In the Where to Eat: 25 Best series, we’re highlighting our favorite restaurants in cities across the United States. These lists will be updated as restaurants close and open, and as we find new gems to recommend. As always, we pay for all of our meals and don’t accept free items.
Amelia’s 1931
West Kendall | Cuban-Korean-Peruvian
Eileen Andrade grew up as Cuban restaurant royalty: Her grandparents founded Islas Canarias, which remains the pinnacle of great Cuban food in Miami, down to their jamón croquetas. Ten years ago, she created a casual standby for the restaurant-starved western suburbs with Finka, where she introduced the flavors of other cultures — Peruvian, Korean — into traditional Cuban dishes. Last year, she opened Amelia’s 1931, as an elegant, sit-down restaurant, named and styled after her chic grandmother. Yes, it’s in a strip mall. Ignore the facade disguised to look like a dry cleaner. Open the door, step through the hanging racks of clothes and into a golden-lighted room. Walls are hand-painted, and lettering is done in gold leaf. A jazz trio plays for diners sipping craft cocktails. Ms. Andrade experiments with a more robust and experimental menu here, like lomo saltado risotto, vegetarian boniato gnocchi, katsu-style chicharrones and juicy, tender mojo chicken. CARLOS FRÍAS
13601 SW 26th Street; 305-554-4949; amelias1931.com
Awash
Miami Gardens | Ethiopian
Eka Wassel and her husband, Fouad, opened the only Ethiopian restaurant in Miami-Dade County seven years ago on the Miami Gardens side of a mixed community of African immigrants (primarily Nigerian). And it happens to be great. Ms. Wassel oversees the kitchen, and Mr. Wassel is the face of the dining room. Start with crispy meat or lentil sambusas and head right toward the Taste of Awash, a bright mandala of flavors that includes meat dishes like a rich chicken doro wat and a vegetarian shiro. They’re served with a pyramid of sour-tangy injera bread. Finish with the Ethiopian coffee service. Pair it with — somewhat unexpectedly — the Matilda-rich chocolate cake, a decadent wedge of self-care, made daily. CARLOS FRÍAS
19934 NW Second Avenue; 305-770-5100; awashethiopian.com
Café La Trova
Little Havana | Cuban
Café La Trova is the classic Miami Cuban experience distilled into one bright night out. Julio Cabrera, who grew up above his father’s speakeasy in Cuba, brought cantinero cocktail culture with him to Little Havana. He and his fellow bartenders stylishly toss and twirl expertly balanced cocktails, then dance in rhythm when the nightly live band leads them in Cuban oldies. The chef Michelle Bernstein came on to design a classic Cuban menu with her expert touches. Her Spanish-style creamy croquetas in fig jam are a trademark. The Cuban sandwich empanadas with house-roasted pork check every box. Pork masitas and a whole fried snapper round out the experience. Save conversations for breaks between music sets. You might find yourself dancing between the tables. Everyone else does. CARLOS FRÍAS
971 SW Eighth Street; 786-615-4379; cafelatrova.com
Clive’s Cafe
Little Haiti | Jamaican
No one can remember exactly when Sobre los Verdes Café officially became Clive’s, not even Pearline Murray, who bought the cafe in 1965 when she immigrated from Jamaica. But within a few years, Ms. Murray, known as Miss Pearl; her husband Clifford, who died in 1993; and her sister Joan Chin, switched from making grab-and-go sandwiches to the Jamaican cuisine the sisters learned from their mother back on the island. Everybody called it Clive’s, after Miss Pearl’s son who delivered the food, so they kept the name. Clamshell containers fly out at lunchtime, filled with stewed curry goat or tender oxtail in brown sauce, soaking into pigeon peas and rice. Ask for a hunk of yeasty coco bread (not on the menu) to sop up the saucy goodness. Don’t skip the flaky, golden spicy beef patties or a plate of charred, tangy jerk chicken with a side of sweet plantains. CARLOS FRÍAS
5890 NW Second Avenue; 305-757-6512; clivescafe.com
Double Luck
MiMo District | Chinese American
Dining out, particularly in Miami, is supposed to be fun. Double Luck never forgets that. Updated Chinese American classics with flare means your orange chicken is finished tableside with a flaming Hennessey sauce like a baked alaska. Overhead, 1980s Cantopop thumps recognizable favorites. And the dining room is toned in the red-orange glow of hanging lanterns. Adrian Ochoa, the chef and a co-owner, learned to love Sichuan cuisine from lifelong friends, the secret to spices running kitchens at Niven Patel’s Ghee, and how to make theater by cocreating the menu at Tâm Tâm, using bold flavors. His tender green tea-smoked duck is served Peking style, with pillowy bao. A fragrant fish sauce provides the theatrics for the crispy fried eggplant. You’ll grab crab leg Rangoons by the pincers to dunk them in a house duck sauce. And don’t miss the pastry chef Callie Pumo’s Black Forest cake. CARLOS FRÍAS
1085 NE 79th Street; 33138; 305-675-4287; no website
Drinking Pig BBQ
Coconut Grove | Barbecue
Raheem Sealey and Mark Wint embraced the flavors they grew up with in the Caribbean and applied it to low-and-slow techniques to create unmistakable Miami barbecue. Jamaican allspice, cloves and coriander perfume dishes here, from the prime-grade brisket, smoked 14 to 16 hours, to the jerk-seasoned spare ribs and the smoked chicken brined overnight. They build these flavors with patience, balance and care, as you’d expect from chef-partners who also run the Miami fine-dining restaurants Kyu (pronounced CUE) and Shiso. That goes for the supporting elements, too, including baked beans with brisket trimmings, some of the most delicate collards you’ll find, and the cornbread, which Mr. Sealey’s wife, Yohanir Sandoval, begins by shaving fresh-shucked corn from the cob. Pairing this expertly made barbecue with an old-fashioned as a breeze blows through an open courtyard under the hammocks in verdant Coconut Grove? Bliss. CARLOS FRÍAS
3444 Main Highway, Suite No. 16; 786-534-4244; drinkingpigbbq.com
El Mago de las Fritas
West Miami | Cuban Fritas
El Mago de las Fritas and El Rey de las Fritas are as close as Miami gets to the Pat’s and Geno’s cheesesteak argument in Philadelphia. Here the discussion is over fritas, Cuban-style smash burgers with roots in Havana. Traditionally, fritas are beef patties (sometimes mixed with pork) seasoned with cumin and paprika and smashed on the griddle. They’re topped with crispy papitas (fried potato strings) and diced onions, and served on a round Cuban bun. Add a squirt of ketchup and Crystal hot sauce like a local. El Rey on Southwest Eighth Street is Miami’s longest running frita shop. Its founder, Victoriano Gonzalez, the self-appointed king, or rey, of fritas, taught his brother-in-law, Mr. Ortelio Cárdenas, how to make them in the late 1970s. Mr. Cárdenas christened himself the magician of fritas, el mago, and opened his own spot across town, Today you can find him sitting at the end of the counter every afternoon, at 89 years old, drinking a glass of wine and keeping an only-in-Miami tradition alive. CARLOS FRÍAS
5828 SW 8th Street; 305-266-8486; elmagodelasfritas.com
Ghee Indian Kitchen
Kendall | Southern Indian
Search Ghee’s menu for a seal that reads, “Rancho Patel.” That tells you the dish was created with produce grown on the chef Niven Patel’s two-acre backyard farm in Homestead. For the rest, he turns to small, local farmers. For the last seven years, he has turned that produce into the most original Indian cuisine in Miami, focusing on vegetable-heavy southern Indian food. That includes seasonal vegetable curry, and Backyard Pakora made with taro leaves grown in Mr. Patel’s actual backyard. Chana Masal might use Florida heirloom tomatoes, and other dishes are brightened with tiny, Everglade tomatoes that pop with flavor. Just as he makes the pasta at his Italian restaurant, Erba (see above), Mr. Patel makes the Hakka noodles on-site at Ghee. What meat there is on the menu, like smoked lamb neck, comes from sustainable sources like Niman Ranch. CARLOS FRÍAS
8965 SW 72nd Place; 305-968-1850; gheemiami.com
Happy Wine Calle Ocho
West Miami | Spanish
Shelves made out of two-by-fours hold everything from Spanish albariño to Cristal Champagne at the West Miami wine shop and bar where the owners J.C. Restrepo and Joanna Fajardo are serious about the wine, but not about how to enjoy it. Reminiscent of the lively, chaotic tavernas of Seville, Happy Wine dishes out hot and cold tapas beneath string lights and live entertainment every night of the week. More than 1,000 bottles of Iberian, Italian and French wines piled to the ceiling and walls are scrawled with the graffiti of tipsy guests (“I got dronk here”). Tapas include tablas of jamón Pata Negra, huevos rotos with housemade chips, prosciutto panini and smoky garlic gambas. Longtime fans have a standing date with the Saturday-only paella. You can even order an only-in-Miami pairing: caviar and croquetas. Hey, it’s not called Uptight Wine. CARLOS FRÍAS
5792 SW Eighth Street; 305-262-2465; happywinecalleocho.com
Harry’s Smoke & Dough
West Kendall | Latin-American barbecue
Harry and Michelle Coleman spent much of their young adulthood working in bakeries. That led to the opening of Empanada Harry’s, which ultimately spawned the next-door business Smoke & Dough. This would be an unusual lineage for a barbecue joint pretty much anyplace besides South Florida, where the diversity of the Latin American diaspora is expressed in baked goods. Smoke & Dough draws on that heritage and its savory-sweet palette, and answers the question of what true Miami barbecue might taste like: ribs glossed with guava-ancho barbecue sauce, brisket rubbed with Cuban coffee, housemade pastrami tequeños, black beans baked with pineapple. And yes, the flan is smoked. BRETT ANDERSON
4013 SW 152nd Avenue; 786-362-5698; smokeanddough.com
La Camaronera
Little Havana | Cuban seafood
La Camaronera’s pan con minuta is a sandwich containing a whole gutted fried snapper, minus the head but including the tail. It’s more fish than the lightly toasted Cuban roll can contain. The sandwich, the most popular order at this 50-plus year-old Little Havana seafood joint, is both hard to miss and hard to resist. The qualities that make it so delicious — notably the fried-to-order crispness of the fresh fish — are found across the menu, which contains some of the South’s best fried seafood and more. That great-looking hogfish for sale at the retail counter? Order a skin-on fillet of it grilled, with a side of black-eyed pea fritters. BRETT ANDERSON
1952 West Flagler Street; 305-642-3322; lacamaronera.com
Macchialina
South Beach | Italian
The chef Michael Pirolo’s restaurant has evolved since 2012 to become that rare thing: a favorite of locals and tourists alike, a special occasion treat and a weekly appointment. The highlights of the menu have always been the five or six pastas that change monthly. And now the restaurant has evolved again, expanding with a patio and turning the old bar area into Fluke, a martini and crudo bar where you can wait for a table or wait out traffic. At the main restaurant, share a bowl of creamy polenta with housemade sausage, a warm plate of cavatelli with tiny tender meatballs and a veal Milanese. Save room for the tiramisù with coffee liquor granita. Mr. Pirolo’s partner in work and life, Jen Chaefsky, learned to run restaurants from Stephen Starr (Pastis, Buddakan), and the attentive service shows. The sommelier, Mr. Pirolo’s sister, Jacqueline Pirolo, built an expert Italian wine list of lesser-known varietals. It might just be Miami’s perfect restaurant. CARLOS FRÍAS
820 Alton Road; 305-534-2124; macchialina.com
Mandolin Aegean Bistro
Design District | Greek-Turkish
The Design District in Miami is an urban playground of murals, chic furniture stores and modern architecture. That built environment converges with a natural one on the secluded outdoor patio of this confidently stylish Aegean restaurant. Served in the shade of bougainvillea, hanging plants and trees, traditional mezze of plump anchovies and grated tomatoes, or of simply roasted peppers, and larger plates of fresh seafood, adorned with little more than lemon juice, olive oil and char, go beyond satisfying. The food tastes like a logical extension of the setting, as if the kitchen is taking its cues from the natural beauty around it. Opened in 2009, Mandolin is a timeless restaurant in a city racing toward the future. If that sounds appealing, you’re not alone: Plan ahead to book your table. BRETT ANDERSON
4312 NE Second Avenue; 305-749-9140; mandolinrestaurant.com
Michael’s Genuine
Design District | New American
Michael’s Genuine doesn’t follow trends. It sets them. Before anyone knew what a gastro pub was (was it one word? two?), Michael Schwartz had shown us in 2007: pork belly and duck fat, fried hominy and his own craft beer. Michael’s put the Design District back on the map and earned Mr. Schwartz a James Beard Award. Fifteen years later, the restaurant is still ahead of the trends. Mr. Schwartz revamped the space — what was black is now white, what was dark heavy wood is now rattan — doubled the size and opened it to the outdoors. And he revamped the menu, too. Peaches with stracciatella, or grilled prawns to start. Aromatic roast chicken, whole fish and five options for roasted vegetables, all come out of the wood-fired oven. Michael’s is now neighbors with Hermès and Tory Burch. Somehow it still fits Miami. CARLOS FRÍAS
130 NE 40th Street; 305-676-0894; michaelsgenuine.com
Palma
Riverside | Tasting Menu
Juan Camilo Liscano learned about “micro-seasonality,” cooking with fresh ingredients that might only be available for a couple of weeks at a time, while interning at restaurants in Europe. At Palma, he and a staff of four cook a $85 seven-course tasting menu of seasonal ingredients — mostly from local farms during Miami’s winter growing season. He’s written 13 menus in eight months, varying everything except a sweet plantain brioche that arrives with the fish course, smoking from the oven and suffusing the 25-seat dining room in the aroma of fresh bread. Otherwise, expect one surprise after another: smoked oysters with ponzu granita; baby corn dusted with pecorino like a tiny elote; fish crudo and paper-thin plum slices over a cilantro tahini; and grilled Gem lettuce that has no business competing so competently against slices of aged beef. It’s a restaurant unlike any other in Miami. CARLOS FRÍAS
240 NW Eighth Avenue; no phone; eatpalma.com
Recoveco
South Miami | New American
María Teresa Gallina and Nicolás Martínez learned an important lesson in their first full-time kitchen jobs in Miami: “You can do big things in a small space,” Ms. Gallina said. They saw Brad Kilgore named a James Beard Award finalist at Alter, where she was a pastry chef and Mr. Martínez a line cook. They fell in love in that tiny restaurant, too. Mr. Martínez learned the art of butchering and aging fish, and Ms. Gallina how to run a business at the even smaller sushi counter Itamae, where the chef-owners Nando and Valerie Chang were each named Beard nominees. Big things are now coming from their 1,300 square-foot restaurant in South Miami, Recoveco, where minimalist dishes belie layers of flavors and skill. Pennsylvania Golden chicken is served with the claw and the unexpected fresh Florida green mango sauce with hoja santa. Florida black grouper waits beneath a coverlet of sweet potato leaves that perfumes the fish as if steeped in loose-leaf tea. Special crudos are made from fish harvested using the ikejime method, a fish butchering technique that ensures flavor. They’re brave enough to put beef tongue on the menu (mimicking a pâté, drizzled in chimichurri) — for that alone you should order it. And desserts, like a warm brownie over a cool slice of creamy mamey with tart finger lime pearls, are prettier than they need to be. CARLOS FRÍAS
6000 SW 74th Street, Suite 1; no phone; recovecorestaurant.com
Ricky Thai Bistro
North Miami Beach | Thai
Ricky Thai Bistro in North Miami Beach has been a local favorite long enough that Ricky, the boy it was named for, now works at his parents’ restaurant during summer break. There’s a reason the postage stamp of a spot closed for nearly a year to remodel, and when it reopened, at twice the size, that it was full from the first day (including with Miami Heat stars). The co-owner Majcha Manomai holds nothing back with powerful and fragrant Isan Thai flavors, flatly directing diners to order the larb spicy-sour salad hot or “Thai hot.” Her tom kha kai, with swirling chile oil in coconut broth, could cure a cold. Curries, especially the crispy duck, are layered with flavor and brightened by fresh, crunchy veggies that shine throughout Ricky Thai’s dishes like Christmas ornaments. Fat, succulent noodles in pad see ew are fresh pulled, and the whole fried snapper with house chile sauce is a dish worth ordering on every visit. CARLOS FRÍAS
1617 NE 123rd Street, 305-891-9292; rickythaibistro.com
Sra. Martínez
Coral Gables | Spanish, Mediterranean
Señora Martínez is Señora Michelle Bernstein, who, with her husband and business partner, David Martínez, represent the best in Miami hospitality. This spot is the James Beard Award-winner’s first restaurant with her name on the door (so to speak) in almost a decade. What ties it all together isn’t one cuisine but the life experiences of Sra. Bernstein herself, from her Jewish Argentine mom’s kitchen to cooking with grandmothers in Israel, Spain, Hungary, Morocco and beyond — and melding those flavors to create something uniquely hers. Carbonara croquetas are salty and creamy, dusted with cured egg yolk. Rich rabo encendido paella combines oxtail, a Cuban comfort food, with Spanish tradition. And the whipped feta “Greek-ish” salad pairs puckery vinegar with sweet pomegranate. Sra. Martínez is Ms. Bernstein’s autobiography, and it’s a page turner. CARLOS FRÍAS
2325 Galiano Street; 786-860-5980; sramartinezmiami.com
Sunny’s Steakhouse
Little River | Modern Steakhouse
Walk into Sunny’s and you find yourself almost immediately back outside, admiring a banyan tree shading an interior patio surrounded by dining rooms, their windows flung open. The restaurant is, improbably, every bit as good as it looks. Yes, this modern steakhouse in the Little River section of Miami will satisfy your craving for Wagyu and foie gras. Just bear in mind that the extensive menu contains no dead weight. The kitchen, overseen by the executive chef Aaron Brooks, effectively powers a destination steakhouse in addition to a blue-chip Italian restaurant (the pasta is superb) and a seafood restaurant that flexes its muscles with delicacy — order pineapple hot sauce with oysters and at least one crudo. Factor in the spectacular pollo a la brassa and you’ve got something new under the sun: a flamboyant South Florida steakhouse that feels worth it, even after you settle the bill. BRETT ANDERSON
7357 NW Miami Court; no phone; sunnysmia.com
Tâm Tâm
Downtown Miami | Vietnamese
It’s no surprise that Tâm Tâm feels like a party. The downtown restaurant with vibey electronic funk, color-changing lights and karaoke in the bathroom, started as a backyard supper club at the owners’ house. The married couple Tam Pham and Harrison Ramhofer host the party with the Vietnamese cuisine Mr. Pham learned to cook from his mother in Saigon. They bring bold flavors — fish sauce, strong herbs, chiles — to every dish at Tâm Tâm. Cold lotus root salad delivers a vinegary-sweet bite on a hot night. Bone marrow with mint and pepper rings dissolves on your tongue like cotton candy. Crispy batter shatters on meaty, marinated fried frog legs. And the chicken wings — with crispy fried garlic, cilantro, lime and “fish sauce caramel” — leave no part of your palate neglected. CARLOS FRÍAS
99 NW First Street; 786-359-4647; tam-tam-mia.com
Tinta y Café
Coral Gables | Sandwiches, Coffee Shop
Tinta y Café set out to be a different kind of Cuban sandwich shop. Fluffy French eggs go into breakfast sandwiches. House-baked baguettes replace Cuban bread. And a lighter roast coffee makes for an aromatic cafe con leche. That’s what you get from second-generation owners, the cousins Carlos Santamarina and Sachi Statz, who each run a location of Tinta y Café like identical twins. Expect spins on classic Cuban sandwiches with housemade ingredients. The Bori, with prosciutto and Manchego over feathery eggs, is a breakfast favorite. The Madurito, stuffed with roasted pork, caramelized onions, cantimpalo chorizo and diced sweet plantains, packs a savory-sweet punch. Their Cuban, here called the Patria, adds mortadella to the roasted pork, ham, swiss and pickles. And their jamón croquetas are easily some of the best in Miami. CARLOS FRÍAS
1315 Ponce de Leon, Coral Gables; 305-285-0101; 9840 NE Second Avenue, Miami Shores; 305-456-0137; tintaycafe.co
Vice City Pizza
West Kendall | Pizza
Carlos Estarita learned to marry flavors as a chef in fine-dining restaurants in Miami, London and Lima. During the pandemic, he came home to Miami and brought the flavors he grew up with to pizza. An old friend gave him space to bake in his restaurant. And the reaction to Mr. Estarita’s square pies was so positive that he opened Vice City Pizza in 2023. A hybrid Detroit-Sicilian-grandma style, the pies have a satisfying Goldilocks not-too-thick, not-too-thin crunch. His cold-fermented focaccia sourdough base stands up to heaping toppings. Homemade fennel sausage goes onto his saucy Ron Swanson with Nueske’s bacon and Rosa Grande pepperoni. House-pickled jalapeños add kick to his Hawaiian. Brie and homemade fig jam top another. He honors Miami flavors with what’s seasonal, including summer peaches, Cuban mojo pork or a pie topped like a Colombian hot dog with homemade pineapple preserves. CARLOS FRÍAS
2615 SW 147th Avenue; 305-392-0826; vicecitypizza.com
ViceVersa
Downtown | Italian, Cocktail Bar
This place is loud. ViceVersa is busy, buzzy, and you’ll probably sit shoulder-to-shoulder at the bar or at one of a dozen tables cloaked inside of a hotel lobby. And that’s exactly what makes it cool. At ViceVersa you’re transported to one of the clubby crevices where Miami is at its best. Come early and you’ll find a hideaway where locals pregame. Stay late enough and you’ll drink with hospitality industry folks. Tart red snapper aguachile primes you for one of the Italian cocktails made by Valentino Longo. Come with three friends and order the Negroni punchbowl to go with a couple of the chef Justin Flit’s bold Neapolitan-style pizzas — one red pie, like the lamb and beef sausage with pickled onions, and one white, with Middleneck clams, scallions and bright lemon. CARLOS FRÍAS
398 NE Fifth Street; no phone; viceversamia.com
Walrus Rodeo
Little Haiti | Modern Italian
A slice of lasagna at Walrus Rodeo is thin, with a dark, charred surface. From a distance it looks like a healthy serving of parmigiana. Forkfuls reveal wilted mustard greens, tangy stracchino and lamb ragu hinting of moussaka. The food here toys with your expectations in this way, with dishes that look familiar, only to reveal flavors you didn’t predict. Servers mash carrot tartare, bound by espuma and salsa verde, as soon as it lands on the table; charred long beans hold dollops of lemon curd. The staff will make you feel lucky to be part of the scene unfolding nightly in this unassuming Little Haiti strip mall. And while the restaurant lives up to its “not just a pizzeria” tagline, you should order at least one pie. BRETT ANDERSON
5143 NE Second Avenue; walrusrodeo.com
Zitz Sum
Coral Gables | Asian Latin
Pablo Zitzmann doesn’t have Miami’s hot new restaurant anymore. But the fact that Zitz Sum continues to fill seats years after it was a James Beard best new restaurant nominee and honored by The Times is a sign that it has graduated to an important category: trusted standby. Zitz Sum survived an experimental period to evolve its menu into the best version of itself. Hokkaido scallop crudo acevichado with Florida fava beans is as delicate balance of acid and Jalapeño heat. Chicken wontons float in a Parmesan and wood ear mushroom broth you’ll sip from the bowl. And tear-apart bing bread, served on a hot stone, sops up melted leaks and caviar from a grilled red snapper dish. It delivers on special occasions, or on a Wednesday. CARLOS FRÍAS
396 Alhambra Circle, Suite 155; 786- 409-6920; zitzsum.com
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Brett Anderson is a food reporter for The Times, based in New Orleans.
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