Wynwood Kitchen & Bar Revamping Their Global Inspired Menu
Wynwood Kitchen & Bar, located in the heart of Wynwood, has recently added new items to its menu of global small-plates. The ambiance at Wynwood Kitchen & Bar is as Wynwood as is gets and with the unmatched views of murals painted by world-renowned artists, this is a hot spot in the area. I recommend you find a table outside (if available) to really soak in the ambiance so unique to Wynwood. WKB is literally adjacent of Wynwood walls, I’ve passed by this place numerous times on weekends and it is ALWAYS jam packed.
Wynwood Kitchen is dedicated a large portion of their menu to small plates, tapas style, which is great for sharing among friends.
Ropa Vieja Empanadas are a menu staple. Shredded chicken seasoned with classis Latin flavors stuffed into an empanada comes served with a side of cilantro crema. The empanadas are rich in flavor and steaming hot (caution) and pair well with the cilantro crema which takes the edge off the shredded chicken seasoning. This Hot Small Plate dish is a great starter and safe bet for the group on an outing.
The Flautas were surprisingly tasty. An order of flautas includes 2 flour tortillas stuffed with shredded short rib and Chihuahua cheese, then deep fried. The flautas are laid over a red salsa then the entire plate is drizzled crema before being topped with fresh cilantro and guacamole. The texture of the crunchy flour contrasted by the ooey-gooey delicious short rib-Chihuahua cheese combo was delicious and simultaneously comforting.
The Queso Fundido is a hard core Mexican sharing plate that reveres Chihuahua cheese. The hot melted cheese can be topped with your choice of mushroom medley or Mexican chorizo, we opted for the chorizo. Flour tortillas are provided for dipping and filling. My recommendation is to get a flour tortilla and fill it yourself with some Chihuahua cheese and chorizo. There is something so mesmerizing about hot cheese. The way cheese looks, smells, pulls, and tastes is really… satisfying… It’s straight Food Porn!
Arancini A La Huancaina is not a typical menu item; it was on the Chef’s Choice Menu. WKB’s Arancini is stuffed with Mexican chorizo and Valencia rice then breaded and deep fried. The giant arancini ball lies on a pool of huancaina sauce. Everything about the ingredients and description sounds delicious… and it is! Starting with texture, the outside is crusty while the inside is mushy and soft. Every ingredient in the plate delivers lots of flavors which adds great depth. The huancaina sauce tasted very rich and creamy and added even more richness to an already rich plate of fried rice and chorizo. Some pickled red onions were laid on the arancini which helped cut through some of the richness. Overall, I was very impressed by this small plate dish, there were many layers of flavor and the addition of the huancaina sauce was an excellent choice!
The Pork Belly Grilled Skewers are a nice option at WKB. The pork belly is prepared with a rosemary brown sugar soy glaze, sprinkled with ancho chili flakes, and dressed with some micro greens. Orange segments accompany the pork belly chunks. You get a little bit of heat from the ancho chili flakes and sweetness from the brown sugar soy glaze. The spicy and sweetness complement the inherent fatty richness of the pork belly.
The Braised Short Ribs deserve an honorable mention, seeing as how they’re one of the most ordered dishes at WKB. Short ribs are braised, served with a red wine demi glaze over the top, and a side of boniato mash and a couple of boniato chips. Short rib is a hearty and very flavorful cut of meat. The classic red wine combination is tried and true. The boniato mash was astounding. It was rich and creamy and had that very prominent boniato flavor. The boniato chips that were delicately placed onto the mash deliver a nice contrast in texture with added boniato flavor.
Wynwood Kitchen & Bar wouldn’t have “Bar” in it’s name if they didn’t serve alcoholic drinks worth talking about! Here are some Cocktails I recommend at WKB:
Wynwood Inferno is WKB’s most popular cocktail. Jose Cuervo Silver Special is added to muddled jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and passion fruit juice. I love the combination, just reading over the ingredients in the drink you can tell this is going to taste good. There is muddled jalapeno, but this is not a fiery, spicy drink. It is very well balanced where you get a touch of sweetness from the passion fruit, a touch of spiciness from the jalapeno, a touch freshness and bitterness from the lime juice and the taste of the tequila still shines through all of that. This is personally my favorite cocktail on the menu!
The Shot of Love is a nice cocktail for the ladies. Peruvian Pisco 100 is used as the main source of alcohol and then mixed with lychee puree, soho lychee, some lime juice, mint, and hibiscus flower. The cocktail is aromatic and on the sweeter side, and is topped off with a skewered lychee fruit which is fun to eat mid-drink.
The Oasis cocktail is one funky looking cocktail at first sight. It is prepared with cachaca espirito, mastiha, charred pineapple vanilla puree, and muddled limes. This is an interesting cocktail with many depths of flavor, but it is not your classic I know what I’m getting cocktail, so if you’re with palate-sensitive individuals, beware! What I enjoyed about this drink was that you can taste the vanilla and there is so much going on. It was easy to drink and something I’d order again.
My favorite dessert was the Soft Vanilla Cheese Cake. This cheesecake is essentially a deconstructed cheese cake that comes with a cookie crumble, berry compote, and honey butterscotch drizzle. The cookie crumble was delicious! The hard texture is what really added that extra oomph to each bite. The berry compote was only SLIGHTLY sweet with a hint of bitterness. As much as I love sugar, this dessert was not one of those sugar coma desserts. There was a lot of balance and finesse involved in its creation.
The Bread Pudding deserves a mention; I’m a bread pudding fiend, so I enjoy talking about anything bread pudding. The White Chocolate Bread Pudding was dense and much more classic though the citrus guava glaze was interesting and not what I was expecting. When I see guava as an ingredient the first thing that pops to mind is “This is going to be sweet”. That wasn’t the case with this guava glaze. The citrus in the glaze added much balance to the sweetness of the guava, in fact, it gave the glaze a slight bitterness. I enjoyed the bread pudding and found the slightly bitter guava glaze an interesting twist to Wynwood Kitchen take on a citrus guava glaze.
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