The best places to dine out on Christmas in Miami

Like Santa arriving in his sleigh, every Christmas El Bagel heads down the road to one of our favorite restaurants, Boia De, for a Christmas Day brunch with champagne flowing and dishes you’ll get just one shot at trying. Maybe it’s time to tell mom you’re not coming home for the holidays. 

Michael Mina’s steakhouse in the JW Marriott Turnberry Resort & Spa will serve a Christmas Day menu for $250 per adult. Expect foie gras to start, pastrami-spiced short rib and Bûche De Noël with chocolate French buttercream to end the night. 

Celebrate Noche Buena at one of Miami's best Cuban restaurants, (also ranked one of the world’s 50 best bars.) Cafe La Trova will ring in the occasion with a family-style three-course menu for $95 for adults and $30 for kids. If this is your first Noche Buena or a yearly tradition your family has done forever, having every detail masterminded by chef Michelle Bernstein is a smart way to celebrate the holiday.

The Michelin-starred, Korean-inspired steakhouse in the Design District will offer its “Feast of Seven Steaks” for $225 per person from 1 to 9 pm on Christmas Eve. We’d be remiss to not list all the courses: prime filet, prime skirt, 45-day dry-aged ribeye, lamb chop, American wagyu Cote steak, Japanese A5 ribeye and a Cote-marinated short rib.

The Coconut Grove restaurant’s headliner is the Milanese, and Cotoletta will be offering quite a deal on the dish on Christmas Eve. At $80 for two people, you’ll start with antipasti before moving on to chicken or bone-in veal Cotoletta alla Milanese seasoned simply with rosemary and lemon zest. End the meal with flourless chocolate cake or Vanilla Affogato Supreme.

Fiola will extend the Christmas holiday into an advent calendar-like 12 days, starting on Dec. 14. Dishes include Prime Delmonico Steak Wellington and decadent Bombolini. If you’re not feeling festive, the everyday (and also excellent) menu will also be on offer. 

At the waterfront gem La Mar, executive chef Diego Oka will lay out a festive buffet on Christmas and Christmas Eve. It’ll include Peruvian anticuchos, a seafood rice station, Nikkei-style whole fish and empanadas. It’s $250 for adults and $125 for those age seven to 20 years old on Christmas Eve and $185 and $95 Christmas Day. But that price includes two hours of free-flowing drinks, helping you forget about what Grandpa just said at the end of the table. 

The waterfront restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, Miami will offer a four-course prix fixe Christmas Eve dinner at $120, with dishes including ravioli with lobster bolognese and turkey blanquette roulade. On Christmas Day, expect a brunch buffet from 12:30 to 4pm priced at $185, with a chilled seafood raw bar and other stations.

Argentine grill master Francis Mallmann’s restaurant at the Faena Miami Beach will offer a series of specials on Christmas Eve and Day. They’ll, of course, feature lots of wood-fired dishes, like branzino a la plancha with brown butter and a wood-fired Argentinian tenderloin. There’s also a yule log for dessert that we don’t expect to have spent time above an open flame.

Pao will stay true to its Spanish-Asian-French theme with its decadent holiday specials, like Hokkaido scallop with black truffle and a mezcal-aged wagyu prime rib. But the gilded and glamorous restaurant at Faena keeps it more classic with a milk chocolate yule log spiced with mango chutney.

Head up to Lauderdale for a traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes at this classic spot that was reborn as an Italian-American supper club. For $95, the two-course menu includes seven dishes including seafood salad, stuffed Sicilian peppers, baked clams and zuppa di pesce fra diavolo. Those who don’t dig on the seven fishes can still order a la carte, like the signature dish here, a massive chicken parm slathered in vodka sauce.

Chef Richard Sandoval’s acclaimed restaurant inside the InterContinental Miami will celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a la carte specials like snow crab bisque with sweet corn ravioli, veal cheeks braised for eight hours and a dark chocolate Noir de Noël.