Navigation
Best Of Miami® 2008 Winners

Eat & Drink

Categories
Best...
Best Ethiopian Restaurant

Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant

At the crossroads of Asia and Africa, Ethiopia took the best of what the old spice routes from the East had to offer and applied it to the local foodstuffs. The result was a hearty array of meats, legumes, and vegetables suffused with complex but delicate flavorings. And the unique injera bread doubles as a utensil, making dinner as fun as it is tasty. Sheba is a little more upscale than the average Ethiopian restaurant you might find in Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles, but it isn't a typical Ethiopian place, either. Several of its more "exotic" dishes work the flavors of the Mediterranean and West Africa into the mix, giving the restaurant a more extensive and interesting menu. The best introduction to the cuisine is one of the sampler platters for two ($46 to $56) or the doro wat ($21), the national dish of Ethiopia. Vegetarians have a number of delicious options that cost between $12 and $16. Meat platters are a little pricier ($20 to $25). Sheba is also more than just a restaurant: An adjoining gallery fits very well into the Design District's art appeal.

Best Alfajores

Buenos Aires Bakery

Remember that trip to Buenos Aires? There was supposed to be tango dancing until dawn and a smoky-eyed lover. Instead you tripped over your own feet and got fat eating alfajores. Now that you're back in Miami, the porteños are gone, but there are still alfajores. Buenos Aires Bakery offers three kinds of the cookie and dulce de leche sandwich at $2 a pop: dark chocolate, white chocolate, and maizena. The cookies are moist and the Argentine caramel perfectly gooey. Take a bite, make peace with your chubbiness, and daydream about the Paris of South America.

Best Argentine Restaurant

Estancia Argentina

Argentine steaks are revered not because of how they're cooked, but because the meat is incredible. The cattle roam the fertile pastures of the pampas and are never forced to exert themselves (because exercise makes the meat tougher). They are carted around the country in train cars. This special treatment produces beef that melts when it hits your tongue and is unrivaled in tenderness and flavor.

But until just last year, the USDA — out of protectionism and semi-legitimate fears of hoof and mouth disease — banned the import of Argentine beef. Now that it can again be imported, you don't want to go to some fancy Argentine steak house and have them jack up the price on you just for cooking the meat. That's where Estancia Argentina comes in. It's a Miami-based chain owned by Buenos Aires transplants, with locations in Aventura, Coral Gables, Kendall, and Miramar. It's half restaurant, half market, and all good. The empanadas ($1.55) and sandwiches ($8) are delicious, made fresh with quality ingredients. The walls are lined with bottles of wine, so you can buy a Malbec and drink it with your meal. The meat counter is to drool over, with all sorts of Argentine beef cuts, cheeses, chorizos, and chimichurris. They also have great desserts ($1 to $5). The place is always packed with Spanish speakers enjoying a cup of vino or guarana soda with meaty skirt steak or prosciutto and mozzarella sandwiches. Join them.

Best Bagels

The Bagel Express

There's no Brie, quail eggs, or diced jalapeños baked into the dough of the bagels at this Kendall joint. Nor is there any caviar-infused shmear or exotic fruit toppings shipped from some remote village in the heart of the Amazon. That's because The Bagel Express, a non-descript delicatessen squeezed into a small, suburban strip mall, simply makes great bagels. There's greatness in the first bite. And the second. And the thirtieth.

Made from scratch and baked fresh daily, the bagels here are classics — pumpernickel, sesame, egg, poppy seed, garlic, salt, cinnamon, plain, and everything. The price: $6.60 for six and $11.95 for a baker's dozen. For the carb-conscious, there's also whole wheat and eight-grain available with your choice of regular or low-fat cream cheese (plain, chive, vegetable, strawberry, and honey walnut) for $2.75 a pop. Speaking of pop, The Bagel Express has Dr. Brown sodas (diet and regular). Then there's fresh, hand-sliced Nova lox for $7.99 per quarter pound and delicious, buttery rugelach for $10.95 a platter.

Still not convinced? Oy vey! Then swing on in after the morning rush and try a Boar's Head deli sandwich served in a large woven basket with your choice of bagel, for $7.95. While you're there — now don't get all verklempt — ponder this: Although a bagel topped with Alba white truffle cream cheese and goji berry-infused Riesling jelly sounds superb, it'll run you $1,000 at the Westin Hotel in Times Square. But these tasty bites in Kendall will cost you a mere $1.25 each. Enjoy!

Best Bakery

La Provence

If great bread is the staff of life, all of us here in South Florida are living on borrowed time, eating mushy, pallid, tasteless loaves made from ultrarefined flour that no self-respecting Parisian or Italian would use for a doorstop. But thankfully, for those special occasions, we have La Provence, where you can get a proper baguette ($2) or crusty loaf of sourdough ($2.25) or hunk of multigrain ($4.35). But man (and woman) doesn't live by bread alone, so if you're hungry for a light, flaky croissant; luscious Danish, fruit tart, or cheesecake; even savory quiches or empanadas, La Provence has you covered there too. Just no doorstops.

Best Brazilian Restaurant

Varanda's Cafeteria

For more than nine years, Aziza Yuself has made Varanda's a place where Brazilians can savor authentic cuisine. That's why the low-key eatery draws so many of the Brazilian expatriates residing in North Beach, who can watch Brazilian television and have long conversations in Portuguese while dining on exceptionally good food, especially the muqueca de peixe, fish perfectly simmered in a coconut sauce ($14.95). Meat lovers will enjoy the picadinho ao mohlo, beef strips in a delicious hot sauce, for $10.95, or the frango ao mohlo curry, curry chicken in coconut sauce for $13.95. For many folks, Varanda's is a home away from home, but even if you're not from São Paulo, you can drop by too.

As much as we love the simple Tuscan cuisine on Cioppino's menu, we never seem able to finish our risotto scampi or signature mare e fetunta. Why? Because we gorged ourselves on the restaurant's savory bread basket, which brims with ciabatta and grissini flown in from Italy. It's even harder to stop picking at the Parmesan and rosemary lavash, baked on the premises by Cioppino's pastry chef, Frédéric Monnet. The bread basket is served with extra-virgin olive oil from Tuscany, a unique blend from Villa Manodori Artigianale by chef Massimo Bottura. Cioppino is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Best BYOB

Sawaddee Thai-Sushi and Coffee Corner

No more eating at the restaurant and then drinkin' in the alley for you, oh no. Have your dinner and drink, too, at Sawaddee on Normandy Isle. The menu, which comprises a great selection of Thai food along with the apparently mandatory assortment of sushi, is reasonably priced enough to justify a visit on its own. A basic pad thai costs about $8, and most dinner dishes are less than $15 and generously portioned. But the real secret is that you can bring your own booze, and it's a-okay with the owners. Can you crack a 40-ounce at the table? We don't know, but give it a shot! If you want something classier, try running across the street to Normandy Beach Supermarket, open until 11 p.m., which always has a decent red for five bucks or less. Bon appétit!

Best Caesar Salad

Prime One Twelve

The caesar salad at Prime One Twelve is bigger than life itself. Or maybe not. Would you believe bigger than a breadbox? How about bigger than any other caesar salad in Miami? And better, too, not because of any trendy twists such as cotton candy croutons (the ones here are born of buttery brioche) or a sprinkling of fennel dust (paper-thin shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano do the trick). Beneath the toppings are crisp hearts of romaine lettuce with a heady garlic-lemon-anchovy emulsion clinging to the leaves like Julius Caesar clung to Rome (or like Caesar Cardini held onto his original recipe for the salad). The caesar here is great because it is classic, as befits the city's most esteemed steak house. That it can feed two or three people makes the $15 price something of a bargain. One Twelve's fat prime steaks, Kobe beef hot dogs, or white truffle French fries are a bit pricier, but they complement the caesar quite well.

Best Cafe Cubano

Caciques Corner

When it comes to café cubano, it's all speed — getting the black life-giving nectar from can to cup to belly fast enough to fuel you through that booooring meeting. Under the Metromover, across from the Miami-Dade County Courthouse, and steps from Miami Art Museum, Caciques Corner is situated to please.

The café, which is shaded by blue awnings, has three windows ready to serve up a jolt of sugar and caffeine. During busy morning hours, cups are ready for loading and reloading. On Sundays, when much of downtown is shuttered, Caciques is open to shake off that hangover. And at 60 cents a cup, it taunts the caffeinated promises of the unnamed chain-to-go a block away.

Best Cakes Not by Little Debbie

Mary Ann Bakery

The sweet smell of cakes a-bakin' tickles your nose way before you step into Mary Ann Bakery, and you'd have to be subhuman to resist the urge to walk into this unassuming little spot tucked away on 163rd Street. The front window is filled with birthday and bridal cakes, and although they look (and probably are) delicious, the real gems are inside. Side-by-side, draped in icing, and calling your name are the most fabulous minicakes this side of the Little Debbie factory. Whether you fancy mocha, chocolate, strawberry, orange, or almond, one of the dozens of confections in the refrigerated case of this Chinese bakery will surely hit your spot. The spongy texture of the cake plus the not-too-sweet yet oh-so-buttery icing make these treasures better than anything vacuum-sealed in a plastic bag. And none costs more than $1.25, making your decision to pass up the 7-Eleven baked goods aisle that much sweeter.

They spell it cebiche at this Japanese-Pan Latin newcomer. And the renditions served here are distinctive in other ways as well. For one thing, they're prettier than others — the seafoods steeped in flavor without being seeped in a puddle of lime juice and buried in cilantro and red onions. The garnishes and marinades are more creative than most: Lobster luxuriates with slivers of fresh mango in key lime juice; cold-water prawns get invigorated by chipotle-tangerine sauce; tuna tangles with yuzu tobiko, wasabi, scallion, and soy. Prices are $12 to $16 for a generous portion, but a $30 sample proffers any three cebiches of your choice, accompanied by a refreshing scoop of shiso-kiwi sorbet. While you're here, you'll probably want to try this stylish restaurant's sushi, tiraditos, or flashy Latin-Asian fusion dishes. But it is the cebiches that will keep you returning.

Best Chain Restaurant

Chipotle Mexican Grill

There is the burrito of soft, warm tortilla stuffed with succulent shreds of cumin-spiced, chipotle-marinated barbacoa beef. The burrito bursting with slowly simmered pork carnitas. The burrito caressing chunks of chipotle-marinated chicken. Fact is, the burritos here make those you get at other Mexican chains about as alluring as a yapping Chihuahua. The streamlined menu ("2 things. Thousands of ways"), sleek urban-industrial design, and eco-conscious use of paper goods make the mighty Mickey D's and Burger King seem old and dethroned by comparison. That Chipotle uses products such as Niman Ranch pork, Bell & Evans chicken, and Meyer Natural Angus beef puts it in an entirely different league from all other chain restaurants from fast to casual-upscale. And its use of antibiotic-and-hormone-free meats, organic beans, vegan cheeses, sour cream free of synthetic growth hormones, and total ban of sugar, eggs, nuts, trans fatty acids, and artificial colors or flavorings simply puts the rest of the industry to shame. The bang-for-the-buck meter swings in Chipotle's favor too: Prices top out at $6.10.

Best Cheese

Laurenzo's Italian Center

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese," wrote author G.K. Chesterton. If only one of our literary laureates had visited Laurenzo's market, no doubt they'd have been inspired to describe curd and whey in verse. They might have boldly strutted through the door, pen in hand — which would be easy because the place is open from early morning until dinnertime, and has been since 1951. And while they were there, they might have picked up homemade pastas, prepared Italian specialty foods, produce (at the green market across the street), and the staple of all poets: wine (many fine bottles at prices even wretched scribes can afford). But what would most inspire their imagination would be the cheese. It has so much to offer that it might produce this gem:

Emile Zola never wrote of Gorgonzola,

Especially not Galbani from Lombard

With its pungent pulse veined in bluish green.

Nor did Ezra Pound ever expound

On what a bargain $6.99 a pound

Was for milky, made-on-premises mozzarella

(It is said he preferred the smoked variety.)

Emily Dickinson ignored aged Fontina Val d'Aosta,

As though its grassy aroma and trufflelike flavor never existed.

Why did she not pick up pen for wine-cured Pecorino Toscano,

Haunted with hints of Tuscany's taunting wildflowers?

Best Chefs

Michelle Bernstein and Michael Schwartz

This is a lifetime achievement award one can win only once. The first five inductees were Norman Van Aken, Mark Militello, Allen Susser, Pascal Oudin, and Philippe Ruiz. This year's entries into our hallowed hall of fame are two toques who have been wowing Miami diners for more than a decade and who are, at the moment, presiding over the pinnacle of their careers. Michelle Bernstein and Michael Schwartz are not only the hottest, most talked-about chefs in South Florida (or, for that matter, Florida), but also their respective restaurants, Michy's and Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, are near universally acknowledged as the very best we have. Bernstein broke into the big-time ranks during her dazzling stint at Azul in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel; Schwartz made his name as chef/co-owner of SoBe's perennially popular Nemo. Both had to deal with obstacles on their way up — need we remind Michelle of her short work at The Strand, or Michael of his ill-fated helming of the Atlantic Restaurant? — but they worked hard, with full integrity and passion, until they succeeded on their own terms. That the two are known to be genuinely nice, humble human beings only makes the story of their rise that much sweeter.

Best Chicken Wings

House of Wings Sports Grill

It's one of the great culinary success stories of our time — how the useless appendages of a bird about as capable of flying as an anvil became this incredibly popular thing to eat. Chicken wings are mostly skin, bone, and gristle, but their little meat is tender and succulent. They fry up nicely and take well to virtually any sauce you can imagine. House of Wings is the Michelangelo of chicken appendages, with some 50 sauces ranging from lemon-pepper-garlic to barbecue to curry to Jamaican jerk. For less than a buck apiece, they come grilled or fried. Go for fried. The joys of crisp-crunchy skin and juicy, well-seasoned flesh trump lard-filled arteries every time. You can either grab 'em to-go or hang out in the no-frills room, where sporting events play relentlessly on a multitude of TV sets.

Best Chinese Carryout/North

China Steak House

Although you won't find lou mei — a dish made from animals' internal organs and entrails — at China Steak House, the eatery could hold its own in the Guangdong Province of Southern China. But the restaurant is located just a few blocks east of the NW 122nd Street exit off the Palmetto Expressway, tucked between a Rent-A-Center and Solid Bodies Gym. There's plenty of parking here and a comfortable bench where you can wait and eyeball the diners at this clean-as-can-be joint. Try one of the 18 house specials on the menu. Our favorites are the Cantonese-style roast duck and the China Steak, a broiled prime sirloin with mixed Chinese vegetables and a secret house sauce. At $9.25 and $15.95, respectively, these entrées are a bargain. The joint also looks out for the anti-meat crowd, serving up a phenomenal Szechuan-style bean curd and a mouthwatering ma po tofu for just $7.95 each. On weekdays, choose from a list of 20 lunch specials ranging in price from $3.95 to $5.35. Each dish includes pork fried rice and a cup of egg drop soup. The same entrées are available as combination dinners. Prices vary, but none costs more than $10. China Steak House is open Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Best Chinese Carryout/South

Lotus House

All right, we all know Miami isn't renowned for high-quality Chinese food. Sometimes when you order in, the most you can hope for is a clearly understandable English speaker on the other line and an edible lukewarm meal when the delivery man eventually arrives. But hey, there's Lotus House. The Kendall strip-mall staple never disappoints. The honey chicken is par excellence; tender deep-fried morsels are served with honey sauce on the side. Get the dinner combo with won ton soup, an egg roll, and pork fried rice for a mere $7.95. The sweet-and-sour sauce comes liberally studded with canned pineapple, and the lunch combo costs a mere $4.55. The restaurant specializes in both Cantonese and Mandarin dishes, so you can mix it up with moo goo gai pan or Szechuan-style beef, depending on your Asian food mood. Service is good, delivery is quicker than you expect, and, thankfully yes, the operator speaks excellent English.

Best Chinese Restaurant

Mr. Chu's Hong Kong Cuisine

Chinese food is probably one of the most amateur-attempted cuisines around; we've all tasted some variation of a beef Szechuan gone wrong. In addition to all of those wokky catastrophes you can create on your own, there are more take-out joints in town than bottles of soy sauce in Publix. Makes you wonder: Could that rumor about there not being any decent Chinese food options outside of New York be true? Wrong again, snowbirds! If a heaping helping of yummy traditionally prepared Chinese food is what you're craving, make South Beach your destination. For three years, Mr. Chu's has been serving up Cantonese-style dishes that you've tried before (but done right, this time), such as delicious dumplings (starting at $6 an order), a harmoniously sweet and spicy General Tso's chicken, tender beef with broccoli, and perfectly pan-fried noodles. But this traditional eatery also gives you the chance to try — with no trepidation — China's exotic fare. Dig into the Peking duck, head-on and carved tableside for $38 — we hear it's a favorite of Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair. Or maybe you'd rather the aromatic chicken with basil (braised in three flavors of soy sauce) tickle your taste buds, or the pineapple fried rice ($16). From the sauces to the soups, all menu items are freshly prepared; you won't catch any of the chefs ripping open pouches of sweet-and-sour sauce to ladle over your chicken. And if you crave dim sum from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. any day, more than 58 fried, steamed, and baked items served from a typical push-cart will be sure to satisfy you, and dim sum.

Best Chinese Soup

Chef Chen Chinese Restaurant

The history of the won ton dates to ancient Chinese times, and since then, people have had to choose their soup: egg drop or won ton? Well, maybe it hasn't been that long — but it is a problem. Do you order the rich, thick egg drop or the savory won ton? If you go to Chef Chen's, you won't have to decide. Here they serve an egg drop/won ton combo with wispy threads of egg plus freshly made dumplings. And it's cheap: A quart costs $3.25, a pint just $1.80. Hours are Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., and Sunday noon to 10 p.m.

Best Chocolate

Kron Chocolatier

Deep in the heart of darkest Aventura, the intrepid explorer can find a treasure so sublime that many people have ... gasp ... thrown caution to the wind to seek it. Yes, it always has to do with cocoa. Krön Chocolatier has long been the favorite of the area's high-end chocolate lovers. The place not only sells your typical treats and truffles but also specializes in crafting standout gifts that will impress the worldliest connoisseur, your girlfriend, and even your Jewish grandmother. They also cook up life-size ladies' torsos and legs, in chocolate, for the cannibal or bachelor in your life who deserves only the very best. Don't forget to try the scrumptious cookies while you're there!

Best Chocolate Cake

Abraham's Bakery

Abraham's Bakery has an oversize snack cake that puts the d in decadent. Called a Yodek, it's rather like a Ho Ho that's bigger than your head. For $8.50, you get one of these meatloaf-size logs of supermoist chocolate wonderfulness. Stare in wonder at the thick squirt of sweet white buttercream dancing down the center of the cake from end to end. A curtain of rich dark chocolate covers the whole thing. You'll want to pick it up and eat it with your hands, but even a fairy would have enough manners to use a fork. No knife necessary.

Best Coffeehouse

Cafetto Coffee and Cocoa

Opened in 2006, Cafetto is a French-style coffee shop with a local flavor. On any given morning, owners Anne-Marie and Oliver can be found behind the counter serving freshly roasted java while chatting up the mostly local clientele. There are eight coffee flavors to choose from, including Jamaican rum, tiramisu, and cinnamon. There's also an ample selection of teas and natural freshly squeezed juices. The darkly lit main room gives the place the perfect vibe for sipping an espresso macchiato ($1.40) or a small cappuccino ($2.50), which comes with standard milk or organic lactose-free soy. To make things sweeter, Cafetto is one of the very few spots on the Beach offering free wi-fi, while the ample, comfortable seating makes it the ideal place to simply sit back and watch the world go by.

Best Conch Fritters

Key West by the Gables

Grease, library paste, and pencil erasers. Yum! Well, these seem to be the ingredients in most conch fritters around here. But not at this cute little eatery that channels the funky Keys next door to haughty Coral Gables. The golf-ball-size beauties (costing eight bucks for six) boast remarkably light interiors and crisp, greaseless, fetchingly bronze exteriors. Subtly flavored with scallions and red pepper, the shards of Bahamian conch are pleasantly chewy but don't require hours of unpleasant mastication. No hair on your palms either!

Best Conch Salad

Goldie's Conch House

Goldie's easily has the best conch salad in South Florida. It's the way they prepare it. They take diced raw conch, combine it with sweet and hot peppers, onions, tomatoes, salt, black pepper, and freshly squeezed juices from limes, lemons, and oranges. A guy cuts it all up while he stands outside at a table, and no matter how many times you've been there, you can't help but watch him do it. It's a chopping master class. Once it's all done, he dishes it up and folks pick up their orders. Business is so good on weekends that he usually handles eight to ten orders at once, and by the time he's done, he has built a mound of it that's at least a foot high. It's only 10 bucks for a huge, family-size bowl. There's live music Friday nights and DJs on Saturdays, and it's the gathering spot for Bahamians in Miami-Dade. Goldie's also serves breakfast, and it's never too early for conch salad. There's also a guy there who washes cars and someone who sets up a tent and sells bootleg CDs, knock-off purses (Coach, Gucci, you name it), and anything else ya need. It's where island and hood connect, and if you're in the mood for a place with good food and lot's of culture, Goldie's is the place.

Best Cookies

The Lost & Found Saloon

Gentrification stinks. Prices rise and longtime residents get pushed out. But let's look on the bright side of the hipsters' and artists' presence in Wynwood. Cookies! Big, yummy cookies! Three dollars will buy a chocolate chip, Reese's peanut butter cup, or vanilla macadamia nut cookie at the cozy and creative Lost & Found Saloon on NW 36th Street. Served warm on a small plate with a knife and fork, these treats are large enough to share. At least Wynwood's working class can enjoy some damn tasty cookies while they still live there.

Best Crepes

Crepe Lounge

There's something about crêpes that's unspeakably chic, like watching a Godard movie in some funky little art house in the Fifth Arrondissement while sipping a rough red wine and chain-smoking Gauloises. Well, a shopping mall on Key Biscayne is a long way from Paris, but the crêpes at Crêpe Lounge are still plenty chic. These little discs of milk, flour, and eggs are tender as a sweet nothing and delicate as fine lace. Fillings have great range too. There are fresh veggies, pesto, and mozzarella. And of course there are the combos — everything from deliciously elemental crêpes Suzettes to mildly spiced chicken curry and lusty beef Stroganoff. Prices range from $8 to $22. Of course, you can't smoke. But you don't have to watch Godard movies either.

Best Croissants

Croissant D'or

If there is one thing for which we have to thank the French, it's the croissant. Every breakfast aficionado knows the flaky pastry is the étoile de petit déjeuner. If you commute around downtown, you have probably missed Croissant D'or, which is nestled among a multitude of other shops. At first glance, the place seems like a normal, everyday bakery Américain. Hell, it has the word croissant right in the name, so I don't blame you for making the assumption. But the bistro-style restaurant serves salads, sandwiches, and other breakfast and lunch items. The place is claustrophobic; everything about downtown screams claustrophobia. But that doesn't mean this is a hole-in-the-wall operation serving day-old products. The restaurant prepares croissants daily and serves them warm. They're a tad expensive (around $4 a pop) but worth it. Don't be fooled by the shape of the chocolate croissant, which looks more like a Cuban pastry. It'll knock you into a diabetic coma.

Best Croquetas

Gilbert's Bakery

Only the French could think of deep-frying meat and béchamel and giving it a cute little name like croquette. Only the Cubans, however, could make it a mainstay of every gas station and coffee shop in a town of two million people.

Sadly the Miami croqueta is generally paltry: stale, artery-clogging torpedoes comprising boiled ham or dry chicken.

Thankfully Gilbert's Bakery, which has been in business in Miami for more than 30 years, has mastered the art. In addition to the old standbys, the place offers asparagus, cheese, and codfish selections. There's also chorizo, as well as the delectable Romesco — styled after the spicy Spanish sauce made with nuts and chilies. Wait a few seconds for these bad boys to take hold. They expand in your gut. By the way, they're 50 cents a pop.

Best Cuban Restaurant

Molina's Ranch Restaurant

So you're tired of all those Little Havana joints where the tourists go? Try Molina's, with branches in West Dade and Hialeah — the real Cuban Miami. This place feels like old Havana with a touch of Miami cool. The day we were there recently, nobody — including the waitress — spoke English. It was ungodly clean and perfect. The food was hot, the batidos cold, and the cafecitos clearly some mix of rocket jet fuel and bilge water — just the way we like it. A quarter chicken with plantains, fluffy rice, and hearty black beans goes for a mere $6.95. Picadillo, the ground-beef brilliance you must eat to get the full experience, is only $6.95. Flan fantástico costs just $3.95. But the reason you'll love Molina's isn't the food. It's how you'll feel after downing that last spoonful. Here, at the American version of la isla, is a cool out-of-country experience available nowhere else in the world. La Cuba de su alma — the Cuba of your soul.

Best Cuban Sandwich

Morro Castle

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night hankering for a good Cuban sandwich, one with tender ham and pork, melted Swiss cheese, crisp dill pickles, tangy mustard, and crunchy-soft Cuban bread? It's a horrible dilemma for two reasons: First, odds are you don't have the grill and fixings to make one. And second, most Cuban restaurants close by 8 p.m. But Morro Castle in Hialeah is open late — 1 a.m. late — and it serves some of the best Cuban comida this side of Havana. The sandwiches Cubanos come with so much meat you'll swear a pig was slaughtered just for you. If you're able to finish off one of these savory delectables, you might find yourself looking for a corner to nap in. Plus, Morro Castle is probably the only joint where you can see the juxtaposition of Elvis Presley and Cuba's presidential palace. Like the sandwich, the place is quite surreal.

Best Defying-the-Odds Success

B.E.D.

Admit it: When you first heard about B.E.D.'s concept of high-end dining on oversize mattresses, you figured it would last about as long as the first shipment of sheets. That was more than 10 years ago. Yet after a recent resprucing, the restaurant is still attracting those who enjoy pillow talk over small-plate selections of global-fusion cuisine. The new menu includes goat-cheese-and-fig fritters, fried calamari, Peruvian lomo saltado, and rigatoni rigged with four cheeses. Most items are less than $20, all under $25, for profits are culled from booze and bottle service —which brings us to the other dreamy aspect of the place: After dining, you can roll right out of bed and into a boisterous club scene.

Best Desserts

Emeril's Miami Beach

Emeril Lagasse actually hails from Fall River, Massachusetts, but he's an honorary Southerner because of his heavy ties to New Orleans, where he's been opening restaurants since 1990. And nobody makes a good homemade pie better than a Southerner. So check out the selection at his eponymous place at the St. Moritz Hotel in Miami Beach, where desserts go for $8 to $10. There's banana cream with caramel sauce and dark chocolate shavings, or mango key lime kicked up a notch with sugared fried plantains, or the classic pecan ... Bam! And other desserts — such as caramel-apple cobbler with cinnamon ice cream, or a skillet-baked brownie with chocolate ganache, caramel, and vanilla bean ice cream — aren't quintessentially Southern, but they are damn good, especially as a means of closing out a New Orleans lunch, dinner, or Sunday brunch.

The door of the S&S Diner opened and two men walked in. They sat down at the counter. There were no tables.

"What's yours?" the waitress asked them.

"I don't know," one of the men said. "What do you want to eat, Al?"

"I don't know," said Al. "I don't know what I want to eat."

Outside it was getting hot. The traffic slowed down on Second Avenue. The two men at the counter read the menu.

"I'll take ham and eggs," said the man called Al. He wore a fedora. His face was small.

"Give me bacon and eggs," said the other man. He was about the same size as Al. Their faces were different, but they were dressed like twins. They sat leaning forward, their elbows on the counter.

"This is a hot town," said Al. "What do they call it?"

"Miami."

"Ever hear of it?" Al asked his friend.

"No," said the friend.

"What do they do here midday?" Al asked.

"They eat the big lunch," his friend said. "They all come here and eat the big lunch."

"So you think that's right?" Al asked the kid sitting next to them.

"Sure," the kid said.

"You're a pretty bright boy, aren't you?"

"Sure."

"Ain't he a bright boy, Max?" Al said.

"The town's full of bright boys," Max said.

Best Early-Bird Special

Steak & Ale

From the outside, the place resembles an old Masonic lodge. Although some folks consider Steak & Ale a chain restaurant, this one is a relic. Let's call it the "dinosaur of chain restaurants," since there are not many left. The interior ambiance is elegant and romantic, in a late-Seventies sort of way: dark, with candles burning on every table throughout the day. There are stained-glass windows, a fireplace, and dusty bookshelves. Sure the bathroom doors read, "Lords" and "Ladies," but near the salad bar, you can hear Black Sabbath blaring from inside the kitchen. The red vinyl seats and wooden tables are packed every afternoon between 3 and 6 p.m., when the early birds come out for the "Early Evening" menu; there is usually a wait, and here's why: Items such as grilled meat loaf ($9.99), Hawaiian chicken ($9.49), herb-roasted prime rib ($13.99), and top sirloin ($12.49) come with signature honey wheat bread, soup or salad, a dessert, and choice of tea, coffee, or a soft drink. We recommend the coffee, which is strong and comes in a gigantic porcelain mug with free refills, just like the good old days.

Best Empanada

Delicias de Espana

Empanadas can be such a good thing. What could be better than an easy-to-carry pouch full of spiced meat? Sadly, more often then not, they are little pockets of disappointment: ancient, dry things that sit under heat lamps in gas stations. In the old-old country (Spain, not Cuba), they were heavenly. The tradition continues at this market, which churns out fat pies filled with cod, ham, tuna, chorizo, or chicken. Each slice is about the size of a DVD case and three times as thick — it's yours for $3.50. For $23 you can have the whole sheet. Be careful, though: This place has everything fine and Spanish. The chorizo is rich with the smoky flavors of authentic pimentón. The cheese is pricey and delicious. The Serrano is second to none. Even the women are pretty, frank, and funny. Get in, get your empanada, and get out, lest you wind up penniless and love-struck.

Best Expensive Italian Restaurant

Escopazzo Organic Italian Restaurant

If you're taking a health-conscious person to Escopazzo, by all means trumpet the rustic 90-seat restaurant's use of local, all-organic fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Definitely mention the beef is grass-fed as well as hormone-and-antibiotic-free, and point out raw selections on the menu such as golden flaxseed pappardelle with mushrooms and pine nut "Parmigiano." Order a bottle of organic wine.

But if you're taking someone who just wants delectable Italian fare, no need to make a fuss about Escopazzo's more salubrious aspects. Let your companion enjoy smoked beef carpaccio, tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce, beef short ribs braised in Barbera wine, or espresso-dusted, American Kurobuta pork tenderloin stuffed with scamorza cheese, without any explanations. A starter of asparagus flan with fontina and provola cheeses, shiitake mushrooms, and white truffle oil is so luxuriously rewarding that your friend won't even notice it's vegetarian. Chef/owners Giancarla and Pino Bodoni have been producing contemporary Italian food with flair since 1993 (dinner, not lunch), but a seat at the table doesn't come cheap — pastas are in the upper $20 range, fish and meat entrées $30 to $58. You get what you pay for, though, whether or not you know what you're getting.

Best Fajita

Los Tres Amigos

Sometimes you have to venture into the hood to find true treasures in the Magic City. Mark Los Tres Amigos on your map. Located across the street from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office, in the heart of Allapattah's produce warehouse district, this authentic Mexican restaurant has been serving up scrumptious food for more than 20 years. Just look for the big sign on the roof of the eatery's sunshine-yellow storefront. When it comes to putting together a sizzling, filling plate of shrimp, beef, or chicken fajitas, Los Tres Amigos has you covered. The platter comes with your usual Mexican side fare of yellow rice, refried beans, and tortillas, but it's the details that make this place lo mejor. Try the shaved radishes, lettuce salad, plump jalapeño peppers, and refried beans alongside your tortilla chips. And all of it won't cost you more than seven bucks. Wash your hearty meal down with a cheleda — Modelo Negro with a splash of lime juice served in a frosty, salt-rimmed mug — while you sway to the authentic Mexican music playing from the jukebox. Mmmm, good. Los Tres Amigos is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. There's no parking lot, but you can snag a spot on the street behind the restaurant.

Best Falafel

Oriental Bakery & Grocery Co.

Host: Welcome to The Dating Game. Tonight Sally will choose her dream match from among our three charming and eager contestants. Go ahead, Sally, ask your first question.

Sally: Number one, if you were a sandwich, what type would you be?

Number one: A falafel.

Sally: And why is that?

Number one: It's ethnic and hot, just like me, baby.

Sally: Oh great. Number two, same question.

Number two: A falafel, because it's not full of baloney, and neither am I!

Sally: How original. Number three?

Number three: A falafel.

Sally: What are you, fucking triplets?

Host: Please, Sally, this is a family show.

Number three: But I'd be a falafel sandwich from Oriental Bakery & Grocery, with a fresh mix of diced tomato and cucumber, a slight smear of the smoothest hummus in town, and a frolicking splash of sesame tahini. I'd be nattily dressed in a laffa jacket baked on premises, and retain a lightness about me — not greasy like number one, or heavy like number two. Oriental has been around since 1939, so I'd be a falafel with maturity steeped in experience. As one who appreciates world culture, I'd be surrounded by olives from Persia to Palestine to Peru. And I'm a fair and reasonable guy, just like the pricing here: $4.50 for a sandwich guaranteed to please.

Sally: Wow — add a jolt of hot sauce and my knickers are all yours.

Host: Sally!

Best Farmers' Market

Upper Eastside Green Market

In the subtropics, most of the places called farmers' markets sell tchotchkes to tourists. But this new neighborhood-generated venture peddles the real thing: fresh produce and good, edible regional products. Although vendors vary somewhat, roughly 20 show up each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The selection has been impressive enough to lure shoppers such as chefs Michael Schwartz and Michelle Bernstein. We recently bought just-picked tomatoes for $1.99 per pound, bulb onions for a buck a bunch, humongous HoneyBell tangerines for 50 cents apiece, unusual white-and-lavender Sicilian eggplants for $1.69 a pound, and much more. There have also been many varieties of unprocessed regional honey and local seafood (stone crab claws and shrimp for $8 per pound and grouper fillets for $10). Additionally, many booths sell prepared foods, perfect for picnicking in Legion Park, which is behind the market. There's mouthwatering mozzarella and burrata; fresh-baked breads; more than half a dozen types of flavored hummus; empanadas; fresh-squeezed juices; and weekly changing entrées (including Indonesian chicken salad and shrimp ceviche) from Dewey and Dale LoSasso of North 110. Though the market will close for the summer, plans are to bring it back in November, and year-round operation is under discussion.

Best Feijoada

Mercado Brasil

Brazilian historians including Luis da Camara Cascudo trace feijoada's origins to stews from southern European countries such as France, Spain, Italy, and, of course, Portugal. Unofficial theories credit African slaves on Brazilian colonial farms for creating the national dish; after all, the meaty broth is prepared with the cheapest ingredients. Feijoada is a smorgasbord of black turtle beans, chorizo, salted pork, and beef, with trimmings such as pig ears, tails, and feet. Then there's the beef loin and cow tongue. It's cooked inside a thick clay pot over a slow fire. It's an exquisite delicacy that requires a lot of patience to perfect, so you won't find it at some Brazilian eateries. At this little bit of Brazil, the stuff is available only on weekends and served on a steaming bed of white rice alongside coarse cassava flour and chopped refried collard greens. While you are there, check out the market's wide array of Brazilian food products, especially unique snacks such as empada, coxinha, risole, and kibeh. The place is easy to find: Simply head along U.S. 1 until you reach the traffic light at SW 93rd Street, just south of Dadeland Mall. Mercado Brasil is on the northwest corner. Pull into one of the parking spaces in front of the store. Or take Metrorail to the Dadeland South station and walk two blocks north if you are feeling green. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sundays.

Best Fish Platter Named for a Rapper

Lil Wayne Fish and Chips

This restaurant is owned by superstar rap artist Rick Ross, and he don't play. He hired a team of graduates of Miami's Johnson & Wales School of Culinary Arts to create some of the best fried food platters in town. The hot chicken wings are to die for, but you gotta try the Lil Wayne fish and chips ($7.49). Named for the "best rapper alive," according to the menu, the dish comes with two big deep-fried tilapia fillets, curly fries, and a drink. You can get it spicy or with a variety of sauces. If you are in the mood for shrimp, try the Fat Joe Fish and Shrimp Platter ($9.52), which is pretty damn good as well. Then lean back and enjoy the ambiance. Photos of Rick Ross decorate the walls as his music plays on the sound system.

Best Fish Sandwich

Bahamas Fish Market

It is a fillet of snapper. Not just any snapper, but a shiny, pristine snapper. The first step is to snatch it from local waters and give it a brief respite on a bed of crushed ice in a display case at Bahamas Fish Market. Next, the fish is transferred from ice to kitchen, lightly floured, crisply fried, and plunked onto a soft bun with lettuce and tomato. Then a little cup of tartar sauce is placed on the side. The price is $3.23. So simple, yet flawless. For an extra 70 cents, you can get French fries too. Of course you can always take advantage of the wide array of seafoods available in the market section and fry your own fish sandwich at home, but then you would be missing the funky nautical ambiance. Or maybe you're not in the mood for Miami's finest fish sandwich. Try the bountiful whole fried fish dinner — bread comes on the side. If you are really not in the mood for Miami's finest fish sandwich, there is a big menu of seafood dishes with a Cuban slant, including escabeche, fried pickled kingfish, and even a reputable tostones rellenos. But, again, the real message here is: Bahamas Fish Market. Fresh fish sandwich. $3.23.

Best Fish Taco

Ver Daddy's Taco Shop

You won't need a fork; your hand in claw formation will do just fine. And it's a good idea to bring a partner to this Biscayne corridor hotspot, because who else will tell you that you have a trail of amazingly spicy and perfect salsa verde sprinting down your chin? Table manners aside, the only way to enjoy Ver Daddy's Baja fish taco is to lift the overstuffed flour tortilla to your mouth, bite, chew, and repeat. Let the shop's trademark Mexican cream hit each of your taste buds. Bite, chew, and repeat as wonderfully spiced coleslaw drops to the table. Bite, chew, and repeat until all of the beer-battered and deep-fried chunks of tilapia are gone. Recline in your chair as you reminisce about how the crisp exterior of the fish crackled on your tongue and how moist and flaky the inside was. Then repeat your trip to the counter and get another order. Pull $5.75 from your pocket, bite, chew, and repeat.

Think of flan as the more feminine version of crème brûlée. Whereas crème brûlée is dense and custardy, flan is light and eggy. Whereas crème brûlée sports a thick, brittle crust of caramelized sugar, flan sits in a shimmering, golden pool of liquid caramel. And when you think of flan, think of Miami's only tapas bar in a gas station, where you can fill your tank with unleaded and your stomach with all manner of Spanish wines and delicacies. But in the end, what will keep you coming back is the soursop flan, which for all of $5 will seduce you with the texture of edible silk and the flavor of a dozen tropical fruits.

Best Flourless Cookies

Chocolate Fashion's flourless chocolate cookies

No flour, butter, or chocolate chips here. The main ingredients are walnuts, egg whites, and rich, deep red cocoa powder. The result is a bargain for $3.50: a giant, dark brown confection that's one inch thick and four inches in diameter. They are chunky, with a crisp exterior and a moist, gooey center. Flawless.

Best Food Court

Dadeland Mall

You can walk around this food court, eating free samples of international culinary treats, until you are just about full. Once you have finished making the rounds and have purchased some food, have a seat near Enrique's Café, where beer is served all day. This food court is not just about taking a free piece of chicken and sipping an icy-cold beverage; it is also about making new friends. The tables here are nearly all connected and you will be forced to sit next to strangers while you eat. So you've got great food, great conversation, and, last but not least, great service. The head janitor, Kevin Warhaft (check out his MySpace page, www.myspace.com/kevinwarhaft), has been working here for 17 years. His hat says it clearly: "The Man, the Myth, the Legend." We recently spoke with Kevin, and he told us about life at the food court. "I clean tables, I clean the bathroom, I take the trays from the tables," he said. "I also get to meet a lot of cool people here. A lot of hot girls come into the food court. I've seen fights break out here, and I've met some celebrities." Like who? "Rudy Sarzo [former bass player of Quiet Riot, currently with Ronnie James Dio] has been here more than once. I saw O.J. Simpson at the Johnny Rockets about eight years ago." So what's Kevin's favorite place to eat here? "Cozzoli's Pizza for sure. They have good pizza, and they've been here longer than I have. Chick-fil-A is very good; so is Chicken Kitchen. You have Johnny Rockets, and the new Tony Roma's is pretty good." Baby-back ribs and beer at a food court? What more could you ask for?

Best Four-Dollar Lunch

Los Piñarenos Frutería y Florería

Many folks visit this Calle Ocho landmark for its fresh produce and flowers, or for the frothy mango, guanabana, and mamey batidos that are the open-air market's specialty. But the place also serves lunch daily — heaping out huge portions at a pocket-friendly $4 a pop. The only catch is that the menu is limited to one item. Don't worry — when the fricasse de pollo con ensalada y pan runs out, the blenders still offer a world of fruity nourishment that's always fresh.

Best French Fries

Bourbon Steak, A Michael Mina Restaurant

Fries come fat, skinny, lightly colored, darkly colored, curlicued, shoestringed, Texas-cut, crinkle-cut, spiced, spicy, and salted to vastly varying degrees. So in the past, our pick for finest might have been influenced by a personal bias toward one style or another. But when Bourbon Steak arrived in 2007 at Turnberry Isle with acclaimed West Coast chef Michael Mina's signature duck-fat fries, the competition was left waddling behind, ankle-deep in soybean oil. Using duck fat as a frying medium is an age-old French tradition that lends a richer, fuller flavor to the potatoes. But Mina keeps things modern by serving the thin, crisp, twice-fried spuds three ways: truffled, perked with smoked paprika, and flush with fresh herbs. Each comes with matching accompanying dip (at $8 per order, these pommes frites demand more than Heinz). Of course French fries alone do not constitute a proper meal, so consider ordering one of the tastiest steaks in town on the side.

Best French Restaurant

Le Bouchon du Grove

Bistros are like antiques: They are supposed to be old. That's why even new ones often look as though they've been around for years. It's easy to find aged bistros in Paris, not so easy in South Florida. Le Bouchon du Grove has been sating patrons with its rustic French fare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since 1994 — which in local restaurant years translates to having been around since 1846. It looks pretty good for such an old joint. Indoor and outdoor tables spill into one another and create the relaxed and comfortable feel of a perfectly worn pair of jeans. The food is assuaging as well, starting with a crusty baguette with creamy butter and segueing into adeptly executed homemade renditions of country pâté, salad Niçoise, escargots, pommes frites, gratinée Lyonnaise (French onion soup), steak in green peppercorn sauce — all the bistro classics. Other assets include an outgoing staff and exuberant French chef, a laid-back Sunday brunch, friendly French wines, and affordable prices (dinner entrées $20 to $30). Bouchon boasts experience and age, but dining here never gets old.

Best Fried Chicken

Fidele Restaurant

"I've been doing this a long time," Julien Cesar says about frying chicken. "Since 1991." For its first 16 years, this eatery, which specializes in Haitian-style seafood dishes, was situated at NE 72nd Street and Biscayne Boulevard. Near the end of 2007, Cesar moved to nicer digs in North Miami. "The fried chicken is the same as it's always been," he claims, which is to say provocatively spiced on the outside, incredibly moist within. The secret is removing the skin and setting the bird in hot water before frying. A hefty portion — accompanied by rice and beans, fried plantains, and salad — is presented by a friendly server for an astonishingly low $6. So we have come to praise Cesar, and do so every time we eat his fried chicken.

Best Fusion Restaurant

Cacao

Tired of pretentious Pan-Everywhere eateries where fusion equals confusion and deconstruction means some sadistic chef screwing with your mind? Try this nonconfusing fusion place, where deconstruction is done for fun — as in congenial, creative chef Edgar Leal's marinated shrimp/mussels/calamari Argentine-style empanada ($14) — and all lunch specials are $11.99. Leal's childhood years — spent swinging back and forth between rural Venezuela and New York City — seem an ideal background for sensibly dealing with the foods of many countries (though mainly Peru, Argentina, and Venezuela) and also imbued him with an instinctive flair for transforming traditional rustic dishes into cosmopolitan contemporary creations — such as his warm "cachapa" soufflé with creamy guayanes cheese ($12), an elegantly lightened take on a common corn cake street snack. New-style ceviches and tiraditos, subtly flash-marinated and garnished to evoke the varying typical flavors of numerous nations, are definitive must-not-misses — an exciting comparative taste test, and a gut-level lesson in the benefits of international coexistence.

Best Gelato

Roma Organic Gelato

We know gelato is just a fancy-schmancy Italian word for ice cream. But the frozen goodness at Roma needs — no, requires — a term of its own. The stuff is smooth, rich, and flavorful, bordering on manna from the Arctic Circle. It's a tad expensive (one scoop costs $4, two scoops $5, three scoops $6), but it's an acceptable splurge. Try the stracciatella, which is similar to chocolate chip but not as cloyingly sweet. Or venture into fruit flavors such as tangy raspberry. Not all varieties are always available; the Italian owners hand-make the gelato daily, so offerings vary. The small shop is also a great place to relax while you enjoy your treat; the décor — featuring model airplanes, balloons, and powder-blue walls — gives a sleek yet adorable European feel.

Best Gnocchi

Perricone's Marketplace & Cafe

It takes practice to achieve perfection, particularly with regard to gnocchi. It's an easy recipe — usually just potatoes, eggs, water, and flour. But making it is somehow quite difficult. Add too much water and you need more flour; add too much flour and you get a dumpy mess.

Luckily for gnocchi lovers, George Tavares has been practicing his craft for more than 30 years. He makes the delicate Italian dumplings served at Perricone's. Not only does he have the experience to make them great, but also he has the passion. Rafael Van de Water, a chef at the eatery, says of Tavares: "I have watched him make them numerous times, and it truly is a labor of love."

You can get them served with coral pink, quattro formaggi, or Perricone's famous pomodoro sauce. They're amazing with any of the three. At lunchtime, a plate will cost $12.95; at dinner, $14.95. Perricone's is open Monday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Best Gourmet Market

Bay Harbor Fine Foods

Bay Harbor Fine Foods has been spruced up just in time to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Half a century of catering to a fussy, upscale clientele is just the right sort of experience for a gourmet market. That's plenty of time to fine-tune a selection of artisanal cheeses and fine chocolates from Europe, to make sure the array of imported wines and beers is perfect, and to secure the finest purveyors of meats, seafoods (the shop specializes in stone crab), high-end groceries, and organic produce to stock the modern yet rustic-styled store. Over the decades, the shop has installed an olive bar, tapas bar, sushi bar, coffee bar, and wood-burning pizza oven. Breads and pastries come from the excellent Paul Bakery. Bay Harbor Fine Foods is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and offers indoor and outdoor seating. It's a wonder folks shop anywhere else.

Best Haitian Restaurant

Chez Le Bebe

Short of having a Haitian grandmère up to her apron strings in pigs' feet at home, you aren't likely to find better-tasting and less-expensive Haitian comfort food than this. The griot (fried pork) is tender and the stewed goat heavenly. The menu is short and sweet, so just pick the type of meat or fish you want (you can also order grits and legumes as entrées) and place your order. Each plate comes with rice, beans, plantains, and salad. Pound for pound, the fare at this Little Haiti fave is less expensive than fast food and much better for you (add a soft drink and your dinner total still runs under $10), but arrive hungry, because the portions are huge. Soups are offered on the weekends. There's a steady stream of customers, so you might have to wait a bit either in the main restaurant or even at the pick-up window, which thankfully stays open until midnight every night but Sunday.

Best Hangover Cure

Sunday brunch at Level 25

Last night some reckless gentlemen by the names of Johnny Walker, Jim Beam, and Jack Daniel took a crowbar to your liver and beat the bejesus out of your gastrointestinal tract. Or at least that's how you feel this morning. Like a steaming pile of turd smacked you in the face. Like a small, filthy animal curled up and died in your mouth. Like a freight train ... Okay, okay, we'll stop teasing and tell you what you need to do to get over your stankin' hangover. Get out of bed, take a warm shower, get dressed, and head to the Conrad Miami. It's Sunday brunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and you can feast, be pampered, and rejuvenate your weary, alcohol-poisoned internal organs.

Fifty-five dollars brings you everything you need. Waffles? Check. Sushi? Hell yeah. Spectacular salads with all the toppings you could want? Oh yeah. Omelets and a carving station? Double-check. Besides the typical brunch fixings, there's also a hangover corner. Stock up on fresh fruit so delicious you expect it to be dangling from tree branches, fill your plate with a selection of cured meats and cheeses liberally studded with nuts and berries, and expect to make repeat visits to the dessert station. After that, hit up the balcony for a gander at the gorgeous 25-story-high view. End with Cuban coffee and biscotti, or hot tea served with lemon and a jar of honey for your raw throat. Ah, sweet relief.

Best Health Food Store

Delicious Organics

Let's face it: Whole Foods is a hassle. It's always crowded, the aisles are tiny, and the atmosphere is more annoyance than ommmm. Enter Delicious Organics. It's a virtual store — locally owned by Jack and Annie Malka — that delivers produce and healthful groceries right to your home or office. There are 4,000 items available — from a giant, $75 "fruit and veggie lovers' box" to a Brillat Savarin Cheese Mini with Truffles for $14.49. Online purchasing is easy, and the site handily remembers your order history. Products are expensive, but no more so than those at Whole Foods — and in some cases, the produce boxes are a much better value than what you would buy at the grocery store. The difference between this and a co-op is that with Delicious Organics, you decide what to get. Quality is high — the folks at Delicious Organics try to buy locally whenever possible, so there's often dirt on your carrots when they arrive on your doorstep. Delivery is a flat rate of $9.95, which seems like a fair price in exchange for not driving to the store, battling the people in the produce aisles, and waiting forever in the checkout lines. If you really want to save on the delivery fee, you can still order online and pick up your groceries at the warehouse in Miami Lakes.

Best Healthy Fast Food

Green Gables Cafe

Ana Rabel and Laura Alfonso, proprietors of this health-oriented breakfast and lunch spot in Coral Gables, are a mother and daughter team. That's uncommon in the restaurant world, and so is their dedication to serving organic fruits and vegetables in eco-friendly containers. Green Gables Café is mostly a take-out/delivery joint (open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays only), but there are 15 seats cozily nestled within. "Saving the world, one bite at a time" is the motto, and while it is fair to wonder whether eating a homemade bran muffin here in the morning will bring salvation to the planet, there is no questioning the muffin's quality. Baked organic eggs and vegetables, organic yogurt and berry parfait, and all manner of smoothies and fresh-squeezed juices can also start your day off right. Freshly prepared soups (green gazpacho is great), salads, sandwiches, wraps, and melts (all served with choice of organic chips or carrot sticks) compose the rest of the menu. There are homemade desserts, too, and organic coffee. Everything is under $10 (actually $9, except for a baked crabcake and mandarin orange salad). So while saving the world, you can also save yourself some money.

Named for legendary Dolphins running back Larry Csonka, the Zonker transforms the average hoagie into a monumental wrecking ball of salami, ham, Provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, oil, and mayo jammed into a sub roll. And for $3.89, it's too good a delicacy to pass up. So go ahead and score one inside Football Sandwich Shops, a storied eatery located between Little Haiti and El Portal. Munch on it amid the posters and pictures of some of Hollywood's golden boys and girls. There's Ronnie Reagan as gunslinger, Jackie Gleason as pool shark, Marilyn Monroe as pneumatic nitwit, the Babe and Joe DiMaggio as baseball icons. But it's the homage to the greatest quarterback to never win a Super Bowl that really grabs your gaze. The painting depicts Dan Marino, his head and bare shoulders rising from the salty blue Atlantic. As lightning sparks in an ominous black sky, dolphins leap over Number 13 and into the water.

Best Hole-in-the-Wall Restaurant

Cafe Le Glacier

In the walls are actual holes that are bigger than this tiny, French-ified Biscayne Boulevard café, but Le Glacier makes up for its lack of size and spiffy ambiance with simple, honest, well-prepared food at blessedly modest prices, with a big helping of neighborhoody charm thrown in for good measure. Onion soup, chicken with Dijon mustard sauce, lamb Provençale — they're all good, and nothing costs more than 13 bucks. Of course, you could go to one of those larger and grander restaurants, but when it comes to good food that won't break the bank, does size really matter?

Best Homemade Pasta

La Marea at The Tides

Bigoli is a pasta from the Veneto region. Shaped like thick spaghetti and coarsely textured, it is made by pushing dough through an instrument called a bigolaro. The Sicilian paccheri looks like a thick snippet of garden hose and in the early 1600s was used to smuggle banned garlic cloves from Italy into Austria. At the elegant La Marea in the newly refurbished The Tides South Beach, paccheri is served with pork cheeks and porcinis, and the bigoli is bolstered by a hot arrabiata sauce. Milanese chef Pietro Rota also shows flair with less artisanal cuts such as fettuccine, which comes finessed with chunks of lobster in a minty cream sauce, as well as an open ravioli plumped with puréed potato and Taleggio cheese, crowned with black truffle slices and the unctuous yolk of a softly poached organic egg. Prices range from $20 to $30 for the pastas, although you will surely be tempted to try other items on Marea's menu, especially the grilled seafoods freshly flown in from the Mediterranean coast.

Best Hot Dog

La Perrada de Edgar

Scene: A distraught man is sitting in a psychiatrist's office.

Doctor: Sometimes a hot dog is just a hot dog.

Patient: No, you don't understand. It isn't just that this hot dog is Colombian-style, which means fatter and juicier than those little wieners they hand out at those cruddy chains. And it isn't that La Perrada's dogs are addictive, nestled in those fresh, plush buns. It's the toppings, doc. The toppings are driving me mad!

Doctor: Please, lower your voice. If people in the waiting room hear you screaming about frankfurters, they'll think you're crazy.

Patient: Crazy? I'll give you crazy. How about Edgar Gomez, a former fashion designer, turning into the hot dog's top dog in Bogotá before letting his dogs out on the Little Colombia stretch of Collins Avenue and 70th Street? And if you want frickin' crazy, how about putting sausage, mozzarella, pineapple, potato sticks, and cheese sauce on a hot dog? Or the same mix but with shrimp and crab instead of pineapple? Or — heavens to Betsy — pineapple, peaches, plums, and whipped cream. On a frankfurter! And they all cost less than five dollars!

Doctor: Sometimes chopped onions and pickle relish are just chopped onions and — wait, did you say pineapple, peaches, plums, and whipped cream?

Patient: Yes, thank goodness you're finally catching on.

Doctor: I'm afraid our time is up. Well, maybe it's a little early, but we'll add it to next week's session. I've just been consumed by the strangest craving ...

Best Ice-Cream Parlor

The Frieze Ice Cream Factory

The homemade flavors speak for themselves: Sassy Strawberry, Perfect Pistachio, Jack Daniel's Maple Walnut, Cappuccino Chip, Get Down Boogie-Oogie Cookie. The tropical sorbets hold their own too: Tamarindo, Indian Mango, Pear, Guanabana, Pink Grapefruit. Even though the factory has a window that lets spectators watch the ice cream being made, no one has figured out how they get so much flavor into each scoop.

Best Indian Restaurant

Mint Leaf

So Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Shilpa Shetty, and Ravi Shankar Jr. are marooned on a desert island. No wait, sorry — they are in Coral Gables, and the three of them walk into the new Mint Leaf restaurant. After being seated and starting off with freshly squeezed fruit juices and a basket of traditional tandoor-baked breads, the prime minister taps Shilpa on the shoulder and asks whether she agrees that Mint Leaf's gosht biryani tastes just like it does back home. "Don't touch me," she replies, before adding that although she liked the gosht, her preference was for the South Indian specialty of dosa, a crêpe made from lentils and fermented rice that gets wrapped around various savory fillings. Shankar offers that the original London Mint Leaf has been known for its dosas since opening in 1938. "Besides, who else around here makes shrikand?" he adds, this being a thick yogurt cheese infused with saffron and topped with fruit and chopped nuts. "And where else can you get main courses this good, with so many vegetarian choices, for under $20?" Shilpa and Shetty laugh, finding the notion of monetary concerns rather funny. Shankar wonders how he got roped into dinner with these two, and decides to return to Mint Leaf for lunch the next day without them.

Best Inexpensive Bistro

Cote Gourmet

When the Chinese chain P.F. Chang's, a frozen meal delivery service, and a complex computer program all use the word bistro to describe themselves, you know just how far the word has strayed from its origins, on virtually every urban street corner in France. Bistros are supposed to be everyday eateries affordable enough that neighborhood regulars can go every day for a glass of wine and simple but impeccably executed food that is basically — forgive the pickiness — French. At little Côte Gourmet, which opened as a breakfast/lunch spot but now also serves dinner Thursday through Saturday, all the classic bistro basics are there, along with some delightful extras. Breads and pastries are all housemade (and excellent); the bistro's flavorful savory and sweet crêpes ($3.75 to $8.75) taste like a trip to the French countryside for a reason: They're made with nutty buckwheat batter, as they have been in Brittany since the 12th Century. Lunchtime's popular blackboard special (which is different every day but has included crisp phyllo triangles stuffed with tuna, capers, onion, tomato, and buttery potatoes, for $10) is a filling meal thanks to a bonus side salad of mesclun that's dressed as perfectly as a Parisian couturier. At night, entrées such as traditional beef bourguignon ($20.50) or shrimp-topped pan-seared Scottish salmon in delicate lemon sauce, accompanied by three veggies ($17.50), are more pricey, but $25-and-under dinners are doable.

Best Inexpensive Italian Restaurant

Cafe Ragazzi

Opera sung to the tune of "Maria," from West Side Story:

Fat Man One:

Ragazzi,

We line up to get into Ragazzi,

But once we are inside

Hospitality and pride

Come through.

Fat Man Two:

Ragazzi,

No glitz here and no paparazzi,

It's mostly local folk

Who don't like to go broke

To eat

In Surfside.

Chorus:

Pasta e fagioli and salad Caprese

(Whisper:) Thin-crust pizza and veal Bolognese

And meatballs,

We'll never stop eating their meatballs,

Their meatballs!

Fat Man One:

Ragazzi,

Their bread is served all hotsie-totsie.

Most items cost less than 20.

The plates are piled with plenty

To eat

Fat Lady:

Ragazzi!

Best Jamaican Patty

Patty Place

On a busy strip off 441 in Miami Gardens sits a strip mall devoted to all things Caribbean. While trying to hustle for a hard-to-come-by parking space in this tiny lot, you barely notice the plain-Jane storefront located in the middle of the complex. Patty Place is a walk-through, 300-square-foot take-out joint where you can find some of the best Jamaican patties outside of Kingston. Choose from selections ranging from sweet plantain to corned beef to the traditional ackee (a Jamaican fruit that tastes and looks like scrambled eggs) to our personal favorite, the callaloo loaf, a spinach-stuffed pastry that looks like an overgrown empanada. And these savory homemade patties go for no more than $1.50 a pop! Open for almost a decade, the simply named "Patty Place" serves the crispiest, flakiest, snap-crackle-poppiest patties that any homesick Jamaican will admit to tasting. No wonder the shop runs out of patties by 6 p.m. So get there early and buy a lot for the ride home!

Best Japanese Lunch Counter

Japanese Market Inc.

Sometimes you just need to eat raw fish and drink beer. It's not a fancy or a pretentious thing. And it need not be expensive. It just needs to happen.Thank god for this little counter. For $10.95, the congenial chef, Michio, will fix you up with a tray of the old standards (octopus, salmon, tuna, shrimp, etc.). Another three bucks will get you a beer.If you want something simple and hearty, order a plate of Japanese curry. It'll fill you right up for less than five bucks. But if the freshness and quality of the fish strikes your fancy — and it will — push the envelope. Try a ceviche roll for another six bucks. Or do yourself a favor and get the steamed monkfish liver: Japanese foie gras, Michio calls it. The tender pink substance melts on the tongue in a kind of flavor ecstasy. Just tell him to cut you off at whatever you're willing to spare.
Best Japanese Restaurant

Domo Japones

A makimono roll of scallop, cucumber, and salt-cured plum capped with tobiko fish roe served with ume plum paste pooled in white truffle oil. A box-style roll with squares of pressed sushi rice dotted with pickled vegetables and colorfully covered in flattened fuchsia-hued gomoko flower, green minty shiso leaf, and a thin, opaque sheath of kombu (seaweed). Berkshire pork, slices of crisp pork belly, ramen noodles, shreds of pickled ginger, and a soft-boiled organic egg set in a bowl of dark, meaty broth. Veal cheek gyoza or toro tuna sashimi atop edamame purée. Pristine nigiri/sashimi selections. Apple crumble with ginger ice cream and caramel-miso sauce. A giant black-and-white print of a young, topless Naomi Campbell. Jesus, this swank sushi bistro in the Design District has it all! Hip, too, with a handsome brick/wood interior and eminently reasonable entrée prices (most $17 to $25). You cannot do better for Japanese food — lunch or dinner. Period.

Best Key Lime Pie

Bonefish Grill

Got milk? They didn't have much of it in the Keys prior to the railroad opening in 1912, so when Gail Borden created sweetened condensed milk in 1859, the isolated residents rejoiced — they could finally invent key lime pie! They didn't even need to bake the pies, for the acidity of the limes curdled the condensed milk and egg yolks to form a smooth consistency. Think of how much trouble they saved by not having to haul cows and ovens in from the mainland! Nowadays it's even easier to enjoy Florida's most famous dessert, because it is sold and served just about everywhere in the state. Finding a captivating rendition, however, can be difficult. We say search no further than Bonefish Grill in Coral Gables, a "casual-upscale" seafood chain that proffers fresh fish dinners at affordable prices. Their sumptuous pies' crusts are traditional graham cracker, but with crunchy pecans; a dollop of freshly whipped cream luxuriates on top. Between those contrasting textures is a tall, pale cloud of tart, creamy custard — bigger and better than others of its ilk, and at $5.50 per hunky wedge, cheap.

Best Kibbe

Michael's Cafe

This Middle Eastern restaurant in Kendall is not a mirage. It was once a gas station next to the railroad tracks but has been transformed into an outdoor café that serves as an oasis for locals. There is live music almost every night and a vast assortment of ice-cold Middle Eastern beers. The large-screen TV sets are all tuned to Lebanese stations (in Arabic). You can get a hookah with flavored tobacco, and smoke while watching the live belly dancing Friday and Saturday nights. But best of all is the food, especially the kibbe, which costs $4.95 for two pieces. They make it fresh by combining crushed wheat with minced beef or lamb, sautéed onions, and pine nuts. The combination is then rolled into a ball and deep-fried, kind of like falafel. The kibbe platter comes with grape leaves, hummus, tabbouleh, lentil rice, and pita bread, and sells for $11.99. Wash it down with Michael's special Turkish coffee ($1.50), and forget about taking that trip to Israel.

Best Kosher Cookies

Taam Gan Eden

"Me want cookie!"

"Okayyy," says the big yellow bird standing in front of the huge glass case. "They have chocolate linzers, vanilla cookies with vanilla cream in the middle and white chocolate on top, black-and-white sandwich cookies draped in white and dark chocolates, lace cookies that will melt in your mouth ..."

"Me want cookie!"

"All right," mumbles the grumpy green trash-can-dweller, breathing heavily and laying a nice coat of steam on the out-of-reach confections. "Over here they have vanilla fingers with strawberry jelly, Chinese cookies, elephant ears, chocolate teardrops."

"Me want cookie!"

"Fine! Here's your damn chocolate chip cookie!"

"Me eat cookie!" growls the big, blue, hairy beast as crumbs tumble from his mouth and off his chest.

Best Last Meal on Earth

La Quebradita Taqueria

Fergus Henderson's last meal would consist of sea urchins, goat cheese, and dark butter chocolate ice cream (with Muscadet). Nobu Matsuhisa's not-surprising pick for a final feast includes a number of sushi selections capped by a cucumber roll. Daniel Boulud says he'd eat whatever Alain Ducasse would cook for him, and Gordon Ramsay would preface his eternity in Hell with a traditional English roast beef dinner with Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Evidently these well-regarded, well-heeled chefs lack romantic, Under the Volcano-type notions regarding finality: This is not the time for prissy or predictable fare, but a moment to savor the flavors of the earth before returning to it ourselves. That's why the humble, hearty Mexican food at La Quebradita Taqueria in Homestead is so fitting for a finale — more specifically, Quebradita's gordito ($3.95), a thick, fried tortilla bun bundled with pork, refried pinto beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream. And naturally salsa, chips, rice, beans, fried pork rinds (chicharrones), and a refreshing glass of rice-based horchata drink for $1.65. Plus a few Mexican beers ($3.50 a pop) to sort of take the edge off things. And perhaps a taco to go?

Best Late-Night Dining

Buena Vista Bistro

"Labor of love" is a cliché, but it's an accurate description of this new neighborhood eatery, owned by a charming May/December married couple: Callie Postel, who runs the front of the house, and her husband Claude (who had several restaurants in Quebec before relocating to Miami), who helms the kitchen, cooking up evocative French comfort food (plus a few Italian dishes) with a smile. Diners get huge portions of honest fare (starters such as rillettes du mans, a rustic pâté-like spread served with cornichons, Dijon mustard, and crusty bread; and full entrées including moist-centered roast salmon with ratatouille), at minuscule prices (starters $5 to $8, most entrées $8 to $14). But even better are the hours: seven days a week 11 a.m. to midnight. On weeknights, that's pretty late even for SoBe, and it's plenty late for midtown dining after catching a show at the performing arts center, a game at the arena, or some art exhibits on gallery night. This bistro fits the classic French definition: a convivial neighborhood place where folks can drop in for a glass of wine and a bite to eat any day at all hours.

Best Latin Market/Cafeteria

El Nuevo Siglo Supermarket

When it comes to Latin cafeterias, Miami takes a back seat to no American city. Heck, we probably have more of them than New York has McDonald's restaurants. And we should be thankful for this, especially for the gems of the genre such as El Nuevo Siglo Supermarket in Little Havana. The brightly illuminated, family-owned grocery store contains all the staples for Hispanic cooking, as well as a meat counter and a little Old World-style bakery that kicks out mean made-on-premises chorizo and an authentic Argentine empanada de carne (that's where the mom-and-pop owners come from). The cafeteria counter in back is lengthy. And the menu encompasses vaca frita, arroz con calamari, a peerless ropa vieja, and a huge churrasco steak, with sides, for just $8 a plate. The beef for these dishes, and for a wondrous pan con bistec, is cut and trimmed by the in-house butcher. Sorry, pero no se habla inglés aquí.

Best Macaroons

Alisa's Painted Bistro

These buttery, coconut-infused treats are nearly the size of hockey pucks. And they might be as heavy. Browned to perfection on the crisp outside, melt-in-your-mouth tender within, and dense with some sort of coconut-flavored lava, the rich mega-morsels sell for $1.85 each — dirt-cheap considering they are a meal in themselves. Make sure you have a glass of cold water or milk, or you might just explode from all of that concentrated sweet butteriness. The food counter, which also offers delicious cupcakes and cookies, shares space with Color Me Mine, where you can choose from more than 400 ceramic pieces to paint and fire up in the kiln. Trust us, you'll need something to do once that sugar rush hits. The coconut flakes will leave you chewing long after you've polished off the macaroons. And you will like it.

Best Mobile Sushi

Katana Restaurant

Like your fish fresh off the boat? Get it, quite literally, at Katana Restaurant on Normandy Isle. Walk through the glass front door, lit red with neon lights, and take a seat at the river.

Yes, the river. Instead of what Western tourists in Japan call a sushi-go-round, where sashimi and rolls ride a conveyor belt that winds by every seat in the restaurant, Katana opts for boats. After you settle at the bar and place a drink order (a large sake costs just $5.70), all that's left to do is wait for your dinner to float downstream. The dishes include eel, rainbow, and an assortment of tempura rolls. Like your fish raw? Try the tuna, white fish, and salmon sashimi. And for the brave (or just plain curious), there's a squid salad or visually striking egg-based surprises that leave a toasty feeling in your stomach.

And don't get distracted by the aggressive diners, Y-100 jams, or the sushi chef's unnaturally tall Rasta-style hat. You must keep track of the colors of your plates. They represent different prices, which are displayed on the restaurant's east wall. The cheapest one, which is green, costs $1.50. The most expensive, the black or gold plate, is $3.50. If you sample too many — or maybe overindulge in the wonderful variety of foreign beers — you might leave wishing you floated over to Mickey D's for some cheapo American fast food.

Best Mozzarella

Vito Volpe's Mozzarita

That "fresh" mozzarella you buy at Publix or gourmet markets is unquestionably worlds better than the standard rubbery, flavor-free stuff. But it's nothing compared to the cheese made by Vito Volpe, from Puglia (Italy's muzz capital), an importer of Italian artisan products who began selling his own totally homemade — and made fresh daily — mozzarella when he moved to Florida a bit more than a year ago. His simple and perfect Mozzarita ($8 per ball), one of the tastiest things to ever happen to cow's milk, was the sensation of this year's new Upper Eastside Green Market. And the newly addicted needn't fret now that market season is over; Vito's mozzarella is available year-round — along with his equally fresh ricotta, trendy cream-filled burrata, and scamorze (a drier aged mozzarella, ideal for pizzas) — at Casa Toscana Fine Foods and Wines (9840 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores 33138; 305-757-4454).

Best Muffins

Taste Bakery Cafe

Long ago, nutritionists ruined breakfast by telling us muffins have as much fat as double cheeseburgers. So head to Taste Bakery Café, where they don't steal any muff-a-licious joy by posting diet information. All you need to know is that their muffins are as big as two fists and baked daily. Selling for $2.89, varieties include pistachio, carrot-raisin, banana-nut, orange-cranberry, lemon-poppy, and blueberry. Don't be a spoiled sport and order sugar-free or fat-free options. The real deal is a thousand times better. Our favorite is the double mocha fudge, sliced in half, warmed on the grill, and drizzled with real, heart-clogging butter.

Best Natural Foods Restaurant

Juice & Java

Though "local" is all the rage now, there's still something to be said for food un-injected with high-fructose corn syrup, a.k.a. "having undergone little or no processing and containing no chemical additives," a.k.a., "natural." There's also a lot to be said for any natural-foods restaurant that features meat in addition to requisite hippie staples such as quinoa and tofu, and even more to be said if that place is also fast, clean, and well-located in both Aventura and Miami Beach. Juice & Java's menu rivals that of The Cheesecake Factory for the number of options, including breakfast wraps made with organic eggs ($7.95), lattés made from Lavazza beans ($3.10), and open-face melts with Monterey jack or soy cheese on white or whole-wheat pitas ($3.95). It's one of the few places in Miami-Dade County where you can get a healthful and good-tasting meal fast.

Best New Restaurant

Two Chefs Too

In 1997, two new things came to South Miami: a great restaurant (Two Chefs) and Danish people (Jan Jorgensen and Soren Bredahl (the restaurant's chef/owners). Basic, comfort-style New American cuisine, albeit with European touches and considerable flair, established the restaurant as a South Miami destination for nearby locals and far-away food aficionados. After some years, Bredahl returned to Denmark, but Two Chefs kept going strong. In 2008, two new things came to North Miami: Two Chefs Too and a nice couple from Phoenix (unrelated to the restaurant). Aforementioned food lovers no longer need to take an unpleasant drive in order to sample signature plates at sensible prices (main courses mostly under $30) — such as sweetly glazed barbecue meat loaf wrapped in bacon, flaky escargot potpie, and seven sumptuous soufflés. And the cheese selection here is as good as any around. Now with Two Chefs Two, the one-of-a-kind, one-chef Two Chefs has become two Two Chefs. Which is twice as good as one.

Best Nicaraguan Restaurant

Rincon Nica

Hialeah has a small but bustling Nicaraguan community that finds the comforts of its homeland at Rincón Nica, a homey restaurant just minutes away from the Palmetto Expressway's NW 103rd Street exit. The place is not overly decorated with Nicaraguan artifacts and knickknacks, like other Nica eateries throughout Miami-Dade, except for the oil painting of national poet Rubén Darío that greets patrons walking through the front door. In business since 1996, Rincón Nica is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, offering affordable and deliciously prepared food. For early risers, five bucks will score a plate with two eggs, choice of ham or bacon, and Nicaragua's signature dish: gallo pinto, a sautéed concoction of rice and red beans. Substitute a warm flour tortilla for toast and it's like you're waking up in Matagalpa, a city in the mountains of the country's continental divide between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Daily soups include typical broths such as black bean soup and mondongo (tripe soup) for $8 each. Other staples on the menu include nacatamal, repocheta, and vigoron for less than $5. And it goes without saying — but we'll say it anyway — that the meat entrées are absolutely delectable. We suggest the $15.75 puntas de filete a la jalapeño, a traditional dish in which three pieces of steak are served in a white creamy sauce bursting with jalapeños and onions.

Best Noodle Break

The Noodle Shop at O Asian Grill

The Noodle Shop is a restaurant within a restaurant, located in the foyer leading to O Asian Grill. Its small but exceptional menu of quick-to-prepare Asian favorites gives shoppers and bar hoppers a much-needed carb recharge in the middle of their activities. Sit at the counter and watch the chef prepare your meal — much like at a sushi bar. He'll stir-fry classics such as the pad thai or yakisoba (both $10.95) or serve you chilled noodles (also $10.95). If it's one of those rare cold days, order the ramen or soba noodle soup for $8. The shop also offers dumplings, springs rolls, and Asiatic-influenced salads for $5 to $10. It's a very different experience if you are accustomed to Miami restaurants — fun but classy at the same time. It's located on the east end of Lincoln, just off the beaten path from the pedestrian mall.

Best Outdoor Dining

Grass

Grass is a veritable Garden of Eatin'. The carpet is a lush lawn. The walls are covered in climbing vines. There is bamboo, bonsai, all manner of bushes, trees, and plants, as well as a beautiful bar, behind which is a wall of illuminated apothecary jars flush with vivid flora. A thatched, tiki-style roof covers most of the tables; stars provide a canopy for the rest. The cuisine, a contemporary melding of American and Asian, lends its own rich, natural notes (as for the other green — most entrées are under $30). The surroundings are so lovely, so verdant, so Miami that once you're embedded in one of the cushy white sofas, you're not going to want to leave. That's all right, too, because this Design District hotspot stays open late. Have another saketini.

Best Part-Time Restaurant

Dinner in Paradise

Three years ago, Gabriele Marewski of Paradise Farms joined chef Michael Schwartz to stage a series of organic dinners forged from products grown in South Florida. The setting is outdoors amid Paradise Farms' five acres of avocados, microgreens, heirloom tomatoes, and tropical fruits. Dinners are limited to 60 guests and encompass a cocktail reception, farm tour, and six courses — prepared by Miami's top chefs — paired with complementary wines. Last season's culinary participants included Govind Armstrong, Clay Conley, Allen Susser, Tim Andriola, Sean Brasel, Giancarla Bodoni, Michael Bloise, and Mr. Schwartz. The cost per person is $150 (the money goes to eco-conscious charities), but you'll have to wait a bit before you get to break bread under the stars: The dinners take place only from early December through late April.

Best Persian Fast Food

Rice House of Kabob

Have you been looking for a fresh, fast Persian for lunch? Well, you'll have to provide your own exotic date here, but if you're craving delicious food at attractive prices, Rice House of Kabob is a much shorter hop than a nonstop flight to Tehran. This unassuming little chain dishes out assorted Persian favorites in a sparse, relaxed atmosphere. Kebabs served on polo rice with a grilled tomato accompaniment are the national dish of Iran. At Rice House, they cost between $9 and $13 a plate and are cooked when you order them, so they arrive as fresh as you can get anywhere else. You also have the option of having your kebabs served on a flatbread wrap. Rice lovers should take advantage of the zereshk, adas, or bhagali at $6 each, while vegetarians have several options from $3 to $8, including the usual favorites borrowed from Mediterranean cuisine. The only drawback is that the addictive Persian khoreshs (stews) aren't on the menu, but maybe with a little pleading, we can persuade the chef to bring the water to a boil.

One might feel intimidated upon inspecting the overwhelming, 12-page bilingual menu at this family-operated Vietnamese restaurant. But fear not. Little Saigon has the best pho you'll ever wave a chopstick at. Pho (pronounced fuh) is a traditional Vietnamese rice noodle soup that is often served in a clear beef broth and garnished with bean sprouts, scallions, and fresh herbs such as Thai basil and cilantro. Variations range from beef tenderloin to fish balls to lemongrass to mustard greens. This place has about 15 pho to choose from, all different in taste yet similar in outcome. Patrons have been known to slurp down a bowl until the soup's last drop — a requirement in some Asian cultures. So slurp as much as you want, and belly willing, try all the different pho. One thing is for sure: The average price for a pho dish is $6. That leaves enough money for you to come back pho more.

Best Pizza Joint

Primo Pizza

Vinnie Oreganata is a man of habit, and none as regular as his Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday jaunts to Primo Pizza for dinner. When people ask Vinnie why not Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, he replies, "That would be crazy." Vinnie is a little displaced — you can take the kid out of Brooklyn and so forth. Primo, located on First Street just west of Collins Avenue in South Beach, serves the type of slice Vinnie grew up eating, the sort sold under nearly every elevated subway station in his home borough. And like those joints, it is open late (until 5 a.m. weekends). It isn't that he misses good pizza more than family and friends, but rather that the slightly floppy crust, mild layering of sweet tomato sauce, and thin but dense blanket of mozzarella make him think of family and friends. Primo also sells a plush cheese calzone and doughy rolls filled with mozzarella, marinara, and choice of meatballs, eggplant, chicken, broccoli, sausage, and steak with peppers. The pizzas come with choice of 31 toppings, including pineapple, jalapeños, and sun-dried tomatoes, but folks don't go for that crap back where Vinnie comes from. He gets the "regular": cheese, sauce, and a scattering of fresh basil. Paying just $3 a slice and only $12.95 per pie, Vinnie can fill his belly with Miami's tastiest pizza and at the same time hail an imaginary cab ride back to memories of home.

Best Place to Dine Alone

Blue Sea

Dining alone is one of life's underrated pleasures. Eat quickly; eat slowly. Gawk at other diners; bring a book. Have a glass of wine; have six. Every choice is sweetly your own, including the most important: Which restaurant? Blue Sea works on all sorts of levels. First, the food, an innovative array of sparkling fresh sushi presented with artistic flair (artists are said to eat by themselves quite often). Appetizers include a spicy lobster martini ($25) and ceviche of diver scallops with mango, ginger, and lime ($14). Nigiri kick bass with selections such as the roe from salmon, uni, and flying fish ($7). Maki and jumbo maki rolls are available, as is pressed oshi — don't miss the salmon and tuna with mango jelly. Sushi sauces excel: tamari, ponzu, asam manis, peanut, eel, and kim chee. Rolls are under $20, but Blue Sea is not cheap — especially if you delve into the caviar offerings. But that's another beauty of solo dinners — you pay for only one. Then there is the setup to consider. Blue Sea consists of one long communal table that juts at an angle from the sushi bar to the cusp of the Delano's still-happening-after-all-these-years lobby scene. Talk about gawk-worthy! Plus, while in regular restaurants it is generally considered rude to lean over to people seated at the next table and introduce yourself, it is common practice at communal tables, which are conducive to conversation among those who don't know each other. Even more so after imbibing some of the singular sake selections. Maybe you will make a friend. Maybe not. Either way, pristine sushi is a given.

Best Portuguese Restaurant

Coimbra

It would be wrong to say Portuguese cuisine rests solely on its treatment of salt cod, or bacalhau, but it's hard not to admire the culinary alchemy that transforms something resembling salted drywall into one of the tastiest things you can put in your mouth. Which is one reason it's hard not to admire Coimbra, where a clientele ranging from young couples to extended families chows down on airy, crisp salt cod fritters (85 cents each) and lusty sautées of the star protein with potatoes, olives, hard-cooked eggs, and lots of good, fruity olive oil ($15.95). There's plenty more to like too, and it would be wrong if you didn't check it all out.

Best Predinner Bread

OLA at Sanctuary

Do not eat the single and singular meatball-size sphere of pan d'bono that gets plunked upon your bread plate at OLA. Oh no. Made with yuca flour, mozzarella cheese, sugar, and milk, this ungodly delicious little ball will cause you to crane your neck to seek the waiter who traipses through the dining room with a basket of it fresh from the oven. After snagging a second one, you will be thinking of the third — and after the third, you will be too full to fully savor the Nuevo Latino flavors that jump from the hamachi ceviche, plantain-crusted mahi-mahi, and tenderloin churrasco — and you will no doubt have to bypass the signature chocolate cigar for dessert. That would be a shame. So don't even think of trying the pan d'bono. You'll just have to take our word that it's out-of-this-world.

Best Prepared Foods

Joanna's Marketplace

Early each morning, when most of us are still asleep, the crew of Joanna's Marketplace is in the kitchen, slicing, dicing, grilling, poaching, broiling, and sautéing all manner of fresh comestibles. Little bits of smoked ham hocks are being put aside for split-pea soup; tomatoes are simmering into a bisque — two different soups are offered each day in three sizes ($3.50, $4.25, $6.95). Cooks debone chicken breasts that will later be bathed in Marsala sauce or stuffed with prosciutto, sage, and cheese for saltimbocca (the menu changes daily). The lamb being cut up will become moussaka; the beef tips will later be smothered in charred tomato sauce. Any hot entrée comes with your choice of a protein and two side dishes for $10.95. The former might be creamed spinach or ratatouille, the sides could be potato latke or wild rice pilaf, but the style of cuisine is always a mix of American and international classics cooked in hearty fashion. Sandwiches, salads, and a bounty of fresh-baked breads are on hand as well. Joanna's opens daily at 7 a.m. and stays open until 7:30 p.m. (6 p.m. Sundays). Incentive for getting there early is a Belgian-chocolate-filled almond croissant with a cup of frothy cappuccino.

Best Quesadilla

Mari-Nalli

Sometimes it's annoying to pay for something you could easily make yourself. But Mari-Nalli takes a bit of the edge off. At this place, you can get steak, chicken, vegetarian, and shrimp quesadillas. They cost between $3.25 and $4.60. There are also salads for $6.95. Order yourself a meal and then try some of the microbrewed beer. You'll forget you were ever annoyed. About anything.

There is no counter with rickety stools nor any apron-clad dude shucking clams. Kobe Club, Jeffrey Chodorow's Wagyu steak house adjacent to China Grill, is too swank for that. The intimate 52-seat room is darkly, richly swathed in rich woods, leather, and stone; 2,000 swords dangle from the ceiling. And the raw bar is only a menu category. Stone crabs, Alaskan king crab legs ($18/apiece), littleneck clams ($11/half-dozen), chilled 2.5-pound lobsters ($79), and shrimp the size of potatoes ($7/each) compose the limited but luxe lineup, along with a changing selection of East and West Coast oysters ($16-$18/half-dozen) — not only Malpeques and Kumamotos but also species with names that sound like rock bands, such as Hood Canal and Beau Soleil. Classic accompaniments are given an Asian twist — cocktail sauce spiked with freshly grated wasabi; mignonette made with aged rice wine vinegar. Sesame-mustard miso isn't classic, but the oysters don't know that and seem to pair well with the dip. Sake-cured salmon, tuna tartare, and iced hamachi with jalapeño and pineapple are available for those who like their raw fish fancy. Wagyu steaks from America, Australia, and Japan constitute a mighty impressive second act.

Best Restaurant Décor

Ortanique on the Mile

When Orson Welles described style as being "unique for yourself yet identifiable to others," he could have been talking about Ortanique. Chef Cindy Hutson's Caribbean-based "cuisine of the sun" is bright enough to delight in a coal mine, but achieves optimum taste when in harmony with the warm and vivid sunset colors, flowing gauze curtains, mahogany woods, and hand-painted motifs of fruits and flowers gracing the 120-seat room (plus terraced outdoor garden). The buoyant environment pairs with the light, happy food like mango with champagne — meaning if these walls could eat, they would have Caribbean bouillabaisse, Bahamian black grouper with orange liqueur sauce, and a jerked pork chop with rum-guava glaze.

Best Restaurant for a Power Lunch

PrimeBlue Grille

Since opening almost a year ago, Prime Blue Grille has attracted a steady stream of clientele hungry for veal chops, short ribs, rack of lamb, and seven cuts of steak seared upon an 1,800-degree hickory-burning grill. Even more types of seafood are available, from yellowfin tuna to whole branzino to wild Alaskan king salmon — also freshly grilled. Eighteen side dishes — roasted Brussels sprouts, truffled mash, prosciutto and fontina potato gratin — make decisions agonizing. Flatbread pizzas are popular, too, served sizzling from an oak-fired oven. In other words, Prime Blue appeals to all downtown diners for lunch and dinner, and to those who want their steak without the hormones: Only Brandt corn-fed, all-natural prime beef is used. All seafood is caught wild. (Steaks run $23 to $38, seafoods swim in the upper $20 to lower $30 stream). And as for those omnipotent Miami businesspeople, general manager Jamie Zambrana says the restaurant's private dining rooms "are used almost every day for power lunch meetings and closing multimillion- and billion-dollar business deals." You know, for the really high-priced escort services.

Best Restaurant for an Anniversary

The Village Chalet

The kids can be snotty, the dog smelly, and weekends sexless, but there's still a lot of love to celebrate. The Village Chalet is a charming spot to remember the day you got hitched, kissed, or whatever fell between. Tucked into historic Cauley Square off South Dixie Highway, the restaurant feels like an Old Florida getaway and is surrounded by banyan trees a-twinkle in white lights. Try to nab a spot on the porch to enjoy your cozy dinner for two (at moderate prices from $11 to $14 for dishes such as chicken Marsala and grouper). It's so romantic you'll hope the kids are sleeping soundly upon your return home.

Best Restaurant for Celebrity-Watching

DeVito South Beach

If you want to see how the other half lives, or at least eats, what place could be better than a restaurant owned by a genuine celebrity in the most celebrity-obsessed burg in the nation? Michael Caine, Andy Garcia, Pat Riley, and Eva Longoria are just a few of the A-listers who've slipped into Danny DeVito's over-the-top, Murano-glass-chandelier-and-white-leather-banquette-pimped space, located (where else?) on Ocean Drive. You might want to nurse a beer at the bar, though, unless your credit card can carry the weight of $27 shrimp appetizers and a "Global Wagyu Trio" that checks in at a celestial $295.

Best Restaurant for Gluttons

Pescecane

A big nugget of Parmigiano-Reggiano, spicy slices of fried zucchini, bruschetta, Italian bread, focaccia crisps. Flutes of Prosecco. The menu (voluminous, plus about 30 verbally recited specials). A bowl of pasta e fagioli and a trio of breaded, garlicky shrimp, each the size of a lobster. Endive salad — a palate-cleanser of sorts. A magnum of Barolo. Pillows of porcini ravioli in a champagne-black truffle cream sauce. Whole salt-crusted branzino deboned tableside and accented with olive oil and lemon. With potatoes, succulently roasted in garlic and sage, on the side. No. Make that veal saltimbocca with fettuccine Alfredo alongside. Hell, make it a double-cut veal chop, seared on the grill. With the roast potatoes. An order of wild salmon, too, to get something of a surf-and-turf going. Tiramisu for dessert. And a trifle of flourless chocolate cake. With sabayon sauce. Cappuccino, of course. A glass of complimentary homemade vin santo dessert wine. The check (pastas $16 to $34, entrées $20 to $45). An after-dinner mint? Why not?

Best Restaurant for Intimate Conversation

North One 10

Monday: "You don't love me anymore!" he says to his wife with a fury, between bites of North One 10's signature pan-seared crabcake with whole-grain mustard aioli and apple-calabaza salad ($16).

"I haven't loved you for a long time," she replies matter-of-factly, before commenting on the earthy notes of her 2006 Erath Pinot Noir ($46), savvily selected by general manager Dale LoSasso (chef Dewey's wife) from the eclectic wine list. "I will always love Pinot Noir, though," she says, her voice suddenly cheery.

Thursday: "I adore the cozy ambiance here," she observes, noting the gently curved walls with stained-glass treatments, tin ceiling, and soft amber glow. "And the waitstaff does everything it needs to without intruding on, say, sensitive conversations. As for this cornmeal-crusted wahoo with spinach wasabi salad and brown caper butter ($19) — I guess it's just something I'll never grow tired of."

"I don't give a damn about the décor," he replies with a snarl, but then tastes the pomegranate barbecue double-cut pork chop with roasted purple potatoes, root vegetable slaw, and Indonesian almonds (only $19!) — what LoSasso calls "comfort food with an edge" — and totally forgets what they were talking about.

She leans over and takes a forkful from his plate while flashing that alluringly sly smile of hers.

Maybe she still loves me after all, he thinks, his heart suddenly swelled with hope.

Saturday: "So you like the place, huh?" is about all he can think to say while immersed in his dessert of red-wine-roasted pears with ginger sabayon cream sauce ($7). "My ex-wife liked it too. We were divorced yesterday."

"Of course I like the place. Everyone does. The food, service, and wines are second-to-none. And I adore the décor. Now stop being so mopey and pass the sugar," his escort replies.

Best Restaurant in a Shopping Mall

Pilar

Scott Fredel opened this stylish contemporary American bistro in Aventura's sprawling Promenade Shops to show that white-tablecloth dining didn't have to come at white-knuckle prices. Four years later, he's made his point and then some. Sophisticated dishes such as slow-roasted salmon with truffled red potato salad and coarse-grained mustard sauce come in at a fistful of dollars less than at the tony South Beach eateries where Fredel used to cook, with all but a handful costing $20 or less. And the benefits of eating in a mall restaurant that doesn't look or act anything like a mall restaurant? Priceless.

Best Restaurant in a Wine Bar

Copas y Tapas

Most wine bars could just as easily be called whine bars, as in: "How come there's nothing decent to eat here to go along with all the great wine?" Well, your sniveling pleas have been answered at this cozy, comfy Coral Gables wine shop/tapas bar. To go along with more than 100 bottles of (all Spanish) wine are wickedly flavorful small plates of gambas al ajillo ($9.95), zippy little piquillo peppers stuffed with a silken purée of bacalao and potato ($6.95), and one of the best Spanish tortillas in town ($4.95). So eat, drink, enjoy. And stop your whining.

Best Restaurant in Coconut Grove

Ideas Restaurant

We could start by making a joke at the expense of Coconut Grove's grim dining scene — such as how choosing the best restaurant in this area is like selecting the best Jewish football star. But that would be needlessly snarky. Besides, since Ideas Restaurant opened here in late 2006, the Grove has itself a star establishment to build upon. The chef, Alvaro Beade, hails from the Castilla y León region of Spain, and his cooking style is clean, vibrantly flavored, and highly innovative. Seafoods such as cuttlefish, lubina, and dorada (the last crusted in sea salt) are shipped from his country's Mediterranean coast, which makes Ideas ideal for a sumptuous fish dinner. Yet there is so much more to try, for no other Spanish restaurant in town serves dishes such as consommé of Serrano ham, carpaccio of king prawn, veal cheeks braised in red wine, and confit of suckling baby pig (entrées are in the $28 to $48 price range).The selection of wines is as distinctive as the cuisine, from the Verdejo whites of Rueda to the robust reds of Ribera del Duero. With a restaurant this fine in Coconut Grove, can an NFL quarterback named Moishe Schwartz be far behind?

Best Restaurant in South Beach

Sardinia Enoteca

Ever since Norman Van Aken copped our award for Best Restaurant in Coral Gables for 10 years straight, there has been an aversion to repeating winners in the same category. It's so lazy. So boring. So predictable. But when an establishment is as singularly rewarding as Sardinia, there really isn't much choice in the matter. Few restaurants re-create the ambiance and cuisine of another country as authentically, and none has chosen a more gastronomically interesting nation. Peerless antipasti platters are assembled from each diner's choice of imported meats, cheeses, roasted vegetables, and other tasty tidbits such as Castelvetrano olives tossed with wild fennel flowers. The Sardinian wines are unique, the Italian wines extensive. Whole octopus, rib eye steaks, and suckling pigs get smokily roasted in a roaring wood-fired oven, branzino crusted in sea salt, lamb and rabbit braised into stew (entrées run $26 to $38). Pastas, almost all under $20, include distinctive cuts such as paccheri and malloreddus, and hearty garnishings such as wild boar sausage and rabbit ragout. Ambiance and service, too, are a notch above the rest, and the hours are easy to remember: noon to midnight seven days a week. Could Norman's record be in jeopardy?

Best Restaurant in South Miami-Dade

Cafe Pastis

Houdini would have been hard-pressed to match the magical act of Marseille-born, Paris-trained chef Philippe Jaccquet, who somehow produces a full menu worth of authentic Southern French bistro cuisine from a kitchen smaller than Richard Simmons' wardrobe closet. The cramped dining room is barely larger, but brightened with Gallic knickknacks and posters hanging from vibrantly colored walls. A favorite is the mussels and frites, and also steak frites — heck, we really like the frites, crisply culled from fresh potatoes and served in paper-lined tins. Other lunch and dinner specialties hit the spot in flavorful no-frills fashion, from escargots to bouillabaisse to steak in peppercorn sauce; from duck pâté with fig tapenade to lamb shank roasted in orange and thyme (appetizers average $10 to $15, main courses $11 to $21). It doesn't take sleight of hand to conjure an honest country meal here — except on Sundays, when Pastis is closed.

Best Restaurant to Keep Warm on a Chilly Night

Con Tutto

During those uncommon evenings when there's a winter bite in the air, dining outdoors at Con Tutto can still feel like summer. The secret is to nab one of the outdoor tables closest to the grill, which is ensconced in a blazing brick furnace. As traditional parrillada components sizzle on the parrilla (flank and skirt steaks, sweetbreads, sausages, kidneys, and so forth), flames intermittently erupt and billows of smoke enshroud the diners. Crusty flautas; charred, thick-crust pizzas; and mile-high chivitos are also praiseworthy at this Uruguayan hole-in-the-wall on Calle Ocho. Of course on most Miami nights, it is advisable to seek those seats in Con Tutto's intimate alleyway courtyard that are farthest from the grill — although it depends on your preferred dining climate. People disagree about the merits of hot and cold weather all the time, but Con Tutto's prices are indubitably decent — the parrillada for one is $14.99, for two only $22.99. Everything else costs less. That's hot. And it's cool.

Best Restaurant When Someone Else Pays

Il Gabbiano

The chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano that gets plunked upon your plate is complimentary. So are toasts piled with bright bruschetta, a plate of garlic-fried zucchini slices, and sourdough bread with olive oil. At the end of the meal, glasses of limoncello are poured — free of charge. Everything else at Il Gabbiano is priced sky-high, which also describes the quality of hearty New York-style Italian fare. Take, for instance, the pastas, homemade by an Italian pasta chef who worked with the owners during their decades-long success running Il Mulino in New York City — the porcini ravioli bathed in champagne sauce costs $38, but, as the getting-old cliché goes, the taste is priceless. Same standards apply to grilled calamari ($19), osso buco Milanese ($42), grilled branzino ($48), and a textbook tiramisu ($12). There are 200 wines and outdoor seating with a gorgeous vista of Biscayne Bay. Yes, it is all so very expensive, but only if you pay. The trick is to maneuver things so that someone else does (although try to avoid doing so on a Sunday — when Gabbiano is closed).

Best Restaurant When You're Paying

Dolores but You Can Call Me Lolita

This newcomer to the Miami dining scene is located on South Miami Avenue near downtown, but you can call it the old Firehouse Four building. The two-level restaurant is stylishly decorated, but you can call it duplex chic. For a prix-fixe charge of either $18 or $23, diners begin with a choice among some 15 soups, salads, and appetizers, plus an entrée selected from a listing under each price range, but you can call it a clever and appealing menu. Starters include watercress salad with marinated chicken and Serrano ham, duck and cheese quesadillas, and Vietnamese salmon egg rolls, but you can call them yummy. Eighteen-dollar dinners encompass pork tenderloin, short rib ravioli, and linguine with pesto and shrimp, and $23 gets you grilled Picanha steak, veal churrasco, or Kobe beef burgers, but you can call it all a great deal either way. A dozen wines are poured by the glass for $10 and under, and desserts such as mango carpaccio and coconut crème brûlée are $2.50 each, but you can call the person to whom you owe a dinner, invite him or her to Dolores but You Can Call Me Lolita, and call it money and an evening well spent.

Best Restaurants to Bite the Dust

Norman's and Pacific Time

David Bouley Evolution. Johnny V South Beach. Mark's South Beach. Restaurant Brana. Afterglo. Cafeteria. Duo. Frankie's Big City Grill. Karu & Y. The list of this past year's local restaurant victims is as lengthy as a dessert menu at The Cheesecake Factory. The closings that shocked this town most, though, were clearly Norman's and Pacific Time — two of only a few true Miami landmark dining establishments. Norman Van Aken's eponymous restaurant showcased his New World cuisine, a brilliant blend of Caribbean and South Florida ingredients. When Norman's opened in 1995, it became a nationally recognized oasis for cutting-edge contemporary American cooking; cookbooks and fame followed. Jonathan Eisman was likewise a pioneer, in more than one way. He was the first to recognize Lincoln Road's potential — hard to believe that in 1993 his Pacific Time was the pedestrian mall's only real dining option. And he was an early passenger on the Pan-Asian express, certainly the first in these parts to pair seafood with a fusion of East/West flavorings. Alas, two of our finest have gone, but Van Aken is still going strong with his Norman's at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, and Eisman is undoubtedly getting set to jump ahead of the curve once again.

Best Rib Sandwich

Levi's BBQ

On Fridays and Saturdays, a dirt parking lot behind a South Miami church comes alive with folks in search of Levi Kelly's succulent ribs. For $8 he'll give you a quarter rack of the crispiest, slow-roasted pork ribs anyone's ever tasted. If you like, he'll lay them on top of two pieces of white bread and slather them with delicious sauce. You'll spend about 45 minutes eating them. Or at least you'll want it to take that long. They're that good. So pull up a chair and get to know the man. Across the street, pick-up games of dice, poker, and dominoes run all night. But come during the day: You'll want to watch the children and families who pass through Kelly's little blue tent.

Best Roti/North

LC's Roti

Okay, there's no air conditioning, and random dancehall concert posters adorn the walls. But LC's Roti is the spot for the softest, freshest, and yummiest roti in North Dade. Located in a Caribbean strip mall off Stage Road 441 in Miami Gardens (see Best Jamaican Patty), the place regularly boasts a line come dinnertime. From homemade chickpeas and potatoes to juicy jerk chicken to conch and shrimp or even duck, have whatever you desire. You can even watch head chef and owner Elsie roll you up a big ol' fatty. You know you got yourself a good and authentic roti when dust of grounded-up dahl (yellow split pea) comes flying out from the bread's inner layers with every bite. Make sure to wipe your mouth, because dahl tends to leave you with a yellow moustache. And don't forget to come hungry. One of LC's Trinidadian burritos can last you days!

Best Roti/South

Caribbean Delite

The treatment an American customer will receive in a typical Trinidadian restaurant in Miami is quite similar to that on the island. Trinis don't make a fuss over strangers. The oil-rich island doesn't need your tourist money, and the natives aren't falling all over themselves to lick your toenails. You'll notice that vibe at Caribbean Delite. It's friendly indifference. Nobody's trying to show you a menu, teach you how to order, or even pronounce the names of the exotic-sounding foods. "What's roti? What's the difference between paratha and dhalpurie?" you might hear a Yank wonder. There may or may not be a response from the store owner, so allow us to tell you how to pronounce them and what they are. Say roh-tee. Pah-rah-tah. Dal-poo-ree.

Roti is Trini soul food — curried meats reveal the Indo-Caribbean influence, although it isn't a traditionally East Indian thing. It's beloved throughout the West Indies, but based primarily in Trinidad. Picture a soft-as-a-baby's-blanket flatbread wrapped around chunks of curried meat and veggies. Yum. Roti is the name of the soft flatbread as well as the meal. At Caribbean Delite, you can order dhalpurie, which has a thin skin that reveals a sprinkling of dried chickpeas. Paratha (also known as buss-up-shut — "bust-up shirt" — for its torn, clothlike appearance) is served separately in a heavy Styrofoam box.; you do the rippin', dippin', and curry-wrappin' yourself with your bare hands. Oh yeah, roti is a food you devour eagerly with both hands, so leave your prissy American manners and expectations behind. Get the boneless chicken meal for $7.76, and be prepared to be full all day.

Best Sandwich Shop

Pineapple Blossom Tea Room

For reasons that elude all logic, some foods just taste better when someone else makes them. Tea sandwiches are definitely in that category, possibly because the whole idea of afternoon tea should be supremely relaxed indulgence, not something one has to work for. Who has the patience to cut off all that crust? Frances Brown, chef/owner of this cheery establishment — where teatime is anytime — does. And the savory salmon, chicken, and cucumber-filled triangles that come with both her English or Caribbean-style full teas (which also include flaky scones with cream and jam, a variety of little pastries, and choice of 30 teas: $15 to $18) are the epitome of civilized elegance. That said, the unique wraps are its signature sandwiches. The fresh fillings vary with the seasons but always feature combinations of ingredients that are both unusual and sumptuous, raised to heavenly heights by impeccably made spreads: Caribbean shrimp or lobster salad with avocado and tropical salsa ($9.95); juicy grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, scallions, and Gorgonzola chunks, with subtly sweet/sour dressing ($8.50); smoked salmon with cukes, red onion, and beautifully balanced, zesty yet rich wasabi crème frâiche ($8.75). Flavorful garnishes such as fig chutney, spiced curry dressing, and succulent black olive tapenade make even vegetarian sandwiches shine.

Best Seafood Restaurant

Maison d'Azur

Ten reasons why Maison d'Azur is the catch of the year:

1. Whelks and periwinkles, which are so unique in these parts they really should count as two reasons. The former are conchlike in texture, the "winkles" teeny and sweet.

2. It is located in the Anglers Resort, which in the Thirties was one of South Beach's first Mediterranean-revival hotels and today is as stunning and romantic a setting for dinner as one could hope to find.

3. DJ Bruno Saläun from Saint-Tropez. Does your favorite fish joint have a DJ? From Saint-Tropez? Didn't think so.

4. Dover sole, John Dory, Tasmanian ocean trout, rouget, sardines, and all manner of Mediterranean seafood specialties (swimming a wide price range of $32 to $72, with some rarities costing more).

5. Seven sauces to choose from to accompany your fish.

6. The big three caviars, from $195 to $450 an ounce.

7. Shellfish platters plied with prawns, crab legs, oysters, champagne/caviar shooters, and langoustines imported from Brittany (six for $65).

8. Soupe de poisson Marseillaise, a saffron-scented fish chowder that alone is worth dining here for.

9. A flawless steak frites with béarnaise — it should be noted that Maison is referred to as a seafood brasserie.

10. Seventy-five distinctive wines and champagnes, suave service, and the creamiest crème brûlée in town.

Best Service in a Restaurant

Pascal's on Ponce

Phyllis Richman abhors restaurants that provide "service that isn't really a service, such as by pouring your water every time you take a sip." Robert Sietsema bemoans "the frequent difficulty of getting the check," while Gael Greene's main gripe concerns waiters asking, "Are you still picking at that?" Restaurant critics and diners frequently express all kinds of beefs regarding service, so when a dining establishment such as Pascal's on Ponce avoids the aforementioned plethora of pitfalls, it is worth taking notice. Not only is chef/owner Pascal Oudin's contemporary French cuisine peerless, but also his team of professional waiters satisfies their customers' every service need in seamless, silent fashion. "A great restaurant," according to food writer Arthur Schwartz, "is a place that makes you think that you're being treated as well as one of the regular customers." Pascal's on Ponce is just such as place.

Best Signature Drink

Trumptini at Trump International Beach Resort

You don't have to be a real estate mogul or a reality TV star to get everything you desire in a cocktail. Nor is notoriety or a vicious comb-over a prerequisite. You can walk into Neomi's Grill at the chic Trump International Beach Resort and order a Trumptini, and the bartender will serve you a buzz, a jolt of energy, and a t-shape slice of lemon all in one glass. The flavors are semisweet and might remind you of a cosmopolitan, but once you taste the Citron, Absolut Mandarin, Absolut Peach, and Wet Mango power drink alongside the essential cranberry juice, you'll know the ladies of Sex and the City never had this libation. And it goes for only $11.57 after taxes. Cheers.

Best Smoothie

Lemon Fizz

"Thinking of Miami, the first thing that comes to mind is summer/beach and of course a great body figure." So says the website of this family-run Middle Eastern café, and if your priority is indeed a great figure, the signature Lemon Fizz (made with oranges, bananas, pineapples, mangos, apples, strawberries, other seasonal berries ... everything except lemons) is the nothing-but-fruit smoothie that'll get you there. But there's no legal definition of smoothie; tradition, since the first smoothie was created in California around 1940, dictates only that the drinks be based on fresh fruit, liquefied, and whipped in a blender. By that standard, even this café's lightest juice — a frothy mix of lemon and mint — is a smoothie. The fruit shakes here run the gamut from healthful (OJ, strawberries, and hazelnuts) to sinful (white grapes with milk and vanilla ice cream), but almost all are inventive. And there are also fruit-free chocolate or vanilla frappés for folks who'd rather forget the figure.

Best Sorbet

Mango Sorbet at DiLido Beach Club

A magical nanny once said, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," but if she were our wet nurse, we'd have to ask what we could eat a spoonful of to make our weight go down. Or maybe we'd inquire about a dessert that's tasty without wreaking havoc on our teeth and vital organs — because that's what refined sugars are doing to us as we scarf down that Snickers bar. The answer is the DiLido Beach Club's mango sorbet, a confection made with natural ingredients that your body is well versed in digesting. Neither you nor your nutritionist will argue with the simple recipe of very ripe mangos, organic honey, lime, and a bit of salt. Created by chef de cuisine, a.k.a. the hot chef of our dreams, Jeff McInnis, this sorbet is one you can feel good about shoving down your throat. Or you can just head to the Ritz-Carlton's chic oceanfront restaurant, shell out five bucks, and eat it spoonful by delicious spoonful. Oh, and the strawberry, coconut, apricot, lemon, and orange varieties will do your body just as much good.

Best Soul Food Restaurant

Mahogany Grille

Miami's hip-hop fans are quick to identify our city as part of the "Dirty South." Musically, perhaps there's an argument to be made. But when it comes to cuisine, Miami may as well be North Dakota. It's practically impossible to find a decent soul food joint in these parts. We're talking real soul food — not one of those so-called American cuisine joints that just throws on their menus some ribs and mac 'n' cheese drizzled with truffle oil or baked in balls studded with weird chunks of jalapeños. A real down-home soul food joint has got to have barbecue. It's got to have real macaroni and cheese. And it also should have grits, collard greens, and candied yams. Plus it'd be really nice if the joint weren't a hole-in-the-wall; just because the place is offering down-home cookin' doesn't mean the décor can't be elegant. Mahogany Grille has all of that and then some. The chefs here go above and beyond, offering regional fixings such as Southern fried chicken and waffles (served with a generous portion of sweet potato fries), as well as plenty of jerk recipes, conch fritters, and oxtail stew for island transplants looking for the kind of food mama used to make. And it's affordable. The priciest item on the menu is the $32 rib eye. As the name implies, Mahogany's atmosphere is plush, dark, warm, and inviting. The dessert menu is to die for — any first-time visitor shouldn't miss the butter sweet potato pecan cheesecake. It's as rich, sweet, and decadent as you'd imagine.

Best Spanish Restaurant

Delicias de la Espana

Ten Reasons why Delicias is better than the rest:

10. Quaint, low-key tearoom setting.

9. Spanish-style breakfasts are served, as well as lunch, dinner, and chocolate con churros for merienda (afternoon snack).

8. Dining room leads to Delicias's Spanish import market (both opened in 1997 and seem to expand every few years), which sells thousands of items such as hams, cheeses, sausages, wines, perfumes, ceramics, and a wide array of paella pans.

7. Fresh fish flown in from Spain's Cantabric Sea twice a week.

6. Fabiano Asturiana, a meat-and-bean specialty from Asturia, Spain (native land of husband/wife owners Ernesto Llerandi and Isabel Miranda).

5. Gazpacho andaluz, garlic-laden clams, and peppers stuffed with bacalao and rice, each under $10.

4. Small tray of luxurious Ibérico ham ($25).

3. Large tray of luxurious Ibérico ham ($45).

2. Pastry cases filled with homemade charlottes, tarts, cakes, soufflés, petits fours, truffles — plenty of choices to accompany a steamy café con leche.

1. Monkfish in garlic sauce ($25) and lubina a la plancha (griddled sea bass, $25), langostinos a la plancha (griddled king prawns, $30), served with garlicky roasted potatoes. That's about half what it would cost in your favorite Spanish restaurant.

Best Steak House

Bourbon Steak

Maine lobster, spice-poached prawns, stone crabs, East and West Coast oysters, littleneck clams, and complete caviar service. That's the raw bar. Lobster, crab, foie gras, and American Kobe beef compose some of the appetizers — each luxe item offered three ways. Such as lobster-bacon-and-shiso-wrapped fritters with yuzu crème fraîche, or butter-poached lobster with chanterelles and corn pudding crêpe, or lobster grilled cheese croutons atop heirloom tomato soup. "Michael's Classics" include whole-fried organic chicken, Kobe burgers, and tapioca-crusted yellowtail snapper. Sides? How about the signature trio of duck-fat fries? Yes, that's fries fried in duck fat. Let's take a breath before getting to the steaks. This is a steak house, after all. An acclaimed steak house, in fact, that celebrated West Coast chef Michael Mina opened in The Fairmont Turnberry Resort this past year. There are all-natural certified Angus beef steaks; American Kobe steaks; and the exquisitely marbled Japanese A5 Kobe steaks. And rack of lamb and pork short ribs and all kinds of cuts. Get ready for the clincher: All meats are poached in fat prior to grilling. Steaks in butter, lamb in olive oil, and pork in bacon lard. It might also be mentioned that the décor is gorgeous, service superb, wine list exceptional — but is that even necessary? And we can close by saying how oh-so-costly it is to dine here — but does that really matter?

Best Sunday Brunch

Joley Restaurant & Lounge

More than a decade ago, the Hotel Astor in South Beach was renowned for its Sunday brunch. The food was good, but it was gospel queen Maryel Epps who brought the crowds in. Well, Ms. Epps has once again been belting out soulful tunes at the Astor's "Inspirational Brunch," but this time she is doing so in the new Joley Restaurant, where the cuisine is bright enough to share the spotlight (the chef is John Suley, who trained under Daniel Boulud and Gordon Ramsey). Diners start with a mimosa and then choose one of nine appetizers (oysters on the half-shell; crisp quail, sweet potato, collard greens, and chorizo); a dozen entrées (eggs Benedict; pancakes with bananas Foster sauce; omelet stuffed with wild mushroom, Parmesan, and white truffle; steak frites); and five desserts (cinnamon walnut coffee cake; lemongrass soup with coconut ice cream). The brunch runs from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the singing from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Performance and meal: $44.

TRUE OR FALSE:

1. Matsuri looks like a dive.

False. Used to be true, but last year the place was renovated. Now it is swathed in soothing woods and exudes a rather upscale appearance.

2. The menu is written entirely in Japanese so non-Japanese diners have no idea what they are ordering.

True. But there is a different, somewhat similar menu written in English.

3. It has been open in West Miami-Dade since 1988.

True.

4. Yaki ika, hotate yaki, madai, and o-toro are the names of Japan's latest pop music sensations.

False. Just some cuts of sushi you won't find at many places other than Matsuri.

5. Matsuri's waiters dress like Johnny Cash.

True.

6. Ankimo monkfish liver is also known as "chopped liver for the goyim."

False. It is, however, sometimes referred to as "Japanese foie gras," and Matsuri's got it.

7. Mori awase is Japanese for "cheap crap," and at Matsuri is an all-you-can-eat-for-$5 buffet featuring fish that doesn't smell so good.

False. Mori awase is Matsuri's top-end sushi assortment, and it offers stellar-quality slices of nigiri.

8. Thirty-five percent of Matsuri's clientele is Japanese-American.

False. It's closer to 40 percent. Or 45 percent. Or maybe it is 35 percent. Hard to say.

9. Matsuri's product is fresher than anyone else's, yet it costs considerably less.

True.

10. Matsuri has the best sushi.

How many damn ways do we have to spell it out for you?

Girl: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

Professor: Again.

Girl: Octopus in vinaigrette never leaves one with regret.

Professor: Huh?

Girl: I eat chorizo in apple sidra and pork sausage frita whenever I read the Bhagavidad Gita with Rita.

Professor: Let's take it from the top.

Girl: Xixón Café serves some two dozen tapas all day, on Coral Way, till 8 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, till 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday without delay, but hey — not Sunday.

Professor: I said "top," not "tapas."

Girl: Fried white anchovies and gazpacho are more macho than a nacho.

Professor: Now you're just being obnoxious.

Girl: Steamed clams, ma'am, with a bocadillo of that damn Serrano ham — and it's no flimflam scam, tapas are $6 to $14 and can be eaten on the lam.

Professor: Okay, maybe we should break for lunch.

Girl: Spanish wines, cavas, and queso Manchego. Let's take the Winnebago, Diego.

Professor: By George, I think she's got it!

Best Thai Restaurant

Thai House

Adventures in high-ticket parking and sunburned tourists are just a part of a trip to South Beach. Steps from the din of vacationers is an oasis of amazing Thai cuisine. Once you've removed your shoes and are comfortably perched at a low table inside Thai House, the aromas of curries and peanutty sauces just whisper that what you're preparing to indulge in is well worth a battle through the SoBe hubbub. The exotic names of dishes such as si-oew (your choice of meat sautéed with scallions, ginger, and honey sauce) and tom kha kai (a soup of chicken, mushrooms, lemongrass, and coconut milk, $4.75) will have you blubbering to a waiter, but the staff will gladly walk you through each course. And when your server asks what spice level (from one to four) you want, be aware that four means "can melt a gut of steel," so even three has enough spice to make your eyes run. Instead of trying to cool your tongue with water, try resting your eyes on one of the antique Buddhas or reveling in the feng shui, and the cool just might spring from within. Whether you like your curry red or green and your duck crispy or diamond, Thai House has traditional favorites prepared to accentuate the five essential elements of the fare: sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and salty. Plus there are large portions, all items made fresh-to-order, and reasonable prices, with staples such as chicken curry going for $15.95 and pad thai for $13.95. In other words, it's Thai worth the trek.

Best Tuna Salad

Orange Cafe

It's as American as apple pie,

Find it at picnics, in your fridge, and probably contributing to the fat in your thigh.

Because the fact of the matter is, whether you're poor or rich,

Almost everyone can afford a can of tuna fish.

You can spread it on a Ritz,

Or hide it between slices of bread if you wish.

It's also good on top of salad,

Or straight from the fork, however you like.

Sometimes it's really good, like, ahem at Orange Café,

And sometimes it tastes like that crap you had the other day.

But this Design District hotspot has it down to a science:

Mayo, celery, of course tuna, and then a handful of scallions.

Try it on a baguette, a.k.a. the Rembrandt, for just $5.75 or

Keep it simple and order greens with the atun on the side.

Best Turkey Wings

Ida's Restaurant

Nestled in the cradle of Opa-locka, Ida's Restaurant might be the only joint in the nation to serve Buffalo turkey wings and Buffalo turkey nuggets. "What Hooters done to chicken, we done to turkey," says Steve Barrett, the restaurant's general manager. His wife, a local cop, is the owner. Ida's offers a generous array of seductively rich Southern cakes and soul food heavy enough to belly-bomb an elephant. But the turkey is key. Five bucks gets you a pair of large wings dressed up in the sauce of your choice (lemon pepper is the way to go) plus fries. Dine in, surrounded by a 50-year-old mural of a hayseed and his girlfriend ricocheting a bullet through a vast countryside. Chat with Steve about all the dirt that goes on around town. Get some coffee. Stay awhile. You're in Opa-locka, baby.

Best Under-the-Radar Restaurant

Indomania

Did you know jaja is an Indonesian word for "fishing net," but jaja jaja indicates an AC electrical outlet? Didn't think so. Indonesia isn't the world's highest-profile country, nor is its cuisine globally embraced like that of China, Italy, or Mexico. So it isn't surprising that Indomania hasn't stirred a mania among the masses. The location on 26th Street off the corner of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach doesn't exactly shout out for attention. Neither the humble Dutch husband-wife owners nor the modest, informal setting are the sorts that grab front-page headlines. All Indomania offers is an array of tempting traditional Dutch-Indonesian cooking in a friendly atmosphere and at excellent prices (appetizers $6 to $12, all main courses $20 and under). To wit: Rijstaffel, a plentiful "rice table" with eight plates of different tastes (just $22 per person); nasi goreng, a.k.a. fried rice with a kick; and two exceptional house specialties — duck or snapper steamed in a banana leaf with Balinese herbs. Next time you are looking for a no-fuss place for dinner, aim your radar a bit below the obvious choices.

Best Vegan Chicken Legs

Garden of Eatin

Let's say that for some reason you get the munchies while you're cruising through Little Haiti. You need a place to chill and enjoy some authentic home-cooked Jamaican vegan food. Garden Eatin is a hidden gem. Pull into the parking lot of this establishment behind a convenience store, and prepare to get high on not only the food but also life in general. Walk past the clucking hens near the front door and enter this Rastafarian paradise. Posters of Ethiopia's last emperor (and living god to his adherents), Haile Selassie, adorn the mirrored walls. Reggae music blares from the speakers, creating a good vibe. Local Rastafarians and activists regularly gather here. You get the food yourself, cafeteria style. Grab a tray and ask Ms. Brown, the restaurant's owner, to make you a $6 sampler plate. She will load up all kinds of meat substitutes and organic vegetables, forcing you to bow in the face of Jah. Bok choy, beets, pumpkin, and string beans cooked Ital style (that's like kosher for Rastas). The ginger-soy fried "chicken" legs are better than real chicken, and a tasty bamboo stick serves as the bone. Move over, Colonel Sanders.

Best Vegan Lunch Counter

Beehive Natural Foods Juice Bar

Miami's food critics have long neglected this healthful gem. You'd barely notice it, tucked in the rear of a cluttered health food store. Load up on soups, Jamaican patties, and pies prepared fresh by Carlos Schichi, the delightful Japanese-Brazilian chef. The wild-haired Schichi was on track to become a classical musician in Brazil but got struck by the good-food bug. While studying music in Austria, he cooked up a storm in his dormitory. In 1993, he rented the lunch counter, where he's developed a loyal following.

He rotates about 500 dishes, including a fresh special (typically about $5) that arrives every day around 12:45. So order a $3 glass of carrot juice and ask him what's cookin'. Have a cookie while you're at it. And a slice of carrot cake. What the hell? It's all-natural baby. You'll eat like a pig without feeling weighted down or groggy. A three-course meal might run you $10. But when was the last time you ate something that didn't contain roast pork?

Best Veggie Wrap

Fresh Cafe

Downtown Miami might not be the number one place for healthful vegetarian eating, but newly opened Fresh Café is a glimmer of hope. Upon entering this cute, quaint modernly designed dine-in chomp-shop, one can't help but admire the grand menu selections, especially the elaborate vegetarian wraps. There's the Mediterranean vegetarian, which is a white wheat wrap stuffed with homemade hummus, roasted peppers, mozzarella, and kalamata tapenade. Or the ever-so-popular Asian tofu wrap, filled with fresh veggies, roasted tofu, and homemade sesame ginger sauce. Or the pesto Caprese: fresh mozzarella, plum tomatoes, and basil pesto. These satisfying wraps are served with either a side of salad or their signature pasta salad, all moderately priced at $8.25 or $8.50. And owner Dina Popper's bubbly personality will surely keep you entertained and well informed about the latest health news. So if by coincidence you find yourself in the whirlpool of downtown Miami mayhem, enter Fresh Café for some healthful jolts of food and peace of mind.

Best Vietnamese Restaurant

Hy Vong

Hy vong in Vietnamese means "hope," which pretty much sums up the emotional state of the nightly crowd that lingers outside this 36-seat hole-in-the-wall in the heart of Calle Ocho.

"We're running on Cuban time tonight," says Kathy Manning, co-owner of Hy Vong, who placates the hungry mob with fistfuls of imported beer including China's Tsing Tao ($3.50), Belgium's Kriek Framboise raspberry ale ($6.50), and, of course, Vietnam's 33 Export ($3.50). But what's new? Ever since Manning met Tung Nguyen — who in 1975 was 28 years old, pregnant, and fresh off a fishing boat fleeing war-torn Vietnam — and opened Hy Vong in 1980, these two food-savvy ladies have been reeling in the masses. And unless they're part of a party of five or more with reservations, patrons have to endure the restaurant's strict (and arguably cruel) first-come/first-served policy. Even though a wait for a table can take up to an hour, this place isn't like neighboring Versailles or La Carreta, where grub comes quickly. Expect to wait an additional hour for thit kho (pork stewed in coconut milk, $12), duck breast with black currant dressing ($15), or any other of the fresh and exquisite made-to-order entrées. After one bite of a dish such as fish wrapped in pastry with watercress/cream-cheese dressing ($15.95), combined with extremely reasonable prices — two simple yet mouth-watering cha glo spring rolls are only $4 — you'll forget about the delay.

Even mishaps such as running out of food are excusable. When the fish for a seared fresh fillet served with mango and peppercorns ($16.95) ran out on a recent Saturday night, Nguyen quickly improvised with large, succulent scallops smothered in strips of mango and pineapple, exceeding any diner's expectations.

Roused but not sold? Warm yourself up to the place with one of Hy Vong's Heat and Eat Delicacies ($6 to $7), which includes house favorite rolling cakes stuffed with a pork-mushroom mixture. These frozen delights are available at local gourmet markets such as Gardner's Market (7301 Red Rd., Miami) and Norman Brothers Produce (7621 Galloway Rd., Miami). Unlike an evening in the restaurant, the wait time is only a few minutes.

Best Waterfront Dining

Garcia's Seafood Grille & Fish Market

Garcia's Seafood Grille is on the waterfront in a very On the Waterfront way. The family-owned venture isn't glitzy, pretentious, or expensive (sandwich with a side is $8, dinner with two sides $12 to $14). The outdoor terrace view is not of yachts and million-dollar marinas, but of weather-beaten docks and warehouses, of old freighters heaped with used bounty. There are no karaoke nights, saketinis, or salad bars. Garcia's is simply an informal, old-timey fish house with a fryer, a grill, and a market's worth of fresh seafood to dunk into the former and toss onto the latter. There are fish soups (grouper chowder), fish salads (dolphin caesar), fish fritters (conch), fish sandwiches (the signature mahi-mahi), and full fish dinners (including stone crabs when in season) — all preceded by complimentary smoked fish spread and crackers. The beer is cold, the breezes balmy, and the ambiance unbeatable. Gosh, Karl Malden would have loved this place.

Best Wine Selection in a Restaurant

Captain's Tavern

This old-fashioned family seafood restaurant boasts large aquariums, filled with live exotic fish, that surround the restaurant's eating area. We recommend going on Tuesdays for two-for-one Maine lobster (market price). And what better way to wash down some fresh lobster than with a bottle of fine wine? There is no wine list here; it's more like a telephone book-size tome. The best vino for your buck is a bottle of Martin Codax for $19. Described as an "elegant, full-bodied white wine with flavors of ripe apple, peach, apricot, and lemon zest," it tastes great with an order of seared salmon ($20.95). If you have some extra loot, try a bottle of Dom Perignon ($175). The listings are divided into Italian, Spanish, French, Zinfandel, Champagne, Cabernet Sauvignon, white, red, and dessert wines. For dessert, try a slice of rum cake ($4.50) with a bottle of Arrowood Late Harvest Riesling ($39). The most expensive is a bottle of Penfold's Grange from Australia (a 1997 goes for $300, and damn was that a good year).

Best Barbecue

Bar-B-Que Beach

Hunks of meat wood-smoked slowly at low temperatures, so the fatty juiciness doesn't cook out, with enough natural smoky flavor cooked in that sauces are an enjoyable extra rather than a necessity: that's real barbecue. And that's hard to find in Miami, though our town is geographically about as Deep South as you can get. Though it seems especially unlikely that you'd find honest 'cue in South Beach, this joint has it. The brisket ($13) would be a contender even in Texas (where barbecue means beef), its flavorfully fatty succulence sinful enough to convert even hard-core pork fans. As for the latter, pulled pork won't have North Carolinians ready to surrender the crown, but it'll satisfy their homesick blues. Elephantine spare ribs, available either wet (sauce-basted) or dry-rubbed, are not the falling-off-the-bone kind — which are generally par-boiled flavorless to reach that state — but are boldly meaty specimens that are tender yet chewy enough to be interesting. Even the whole barbecue chickens are beautifully moist — and bargain-priced ($8.95). All platters come with two sides; choose creamy slaw and nut-studded sweet potato/banana mash, and throw in an à la carte order of deep-fried dill pickles, for a down-home meal that'll thrill all but your cardiologist.

Best Breakfast Special

Flora's East Side Pizza

Bacon? Check. Overly strong coffee? Check. Overly sweaty line cook? Check. Eggs served in multiple forms, including breakfast sandwiches? Check. Paper plates and plastic cutlery? Check. Setting of sublime urban decline punctuated by traffic jams and rusted fences? Check. A place, like a pizza shop, that no one would expect to serve breakfast and therefore must lower prices to attract business? Check. Only $4.25 for way too much food? Check. Near-crapping of designer jeans on the way home? Check. Fourteen hours of regret and pledges to eat only fruit before noon? Check. A return to the same place 36 hours later to purchase the same $4.25 special? Check.

Best Cupcakes

Misha's Cupcakes

Admittedly, Miami is a bit behind the cupcake craze that swept New York and Los Angeles, oh, six or seven years ago. The market was ripe for a clever cupcake entrepreneur to step forward and put the city on the miniature dessert map. That person was Misha Kuryla-Gomez, purveyor of Misha's Cupcakes. Offering ooey-gooey deliciousness in bite-size portions, the stay-at-home mom used her mother's longtime recipe to create her own yummy success. Now her fare is sold at Books & Books Café, Town Kitchen and Bar, and the Van Dyke News Store, among other locations. Her Dadeland Mall kiosk, Lix by Misha, is conveniently parked near the Coach store, so husbands can soothe their sweet teeth outside while wives crank that credit card at the cash register. Misha's red velvet is the most talked-about flavor, but our favorite is cookies and cream. Or is it coconut? Or Kahlúa? They're all yummy. Mini cupcakes cost a buck; larger ones go for $2.25. Try the scones too!

Best Kosher Restaurant

Prime Sushi

The name "Sam's Kosher Restaurant" would make sense. "Moishe's on 41st" I wouldn't have a problem with.

Here we go with the names.

I'm sorry, Mr. I've-heard-it-all-before, but I still say "Prime Sushi" doesn't sound right for a kosher restaurant.

They serve sushi — what else should they call it? Would Prime Kosher Raw Fish maybe be better for you? Their special roll of tuna, salmon, whitefish, avocado, cucumber, and that meshuga crab happens to be delicious. And the crunchy, spicy tuna roll, too. Charging $6.50 for a small roll, and $11 or $12 for a big, fancy schmancy roll, the restaurant could be called Prime Adolf and I'd still sit my tuchas down here for dinner.

Don't say such things. Besides, I don't eat sushi.

But their pizza with the fried eggplant on top I've seen you gobble so fast you'd think it was the first time you saw food. And $10.95 is not a bad price.

Okay, so the pizza is good. What, they should get an award for making a tasty kosher pie?

I feel like yelling out, "Help! A starving woman is sitting next to me!" every time you eat the eggplant Parmesan sandwich. And I still have aches in the finger where you poked me with the fork when I tried to taste some of your fettuccine Alfredo.

Who told you to reach over like an animal? Who does such things in a fancy restaurant with white tablecloths?

I'm just saying you like Prime Sushi as much as I do. That's why you schlep here with me for lunch and dinner. I notice you don't stay home when I go to Sunday brunch here, either.

What, I should stay home alone while you stuff your face with bagels at the all-you-can-eat buffet? I come here just to make sure you don't embarrass yourself. I suppose you're complaining because you have to shell out a mere extra $16.95 for me?

The Caribbean nachos — don't ask. You stuff them down your throat like there's no tomorrow. God forbid I should have to use the restroom — I'd come back and all the fried plantains, melted cheese, sour cream, and salsa would be gone.

What kind of name is Caribbean nachos? It doesn't sound kosher.

Oy, again with the names.

Best Lobster Bisque

Barrio Latino

God promised a land flowing with milk and honey, but maybe people would have paid more attention if He had offered a land flowing with lobster bisque from Barrio Latino. Cream is much more heavenly than milk anyway, and this bisque is loaded. It's a buttery, rich bowl of joy. Sweet lobster meat floats serenely, grateful it was never canned. A hint of sherry highlights the end of each sip. If you want to experience this bliss, you must arrive on a weekend, for it is served only Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. You won't need to go to confession before arriving, but you will need to hand over six bucks.

Best Mexican Restaurant

Rosa Mexicano

Rosa Mexicano brought upscale and authentic south-of-the-border fare to New York City in 1984. It is still thriving there, and in recent times has expanded to new territories; this past year it moved into Mary Brickell Village. A new Rosa Mexicano tribute CD has just been released, in which mostly long-in-the-tooth rockers do covers of their past hits but with reworked lyrics. Here is a sampling:

• "(I Know) It's Only Guacamole": "But I like it, like it, yes I do," sing the toothless — er, ageless Rolling Stones in their rockin' ode to Rosa's signature dish of extra-ripe Hass avocados — with tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and salt — barely mashed tableside in a molcajete ($12, for two).

• "Bridge over Troubled Tacos": Paul Simon starts off the song with a wistful recital of failed taco preparations he has tried in South Florida. Then, in an emotional moment for all, Art Garfunkel joins in and they harmonize about Rosa's tacos de carne asada, the juicy strips of grilled skirt steak atop Chihuahua cheese, served in a cast-iron skillet ($17.50).

• "Oops! ... I Did It Again": Britney turns the now-ironic title into a comic admission of eating all the red bean chorizo chili and corn esquites, as well as licking the tomato-chipotle sauce from her plate. And also eating the zarape de pato, or pulled morsels of roast duck in tortillas ($9.50). And the butterflied snapper brushed with guajillo chili sauce ($22.50). Who can blame her?

• "Pomegranate Margaritaville": Jimmy Buffett rejuvenates this overplayed mediocrity by injecting praise of the trendy fruit. And how he likes drinking Rosa's famous pomegranate margaritas at the restaurant's sleek, long, always-hopping bar; how it is only $7.95; and how it's his own damn fault his career is over.

• "U Can't Touch These": MC Hammer is talking about his enchiladas mole de xico, two soft corn tortillas filled with shredded chipotle beef and capped with Veracruz mole made with raisins, plantains, hazelnuts, pine nuts, and mulato, ancho, and pasilla chilies. He clearly doesn't want you to touch them, but they're just $16.75, so you'd think he'd be able to afford to buy another plate if you did.

Best Restaurant for Lunch

Pelican Restaurant

Choose the number that matches the letter:

a. Ocean Drive restaurants

b. 168 people were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty, and Pelican Restaurant opened in the Pelican Hotel

c. $7; $18; $15

d. Gliding by are rollerbladers, skateboarders, bicyclists, baby strollers, beautiful people, and wide-eyed tourists

e. A great place for lunch in any neighborhood, but a downright oasis of fresh flavor on Ocean Drive

f. A wonderful bird is the pelican ...

1. Pelican Restaurant

2. Its beak can hold more than its bellican (Ogden Nash)

3. Tourist traps

4. Fennel salad with arugula and cucumber in lemon dressing; gnocchi in sauce made from fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil; cheese plate with choice of Gorgonzola, Manchego, aged pecorino, Asiago dolce, and others, paired with pear-walnut marmalade and Tuscan toast

5. The view from Pelican's outdoor patio

6. 1995

Answers: a. 3; b. 6; c. 4; d. 5; e. 1; f. 2

Best Restaurant in Coral Gables

La Cofradia

This stylish Peruvian/Mediterranean restaurant excels in everything a dining establishment can. The room is modern and elegant, imbued with warm walnut notes and a sky-high ceiling. Service summons a professionalism not seen often in these parts. The wine list (and for that matter, the artisanal cheese selections) are extensive and smart. And co-owner Jean Paul Desmaison, one of Lima's rising star chefs prior to landing in South Florida, orchestrates a cuisine as riveting as any — not just in the Gables, and not just within a Peruvian or Hispanic context, but also in all of Miami. Proof of this can be attained via a taste of chupe de camarones, a classic Peruvian soup with shrimp, butternut squash, lima beans, corn, cheese, and a poached quail egg. Need more evidence? Pick up a forkful of pork slow-braised with pisco and grapes, or of baby octopus in Tuscan ragout, or, for dessert, of flambéed pineapple with purple corn demi-glace and white chocolate semifreddo (main courses run between $28 and $40, desserts $8 to $10). La Cofradia is under many diners' radars, but it is also on many diners' radars, so reserve a table in advance — especially weekends.

Best Taco

Orale Taqueria Mexicana

A corn tortilla folded over meat — the taco is so simple a concept, yet it used to be nearly impossible to find one made properly around here. That changed three years ago when Orale — a red, white, and green-striped taqueria-on-wheels — pulled into its now-customary parking spot on the SW 28th Street side of Douglas Park. Every weekend, from morning till 7 p.m., Moises and Francisco, brothers from just outside Oaxaca, griddle up tacos, tacos, and more tacos for an ever-increasing number of devotees. Some of the best include juicy barbecue lamb (barbacoa); slowly roasted pork (carnitas de cerdo); and the less familiar lengua (tongue), suadereo (the fatty, riblike beef belly), and cachete (cheek). Have it your way by adding traditional stuffers such as chopped onion, cilantro, radish slices, a squeeze of lime, or any of three searing salsas — hot, hotter, and hoo-boy! Contrary to popular opinion, the best things in life aren't free, but sometimes they come pretty damn cheap: Orales's tacos cost $2.50 apiece (cash only).