The Best Late-Night Value in Miami Is a Japanese Restaurant in Sunset Harbour

Uchiko Miami Beach runs two happy hours. The first is the standard one — 5 to 6:30pm, the kind of window that works if you can leave work early or if you are already in Sunset Harbour. The second is the Reverse Happy Hour: 9 to 11pm, Sunday through Thursday, same menu, same prices.

The prices: $9 sake and wine. $8 zero-proof drinks. $7.50 beer. $10 cocktails. Discounted nigiri, hand rolls, tastings. And the Happy Hour Omakase — nine courses for two at $120. That last item is the most useful number in the dataset. A nine-course omakase for two at $60 per person, at a restaurant that is one of the most serious Japanese kitchens in South Florida, available five nights a week after 9pm.

Uchiko is the Austin-born Japanese restaurant that Hai Hospitality brought to Miami Beach's Sunset Harbour neighborhood. The kitchen is run by chefs trained in the Uchi tradition — the James Beard Award-winning concept that built its reputation on Japanese technique applied to local ingredients. The Reverse Happy Hour does not change what the kitchen is doing. It changes what it costs to sit at the bar and eat it.

The Sunset Harbour neighborhood is one of the most pleasant places to be in Miami Beach after 9pm — walkable, not loud, with a waterfront that most people who visit Miami Beach never find. Uchiko's bar is the right room for that hour.

Ahead of the Uchibā Brickell opening, Hai Hospitality is running pop-up happy hours at both Uchi Miami in Wynwood and Uchiko Miami Beach — November 1 through 15, daily from 5 to 6:30pm. Japanese-inspired bar bites and drinks, including Edamame Jalapeño Hummus and a Shiso Daiquiri. The preview is the first look at what Uchibā will be when it opens in Brickell.

Uchiko Miami Beach is at 1 Sunset Drive, Miami Beach. The Reverse Happy Hour runs Sunday through Thursday, 9 to 11pm. No reservation required for bar seating.