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
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
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
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
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
EntreNos
Miami Shores | Seasonal Floridian
Evan Burgess and Osmel Gonzalez gave themselves a task no one thought possible: Cook some of the most inventive and delicious fine dining using ingredients almost entirely from Florida. They rely on Homestead farms for the produce in dishes, like a tropical stone fruit salad with rich avocados, sweet mango and mamey and salty stracciatella. Oysters from Sebastian inlet are grilled with bits of Cuban frita and preserved cauliflower. Smoked black grouper is line caught off Florida coasts, and pigs are raised near Orlando for the aged in-house pork. The rest of the ingredients, they ferment, freeze, jar and preserve. The duo were the top sous chefs at Ariete, in Coconut Grove, when it won and retained its Michelin star. The menu at EntreNos naturally always changes. Make reservations a few weeks apart for a surprise and a lesson about what it means to devote yourself to cooking locally. CARLOS FRÍAS
Erba
Coral Gables | Italian
There is no shortage of attractive Italian restaurants at the upper end of the price scale in Greater Miami. This one, opened last year by Niven Patel and his partner Mohammed Alkassar, stands out from the crowd with impeccable pasta, top-of-the-line porchetta (made with Iberico pork) and frisky ideas like cacio e pepe potato pavé. But the biggest differentiator is the kitchen’s attraction to local, seasonal ingredients, some of which come from Mr. Patel’s family’s farm. This being South Florida, that means translucent slices of star fruit draped over wahoo crudo, mafaldine swirled with Bahamian conch and deep orange mango sorbetto. Erba builds on the approach Mr. Patel takes at his first restaurant, Ghee Indian Kitchen, where the food reflects his family’s roots in the Indian state of Gujarat. BRETT ANDERSON
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
Happy Wine Calle 8
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
Itamae AO
Midtown Miami |Japanese-Peruvian
In the hands of Nando Chang, Nikkei cuisine, shaped by Japanese immigrants in his native Peru, inspires dazzling strategies for drawing out the best in seafood. Consider the dainty portion of glistening aori ika he serves at his 10-seat omakase-style counter adjacent to the sister restaurant Maty’s (run by Mr. Chang’s actual sister, Val). When you first bite into it, the prized species of squid feels unyieldingly firm, possibly even tough, but the sensation lasts just an instant, as the raw flesh quickly turns creamy and sweet. Those qualities ultimately shape shift, sharpened by a huacatay and roasted habanero sauce that tastes as though ponzu had been tuned to match the middle register of a baritone saxophone. Now imagine eating over a dozen courses with similar levels of intrigue at carefully calibrated levels of intensity. BRETT ANDERSON
Kush by Stephen’s
Hialeah | Delicatessen
Kush is Matt Kuscher, a restaurateur who has described his aesthetic as “Miami in your face.” Stephen’s is the deli he bought in 2017, hoping to keep alive a part of Miami history. Exemplary latkes, matzo ball soup and sliced-to-order pastrami sandwiches point to the 1950s, when Stephen’s opened in what was then a Jewish stronghold. Today the community is overwhelmingly Latino, largely Cuban American. That explains the frita (served here with a smear of guava jelly), the Spanish-speaking staff and clientele, and the “Jewban” sandwich that imagines what would happen if a Cubano and Rueben procreated. How much South Florida culture can you fit inside a small corner restaurant? Slide into a booth at this time-collapsing delicatessen for an answer. BRETT ANDERSON
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
Macchialina
South Beach | Italian
The chef Michael Pirolo’s restaurant has evolved over the last 12 years 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 are the five or six housemade pastas that change monthly. Share a bowl of creamy polenta with housemade sausage, a warm plate of cavatelli with tiny tender meatballs, and a veal Milanese. Or just a “bambini,” a 1.5-ounce martini, and a plate of salumi after work. If you don’t save room for the tiramisu with coffee liquor granita you will regret it. 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, built an expert Italian wine list of lesser-known varietals. It might just be Miami’s perfect restaurant. CARLOS FRÍAS
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
Maty’s
Midtown Miami | Peruvian
To take the inspiration story behind Maty’s literally is to believe that the chef-owner, Val Chang, grew up eating plates of oysters a la chalaca, tuna tiradito laid over citrusy yellow-eye beans and whole roasted dorade draped in aji amarillo beurre blanc. Those are just a few examples of the inspired tributes Ms. Chang pays to the cooking of her native Chiclayo, Peru, and specifically to her grandmother Maty. You’ll find it in a Midtown Miami dining room awash with sunlight in the day and pulsing music at night. And with Itamae AO, the Nikkei-style omakase restaurant run by Ms. Chang’s brother, Nando, now open in a connected space (see above), this address has become Florida’s headquarters of new Peruvian American food. BRETT ANDERSON
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. 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
Mignonette
Downtown Miami | Seafood
Strip away the pretension from a fine-dining restaurant that serves some of the freshest seafood in Miami, and what you have left is Mignonette. That’s the easy ethic at this restaurant by the chef Danny Serfer. Have a seat at the counter inside this converted 1937 service station. Order the lobster deviled eggs topped with caviar. Pair it with West Coast oysters and brut Champagne selected by the co-owner Ryan Roman. At Mignonette, you can celebrate an anniversary with a seafood tower of crudos and crab legs, or stop in on any weeknight for $2 Kumamotos at happy hour. Diver scallops in beurre blanc melt on the fork, and redfish with an andouille crust crackles. Mr. Serfer learned from his mentor, one of Miami’s first James Beard Award winners, Allen Susser, who was part of a group playfully nicknamed the Mango Gang. Serfer keeps their spirit alive here. CARLOS FRÍAS
Off Site
Little River | Elevated Comfort Food
Steve Santana has remade your favorite bar bites and childhood comfort food at Off Site. Not reimagined them, not deconstructed them. He simply found the best ingredients and obsessed over technique to make the best versions he could. At Off Site, they smoke their own cheese sauce for queso dip and stuff their own hot dogs — five kinds including a corn dog battered in masa flour. Mr. Santana smokes short ribs tender enough to pull out the bones for their version of a McRib, and the thunderously crunchy Super Good Chicken Sandwich lives up to its name. Mr. Santana has partnered with Adam Darnell, who founded Miami’s original craft beer bar, Boxelder. Mr. Darnell is exacting about the recipe for Off Site’s Super Good Lager, outsourced to a local craft brewery, and he brings in low-intervention wines from his neighboring wine shop, Zero Zero. CARLOS FRÍAS
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
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
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
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
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 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 Neuske 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
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 café 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 their roasted pork, ham, swiss and pickles. And their jamón croquetas are easily some of the best in Miami. CARLOS FRÍAS
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
Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.
The post The 25 Best Restaurants in Miami Right Now appeared first on New York Times.
