It makes sense that Tâm Tâm started out as a sexy pop-up supper club, because dinner here is still a social event worth circling on your calendar. But you’re not coming to this Vietnamese restaurant in Downtown just to post a forehead selfie in one of the curvy mirrors on the wall. You’re here to eat some of the most delicious food in Miami. Many of Tâm Tâm’s best dishes—like the sticky fish sauce caramel wings and the tamarind glazed pork ribs—are gloriously messy. Maybe don’t wear white. But Tâm Tâm has even found a way to make washing your hands an absolute blast (pick the second bathroom on the right). 

Sunny’s—not some awful clubstaurant situation—is the big, fun restaurant Miami deserves. This former steakhouse pop-up now has 220 seats spread across two dining rooms, a patio, a pair of bars, a terrace, and an outdoor lounge. But this isn’t just a place to go and hope someone notices how hot you look. The food, martinis, and supercharged hospitality on display are special enough to be the main attraction. But the real reason you’re coming back to Sunny’s anytime you have something even remotely important to celebrate: it’s just so much damn fun. 

Maybe your days of bottle service and partying till sunrise are behind you. But if you still want to engage in some classic Miami indulgence—all while feeling like a classy adult—then make a reservation at Ariete. If you're coming here to celebrate (or just want dinner to feel like a special occasion in and of itself) get the duck press. They wheel this medieval-looking machine to the table, compress various parts of the duck into a sauce, then use that sauce to smother the absolute best duck you’ll ever taste in your life. Their tasting menu is also one of Miami's best.

Like a person who trains for a marathon two weeks before the race, Walrus Rodeo gave itself a tough task when it opened: to cook everything in the wood-pizza oven it inherited. But it finally feels like this undefinable restaurant has mastered its unusual setup. Now, it’s consistently pumping out unexpectedly amazing dishes. There are fluffy, charred pizzas—and they are perfect—but you’ll also encounter tremendous rotating vegetables, a phenomenal crispy lasagna, and more fire-kissed things pulled straight from the beautiful brains of one of Miami’s most imaginative kitchens.

What can be said about Boia De that hasn’t already been said about that chihuahua you follow on Tik Tok: it’s tiny, it’s adorable, and ever since you first encountered it, you find your thoughts drifting towards it multiple times a day. This narrow Italian restaurant on the edge of Buena Vista has one of those menus that's like a perfect album, with not a single song you’d dare skip. The only rules we’ll gently suggest are: order the chopped salad and the tagliolini nero. Also, set a timer for noon. That's when reservations go live for 30 days in advance (and then sell out within seconds). Or try to come super early for walk-in bar seating, which is our favorite seat in the house anyway. 

Itamae AO is technically an omakase. But don’t come here expecting a traditional sushi omakase. The Nikkei dishes on Itamae AO’s eight-course tasting menu are entirely unique (and not sushi). They pull at your cheeks and amygdala with tangy leche de tigres made with things like habanero, jackfruit, or ash. Slivers of squid are coiled into springs, spiny lobster is minced into tartare, and octopus terrine envelopes an olive and anchovy tapenade. If you remember the previous iteration of Itamae in the Design District, consider this an evolution. The terrazzo counter is still present, but it’s now the stage for the most unique tasting menu in Miami right now. 

The chefs at this Miami Shores pop-up make magic with ingredients you probably have smooshed into the bottom of your sneakers right now. They turn sea grapes into sorbet and use bait fish in their crudo. EntreNos has taken the all-things-local mission statement further than anywhere else in town by sourcing 99.99% of its menu from the frustratingly long state of Florida. And four nights a week they turn a casual sandwich shop into a restaurant that makes you contemplate how delicious your own backyard is. If your favorite day of the week is the trip to the farmers market, this is your new favorite dinner spot in Miami.

We always know what to expect at Macchialina: Italian dishes (mostly pasta) that feel like a final draft, edited to near perfection without so much as one superfluous fragment of parmesan on the plate. This is true even after a round of renovations that have pretty much rebuilt this restaurant from scratch. It's bigger now. It swallowed the defunct hostel that was once its neighbor and spit out a bigger dining room and (its most impressive new feature) a covered outdoor patio. But what we truly love about Macchialina are the ways it hasn’t changed. And it's still a South Beach rarity: a special occasion meal for non-billionaires.

You’ve met the ingredients listed on Recoveco's menu before—things like chicken, grouper, shrimp, and celery. But this seasonal South Miami restaurant puts them underneath a microscope, tuning every detail of the dish to surprising, painstaking perfection. The grouper eats more like a ribeye. The chicken is so crunchy it could start a fire by rubbing its pieces together. There are restaurants where you can go on autopilot and hand your brain off to a couple of dirty martinis and old faithful entrees. Recoveco isn’t one of them. So save this place for a night when you feel capable of appreciating every globule of oil and individual finger lime pulp.

Gramps Getaway is a place that’ll make you feel nostalgic about the old Miami, even if you weren’t around for it. Here, under the massive palapa that used to house Whiskey Joe’s, you’ll find a ‘70s rock playlist, sneakily potent frozen drinks, and creaky wooden floorboards spackled with decades of beach sand. But what really sets Gramps Getaway apart from every other waterfront foe in Miami is the outstanding food. Buffalo wings and burgers stand side by side with basil watermelon salad and skirt steak. Come here to enjoy a gorgeous view of the Brickell skyline, an impressive fried chicken sandwich, and get a good whiff of fresh saltwater without having to pay ridiculous prices or deal with a pompous crowd.

It’s easy to oversimplify Nicaraguan food and assume it can all fit neatly in a styrofoam box. But Madroño is the best example of how incredibly nuanced and diverse Nicaraguan restaurants can be. This classic spot serves unfussy comfort food in a white tablecloth environment worthy of celebrating your niece’s First Communion. If you're here with a group, get the bandeja, a lazy susan filled with the most popular dishes from the entire left side of the menu. No matter who you're here with, end with a Pio V for dessert. And if you're celebrating a birthday, expect an aggressive amount of colorful streamers to be thrown in your general direction.

Since Miami always marches to the beat of its own tiki tiki music, it’s fitting that the city's best Indian restaurant is also uniquely Miami. And Ghee is serving food that could only exist in the 305. The bhel puri chaat is a seamless mashup of bhel puri and ceviche. The turmeric marinated fish uses a local catch, the bhatura has avocado in its dough, and so many of the best dishes source ingredients from Ghee's own farm in Homestead. This is Indian food done Miami style—and done in a way that makes a delicious argument that bhel puris, bhaturas, and vindaloo are just as Miami as pastelitos, Cuban coffee, and arriving very late to a party.

On multiple occasions, we have left Zitz Sum convinced we’d just eaten the best dish Miami has ever produced. And then we’ve never seen it on the menu again. This happens. But even though the frequency of edits on this menu requires a printer with a Ferrari engine, they get away with it by making miracles more than mistakes. Zitz Sum is an “Asian-inspired” restaurant with a bit of an Italian thing going on. But the dumplings, bao, and pasta you’ll encounter here actually do deliver on the seemingly impossible promise to put half a world’s worth of flavors on a single plate. This is not a safe dinner option. This is the reservation to make when you need a meal full of unpredictable excitement.   

It's hard to imagine a restaurant this fun could be this close to Bayside Marketplace. But ViceVersa somehow transforms a hotel lobby full of tourists in damp bathing suits into a Saturday night in Rome. You're coming to this Italian aperitivo bar for helium-soft pizzas, zippy crudos, and the best Negroni in the world. But fun comes first at ViceVersa. Every seat in the narrow room gets you a view of wide smiles, and first dates going unexpectedly well. The entire place thrums with a combination of carefree energy and alcohol that’ll tee you up to be the version of yourself who usually only emerges after two cocktails in another country.

While blowtorch-intensive sushi omakases have scattered across Miami, Naoe has hidden inside its little cave in Brickell Key, where it’s remained insulated from trends and fiercely committed to unphotogenic milt for over 15 years. Miami’s longest-running Japanese omakase is still its best. It’s also not for everyone. There are only five seats. Soft, classical music plays in the background of the unadorned space. And you’re more likely to encounter the fermented intestines of a sea cucumber spread across Japanese mountain yam than fatty tuna. Dinner at Naoe is three quiet hours of Miami's most finely tuned Japanese cooking. 

Edan Bistro doesn’t make the best first impression. The walls are mostly bare and the space isn't particularly eye-catching. But this casual Basque spot in North Miami does serve the best Spanish food in the entire city. Edan reminds us of the best restaurants in San Sebastian, where chefs greet you with coffee and send you off with wine after dropping by the table with croquetas and ribeyes you’ll remember for a lifetime. Go for dinner but come back for brunch and, eventually, the eight-course tasting menu. It includes the best steak in Miami and ends with a gooey Basque cheesecake.

You need two very important things to eat at this Cuban restaurant in Hialeah. First, cash—they don’t accept cards. Second, bring a monstrous appetite. Portions here feed you for days. We love the pollo empanizado. The breading is so crispy it crackles like a campfire. But our favorite dish is the vaca frita, the best in all of Miami. You’ll notice a giant bottle of vinegar and peppers on your table—pour it on anything you order. With its wood paneling and sunwashed family photos, La Viña looks like the home of a Cuban grandparent—a place most Miamians would correctly say is where you’ll find the best Cuban food in town. But La Viña is the closest any Miami restaurant comes to a true home-cooked Cuban meal.

Over Under has a self-deprecating sense of humor, an unbothered attitude, and likes to throw dance parties until well past most reasonable bedtimes. But it also takes its food very seriously, and this place is sneakily one of Miami’s most consistently delicious restaurants. If you want something reliably amazing between bread, perhaps paired with an excellent cocktail, this is where you want to be. The cheeseburger is as great as everyone says, but so are more recent additions to the menu like the catfish po’boy and blackened shrimp slathered in chili butter and served with roti. Yes, Over Under is still the most fun place to be in Downtown at 1am on a Saturday night. But don’t forget about them next time you’re making dinner plans.

We weren’t always this excited about cuban sandwiches, especially after years of eating pretty average versions with cold cheese and pitifully thin ham. But then Sanguich came along and now we think Miami’s official slogan should just be a picture of their cubano. They nail every aspect of the cuban sandwich—from the crunchy bread down to the housemade pickles and mustard. Your first Sanguich experience should happen at the original Little Havana location—and also include a pan con bistec. But if you hate crowds (which can be intense during winter) go to the Coral Gables location for a more seamless sandwich experience.

Inside Barra Callao, Hector Lavoe hits blast from the TV, everyone is on their second or third Pilsen, and the chef whips up intricate plates of pulpo al olivo and ceviche while singing along. There’s so much happening in this tiny seafood spot, but food is the focal point. The 12-seat counter makes it easy to point to the beautiful plate of choros a la chalaca from across the room and tell the chef you want that next. The person to your right will tell you they come here every Wednesday for lunch, and the person to your left might say it’s their first time. Everyone leaves with the same desire to become regulars.

El Bagel is like Courage in LA or Apollo in NYC, the kind of shop that acts as a new-school bagel ambassador to a world all too eager to declare the line not worth it. Don’t listen to those people. The El Bagel empire is built on a flawless bagel. It’s fluffy and firm in the right places. The exterior has a blistered crust full of dozens of tiny bubbles. You can take home a bag of them with a tub of schmear, but these bagels shine brightest as one of the dozen or so sandwiches on the menu, stuffed generously and wrapped tightly in parchment paper. Our favorite is the sweet, salty, and only-in-Miami king guava. 

For the longest time, people (mostly from a state with the word “New” in it) could talk down on Miami’s pizza scene. They had a point. Then Miami Slice came into our lives, making a New York-style pizza we’ll slap any naysayers across the face with to initiate a pizza duel. The slices at this tiny shop are crispy from corner to corner, perfectly ratioed with incredible toppings, and one of the very few foods in this city we will cheerfully wait three hours in the sun to consume. Takeout can actually take longer than waiting for a seat at the counter, so just brave the often chaotic line and eat it fresh from the oven.  

Ask us to hang out between 8am and 2pm and—even if we don't really like you—we will agree to the plans. Because then we'll have an excuse to go to Caracas Bakery. The things this MiMo cafe does with bread are so wonderful that we'd share a meal here with the world's most annoying person. On the counter are rows of symmetrical danishes and puffy croissants alongside cachitos so supple you’ll have to resist the urge to reach over the sneeze guard and poke one. But Caracas' sandwiches are the highlight of the menu. The jambon beurre and broccoli sandwich make up about 87% of our collective lunch cravings. Luckily this casual cafe, where you’ll inevitably run into at least three people you know, is the kind of place where you’ll want to become a regular.

Pop your head into the kitchen at this Caribbean market. It’s located at the back, and that’s where you’ll find the chef cooking oxtail, curry goat, roti, and possibly an exciting daily special, like cow foot soup. Tell her what you want and she’ll disappear before emerging moments later with a slowly stewed meat sitting on a pile of rice and peas, or wrapped tightly in a warm roti. You can also place an order online in advance, but interaction is half the fun at B&M. How else would you find out that the chef bottles and sells her own pepper sauce? Take home a bottle and have tissues nearby. 

Frank and his cachapas are exceptions to the widely accepted truth that all parking lots suck. This emerald food truck in Doral makes cachapas you could use as a throw blanket. They also make incredible versions of more Venezuelan delicacies like patacones and arepas outstanding in both size and taste. Unlike most food trucks, you’re coming to Frank Cachapas to have a sit-down meal. It feels like a neighborhood block party on weekends, but it’s also the kind of easy, affordable dinner that deserves to become a weekly ritual.