Miami is home to some of the best places to eat, drink, and be merry, from well-crafted cocktails at hidden gems to four-course meals with all the flash the city is known for.
Mediterranean restaurants are opening up all over Palm Beach and Broward counties. Is there room for one more?
Fans of Motek, which has six locations in Miami-Dade County, say there is definitely space for the upscale Israeli-style restaurant, which plans to debut in Boca Raton in February. Many have been schlepping south for the past few years and are ready for a more convenient location.
“My kids and I have made the trip to Aventura just to go to Motek,” Boca Raton resident Debbi Rosenblum said. “Their food is delicious and the restaurant has a great vibe. When I told them and others that Motek was coming to Boca, the response was pure excitement.”
Alexander Odishelidze, Motek’s regional district manager, said he hears this a lot. It’s one of the reasons Motek, which means “sweetheart” in Hebrew, is opening the Palm Beach County site.
“There hasn’t been a single location where a guest hasn’t said, ‘I’m from Boca,’ and ‘When are you opening in Boca?’ ” he said.
Odishelidze said the company is building out a central position near the Town Center at Boca Raton mall, on the city’s Restaurant Row. Motek will take over the former home of Fiolina Pasta House, an Italian restaurant that debuted in November 2023 and stayed open for just a year.
Motek will join several Mediterranean restaurants that have opened in Palm Beach and Broward counties over the past year.
Cafe Landwer: An outpost of a chain of Mediterranean restaurants in Israel and Canada, as well as in Los Angeles and Boston, the eatery debuted in Hallandale Beach in January and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nir Caspi, cofounder and CEO, said a Boca Raton outpost is also under construction with an expected opening in the spring.
Malka: Israeli-born chef Eyal Shani oversees an empire of more than 40 restaurants, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Tel Aviv, and now West Palm Beach, where his new Malka earlier this month took over the space that once housed The Butcher Shop Beer Garden & Grill.
Amar Mediterranean Kitchen & Bar: When the owner behind the former Amar Mediterranean Bistro on West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach decided to reinvent himself, he found a new, bigger space around the corner at the old Bar 25 site and moved in Nov. 1. It’s triple the size of the old location, with a Lebanese-inspired dining room accented with rattan and leather chairs, olive trees in terracotta pots and artworks of Mediterranean singers.
ELBA: Corsica-born owner Chris Bellone picked the name of his restaurant for the island’s place in the heart of the Mediterranean. The restaurant opened on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale this month.
Motek opened its first restaurant in downtown Miami in 2021 before spreading out across Miami-Dade County; now there’s a restaurant in Coral Gables and another in Aventura, as well as two in Miami and two in Miami Beach. The company also operates Sesame Bakery in North Miami and Yalla in the food court at Aventura Mall.
Many fans make special trips to Motek for their crispy, baked Arayes burger ($25), served with grass-fed kufta kebab, tahini and harissa aioli on pita instead of a bun, which won People’s Choice awards at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival Burger Bash in 2022 and 2023.
The Boca Raton restaurant will also feature entrees such as a 20-ounce, bone-in ribeye with chimichurri and peppercorn sauce ($88), baby lamb chops with majadra rice and sumac onions ($69), and lamb shawarma ($38).
Odishelidze said chicken schnitzel platters ($25) are among the restaurants’ most popular items. He said the chain uses strictly kosher meats but serves dairy items and thus cannot be called a kosher restaurant.
The chain has expanded quickly and is looking at additional locations, including Fort Lauderdale, New York and Los Angeles. In the meantime, the staff wants to get the Boca Raton site set up on schedule.
“We offer some very unique tastes,” Odishelidze said. “And we’re working on some amazing additions to the menu in Boca,” although he said foodies will have to wait until the opening to see what they are.
The new Motek is expected to debut at 5377 Town Center Road, Boca Raton. Visit motekcafe.com.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/12/23/for-israeli-food-lovers-miamis-motek-to-open-in-boca-raton/
By, Sun Sentinal
