This popular South Beach restaurant and hot spot just reopened in Bal Harbour

China Grill, the South Beach restaurant that ushered in a new era of upscale dining and partying in Miami, has made a return to South Florida — but this time, it’s not in Miami Beach.

The iconic spot from restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow is now open at Bal Harbour Shops, in the former space of the French restaurant Le Zoo, which closed in 2025.

Chodorow, who opened the the first China Grill in New York City in 1987 and the Miami Beach restaurant in 1995, said the luxurious open-air shopping mecca, home to such restaurants as Carpaccio, Makoto and new(ish) Slim’s Steakhouse, worked for the concept. The Miami Beach China Grill closed in 2012.

“China Grill was always about creating a shared experience, something people remembered long after the meal ended,” he said. “There’s been a real demand to bring it back, and Bal Harbour feels like the right place to do it in a way that honors what it was while moving it forward.”

The new China Grill seats 160 diners and serves lunch and dinner. The menu offers many of the original’s most famous dishes, like the beloved lobster pancakes and lamb spare ribs.

As they did in the good old days, dumplings also play a huge part of the menu, particularly the popular spicy beef dumplings. There are new dumplings, too, including a black and gold black cod dumpling.

You can expect salads, too: calamari salad, Peking duck salad and a brand-new Singapore 17 vegetable salad with an umi salted plum dressing. Also on the menu are the crispy spinach and wasabi mashed potato side dishes, which live prominently in former guests’ imaginations.

As for dessert, expect a number of Asian-inspired souffles, as well as the showstopper Bananas in a Box, caramelized bananas with caramel pastry cream inside a crispy, spun-sugar caramel “box.”

The mix of old and new aims to blend nostalgia with Miami’s new culinary identity, which has become far more dynamic since China Grill first opened on South Beach, Chodorow said.

“We’re introducing some new dishes that feel right for where dining is today,” he explains. “Most of what people remember is coming back exactly as it should, the signatures that defined China Grill and still resonate with guests who have been waiting for this moment.”

China Grill

Where: Bal Harbour Shops, 9700 Collins Ave., Bal Harbour

Hours: Noon-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; noon-midnight Friday-Saturday

More information and reservations: www.chinagrillbalharbour.com or 305-404-9700