La Sponda Brings Waterfront Mediterranean Dining to Coconut Grove's Grove Isle

La Sponda opened on Grove Isle, the private island resort off Coconut Grove, from Gioia Hospitality Group. The setting is the restaurant's defining feature as much as the menu: waterfront seating looking out over Biscayne Bay, on an island most Miami diners don't get to otherwise.

Coastal Italian, seasonal by design

The menu leans into coastal Italian and broader Mediterranean cooking, built around seasonal ingredients rather than a fixed, year-round lineup. That approach fits the setting, a restaurant meant to change with the season the way the view over the bay does.

A destination, not a drive-by

Grove Isle isn't a restaurant a diner stumbles into on the way to somewhere else. Getting there is part of the experience, which makes La Sponda more of a planned outing than a casual dinner decision, closer to a resort meal than a neighborhood restaurant even though it sits inside Miami proper.

Why it matters

Waterfront dining with genuine bay views is a limited category in Miami, and La Sponda's private-island setting puts it in rarer company than most new openings this year. For Coconut Grove specifically, it adds a special-occasion option that doesn't really have a direct comparison nearby.