Zak the Baker — Restaurant in Miami

really solid breakfast here. i enjoyed the pastries as well.

i ordered a cappuccino, which was delicious and had great flavor. for pastries, we got the chocolate babka, mango concha, and almond croissant.

chocolate babka was absolutely amazing, wonderful chocolate flavor, texture was light and melt in your mouth. almost gave chocolate croissant vibes with the flavor and the way it melted on the tongue. highly recommend.

mango concha was delicious as well, but not particularly my favorite. the texture of a concha is similar to a donut, fluffy, light, but the flavor did not strike me as the best concha i have had. the mango filling oozed out, almost like a runny egg, and it did not stick the pastry as much as it needed to.

the almond croissant was delicious, great flavor, however, a little too crunchy for my liking. it seemed as if it was baked a little too long than it needed to be. if it was a little softer, it would have been a melt in your mouth situation. i wish it came warm as well because the crunchy hard to pull and cold croissant did not help.

i ordered the salmon lox on toast ( instead of a bagel sue me ) and it was good. it was presented beautifully and the salmon had wonderful flavor. dare i say too much on the bread? it was a huge portion and i felt like i could not finish it even if i wanted to.

i received a side order of eggs as well, under seasoned, but really great flavor. i would recommend either 1. seasoning the eggs more in the process or 2. using a more high quality butter as this really lacked flavor and i barely ate them.

my friend got the egg plate, which he enjoyed. the smashed potatoes were delicious. the labneh did not have much flavor and kind of just tasted MEHHH... like i wish it had more of a zing as it just tasted like nothing and dipping the bread into it did not help either.

the service was incredible in the beginning but our server seemed to be a wee bit grumpy and tried to remove our plates several times even though we were just taking mini breaks.

overall, i would come here again and try different pastries and try different breakfast plates. the tuna salad seemed delicious but well it was 9 am...

Review update from 12/21/23: 5 stars We decided to come back to Zak for brunch. They changed the format to server seating only- even outside- which I don’t think is a bad idea except that we didn’t know and came without a reservation and decided to wait. It turned out to be about a 45 minute wait (they told us it would take 30-45 minutes). Once we were seated the service was prompt and courteous (as we planned what to order during our 45 minute wait :). We ordered the BLT, the grilled cheese, French toast, the star fruit yogurt parfait, and iced coffees. Everything was delicious. They really do have the best coffee, hands down. The BLT use to be my favorite but they added some type of mayo dressing which I don’t love but it was still good. The grilled cheese and French toast were really amazing. Even the yogurt parfait which I originally ordered for my toddler- who didn’t want to eat it in the end- was great- the granola and star fruit (and I believe there was a jam or syrup as well) was just so fresh and delicious. Highly recommend getting that as well. We look forward to coming back, but next time with a reservation! Thanks for the amazing food and service!

Review from 2022: 3 stars Went there today and opted to sit outside and do the takeout option and was surprised to see a brand new menu- we ordered the breakfast platter and mushroom toast. I was really unimpressed with both. My husband said he liked the mushroom toast better but he’s more of a mushroom guy than I am. The breakfast platter was $21 for one piece of bread, eggs, some avocado, some lox bacon, and polenta- total rip-off. I asked for another slice of bread which they gave to me. We also ordered cold brews, an almond crossaint, a cinnamon roll, and a chocolate chip cookie- all were delicious! We come here every time we’re in Miami which is a few times a year and was really disappointed with this visit. Please bring...

Ate here two mornings in a row (pics attached). Real tasty stuff—possibly the best french toast I’ve ever had, and I consider my own recipe to be very tasty! Also, they have delicious delicious fresh orange juice. Just divine.

Nice service and the staff overall seems happy to be there. I see lots of smiles, and while I’m sure every job has its ups and downs, it’s nice to see people working in a positive environment. Everyone stays busy and picks up tasks as needed, which is indicative of a well managed team.

Their bread is delicious, but I found their pastry dough to be more bready than I like (as opposed to flaky). I’ve definitely had better pastry in Florida. Zak’s croissants are good but not great, in my opinion.

Their everything bagel was very tasty with a strong garlic and onion flavor. Not in my top 3 best bagels, but definitely solid.

Be sure to walk towards the back to check out some old-school breadmaking in action. They run a pretty cool operation.

Unsolicited advice: The mushroom toast, while tasty, could be improved. I’m a mushroom lover but these mushrooms were very chewy and squishy. They weren’t cooked to where they were crispy or browned at all, which I feel is a must in this kind of use-case. I make a good mushroom toast myself and I think:

1. This dish could benefit from fresh mushrooms (I could be wrong but I think Zak’s uses mushrooms that are dried and then rehydrated)

2. Spend extra time to brown the mushrooms. Maybe sweat in a dry pan with no salt, until water is released, then add oil/clarified butter on medium-high heat and brown? This method could potentially be done in bulk during prep and then kept warm for service.

Both steps would require more resources, but I think it could really transform this dish.

This review is for the sake of great food and that’s all! This team has all my respect and I hope my feedback...