In Japan, eating unagi at the height of summer is less a meal than a rite — a centuries-old custom built on the belief that the eel's rich protein and nutrients carry the body through the season's punishing heat. Midorie, the acclaimed sushi and donburi eatery from APM Restaurant Group, is bringing that ritual to Miami with the Una Ju, available now through the end of August at both its MiMo and Coconut Grove locations.
The dish arrives in the traditional spirit: kabayaki-style freshwater eel glazed in its house tare, served over white rice in a formal lacquered jubako box alongside sansho pepper. Priced at $49, it can be ordered on its own or as part of a $79 Tei Shoku set that pairs it with an appetizer and miso soup. It's a preparation that asks for no embellishment, because the centerpiece demands none.
That centerpiece is eel of genuinely rare provenance. Midorie sources its unagi from Daishin, a specialist producer on Kagoshima's mineral-rich Shirasu Plateau and a winner of Japan's prestigious Japan Food Selection Grand Prix. The volcanic-ash landscape's exceptional groundwater yields eel with clean flavor and firm texture, and before processing each one is purged for 24 hours in deep artesian spring water from Ibusuki, firming the flesh to ideal density. What sets Daishin apart is its production craft — the eel passes through a steaming line said to be the longest in the world, for uniformly tender, fluffy flesh, and the tare is brewed from 100% domestic hon-mirin and koikuchi soy sauce, free of artificial colorings, preservatives, or flavor enhancers, for a glaze that's deeply fragrant and restrained in sweetness.
The timing is deliberate. In Japan, the midsummer Day of the Ox — Doyo no Ushi no Hi — is the country's most celebrated occasion for eating eel, and the jubako has long been the vessel that elevates the meal from comfort to ceremony. "In Japan, unagi in summer is a memory as much as a meal," said Midorie Executive Chef Hiro Asana. "I wanted our guests to feel that — the lacquer box, the fragrance of the tare, the ritual of it."
For founder Álvaro Pérez Miranda, the Una Ju is also an extension of the philosophy that runs through every APM concept — omotenashi, sensai, and komakai. He visited the Daishin farm in Kagoshima last year and resolved to bring the product back to Miami. "What Daishin has built in Kagoshima is extraordinary," he said. "The Una Ju at Midorie is our way of bringing that experience here."
The release lands at a moment of remarkable momentum for APM. The group's portfolio spans the Michelin-starred omakase counter Ogawa, the Michelin-recommended Hiyakawa in Wynwood, and Emelina in West Palm Beach, which in May 2026 became the world's first Cuban restaurant to earn a Michelin star less than four months after opening. Midorie itself is expanding, with new locations slated for West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale this fall.