Kadence

Kadence is a Japanese sushi and kappo counter on Winter Park Road in the Audubon Park Garden District of Orlando. It has held a Michelin star since the Florida guide first gave it one in 2022.

The restaurant is run by the husband-and-wife team Mark and Jennifer Berdin, and its own site also names a third partner, Lordfer. It began as a small market stand: their first venture, Kappo, served tasting menus inside East End Market, where it became a favorite of the hall. The owners later closed Kappo and renovated the old Winter Park Beer Company building to make room for Kadence. The jump from a market stall to a starred counter took place without changing the basic idea, which is a chef cooking for a handful of people at close range.

There are only eight seats, all at the counter, and Chef Berdin prepares each course directly in front of the guests. The meal opens with small composed plates and sashimi, then moves into a run of nigiri on warm rice. A ramen made with a fish broth and restrained desserts close the sequence. Sea trout, miso soup, octopus and uni with Wagyu beef have all appeared on the menu. Michelin singles out the sake program, which runs alongside the food from start to finish. With so few seats, timing matters as much as the fish: each piece is passed across the counter at the moment it is ready.

The guide's plaques do not hang in the dining room. The couple keeps them in the restroom, and Berdin greeted the latest one with a joke about another addition to that wall. Kadence kept its star again in the 2026 Florida guide, five years in a row. That light touch fits a counter whose story began among the stalls of a food hall.