Leiah restaurant
Credit: Matt Keller Lehman
Leiah restaurant
Sea bass at Leiah Credit: Matt Keller Lehman

The death of the tasting menu restaurant may not be upon us quite yet. Not with many such establishments supplementing their multicourse affairs with less substantial (that is, more affordable) dalliances. Some have even swiveled to spotlight special menus offered at their very fetching bars, or, in the case of Leiah, setting à la carte selections alongside four-, six- and eight-course tasting menus. Restaurants casting wide conceptual nets can muddle their carefully crafted narratives, but chef-owner Omar Torres keeps it simple. His experience directing food and beverage operations at the Ritz, Waldorf and Hilton shows, but he’s equally as deft at styling food as he is with menu development.

I studied the tuile butterfly in the “bees + beets,” a salad that came with the six-courser ($125) ordered with a wine pairing on a visit last summer. The honey-baked lepidoptera hovered over segments of red and yellow beets set into piped goat cheese, all garnished with fennel pollen and a splash of mustard verjus, before I purposefully wrecked and ingested it. Perhaps Torres gets a kick out of seeing his artful presentations being obliterated, like a subversive act of culinary activism. The antics peaked when my partner picked up a double-walled glass bowl filled with lobster bisque, wrapped his lips around the bowl’s long glass handle and “smoked” the soup with feigned puffs.

That bisque, dotted with coral oil (made from lobster roe) and nasturtium flowers, is fashioned from a stock using lobster shells that’s been reduced for 12 hours. Briny? Yes; in fact, puckeringly salty. So much so that I had to set the bisque aside and move on to a plate of tortellini nestled in lemon beurre and coated in 40-month aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, fontina and brie. The tortellini, just like the fettuccine offered here in truffle and Parmesan versions, is all hand-rolled in house.

But arguably the most artistically presented dish was a verjus-marinated sea bass cooked sous vide and draped with finely cut rounds of baby zucchini, effectively “scaling” the fish. Beneath the fillet was a carrot puree while salmon roe crowned the modest cut. Absolutely gorgeous, but I didn’t find the melding of carrot and fish agreeable, while the pal thought the texture of the Patagonian toothfish chewy. Good thing Torres often changes the embellishments, like the recent addition of an achiote-seaweed-coral sauce, I’m guessing for the better. 

A prime tenderloin served over parsnip puree and a single asparagus concluded the savory portion of the tasting. Garlic roots, a little demi-glace and a gremolata-like culantro-cilantro topping made for a delicious, if perfunctory, tasting menu course. It ended with another tuile butterfly, this one perched on crystallized basil-dusted mascarpone beneath which lay dragonfruit, cabernet pears, papaya and more mascarpone. It was a perfect three-bite ending that spoke to Torres’ Puerto Rican roots. The butterfly motif, by the way, is present throughout the restaurant — it happens to be a much-admired creature of Torres’ daughter, Leiah.

Credit: Matt Keller Lehman

I saw it again when I enjoyed that same dessert on a recent lunchtime visit to try the three-course lunch menu ($34). That lobster bisque opener (now served in a handle-less glass bong, er, bowl) was still way too salty. Even a squeeze of lemon didn’t help. But my main — a wagyu pastrami sandwich that I’ll declare, without hesitation, as the finest pastrami sandwich in the city — blew me away. Katz’s, Schmatz’s; give me these thick-cut slabs in sourdough ciabatta with mustard, Beemster gouda and pickled onions any day. It also came with a proper serving of fries, cooked in wagyu tallow to boot. That lunchtime deal presents one hell of a value.

That pastrami sandwich was so good I went back to try the burger served on a Mallorca bun, and I’ll declare, without hesitation, that this is one of the finest burgers being served in the city right now. That burger was so good, I went back to try the potato foam with shaved burgundy truffles cloaking oyster mushrooms from Fungi Jon ($9). It was so good I ordered rock shrimp ceviche tossed in garlic, sugar and spices, served on a round of fried, sea-salted breadfruit ($12). It was so good, I plan to go back to try the chicken with aji amarillo aioli, provolone and schiacciata.

Ah! Leiah! Here we go again.

Leiah: 409 N. Magnolia Ave., 321-247-5578, leiahrestaurant.com

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This article appears in Feb. 25-March 3, 2026.

Orlando restaurant critic. Orlando Weekly restaurant critic since 2006.