The Best Thing I Ate This Week: Lamb Cigars & BBQ Sushi

Plus, spinach-crusted branzino

Photo by Matt Meltzer

Lamb Cigars from Cleo

Given the aromas that waft up from Ocean Drive onto the patio of the Balfour Hotel, this dish really should be called the Lamb Blunt. The simple appetizer is flaky phylo dough stuffed with spiced lamb, almost as generously as the fattys you used to buy off that dude in deep West Kendall. Unlike those spliffs, Cleo’s cigars are deep fired - like taquitos - brilliantly cooled by a tangy yogurt sauce that isn’t quite tzatziki, but not quite plain yogurt either. Together, the create the kind of starter that makes you say, “What else can these guys crank out of that kitchen?” Which, knowing your average kitchen staff, could just as easily be an L as a labneh. - MM

@cleomiamibeach // 350 Ocean Drive, SoFi