octopus a la Plancha is $39 and the Half Organic Chicken is $46. Beef wood-oven empanadas are $15 each and make an easy starter for the table.

For a table of six, a workable dinner order is the ribeye, the skirt steak, the lamb rack, the octopus and a round of empanadas, with sides to share. That spread covers every guest and keeps the meal in the spirit of the asado. The restaurant's malbec list includes Faena's own wine from the Uco Valley, a natural choice for the toast.

The dress code is elegant chic, with no shorts, sandals, open-toe shoes or beachwear, so tell the group before Sunday lunch, when it is tempting to come straight from the beach. Reservations are made through SevenRooms, and group bookings go through the restaurant's events email. Valet parking is available at the hotel.

Los Fuegos serves breakfast from 7 am to 11 am and lunch from 12 pm to 4 pm. Dinner runs 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm Sunday to Thursday and 6:30 pm to 11 pm on Friday and Saturday. The phone number is (786) 655-5600. For a Thanksgiving weekend Friendsgiving, the Sunday after the holiday, November 29, is the natural date to aim for.

Arrive a little early and use the time to settle the group's order of events. The asado runs for four hours, so a noon start gives plenty of room for a long lunch, a stroll and a second round of dessert before it ends at 4 pm.

Before or after the asado, walk to the Faena Forum on Collins Avenue, the round white arts building designed by OMA, whose ribbed facade is one of the most striking pieces of architecture in Miami Beach. It is a short walk from the hotel and a good backdrop for a group photo in the afternoon light.

After lunch, the Miami Beach Beachwalk, which runs behind the hotels along Collins Avenue, is the best way to walk off a parrillada. Head north or south along the sand-colored path, with the ocean on one side and the dunes on the other, and the group can stretch the afternoon well past the end of the asado.

Plan B: if the Sunday lunch is fully booked, the restaurant describes its poolside Los Fuegos Veranda terrace as a setting with live music, a good fit for a smaller dinner. The Faena also hosts a jazz series running from October 2026 to June 2027, another reason to pair a Friendsgiving dinner with a night out.

Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann, Faena Hotel, 3201 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33140. Phone (786) 655-5600. Sunday Asado every Sunday from 12 pm to 4 pm, $129 per person, beverage package $65 per person for two hours, plus tax and service. Dinner Sunday to Thursday 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 6:30 pm to 11 pm. Elegant chic dress code.