The Miami Dolphins Playbook

The only Florida restaurant on the New York Times' 2025 list of the fifty best in America, and a MICHELIN Selected room since March 2025. Will Thompson and Carey Hynes spent five years building it in the old Lot 6 space — 220 seats, in-house dry-aging and butchery, and a live-oak-fired hearth in full view of the room.

Reservations: Resy — the calendar opens 30 days out at noon and Friday and Saturday vanish instantly; the terrace and indoor bar are walk-in, so the 5:30 open is the backdoor

One MICHELIN star in the 2026 Florida guide, a second consecutive year, in a roughly 25-seat room in a supermarket plaza next to a coin laundromat — marked only by a neon pink exclamation point. Co-chefs Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer met working through Carbone, Eleven Madison Park, and The NoMad; the name is a Romagnolo exclamation, roughly 'damn!'

Reservations: Resy — 30 days out at noon and effectively gone by that evening; a few counter seats and the 14-seat patio are held for walk-ins

One MICHELIN star held since 2022 plus a MICHELIN Green Star in the 2026 guide — one of only three Green Stars in Miami. The kitchen runs an in-house molino, grinding heirloom corn landraces from Oaxaca, Colombia, Peru, and Appalachia every day, under a mural painted by a co-owner and the chef's uncle.

Reservations: OpenTable — a 48-seat room where weekends and weekend brunch go early; note the 24-hour cancellation window and a no-show fee

A MICHELIN Selected room and a James Beard America's Classics winner, still landing on Miami New Times' Top 50 Restaurants in 2026 — the rare landmark that keeps earning the line. Important: the dining room runs on stone crab season and closes for the summer, roughly mid-May to mid-October, so it is dark for the September home opener; Joe's Take Away next door runs year-round.

Reservations: OpenTable — but Joe's releases only a limited block and holds most tables for walk-ins, so the wait is real even with a booking

A MICHELIN Selected listing and the political and social center of Cuban Miami since 1971 — when something happens in Havana, the cameras come here. Read it honestly: the mirrored dining room is a landmark more than a great kitchen these days, and the ventanita and bakery are where the magic actually is.

Reservations: Walk-in — the dining room seats a crowd and the ventanita never closes long enough to need a booking

One MICHELIN star held since 2022 plus a 2026 MICHELIN Green Star, much of it earned off chef-owner Jeremy Ford's own five-and-a-half-acre farm. Ford won Top Chef in 2016 and now owns the place outright; the format is a seasonal tasting menu with a glass-fronted display kitchen running it.

Reservations: Resy — a rolling 90-day window that opens a new day each morning rather than a monthly drop, so it's the friendliest star in town to book; peak season still wants two to four weeks

A MICHELIN Bib Gourmand three years running and the guide's 2024 Florida Young Chef Award winner, with a 9.7 from The Infatuation. Tam Pham and his husband Harrison Ramhofer went from a 2019 home supper club to ticketed dinners to this loud, string-lit Downtown room built around quán nhậu — Vietnamese drinking food.

Reservations: Resy — a small room that books roughly three weeks out, though the kitchen says walk-ins are always welcome if you're willing to wait

Named to The New York Times' 2024 Restaurant List of the fifty best in America — a fish market and stand-up fry counter the García family has run since 1976, where the fish comes off their own boats and the line moves fast.

Reservations: Walk-in — a stand-up counter with no tables to reserve

One MICHELIN star held continuously since 2022, at an eight-seat counter hidden behind a Wynwood taco shop — you enter through the back of The Taco Stand using a four-digit keypad code texted to you the day of your reservation. Two seatings a night, sixteen covers total.

Reservations: Tock — the whole next month releases on the last day of this month at 7 PM and clears in minutes; the waitlist runs months deep, and changes close 48 hours out

The Infatuation's top-scoring frita in Miami at 8.3, from a Calle Ocho counter that has been grinding the same chorizo-spiked patty since 1976. This is the sandwich the city argues about, and this is the version that usually wins.

Reservations: Walk-in — a counter shop where the line moves

One MICHELIN star in the 2026 guide and a 2026 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: South — Michael Beltran is the most-quoted voice in Miami dining, and Ariete is the room that made him. A decade in as of January 2026, and still the Grove's serious table.

Reservations: SevenRooms — the dining room books through the venue's own system; last seating runs to 9:30 on weeknights and 10:30 Friday and Saturday

A MICHELIN Bib Gourmand every year since 2022, a 2022 James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist, and a New York Times fifty-best pick. Pablo Zitzmann ran it as a pandemic dumpling pop-up before landing in a 30-seat room on the ground floor of an Alhambra Circle office building; the cooking runs dim sum technique through Italian and Latin American ingredients.

Reservations: OpenTable — 30 seats, dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday, so weekend tables want a couple of weeks

Named to Miami New Times' twelve best seafood restaurants in 2026 — a family fish market and riverside deck where the catch comes in off the boats tied up outside. It is the last real working-river seafood house left downtown.

Reservations: Walk-in — the deck fills at lunch and turns fast

A MICHELIN Bib Gourmand for a fifth consecutive year, in a concrete compound wrapped in glowing red lanterns with a full-time DJ — it plays more like a club than a dining room. Cesar Zapata and Ani Meinhold run a Viet-Cajun menu from fish-caramel wings up to a fried chicken served with caviar.

Reservations: OpenTable — the room is big and loud, so it books more easily than the Michelin-starred rooms in this guide

A MICHELIN Bib Gourmand held continuously since 2021 — Michael Beltran's Cuban-American diner, a few doors from his starred Ariete, doing counter-service breakfast and lunch with the same sourcing discipline as the fine-dining room up the street.

Reservations: SevenRooms — the diner takes tables online now, which is worth using on a weekend morning

A 7.8 from The Infatuation and a fixture on its Miami guides — the Wynwood counter that predates the murals by decades and still runs a line of construction crews, gallery staff, and everyone in between out the door by two.

Reservations: Walk-in — a counter shop, breakfast and lunch only

Listed on the Miami Dolphins' own bar network and named their 2024 Bar of the Year — a first-party endorsement no other room in the city has. Wynwood's first sports bar, built across three spaces: a sneaker-lined indoor lounge, a covered patio with its own bar, and a tented yard with a projector. Seventy-five-plus screens, sound on for the marquee game, and no cover.

Sneakers on the walls, the whole slate on the screens, and a Wynwood crowd that actually watches the games.

Reservations: SevenRooms — tables book through the venue's own system, worth doing for a group on a Sunday

Number 42 on North America's 50 Best Bars for 2026 and on the World's 50 Best list every year since 2021, peaking at 21. Julio Cabrera — the godfather of modern Cuban cantinero bartending and a Roku Industry Icon — still runs the bar, with live traditional música nightly and a separate 80's 305 room spinning after midnight on weekends.

Old Havana staged with total conviction — live son, flying shakers, and a room that never sits still.

Reservations: OpenTable — book ahead for the dining room; the bar takes walk-ins if you're happy standing

The second Miami room on the Dolphins' own bar network, and the most convenient watch bar for a Brickell basecamp — twenty-plus screens with surround sound, open until 2 AM seven nights, in a chic-industrial space of backlit marble and exposed copper ducts. A two-unit local group, not a chain.

Polished Brickell sports bar — screens everywhere, but you can still hear the table.

Reservations: OpenTable — worth booking on a Sunday, when Brickell fills up early

Debuted at number 46 on North America's 50 Best Bars in 2026 and a 2025 James Beard finalist for Best New Bar. Valentino Longo's Italian aperitivo den runs a cocktail menu themed on Futurist art and one of the deepest negroni-riff lists in the country.

An Italian aperitivo room in a Downtown hotel lobby — softer and more grown-up than the Miami cliché.

Reservations: Resy for the dining room; the bar area takes walk-ins

Running since 1969 on the Bayshore Landing marina, and the most explicit NFL commitment of any independent venue in Miami — the bar carries DIRECTV and NFL Sunday Ticket on new screens throughout. Live music Friday through Sunday, and you can arrive by boat.

Open-air waterfront tiki-and-marina sprawl — the Sunday watch spot that doesn't feel like a sports bar.

Reservations: OpenTable — book the deck on a nice Sunday, it's the best seat in the Grove

Number nine on Food & Wine's 2026 list of the best bars in America, and on the World's 50 Best Bars every year since 2017, peaking at 21 globally. Founded in 2015 by the late John Lermayer; the 'Pursue Happiness' neon out front is the landmark, and the doors stay open until 5 AM daily.

A world-class cocktail bar that behaves like a neighborhood joint — no attitude, no velvet rope, open impossibly late.

Reservations: OpenTable — tables book, though the bar is walk-in and usually the better seat

Named to Esquire's Best Bars in America for 2026 — the only Miami bar on the list. A restored 1935 jazz-era nightclub with an indoor stage and a pineapple-shaped bandstand on the back patio, running live salsa, mambo, and jazz essentially every night of the week.

Calle Ocho at full volume — a dance floor, a horn section, and a crowd that knows the steps.

Reservations: Walk-in — the room fills as the bands start, so come early or plan to stand

Climbed from 77 to 70 on North America's 50 Best Bars extended list for 2026 and named to Miami New Times' Top 50 Bars. Derek Stilmann's Japanese-monster-movie den seats about a dozen under collaged kaiju posters, and the menu is a fully playable trading-card game — every cocktail is a monster card.

Red-backlit, tiny, and gleefully strange — the most fun cocktail room in Miami if you can find a seat.

Reservations: Walk-in — about a dozen seats, so come early or come late

An 8.2 from The Infatuation and the top entry in its nine best wine bars in Miami — a converted house with a string-lit backyard where live jazz plays nearly every night from nine until midnight, hand-booked, since 2012.

A New Orleans-style backyard in the Design District — mismatched furniture, string lights, and a horn section under the trees.

Reservations: Walk-in — the backyard is first-come and worth arriving early for

An open-air terrace on the 40th floor of EAST Miami with a hand-carved Balinese bar and tropical-garden planting — the definitive Miami skyline rooftop, and a genuine bar rather than a bottle-service club, with DJ sets instead of table service. Open until 3 AM Thursday through Saturday.

Forty floors up with the whole Brickell skyline and Biscayne Bay laid out — the view everyone flies here for.

Reservations: SevenRooms — table reservations carry a minimum spend, so walk in and stand at the bar if you'd rather not commit

Miami Beach's oldest bar, open since 1926 and turning a hundred this season, running 8 AM to 5 AM every single day of the year. Mac Klein took it over in 1964 after being wounded at the Battle of the Bulge and worked it until he died at 101; the neon is left over from Miami Vice shoots.

Pool table, jukebox, no windows, no pretense — the last honest room on South Beach.

Reservations: Walk-in, cash only

A genuine neighborhood football dive at the quiet end of the Beach, open daily from noon until 5 AM, that runs watch parties for every big broadcast on the calendar. The antidote to Ocean Drive, three blocks and a world away from it.

Dark, friendly, and locals-first — the South of Fifth crowd's living room.

Reservations: Walk-in

The revival of Cuba's original 1888 brewery, brought back by the founding family's descendants in a Wynwood brewery-and-garden that reads more like a Havana beer hall than a taproom. The Infatuation keeps it on its Miami brewery guides for exactly that reason.

An open-air tropical beer garden with Cuban music and long shared tables — the best brewery patio in the city.

Reservations: OpenTable — the garden books online, which is the move if you're bringing a group