Setai Bar & Courtyard

Words by Simon Difford on 25-Jul-2016

Address: The Setai Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida , 33139, United States
Tel: +1 305 520 6000
Website: view Setai Bar & Courtyard’s website
Door: Open door
Style: Hotel bar
Food: Set menu

Review

The Setai is a hotel that oozes luxury - not old-school oak panels and heavy drapes but a luxurious designer mix of Asian inspired modernism interspersed with reclaimed and perfect reproduction vintage Asian fittings.

The lobby, bar and restaurant's beautiful brick floor was salvaged from a 1920s Art Deco building in Shanghai. Dark woods, plush materials and a long pearl bar counter are offset by warm golden lighting and colourful displays of tightly packed rose buds while outside the style-set sip Martinis by the palm tree shaded pool.

The bar is overseen by Philip Khanderish, a local celebrity bartender who has created a very contemporary Asian-inspired cocktail menu with ingredients such as ginger, chili, lemongrass, jasmine and of course sake used in cocktails with names such as Saigon Gimlet, Shiso Plum Mojito and Samurai in Jalisco. For the less experimental the list also features reassuring classics. Or you may prefer to pair the Asian small plates with one of a selection of 700 wines.