There's always an ebb and flow here: the market suddenly heats up (often driven by inspired local chefs with local followings), and operators from all around the globe pour millions of dollars into buildouts of new spaces in the highest-rent districts. And then summers have always a struggle in South Florida. But the speed of the turnaround this time has been staggering: Massimo Bottura's Torno Subito, Henrique Sa Passoa's Sereia, NY imports Red Farm, and Ensenada: all shuttered within about a year.[1] I can't think of a time so many places pulled the plug after only one season. But it's not just the newcomers: long-time stalwarts like Osteria del Teatro (38 years over a few different locations), Cafe Vialetto (26 years), Sardinia (20 years), Red Steakhouse (17 years), Sugarcane (15 years) all called it quits the past couple months. Even overwhelming critical and media recognition is no guarantee of survival: Val Chang has closed up the wonderful Maty's just a year after receiving the James Beard Foundation Best Chef South award.[2] And EntreNos has ended their extended pop-up at Tinta y Cafe a year after picking up a Michelin star.
All of which is to say: if there's a restaurant you love, show your love. Visit often, be nice, tip well, tell your friends. It's a cruel summer[3] – don't leave me here on my own. So let me do my part.
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| Luci's Chopped Salad - Boia De (Buena Vista Miami) |
For reasons I've previously explained, I usually find it pretty difficult to answer the perennial "What's your favorite restaurant?" question. I wrote then that it was easier to answer if the question was "What's your favorite restaurant right now?" And back then, five years ago, the answer was Boia De, which had just opened a few months earlier. Well, while we've already established that I am not on the cutting edge of every latest dining trend, it is nonetheless somewhat out of character that if you asked me that question again right now, the answer very well might be the same. It's just impossible to not have a great meal there. While many dishes come and go, one menu stalwart remains an essential order for me on every visit and is simply one of my favorite dishes in Miami: Luci's chopped salad, chef Luciana Giangrandi's unabashed ode to Nancy Silverton's chopped salad at Pizzeria Mozza. I think Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen nailed why it's so great: it's got all the flavors of an Italian sub, in salad form. Perfect. Never change.
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| Scallop, Pomelo, Rice Paddy Herb Oil, Coconut Nuoc Cham - Tam Tam (Downtown Miami) |
I'd missed the "Phamily Kitchen" pop-up dinners that chef Tam Pham and his partner Harrison Ramhofer had been doing back in the day, and my first taste of Tam's cooking was a pandemic-era pho pick-up pop-up.[4] I've been stalking him ever since, through a series of extended pop-ups in Little Haiti to his opening of a full brick and mortar restaurant in downtown Miami (in the old Diana's Cafe spot around the corner from the courthouse). It's been a thrill to see what he's able to do with a real kitchen at his disposal. The food is still fun and playful, inspired by Vietnamese "quán nhậu" – but it also shows some finesse and delicacy, nowhere more so than this absolutely delicious scallop crudo with tart-sweet lobes of pomelo, creamy-sweet-tangy coconut nuoc cham, and fragrant, verdant rice paddy herb oil.
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| Unagi & Caviar with Okra - Shingo (Coral Gables) |
Shingo Akikuni is another chef I've been stalking for years, going back to some nice meals at the counter of The Den at Azabu. In 2023, he finally got to open his own place, the eponymous Shingo in Coral Gables, and promptly made it on my list for that year. (Oh, and Shingo also got a Michelin star within the year). That first time, it was for the "simplest" of dishes: Akikuni's silky, rich tamago which serves as the last bite before dessert. This time, it's here for something a bit fancier: unagi, with its crackling grilled skin encasing fluffy, tender flesh, garnished with a very generous dollop of good caviar. But one of the things I love about Shingo's style is that he treats "humble" ingredients with the same reverence as "luxury" items: that caviar-crowned unagi was paired with some beautiful, fresh local okra, slippery but still with some snap. There has been a tidal wave of omakase openings over the past couple years. Shingo, along with a couple others, is at the crest of that wave.
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| Proof Burger - Vice Versa (Downtown Miami) |
Valentino Longo's aperitivo focused bar, Vice Versa, has been a very welcome addition to the downtown Miami landscape. Partnered up with Will Thompson and Carey Hynes (of the late Jaguar Sun downtown, and the current, and fantastic, Sunny's in Little River, which we'll get to below), it's got this delightful Italian Futurist vibe, and clever inspired cocktails that will go down easy but can simultaneously provide the opportunity to geek out on technique to the same degree as any served by a moustache-twirling, vest-wearing "speakeasy" mixologist. But what really completed the package for me was bringing in chef Justin Flit, last seen here at Proof. There are bright fresh crudos, perfectly tuned salads, and excellent pizzas. And to top it all off, there's the return of the "Proof Burger," which if you go digging through the archives, was on this list way back in 2018. Here's what I said back then: "I could passionately argue that his burger was the best in Miami. Each component was carefully considered and executed with precision: two stacked grass-fed beef patties, featuring both crusty char and juicy interior; melted cheese, bolstered even further by a creamy cheddar aioli; caramelized onions, for an extra dose of umami and just a hint of sweetness; a house-baked potato bun, soft and tender but with enough structural integrity to hold everything together to the last bite." He's not lost his touch, and I can once again passionately argue that this is the best burger in Miami. Available Mondays only in limited quantities.
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