Miami City Guide

Brosia

Miami

The setting alone goes a long way towards selling this casually stylish Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, the first project of Bridge House, the hospitality division of Design District developer Craig Robbins’ company Dacra. The eatery’s bistro-like indoor space is small, but there are plenty of choices, like well-spaced tables in a wide-open 4,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard, sheltered by the canopy of two huge 150-year-old oak trees.

Himmarshee Bar & Grille

Miami

Owners Peter Boulukos and Tim Petrillo have strong backgrounds as, respectively, chef and dining room manager. This sophisticated and surprisingly affordable neighborhood bar and grill clearly profits from their experience, and, in a behind-the-scenes way, is also boosted by their exuberance. Chef Boulukos, for instance, goes the extra yard by working with local farmers and fishermen to guarantee fresh, locally produced seafood, produce, prime meats and poultry.

Hot Tin Roof

Miami

There is no dining room like this anywhere else, period; an artist hand-painted the murals and motifs on the walls and the ceiling. Teamed with rose tapestry upholstery, jeweled palm frond-shaped chandeliers and gleaming mahogany floors, the room offers a splendid box office setting (on the second floor) from which to look out over the theatrical Gulf, especially at sunset.

La Marea Restaurant

Miami

Typical of Southern Europe’s seaside restaurants, the emphasis is on first-rate seafood, featuring both local and flown-in Mediterranean fish. As in Italy (but in few of America’s overwrought Italian eateries), each dish highlights just a few ingredients---like bigoli with fresh sardines and walnuts, inventive yet evocatively Venetian

Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink

Miami

Since opening in early 2007, Michael’s has become the most talked-about restaurant in town. But don’t go expecting South Beach glamour and cuisine that’s cutting edge or even particularly complex. Rather, the place is exactly what chef-owner Michael Schwartz intended and exactly what Miami needs: a great neighborhood restaurant, serving budget-friendly food that’s mostly simple, and simply topnotch

Michy’s

Miami

Chef-owner Michelle Bernstein, formerly of Azul in the Mandarin Oriental, and husband David Martinez are behind this Upper Eastside 50-seater. With classically trained French chops and a head for interpreting trends without going overboard she offers up dishes that range from foie gras torchon with cherry jam on brioche crisps to beet salad with blue cheese espuma and candied walnuts to crispy sweetbreads and veal cheek ravioli with English pea purée and veal jus.

Nobu Miami Beach

Miami

Sushi master Nobuyuki Matsuhisa’s Nobu Miami Beach can be found in The Shore Club hotel, a block and a half north of Delano hotel on Collins Avenue. Chef Matsuhisa has acclaimed restaurants in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London and other cities, and is considered to be somewhat of a genius with his intriguing interpretations of sushi and Contemporary and Japanese cuisines.

The Oceanaire Seafood Room

Miami

The eatery does indeed have a formula, but it’s both solid, centering on a daily-changing list of over a dozen market-fresh fish, and seductive. Décor has the feel of an Art Deco-era cruise ship, evoking the sea without fishnets or other familiar kitsch. And food has the same retro-glam charm, starting with a complimentary relish tray (celery, carrots, olives, pickles, etc.) and continuing with a menu focusing on all-American fishhouse classics: bacon-studded New England clam chowder (loaded with fresh littlenecks), Dungeness crab Louis, almost binder-free jumbo lump crab cakes, a fisherman’s platter with salt-vinegar fries, ten or twelve types of oysters from the raw bar, plus all the traditional vegetable sides and sweets, liked baked Alaska, to match.

The Restaurant at The Setai

Miami

Since opening in 2005, The Restaurant (the premier eatery at The Setai, which has three other dining spaces: The Grill, The Courtyard, and The Pool & Beach Bar) has had the reputation of being one of Miami’s most expensive dining experiences. Prices remain high though these days no higher than those at many upscale restaurants in town. But the advent of executive chef Jonathan Wright (whose previous posts include New Orleans’ Windsor Court, Raffles in Singapore, and Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons) has made the difference between a luxe-level dining experience and a pricelessly transcendent one. While the cuisine is East-West at all three meals, percentages change from mostly Western at breakfast (with a few Asian selections) to about 50-50 at lunch (chicken with avocado and bacon, or chicken curry with Thai eggplant) to a mostly Asian-inspired dinner menu meant to strongly encourage interaction between diners and chefs at The Restaurant’s scattered Chinese, Thai and Indian open kitchens

Wild East Asian Bistro

Miami

For fans of the Far East, it's hard not to go buck wild here. Spanning the Orient, from Korea to Malaysia with a bit of Hawaii thrown in along the way, the minimally chic Wild East offers up 150 choices