Yelp just kicked off 'Year on Yelp', a community-sourced recollection of what's been hot over the past year across the country. The crowd-sourced review app looked at restaurants that opened after January 1st, 2022 and analyzed how many reviews were posted and what their ratings were through August 7th, 2023.
Unsurprisingly, America is award-ravenous. A lot of of the best new restaurants across the country have snatched coveted Michelin-star and James Beard awards. Also unsurprisingly, sourcing fresh, locally sourced ingredients is a continuing trend (though we may as well call it a standard at this point). But here's the biggest trend – and we should all pop a mini Champagne bottle for this – AMERICA IS CRAZY ABOUT FLORIDA RESTAURANTS.
According to Yelpers, five of the 25 best new restaurants of 2023 are in South Florida – four in Miami and one in Fort Lauderdale. The restaurants include two Gables spots, Chef Michael Bolen’s Lion & The Rambler at #7 and Chef Giorgio Rapicavoli’s Eating House at #10. (Ironically, Lion & The Rambler took over Eating House's original location on Ponce, so we're sensing some good juju here.) Then there's neighborhood darling Osteria in MiMo at #6 and Walrus Rodeo at #11 from the team behind Boia De! Finally, The Katherine in Fort Lauderdale scored the #13 spot, helmed by Chef Timon Balloo, formerly of Sugarcane. Even more, all of our spots are within the top 15, and some of them also happen to be permanent residents on our own list of Miami's best restaurants, too.
Among other lists relevant to Floridians are Yelp's top 100 Florida restaurants (a lot of strip mall joints and mom and pops, with a good number from Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines) and Yelp's list of 25 hot and new Latinx-owned restaurants. Rosalia's, a Miramar tapas joint snagged the #5 spot, Vice City Pizza made it in at #7, Esquina Cubana in South Beach came in at #21 and Sim Sushi and Tapas in South Miami rounded things out at #24.