The 27 Best Restaurants in Miami
For some time, Miami's reputation as a clubby party city held back the recognition of its restaurant scene—which, even before more recent openings from the likes of Marcus Samuelsson and a protégé of the late, great Joël Robuchon, was serving world-class seafood, and some of the best Cuban food anywhere off the island. But the openings have kept coming, and the Miami Design District has developed into Florida's own little Brooklyn by-the-beach—and that reputation for glamorous partying means there's no shortage of buzzy see-and-be-seen spots (if that's what you're into) or stylishly understated hideaways. In an ever-evolving culinary landscape with so much going on, our list of the best restaurants in Miami spotlights the diverse plates we keep going back to, again and again.
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This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
Gary He/COTE MiamirestaurantCOTE Miami
$$$COTE Miami is a place to impress anyone and any number of people, but especially like-minded dining mates who don't mind sharing in a family-style meal and having their meals cooked in front of them. It's a "wow" place, so diners are here not just for the A-plus food, but also the unique experience. Service is rarely out of sync, with a barrage of coordinated servers who unassumingly ensure your meats (cooked in front of you on a smokeless grill) are seared to perfection. The Butcher's Feast is the tasting menu with four cuts and accompanied by a slew of Korean sides, like an egg souffle red leaf lettuce with Ssam-jang. A must-have appetizer is the Steak and Eggs, a filet mignon steak tartare with caviar and the most decadent, buttery and crispy milk toast ever.
Ruben Cabrera, Anto Re, Fuji Film GirlrestaurantZitz Sum
$$$Buried inside a bank building in a Miami suburb, Zitz Sum is a funky 60-seat restaurant that has a distinctly unique focus: not exactly dim sum or izakaya, not fully Italian or Asian, but a conglomeration of all of the above that melds together to create flavors and concoctions that are as inventive as they are thoughtful. And delicious. There's nothing like this in town. The menu changes almost daily, and the tasting menu will get you a very strong identity of the restaurant and the owner's own love of Italian food and childhood memories of eating in dim sum restaurants. If you can get them, go with wonton in brodo—with features a classic wonton in an Italian broth—and the har gow—a classic Chinese dim sum choice that's now mixed with Calabrian chili from Italy.
Douglas FriedmanrestaurantCarbone
$$$Carbone is designed to feel like you're dining in a glamorous old-school joint with Murano sconces and chandeliers, heavy drapery, and sleek jewel-toned seating. It's a throwback to a golden era, modernized with contemporary artwork. The cuisine, printed on an oversized half-fold menu, is an interpretation of classic Italian-American fare and is presented in similar fashion to its paper menu: over-the-top and memorable. Servers (or captains, as they prefer you to call them) are dressed in sharp three-piece burgundy suits with and navigate seamlessly around each other in the expansive dining space while oldies music blares over the speaker. Despite its grand, ornate environment, the dishes are meant to feel familiar and comfortable, like dining at Nonna's home on Sunday evenings.
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Deborah JonesrestaurantThe Surf Club Restaurant
$$$If there was ever a mistake, then it was not made inside the Surf Club Restaurant. Execution is perfection, with dishes arriving tableside without even a garnish out of order. There's a ribeye steak on the menu that features what's considered the finest part of the ribeye only, and it's cooked to an ideal temperature for a buttery output. There's a caesar that was prepared tableside by a server who looks like he studied the execution for decades to ensure the perfect mixture and proportion of ingredients. A fettuccine alfredo dish includes black truffle, which adds a decadence like no other to an otherwise familiar dish.
Red Rooster OvertownrestaurantRed Rooster Overtown
$$Marcus Samuelsson brought the restaurant concept that exploded him on to the national stage to Overtown, one of Miami's first Black neighborhoods, and he couldn't have done it any better. The food is a harmonious mix of soul food with Latin and Caribbean flavors, like the cornbread with jalapeño honey butter and the Yard Bird that uses less batter than the Harlem location, and adds a sour orange hot honey. But just as important as the menu is the atmosphere, which is rollicking and vibrant. Music is always in the air—a welcome carryover from Samuelsson's Harlem original.
Vanessa DiazrestaurantLos Felix
$$Los Felix is a vibrant, colorful spot that showcases traditional Mesoamerican foods in familiar yet innovative ways. There's an earthy, authentic feel to the small, modern space, with hand-dyed, handwoven baskets from Mexican artisans utilized as serving ware for the table. It's a memorable trip to the indigenous parts of Mexico, highlighting corn-based dishes, like tortillas and sweet corn desserts. Almost all the corn is imported from Mexico (from farms that specialize in the Milpas techniques that the Aztec people popularized), and there's an actual miller in the kitchen that grinds the corn each morning. You won't find any soggy tacos here; instead, the tacos al pastor are beautifully presented with marinated pork and sweet touches like precisely cut pineapple.
Patrick ChinrestaurantZak the Baker
$Zak the Baker's Technicolor building is just billed as "bakery" on the outside—a sign of false modesty if ever there was one. Zak's is known for its world-class bread, which some of the city's best restaurants order to serve to their customers. Here at the mothership, though, the painstakingly made pleated loaves are topped with corned beef or avocado, and rye bread, chocolate babkas, and quiche all fly off the shelves. If you’re avoiding carbs and gluten, there are soups, salads, and hummus, and the entire facility is kosher.
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LekurestaurantLeku
$$$Located within the contemporary Rubell Museum, Leku is a modern Basque restaurant and the servers will go into such detail about the region and its cuisine you get the impression they commute in every day. The menu is a whirlwind tour of Spain. The Iberico 5 Jotas is a decadent tartare dish made out of the highest quality Iberico ham. The Arroz de Setas a la Brasa is served with wild mushroom in a charcoal oven, traditional in the Basque region. There's also a whole Branzino cooked sous vide and then finished in the charcoal oven. All of it is presented beautifully. This is definitely a special occasion sort of place.
Courtesy ZumarestaurantZuma
$$$The Miami version of Chef Rainer Becker’s famed izakaya restaurant serves sleek and modern Japanese small plates to a celebrity-filled room. A regular stable of customers come here as much for the buzzy atmosphere as the consistently executed menu of bold flavors and shareable plates. Start off with the suzuki no sashimi (seabass sashimi with yuzu, salmon roe, and truffle oil). Then, order something from the robata grill or a signature dish like roasted lobster with shizo-ponzu butter. Each plate pairs perfectly with wine from the 350-plus bottle list, plus sake and yuzu-heavy cocktails.
Charissa FayrestaurantMandolin Aegean Bistro
$$The homey feeling you get from Mandolin is no accident: more than a decade ago, husband and wife team Ahmet Erkaya and Anastasia Koutsioukis came across a quaint little 1940s bungalow in the Design District (before it was the “Design District”) and determined it would be the perfect canvas for their dream restaurant: a charming little Greek cottage focused on serving simply prepared bites of Greek and Turkish cuisine. And with a menu divided into mezes, salads, sandwiches, mains, and sides, the restaurant makes it easy to indulge in as much—or as little—as you feel like. Plus, the whole Mediterranean sea bass—grilled with olive oil, lemon, and oregano—is as delightful to Instagram as it is to eat.
HidenrestaurantHiden
$$$A few hours before your reservation (a must-have for this eight-seat fine-dining experience), guests receive a special code. Upon arrival, Hiden is, well, hidden from street view. In fact, it's located inside the confines of a gritty taco restaurant. At the back of the space is a steel door that opens only to the aforementioned code. Once access is granted, diners are welcomed into an intimate space with minimalist furnishings and decor. There, master sushi chefs stand at center stage, and guests are invited to sit in one of the eight counter seats that hug the culinary arena. The menu is constantly changing, but it's a guarantee that tender raw fish specially flow in from Japan will always make the menu. And that mastery of what the sushi chef can do with the fish—as well as their restraint in not overdoing it— is a lesson in technique and artistry. Menu courses are paced with crescendos and diminuendos, allowing diners to feel an ebb and flow to the evening's long-winded dinner that you don't want to ever end.
The Bastion CollectionrestaurantL’Atelier de Joël Robuchon
$$$The food at L'Atelier is remarkable, a truly impressive display of innovate, gorgeously-presented French-style cuisine that is full of layered, complex flavors. It's an absolute show of culinary mastery, all performed by experts in their crafts. The food is mind-blowing and special. It's exquisite, actually. For example, the crispy duck (sourced from a small, specialized farm in Long Island that selects which restaurants to work with) is braised for three weeks and then served with a perfect crispiness that's still tender and textured. Fellow diners look very serious about their food. They came to enjoy not just a meal, but a connection with each dish that they ordered.
Courtesy Quinto La HuellarestaurantQuinto La Huella
$$The folks behind Uruguay's famed beachfront eatery, Parador La Huella, have decided to bring that same fire-cooked magic to the U.S. by way of the EAST, Miami hotel. It's a testament to the U.S. restaurant's staying power that Miamians are willing to make the trek to Brickell (and deal with parking) in order to sink their teeth into a plate of Quinto La Huella’s Uruguayan cuisine. Though meat and seafood dishes hold pretty much equal weight on the menu, most diners swear by the former, particularly the Entrecôte, a 14-ounce grass fed rib eye that makes its way to Miami via Uruguay.
Courtesy KYUrestaurantKYU
$$The crowd here is as fashionable as its Wynwood neighborhood, so expect to see plenty of regulars and art lovers tucking into fried chicken. And while you’re most likely to hear KYU described as a contemporary Asian restaurant, that feels too simplistic. Try the duck breast “burnt ends” and Thai coconut cream spinach, which show off the menu's southern influences, or the shichimi-rubbed wagyu brisket for something a bit more indulgent.
restaurantJoe's Stone Crab
$$You’ve got to offer more than just great marketing skills if you want to stick around for more than a century, and Joe’s is the real deal. But there’s a catch (no pun intended): stone crab season runs from mid-October to mid-May, so your window for giving them a try is only open half the year. If it is, and if you manage to live through the wait to be seated, you’d better make sure that someone at the table orders them. (Just be sure to leave room for at least a bite of Joe’s almost-as-famous Key lime pie.)
Grove Bay Hospitality GrouprestaurantStubborn Seed
$$$Chef Jeremy Ford's food is as beautiful to view as it is delicious to eat. The menu, available a la carte or as an eight-course tasting menu, changes often, so it's hard to pinpoint one dish to try consistently. But if you're ordering a la carte, don't skip the snacks. Try the truffle bravas which are a smart, modern spin on the traditional Spanish dish, and the sublime mango cheesecake served with a Thai curry ice cream for dessert. Though the tasting menu is pricey at $150, it's worth it to experience all that Ford and his team can do.
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Lung Yai Thai Tapas
$$Lung Yai Thai Tapas features the best Thai food in all of Miami, prepared by a Bangkok-born chef who clearly understands what it takes to develop flavors as rich as his dishes. It's normal to wait about 90-some minutes for a table at the no-reservation restaurant, but it's well worth it. The restaurant is about as unfussy as it gets in Miami's Calle Ocho district, with minimal decor and styling. Seating options include tables on the sidewalk or a laid-back covered patio. The restaurant feels authentic, gritty and full of rich Thai flavors that are showcased on the varied menu. The pad thai is a must—flavors perfectly coat every noodle without overpowering the soft noodles, and lovely bits of crunchy texture from the peanuts infiltrating every bite.
Courtesy Byblos MiamirestaurantByblos
$While there’s probably not a restaurateur in South Florida who doesn't believe they're offering diners a one-of-a-kind culinary experience, Byblos is the real deal. To get the most of the flavors, order a range of dishes to share with your group (there's plenty of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and paleo-friendly options, too). Just don't miss the Middle Eastern fried chicken, served with tahini, za’atar, and a housemade hot sauce with some serious kick, and the short rib kebab with truffle tzatziki and oregano.
Boia DerestaurantBoia De
$$The small 30-seater can be a challenging place to score a reservation, but it's worth it. The menu is full of inventive dishes that take traditional Italian recipes and flip them with modern, unexpected twists. For example, the beef tartare is served with beef tendon crisps instead of the traditional bread. The tiramisu is given a new texture (instead of the mushy consistency we're used to) with crispy, crunchy Pavesini cookies. The bufala ricotta gnocchi melts in your mouth. And the lamb ribs fra diavolo are cooked beautifully: moist, tender, and dusted with a dry rub of Middle Eastern spices.
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La Sandwicherie
$If the first thing you think upon arriving at La Sandwicherie’s Miami Beach location is, “Wait… am I in the right place?,” you have arrived. That’s because there’s no restaurant to walk into—just a counter where you can order a sandwich or, if you’re really lucky, grab a seat. This isn’t just any sandwich counter, though; it’s a gourmet, French-inspired one where everything comes served on one of the best baguettes you’ll dig into this side of Paris, or a buttery, flaky croissant (you can go the wheat bread route, but you’ll regret it). The demand has gotten so big for these sandwiches that four additional locations in Miami have opened. Beverages are all coffee, juices, milkshakes, and smoothies.
Courtesy MignonetterestaurantMignonette
$$The customers here are definitely seafood fans, with those who can tell a west coast oyster from a PEI on site nosing up to the counter, parsing their options with the nerdy enthusiasm of stamp collectors or bird spotters. But beyond the raw bar, the seafood selection is an exercise in aquatic seduction. The Clams Casino appetizer with bacon and white wine whetting appetites along with seared scallops with andouille and lobster deviled eggs are almost too much. Extravagance can be catered to with caviar or a seafood tower, or you can happily just sit back with a comforting lobster roll.
Courtesy Garcia'srestaurantGarcia's Seafood Grille & Fish Market
$One part fish market, one part restaurant, the Garcia name has been synonymous with fresh seafood for more than 50 years. It's definitely a local landmark, so if you don’t have a permanent Magic City address, expect to be in the minority—but don’t feel awkward about it. This is one place Miamians are happy to share. And forget grabbing your goods to go; pull up a chair at this rustic seafood shack on the Miami River and gaze out at the water as you chow down on the freshest fish sandwich you'll ever eat.
Courtesy La CarmaronerarestaurantLa Camaronera Seafood Joint & Fish Market
$A cartoonish neon sign and brash colors lead you into this Little Havana seafood restaurant where most people are here for the OG Minuta, a snapper sandwich that’s a whole fish on a lightly toasted Cuban roll. Shrimp empanadas, conch fritters, shrimp tacos—they all come out fresh and tasty and if you’re feeling hungry or want to share, the kitchen will send out whole fried fish or a stone crab or a breaded lobster. You can’t go wrong here.
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Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann
$$Though award-winning Argentine chef Francis Mallmann may be a familiar face and name to American diners, Los Fuegos marks his first foray outside of his native South America. Which is kind of a big deal. A master of live fire cooking, Mallmann is known for his love of charred meats and fish, which here includes a Mediterranean branzino with beet and sesame cream and quinoa salad, and a skirt steak “a la Parrilla” with a chimichurri sauce. If you’re dining a deux, opt for one of the dishes for two, like the meat “Parrillada,” full of skirt steak, grass-fed ribeye, lamb, and chorizo with Mallman’s famous domino potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Courtesy STARR RestaurantsrestaurantMakoto
$$You’re here for the sushi. The fish is flown in from Tokyo three times a week and so freshness is guaranteed. There are some, let's call them "American-friendly" options—your spicy tuna and rainbow rolls—but they're done to perfection. Head for the far corners of the menu, though, and delight in the barbecued freshwater eel, the live scallop, and the sea urchin. The sushi and sashimi samplers offer outstanding value, and if you’re feeling celebratory, there’s also caviar.
ArieterestaurantAriete
$$$Though Ariete is an amalgamation of global cuisines, the inspiration comes from Michael Beltran's Cuban upbringing and French training. There is no other place in the world where you can eat food like this. The Our Florida Orange appetizer is creatively presented in the shape of a Florida Orange (even with dimples), but when you cut inside there's an unexpected surprise of chicken foie mouse with a duck and sour orange pate, and the chocolate crumbs at the base add beautiful crunch and texture. Also not to be missed: Canard A La Presse duck, which is finished off tableside with a duck press.
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Itamae
$$$Itamae is a modern space tucked inside a courtyard of a popular shopping district. There are six seats at the indoor counter, and the rest of the seating is outdoors on the patio. The restaurant is a beautiful showcase of Nikkei-inspired flavors, presented in artful fashion that almost make it too beautiful to eat. Almost. Because the flavors are so special and bright, with different notes hitting the palate with each new bite. The food at Itamae is exciting and vibrant, with seafood being a constant main character in the ever-changing menu.
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