Cotoa, the Ecuadorian restaurant in North Miami that holds a 2026 Bib Gourmand from the MICHELIN Guide, now lists a new and much larger home: 1111 NE 125th St., Suite 200. The restaurant's own website gives the 125th Street address for reservations and visits, with an expanded weekly schedule that adds lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

The move takes chef Alejandra Espinoza's restaurant out of its first North Miami storefront on NE 6th Court, a 24-seat room, and into a space that seats about 80 people. Both addresses sit in the same part of the city, so regulars are looking at a short drive, not a trip across the county.

From a food hall stall to a Michelin listing

Cotoa began downtown, at a food hall inside The B1oom building, before opening its permanent North Miami location in April 2025. Within weeks of that opening it was added to the MICHELIN Guide Florida, and the restaurant describes itself as the first Ecuadorian restaurant in the United States to receive a MICHELIN Guide designation. In the 2026 guide, inspectors moved it up to a Bib Gourmand, the category Michelin uses for good quality cooking at a good value.

The past year brought the kitchen more attention than most neighborhood restaurants see. Cotoa is one of the restaurants followed in season 2 of the Apple TV docuseries Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars, which premiered in September 2026. Earlier in the year, the team cooked for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, a first for Ecuadorian food at an F1 event, according to the restaurant.

Who is behind it

Espinoza was born and raised in Ecuador and moved to France at 16, where she spent a decade studying and working in kitchens before cooking across Europe, the United States and Asia. She is also chef and co-owner of Somos, the group's flagship restaurant, which opened in 2018 in the Bellavista neighborhood of Quito. In Miami, the group also runs Cotoita, a fast-casual counter at 550 NW 1st Ave. in downtown Miami where diners build their own Ecuadorian bowls.

Cotoa calls its approach Ecuadorian cooking seen through a global lens. The menu draws on the country's four regions (the Amazon basin, the Andes, the Pacific coast and the Galápagos Islands) and changes with the season.

What is on the menu

The current menu posted on the restaurant's site starts with snacks: pan de yuca, five cheese bread rolls with mamey chutney ($12); crunchy cassava muchines with cacao honey ($14); and a cornbread loaf called Humita de la Abuelita with smoked palo santo butter ($16). Empanadas come two to an order, with fillings that include goat ragù with tamarind in purple corn dough ($16) and coconut chicken stew in sweet plantain dough ($14).

The ceviche section runs from a vegan lupin bean Cevichocho with mango and almonds ($22) to a shrimp ceviche in a tree tomato base served with cocolón ($27). Mains include grilled Ecuadorian langostinos with coconut rice ($45), blue crab with patacón and sweet plantains ($42), smoked pork tenderloin with potato patties called llapingachos ($40), and a grass-fed Black Angus bavette with ají chimichurri ($65). Desserts include a warm Ecuadorian chocolate fondant with passion fruit sorbet ($14).

The bar lists three signature cocktails at $16 each, among them a Canelazo with naranjilla and an Andean Negroni finished with cacao bitters, along with Club Premium, an Ecuadorian lager.

A seasonal tradition this month

November is the month for colada morada in Ecuador, a thick drink of purple corn, spices and fruit made for the Day of the Dead. The restaurant serves it with a freshly baked guagua de pan, a sweet bread shaped like a small child, and has published its own notes on how the kitchen makes it.

How to go

Cotoa is at 1111 NE 125th St., Suite 200, North Miami, FL 33161. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. Dinner runs 5:30 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday. On Saturday the restaurant serves lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 11 p.m. On Sunday lunch runs 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner 5:30 to 10 p.m.

Reservations are recommended and are taken through OpenTable, linked from cotoa.rest; walk-ins are seated as space allows. A 20% service charge is added for parties of five or more. For private events or other questions, the restaurant can be reached at [email protected].

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