A friend chose Aviv for his birthday for the second year in a row — so that alone should say something. He’d liked it so much with a group the first time that bringing ten of us back felt like the natural move.This was my fourth or fifth visit, and everyone who’d been there the year before agreed the meal was even better this time.
Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook opened Aviv in March 2025 on the ground floor of 1 Hotel South Beach. The menu brings Solomonov’s signatures from Zahav to Miami Beach, including his hummus, salatim, house-made saluf bread, and meats from the grill. The $95 Tayim menu turns those dishes into a shared dinner for the entire table that seems to always be the best move there — and still something I highly recommend.
Is it still worth the hype? Yes. Aviv was busy on an August night, and ten people at our table made it through a huge amount of food without finding a single weak dish.
The Space: The dining room keeps the 1 Hotel look with pale stone, cream banquettes, plants, and an open kitchen. It was busy without getting loud enough to turn a ten-person birthday dinner into a shouting exercise. August is supposed to be Miami’s slow season, though the 1 Hotel doesn’t seem to have one anymore.
What to Eat & Drink: The Tayim menu starts with hummus, a full spread of salatim, and saluf bread that arrives hot from the oven. Ours landed at the table bubbling within about 20 seconds. The Yerushalmi hummus, topped with ground beef, pine nuts, baharat, and parsley, was my favorite. The hummus tehina, finished with whipped herb tehina and paprika, came close. Both had that airy texture Solomonov is known for. Matt and I took a class with him last summer and spent the afternoon walking through how he makes it.
The salatim cover the table with beets and tehina, cannellini beans and corn, cabbage with sumac onions, twice-cooked eggplant, and Yemenite pickles. For the mezze, the Moroccan cigars remain one of my favorites dishes ever at this spot. Spiced beef comes wrapped and fried into little cylinders, then served with raw tehina and spicy local honey. They’re somewhere between a taquito and a cigar in shape, and the sweet heat from the honey works with the beef.
The halloumi baklava is another must. Halloumi gets wrapped in filo and topped with strawberries and pistachios, giving you salty cheese, crisp pastry, and fruit in one bite. I tried to downplay it so fewer people at the table would eat it. More for meeee.
The grilled tomato salad was a good call in August. White peach vinaigrette, Bulgarian feta, and mint keep the tomatoes fresh without burying them. A few people at our table thought the meal might be over after this round because we’d already eaten that much food.
But alas, there was more. Cooking meat for ten people leaves plenty of room for something to go wrong. The beef shishlik came out cooked perfectly, and the chicken stayed juicy with a glaze at the end instead of drying out. We tried the pargiyot, kofte, beef shishlik, and za’atar chicken with rice pilaf and salad katzootz. Nothing missed.
I stuck with wine, and the list has bottles from Israel and Lebanon alongside choices from Greece, France, and Italy. Aviv also offers a wine pairing for Tayim, which I should’ve done in retrospect. A few white wines across that much hummus, grilled meat, and spice would’ve been the right call.
Perfect For: Group birthdays. Dinner with friends who like to share. A nice South Beach dinner when you want the food to be as important as the ~vibe~.
Pro Tip: Pace yourself. Our table thought dinner might be over after the hummus, salatim, and mezze.
Expect to Pay: Tayim is $95 per person and requires participation from the entire table. Plan on roughly $175 to $200 per person with two drinks after tax, a 19% service charge, and the additional 2% culinary service charge, but it’s worth the splurge.
How’s the parking? Valet at 1 Hotel South Beach is $25 for up to four hours with Aviv validation. Ask the restaurant to validate when you get the bill.
@aviv.southbeach // 2341 Collins Ave., Miami Beach