Narbona Restaurant & Farm Market has opened on the ground level of CocoWalk, the open-air shopping and dining center in Coconut Grove.
The restaurant was founded in Uruguay in 1909 and is known internationally for its cuisine that uses organic ingredients grown from its own farms.
Jerónimo Canton, the owner of Narbona, explains the restaurant’s mission to New Times: “Our goal is for our customers to indulge in the Narbona experience. Focused on the farm-to-table concept, it is most important for us to showcase the ingredients used in our dishes. We want customers to be able to pick up our homemade products and recreate their favorite dishes at home.”
The 200-seat space offers indoor and outdoor dining areas. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner with an extensive menu that includes homemade pasta, brick oven baked Uruguayan pizzas, a 22-ounce cowboy steak, and an organic half chicken. The space also offers a private room for events and groups who want an intimate dining experience.
Though Canton thinks the entire menu at Narbona is worth a try, he recommends the homemade gnocchi and the entraña — a 12-ounce prime skirt steak with baked sweet potato and chimichurri. Narbona also produces its own dulce de leche and gelatos, which Canton highly suggests when visiting the market.
Gelato at Narbona’s marketPhoto courtesy of NarbonaIn addition to the restaurant, Narbona offers a butcher shop, bakery, and curated specialty market with a wide selection of products from its farms in South America including the brand’s wines, cheeses, yogurts, olive oil, and pasta. The market hosts a variety of tastings for guests to indulge in sampling different wines, coffees, and specialty cheeses. Part of the restaurant’s concept is its transparency on the quality of its own products.
“We tell our team that nothing is behind the scenes — we showcase everything, from where we cultivate the product to how we produce it,” says Canton. “Customers can see this through our open kitchen.”
The Coconut Grove opening comes after the success of Narbona’s first Miami-area location in Key Biscayne. Since its reopening in January 2021 after a major facelift, CocoWalk has become a hotspot in the neighborhood, attracting the Key Club, Planta Queen, Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza, and Sushi Garage as culinary tenants.
“CocoWalk is the perfect home for our restaurant,” says Canton. “The Grove is focused on community; therefore, the vibe of the area aligns with the experience we wanted to create for this restaurant. We like to take our time creating a dish as well as savoring it and we thought the people who live in and frequent Coconut Grove and CocoWalk would understand that and appreciate it.”
With the success of its locations in South Florida, Narbona expects to open more outposts in Wynwood and Boca Raton, exposing the neighborhoods to the elevated but family-owned restaurant and its unique concept.
Rachel Costa, MiamiNewTimes
