20 Years In, Il Mulino Finally Looks as Good as It Tastes
After a full renovation at Acqualina, Sunny Isles' longstanding Italian dining room gets the space it always deserved
I'll be real with you, I hadn’t been or honestly had Il Mulino on my radar for the past few years. The food was good, the water was there, the service was reliably old-school Italian in a way that felt like a given. But the room itself? It was fine. It did the job. Its recent renovation changed that. My husband and I went a few weeks ago, late afternoon, one of those perfect late-March Miami evenings where the sun is doing that warm golden thing across the water and you're genuinely thankful to live in possibly the only city not hit by the latest arctic blast.
Il Mulino New York has been at Acqualina Resort & Residences in Sunny Isles Beach since 2006, which makes this its 20th year, and the renovation, completed this past winter, feels like a proper celebration of that. The brand traces back to the original Il Mulino in Greenwich Village, one of New York's storied Italian restaurants, and the Miami outpost has always carried that ethos with its white-jacketed servers, tableside service, and a menu of Italian-American classics. What's new is the room it all lives in.
The Space: The unique palette is what gets you first. Mint-green and pops of orange everywhere – in the lamps, the vintage glassware, and the bow ties on the servers. It sounds like it could be a lot. It isn’t. It feels like the Italian Riviera through a Miami filter.
Velvet quilted booths anchor the dining room. There’s a custom mural in the private dining room. The bar has been completely reimagined with tilework and dark wood, and it’s now the kind of thing you notice walking in. Worth a stop even if your table is ready.
What to Eat & Drink: Before you’ve touched the menu, a small tray arrives at the table with three little bites, a cheese and a savory bite, and then the bread basket, which includes a cheesy bread that I will be thinking about for a while. It’s a small thing that sets the tone for everything that follows.
The menu splits between a seasonal section that rotates every three months and the Il Mulino classics that have been on for decades. The move is to order from both. The ravioli ai porcini in champagne truffle cream is the reason people have been coming here since the beginning, and it’s the kind of dish that’s been on the menu for 20 years because there’s no version of taking it off. The linguine alle vongole has actual heat in it, which you don’t expect and then immediately appreciate. The pasta itself is cooked right, which sounds like a low bar but isn’t always cleared.
My husband and I split several dishes over the course of the night, and every single one arrived pre-cut for two. Without asking. That’s the service detail that I absolutely adore when a restaurant does, it’s quiet and considerate.It’s the kind of thing that separates a good restaurant from one you keep coming back to.
The salt-crusted branzino arrives whole. The server brings it to the table to show you, takes it back, carves it, returns. Exactly the right amount of production. The fish is as good as the presentation.
One honest note: we ordered a tableside fruit dessert expecting something involving heat and some version of a spectacle, think bananas foster energy with fire, something dramatic. What arrived was a very earnest woman who spent about five to ten minutes at our table carefully cutting fruit and then plating it. The fruit was lovely. The woman was lovely. But there’s a gap between “tableside” and “tableside performance,” on the menu.
They end the night with the watermelon grappa. It’s a small, cold, slightly boozy close to the meal that is exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment.
Perfect For: A anniversary dinner. Out-of-towners who want to feel like they experienced something real rather than a hotel dining room. And honestly? Anyone in North Dade who's tired of driving to Miami Beach every time they want a nice Italian dinner.
Pro Tips: Ravioli ai porcini, linguine alle vongole, salt-crusted branzino, watermelon grappa.
Expect to Pay: Around $150 to $200+ per person with drinks.
How's the parking? Valet at Acqualina is your easiest, and frankly, only move.
@IlMulinoNYC // 17875 Collins Ave., Sunny Isles Beach