The best Miami food to eat like you actually live here

This Miami delicacy is available from October 15 through May 15, and you better believe we mark our calendars every year in anticipation of stone crab season. Joe’s Stone Crab is the old standby, but when lines get long—and trust that they do—plenty of other restaurants in the city offer fresh claws worth digging into.

If you’re not fueling on cafecito, you’re not surviving in Miami. A tiny thimble filled with sugary Cuban espresso is how locals caffeinate, especially at 3:05pm, Miami’s official coffee break as designated by the city. You can get a cafecito just about everywhere in Miami, but our favorite is the ventanita at Versailles, standing elbow-to-elbow with Cuban expats, old-timers and tourists while we sip and snack on a pastelito or two.

Combo platters for one that can easily feed a small army, Cuban food sold by the pound and fresh-fruit juices that cost less than your drip coffee at Starbucks—Palacio de los Jugos ticks off every box of what we want from a cheap and delicious cafeteria. It’s also a produce market stocked with tropical fruit and seasonal veggies, and boasts multiple locations across the city. Does it get any better than this?  

Just like New Yorkers do with pizza and bagels, Miamians have discerning tastes when it comes to Cubanos—so much so that we ranked our favorites in the city. What makes a great Cubano? Is it the cheese-to-ham ratio? The bread? It’s both, plus a smattering of other variables we’ll leave up to taste-testers to decide. Some of our favorite restaurants for Cubanos are Sanguich de Miami, a new classic; Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop in Wynwood, one not just hipsters can agree on; and Sarussi Subs, if you’re craving something out of the ordinary (read: secret sauce).

After a night of drinking, no food will bring you back to life quite like a Colombian hot dog. La Moon’s SuperMoon Perro is this transformative dish that barely resembles a hot dog—partly because the weiner is hidden below a mountain of cheese, sauces, fries and a fried egg. It’s messy and delicious, and while it might seem like a lot for one person, so was that pitcher of margaritas you just put away. The best part about La Moon? It opens till 5:30am on weekends. 

The proliferation of juice bars isn’t unique to Miami, but we certainly make it a lifestyle here (it is bikini season year-round, after all). Whether it’s fuel for a workout, part of a detox cleanse or simply a refresher from the intense heat, juice and its many variants (acaí bowls, protein smoothies, cold-pressed shots) make up an important food group for locals. Stop by Love Life Cafe in South Beach for a rainbow of plant-based delicacies, or try Juicense in Coconut Grove, where you can choose from a variety of juices, smoothies and nut milks plus customized cleanses.

Everyone’s heard of Cubanos but most people don’t know that Cuba has another famous sandwich: the frita. It’s essentially a Cuban hamburger made with a spiced beef-and-chorizo patty stuffed inside a Cuban roll and topped with shoestring fries. The city’s two frita giants are known as the king, El Rey de las Fritas, and the magician, El Mago de las Fritas. The latter, which claims to only use beef in its patties, was made famous by a string of celebrity clients, including President Obama and Guy Fieri, among others.

These days you can find arepas in just about every major city in the U.S. But thanks to Miami’s growing population of Venezuelan expats, ours are decidedly better than the rest. Doggi’s Arepa Bar is the place to go for authentic cornmeal arepas with traditional fillings like reina pepiada (chicken avocado salad), while Edukos in Little Havana turns the sando on its head with modern ingredients like a bang-bang shrimp and Philly cheesesteak.

We’re partial to the more traditional take at Sabor a Perú on Biscayne Boulevard, but Miami is chock-full of both upscale and casual eateries serving up super fresh, mouth-puckering ceviche made with seafood sourced straight from our coast. For a Japanese-inspired take on the citrus-soaked dish, stop by one of SuViche’s five Miami locations. In South Beach, 33 Kitchen at Time Out Market serves an elegant, pared-down fish ceviche made with a maximum of five locally sourced ingredients that explode with flavor.

Instead of coffee and a doughnut for breakfast, Miamians start their day with a cafecito and a pastelito. Flaky and crispy instead of dense of doughy, the traditional Cuban pastry comes in an assortment of flavors—think fillings like guava, coconut and nutella—and shapes—the triangle ones are a sweet-and-savory combo of cream cheese and guava jelly. Like Cuban coffee, pastelitos are ubiquitous in Miami, though you can never go wrong with Versailles, which bakes theirs from scratch on-site; Gilbert’s Bakery, a favorite if you prefer your pastelito on the doughy side; and Breadman Miami for unique combinations, like coconut-chocolate and ground beef with sweet plantains.