Miami’s Easter Table Is Set, and It’s Worth the Drive Down Collins
From a chocolate rice pudding that might ruin you for all other desserts to a lechón that makes perfect sense near the ocean, these three spots are doing the holiday right this year.
Let me be honest with you: Easter brunch is one of those meals that can go sideways real fast. You show up to some hotel buffet, there’s a sad carved ham under a heat lamp, a chocolate fountain nobody actually wanted, and a DJ playing a bossa nova version of a song you almost recognize. I’ve been there. You’ve probably been there. And yet, somehow, Miami in the spring has a way of making you believe the holiday meal can be something worth planning your weekend around. This year, I think it actually can be.
A few restaurants are doing genuinely interesting things for Sunday, April 5th, and because I believe you deserve specifics rather than vague encouragement, here’s what I’d actually consider booking.
La Grande Boucherie Miami is the kind of restaurant that takes the phrase “Parisian charm” seriously, which could easily read as pretentious but somehow doesn’t, because the food earns it. Tucked into South of Fifth, the space leans into lush garden details and rich textures in a way that feels appropriately theatrical for Easter without crossing into costume territory. Their à la carte Easter specials are the real draw here.
The Green Asparagus Hollandaise au Citron comes with egg mimosa and fine herbs, which is perhaps the most fitting Easter hors d’oeuvre I’ve seen on a menu all season. It’s a little winking, a little elegant, and it works. The main, a Spring Braised Lamb with green peas, buttery pommes fondants, and mint chiffonade, is exactly the sort of thing that makes you remember why lamb became the traditional centerpiece in the first place. It tastes like the season.
Then there’s the Riz au Lait au Chocolat: dark chocolate rice pudding with cocoa nibs, orange zest, and a Valrhona chocolate sauce, which is honestly the kind of dessert that makes whatever comes after it seem disappointing by comparison. Proceed with your expectations accordingly.
Over at Pauline at The Shelborne By Proper, they’re calling it an Easter Fest, and while that name sounds like it could involve face painting and a raffle, the prix-fixe menu itself is genuinely thoughtful. For $75 per person, from noon to 6 PM on April 5th, you’re looking at a spread built around coastal Latin flavors that actually make geographical sense given where you’re sitting.
The starters alone justify the reservation: Deviled Eggs with trout roe and annatto finished with tiny pastel flowers (seasonal, a little cheeky, exactly right), a Crudo Trio that covers conche ceviche with coconut leche, snapper with ají amarillo and horseradish, and Cedar Key Oysters with passion fruit mignonette. It’s a serious amount of brightness on a table before the main event even arrives.
That main event, built around a Lechón Asado with naranja agria and chicharrón, hits differently when you’re eating it close to the ocean in April, surrounded by spring sides like Shaved Jicama with grapefruit and tarragon and Roasted Carrots with jerk crema. Dessert comes in Easter baskets, which, sure, is a little on the nose, but when those baskets contain Mini Alfajores and Pastelitos de Piña, I’m not complaining. Reservations are available here.
If you’d rather have live jazz with your lamb, Aguasal at Andaz Miami Beach Resort & Spa is doing a brunch on April 5th from noon to 3 PM that skews more lavish, and perhaps more vacation-brained, than the others, which isn’t a criticism so much as a description.
José Andrés Group runs the kitchen here, and what they’ve put together is a spread that covers a remarkable amount of ground: lobster bisque, a burrata bar with heirloom tomatoes, a raw bar with oysters and caviar accompaniments, and then hot stations featuring salt-crusted salmon with champagne beurre blanc, truffle bucatini finished tableside in a Parmesan wheel, and gambas al ajillo with saffron fregola.
It’s a lot. It’s meant to be a lot. At $110 per adult and $55 per child, with optional bottomless Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne available as an add-on, this is the version of Easter brunch that leans fully into the occasion rather than treating it as a Sunday with fancier napkins. Please see the full menu here, and make reservations here.
Three restaurants, three genuinely different moods: Parisian restraint, Latin coastal energy, or a full Mediterranean blowout with a jazz soundtrack. What they share is that someone in each kitchen thought carefully about what this particular Sunday should taste like. Whether that earns your reservation is up to you, but I’d make the call soon, because Miami in April fills up faster than you’d expect, and a good Easter table waits for nobody.
