The 15 best new restaurants in Miami to explore this season

Sunny's was a beacon of light during the pandemic, a casual outdoor spot where we felt safe and snug sipping 'tinis and slurping oysters under the canopy of the banyan tree. Its trajectory from a laidback pop-up to one of the best new restaurants in Miami is no coincidence. The original superstar team (with some new additions) has remodeled and reopened in Little River. Yes, it's a more "elevated" steakhouse now, but it still brings us back to the friendly service, celebratory vibe and amazing food and drinks we fell in love with. There's a proper indoor dining room and an expanded menu, too, including a solid lineup of fresh pasta. 

Time Out tip: If you can't get a reservation, try showing up around happy hour. The picnic tables by the bar outside are first-come-first-serve and just as fun.

At award-winning chef Niven Patel’s new island-inspired restaurant, Paya, each dish we ordered was excellent and unlike any version we've tried before. Patel uses produce from his farm in Homestead, blending it with island and Indian flavors. From the starters, highlights included the tangy papaya salad with shrimp; scallop crudo served on starfruit with passion fruit puree; oysters with jackfruit mignonette and tamarind-glazed lamb chops with roasted plantains. My entree was the crispy tripletail in coconut curry and peri peri chicken with salsa verde and boniato mash. Each dish was so well done, not an errant ingredient in sight. But the dining room and outdoor terrace are also selling points, intimate, stylish and subdued, tucked just off to the side of the South Beach chaos.

Order this: The rum cake with caramelized edges, guanabana ice cream and—get this—a quenelle of caviar on top. I’d never had caviar with dessert, but there we were, savoring the saltiness of fish eggs in the night’s final bite.

Chef Diego Oka has been at the helm of La Mar since it opened in 2014, pairing his flavorful, elevated Peruvian fusion cuisine with stunning views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline. Now, he’s flexing a different artistic muscle with his new tasting menu experience inside the Brickell Key restaurant. The chef handcrafted over 400 pieces of ceramic tableware to accompany each of the eight dishes on the Amano menu. The menu showcases the chef’s signature Nikkei style of cuisine, infusing Peruvian dishes with influences from China, Japan, Spain, Italy and beyond.

Time Out tip: The offering begins at an introductory price of $210 per person, with an optional wine pairing that includes rare natural wines from Peru. Reservations are available Thursday through Saturday.

I’ve eaten at a lot of great new pasta restaurants in Miami. But at PASTA in Wynwood, the most distinctive element became apparent as soon as I took a seat at the chef’s counter. The husband-and-wife chef-partners Janice Buraschi and Juan Manuel Umbert were right there, quite literally putting everything they’ve got into each dish. The 77-seat space is industrial but cozy and most everything is made right behind the counter, served simply and wholesomely. We particularly enjoyed the al dente razor clams with nduja-spiked salsa verde and the tiny, soup dumpling-like agnolotti that burst with a deep umami mushroom broth.

Time Out tip: The silky quartz chef’s counter is the draw here, with front-row seats to the elegant mise en place. 

Some of our favorite Miami restaurants are the most simple ones, where it’s all about an extremely talented chef (or chefs) playing with what’s possible. In the vein of Miami gems like Zitz Sum, Boia De and Itamae AO, Kojin 2.0 is a restaurant of the unfamiliar and reinvented. The wife-and-husband team launched Kojin as a pop-up inside a ramen shop and recently expanded into a minimalist Coral Gables space. The menu emphasizes hard-to-source ingredients, as in the rare American Iberico pork with mashed acorn squash or the fresh catch that looks like a ship in rough seas, flaky corners rising out of a pile of creamy potatoes.

Time Out tip: Opt for the $150 tasting menu for two or upgrade to the “executive” option for $450, which includes wine and sake pairings. (But you can go à la carte, too).

Otto & Pepe is a fun and refreshingly quirky addition to Wynwood, a neighborhood that's seen a few more serious spots open lately. In the front, find a sizable wine shop curated by a pioneer and fixture in Miami's natural wine scene, Karina Iglesias. The main dining room features a massive, 360-degree pasta bar where guests can ogle their noods being prepared in real-time (though there's standard booth seating, too). Out back, a leafy, walled-in courtyard boasts a cocktail bar and lounge seating to kick back and hang out a while. 

Order this: Orechiette al Pesto Basilico and a Peperoncino Margarita

Recoveco opened behind Fox’s in South Miami, in a simple space with laminated plywood furniture and serious big-city charm. In its early days, a lot of the buzz came from an eye-catching chicken dish, daintily splayed out on the plate and served without the foot. Beyond its looks, though, the dish is deceptively complicated, crispy skin seasoned with something mysterious, two sauces below, green mango and hoja santa, more interesting the more you try them. Many of the dishes are like that, like the celery salad under a bed of pecorino Toscano curls and just-picked star fruit, or the sausage-stuffed peppers with caramel chicken jus.

Time Out tip: It's off the beaten path, but the prices here run from that’s-reasonable to I-wonder-why, so plan accordingly. The wine list is as quirky as the menu, filled with funky labels from Uruguay, Japan and New York, offered by the glass.

Up until recently, tasting menus in Miami offered something different from those of their European counterparts: recognizable dishes, generally not hidden under foams or emulsions, or served “deconstructed.” This was a good thing. That changed when famed chef Massimo Bottura opened Torno Subito Miami, a place that serves Euro-spec dishes of dainty proteins, complicated sauces and ingredients that have been aged and barreled and prepared for days. At times, the dishes at Torno Subito present a challenge of figuring out what’s below all the complexity—but the discovery ends up making the experience feel more special.

Time Out tip: This meal is one of the priciest in Miami—our bill topped $700. But dining at Torno Subito Miami is an adventure, diving into the imagination of one of the world’s best chefs. Dining here will be memorable, and what’s better than that?

It would be hard to overstate how different Miami restaurants were when Marion opened back in 2015. It’d take just one hand to count the good restaurants in Brickell and downtown. Years would pass before every New York restaurant transplanted here—and we hadn’t yet entered the era of the clubstaurant. Now, after a brief closure and $4 million renovation, Marion has reopened, transforming from a charming market-slash-restaurant into a blinged-out supper club. The menu covers a lot of ground, from sushi torched tableside to prime beef tartare topped with truffle to skirt steak and branzino.

Time Out tip: Marion feels very much like it wants to be the spot for your next outrageous night out, but generally stops short of a place you’d go on your next bender.

Chef Giorgio Rapicavoli is behind many of our favorite things to eat in Miami. There’s his carbonara at Eating House with an egg yolk mixed in at the table. And the patate fritte at Luca with its, uh, egg yolk mixed in at the table. But even his non-egg-yolk dishes make his two Coral Gables restaurants longtime favorites, especially among those who decide where to eat based on the quality of food and not necessarily the restaurant’s design. Rapicavoli’s latest venture takes over the restaurant at the historic Mayfair House Hotel & Garden in Coconut Grove, and his recipe that’s worked elsewhere translates well here, too. This time, the theme is local produce and proteins cooked over an open flame. (The live-fire concept was built around the hefty Josper grill just off the dining room.) 

It used to be easy for the haters of Miami’s clubstaurants. Not long ago, the number of disco balls hanging over the dining room had a direct relation to the mediocrity of a restaurant’s food. Nowadays, though, you can actually eat well at some of those places where patrons take to dancing on tables. Perched on the Miami River, Mediterranean hotspot CASA NEOS is the best spot yet for indulging in that clubby Miami vibe with an exceptional brunch or dinner. Pesiding over the menu is Michaël Michaelidis, a chef with French and Greek roots and a CV that includes a remarkable 26 Michelin stars around the world. 

Order this: Everything I had was spot-on, starting with the grilled blue prawns with charred lemon and just enough espelette pepper to not mess with the buttery shellfish. The whole branzino looks downright stunning on a sunburst platter, fileted tableside and served with aioli.

The unassuming Aoko is a refreshing addition to the sushi scene in Miami, a city where flashy, triple-digit-priced omakase menus currently dominate. Not only is the tasting option here under $100 ($75 for sashimi and $85 for nigiri), but it holds up against the other higher-priced options in taste, creativity and execution, with rice that is always somehow the perfect warm temperature. What’s most inspiring about Aoko is the team, a crew of young, diligent chefs helmed by co-owner Daniel Vanh, a veteran of Miami’s top sushi restaurants and a South Florida local. Grab a seat at the counter to see the talent and synchronization at play.

Elastika occupies the four-story atrium of The Moore building in the Design District, where the namesake “Elastika” sculpture by Zaha Hadid hangs dramatically over a stunning dining room. The drinks and dishes, by chef Joe Anthony, are largely familiar things executed well: an extra smooth airmail cocktail made with brown butter, a creamy gazpacho poured tableside into a bowl of artfully cut veggies and a daily pizza (we got one with garlicky greens, crispy pancetta and chunks of burrata), to name a few highlights.

This modern and moody aperitivo bar in Downtown emphasizes Italian spirits, boasting an expertly curated menu of cocktails and fortified wines like vermouth and sherry. But you'd do well to come hungry, too: pasta, charcuterie and fresh catches for the raw bar feature on the food menu. The project is a collaboration between Jaguar Sun's Will Thompson and Carey Hynes, who preside over food and service, along with Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bartender winner Valentino Longo, a cocktail master best known for his work at the Surf Club. 

Diehard fans of Danny Serfer’s Blue Collar can breathe a sigh of relief: The tiny restaurant in an old-school MiMo motel recently moved to a larger space across the street, and it’s just as great as before. Blue Collar’s allure has always stemmed from Serfer’s unpretentious approach to American classics and comfort food in dishes like conch fritters with spicy tartar sauce and a braised brisket sandwich on a Portuguese muffin with Dijon mustard, jus and latkes and apple sauce. You’ll still find over a dozen veggie side dishes and our longtime favorite, the Valrhona chocolate cake. Now, though, guests can enjoy a full cocktail menu of classic drinks from the beautiful outdoor bar, plus lots more patio seating and an elevated, laidback vibe for an affordable, delicious neighborhood meal.