Finest Foods >>

• Personal Best
  Ray Rigazio, 41
  In the beer wasteland that is South Florida, Ray Rigazio owns an oasis: the Abbey Brewing Company. Since taking the helm in 1995, he has worked hard to make this microbrewery nothing like a typical South Beach bar. He rid the door of snobbery and, more important, the refrigerators of quotidian... More >>
• Best Bakery
  Le Boudoir
  Le Boudoir is sort of a stealth bakery. It looks like a café, is self-labeled a tea salon, and has a menu mainly devoted to elegant Parisian-style sandwiches and salads. But the sandwiches' astonishingly good bread serves notice that baked goods are truly taken seriously here. Proprietor... More >>
• Best Bagels
  Tasti Café
  Although this café/bakery originally opened as part of the Tasti D-Lite frozen yogurt chain, it became immediately clear its main draw was not faux ice cream but the rest of the menu: sparkling, crisp salads; genuinely light yet assertively flavorful spicy sesame linguine; and baked... More >>
• Best Bread (2 Comments)
  Paul Bakery Café
  When Paul opened last year in the newly built Biscayne Commons mall -- located on a stretch of Biscayne Boulevard formerly known only to those stocking up on 50-pound packages of chicken wings at Costco -- it instantly became a worth-a-special-drive destination for true gourmets. The salads and... More >>
• Best Croissant
  La Brioche Dorée
  It is supposed to be a flaky, crescent-shape roll painstakingly prepared by rolling butter and pastry dough into thousands of microlayers. The crisp, crusty exterior should give way to so ethereal a bite that it will taste like a Ferran Adriá concoction called "butterair." And,... More >>
• Best Doughnuts
  Sunshine Donuts
  For a doughnut-hole-size family shop to hold its own next to Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme in this sticky business, you know the product has to take the cake (or the glazed or the cruller). Paired with café con leche, the classic glazed will melt on your tongue, the moist chocolate cake... More >>
• Best Birthday Cake
  Karlo Bakery
  Screw Betty Crocker, forget Duncan Hines, and stay away from supermarket bakeries. If you really want to make a birthday party memorable, head straight to Karlo. Everything is freshly made, so simply entering the store can induce an olfactory orgasm. Freshly baked bread, cookies, empanadas,... More >>
• Best Key Lime Pie
  Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory
  Sweetened, condensed milk was introduced to the Florida Keys 150 years ago. Owing to the lack of cows around, the new canned product was taken to with gusto by the citizenry, who developed all sorts of new recipes in which to use it. Key lime pie was far away the most successful of these... More >>
• Best Chocolate (1 Comment)
  Romanico's Chocolate
  Four things you might not know about chocolate: 1. A single chocolate chip provides sufficient food energy for an adult to walk 150 feet; hence it would take about 35 chocolate chips to go one mile, and 875,000 for an around-the-world hike. 2. Chocolate has in excess of 500 flavor... More >>
• Best Gourmet Grocery
  Epicure Market
  The history of this South Beach gourmet food market is long and illustrious, but space does not permit us to go into detail. Nor can we describe the flawless cuts of fish, meats, and poultry displayed in their respective cases like Prada handbags. But trust us, the selection is huge and... More >>
• Best Asian Grocery (1 Comment)
  Tim's Oriental Grocery
  The problem with many Asian markets is that they specialize. If you want potsticker skins and chili paste with garlic, you go to the Chinese market. If you need ponzu and wasabi, you head to the Japanese grocery. If it's kim chee, the Korean; fish sauce the Vietnamese ... you know the drill. But... More >>
• Best Kosher Bakery (1 Comment)
  Anny's Bread Shoppe
  Want to stay kosher but don't want to eat bland bread? Anny's Bread Shoppe turns out loaves that would have pride of place in any toaster -- kosher or not. The two most popular breads here are the multigrain and the Blue Ridge Mountain herb bread. Both are hearty, full of flavor, and worth the... More >>
• Best Kosher Market (6 Comments)
  Sarah's Tent
  This place is a kosher cornucopia overflowing with gourmet delights and Middle Eastern staples, from homemade hummus and tahini to halvah and mushroom-stuffed Turkish bureka pastries. The five-aisle market is probably the only place in Miami where you will find five different kinds of frozen... More >>
• Best Health-Food Store
  Whole Foods Market
  The following is one of a series of recorded sessions between noted health advisor Dr. Alan Greenberg (a.k.a. Mr. Smartyplants) and his patient, Mrs. Penny Howard of Aventura. PH: If Whole Foods Market sells whole foods, does that mean other supermarket chains sell quarter, half, two-thirds, or... More >>
• Best Healthy Fast Food (2 Comments)
  Giardino Gourmet Salads
  Healthy fast food is an oxymoron. When describing those who frequent unhealthy fast-food restaurants regularly, you can take away the oxy. Eating is pleasure, so what's the rush? Yes, you have a point -- lunch hour lasts only so long. And sometimes you just do not have time to linger over... More >>
• Best Farmers Market
  Robert Is Here
  An estimated half of our nation's tomatoes come from Florida. Many are shipped from fields in the Redland's agricultural area less than an hour outside downtown Miami. Yet even in peak season, most supermarket specimens (including those at expensive specialty stores like Epicure) are... More >>
• Best U-Pick
  Knauss Berry Farm
  Once upon a time, the lands just northwest of Homestead promised agricultural bounty. Fields of tomatoes, strawberries, and tropical fruits stretched along Krome Avenue as far as the eye could see. The times certainly are a-changing. A recent tour of the Redland, west of South Dixie Highway,... More >>
• Best Prepared Foods
  Joe's Take Away
  This used to be known as the place to go for stone crabs when you couldn't get a table at Joe's main seafood house next door. It still is, but over the years, Joe's Take Away has emerged as a worthwhile destination in its own right. The sweetest of stone crabs are packed up with mustard sauce,... More >>
• Best Delicatessen
  Arnie and Richie's
  The first symptom of the craving is when everything else you eat suddenly feels like chewing chalk. You suddenly understand why people are addicted to getting tattoos and body piercings -- that desire for stimulation sets in. Mustard and horseradish and onions, endowed with unnamable healing... More >>
• Best Cheese (1 Comment)
  The Cheese Market
  Crammed to the rafters with good things to eat and drink, this cozy little shop presents a welcome slice of European civilization in our hurry-up-and-get-out-of-my-way urban treadmill. As the name suggests, cheese is the market's specialty. You can also pick up almost everything else, from... More >>
• Best Flan
  Vicky Bakery
  Those with a sweet tooth will have a heart attack -- we hope only figuratively -- upon entering Vicky Bakery. Elaborate cakes decorate the windows, while Danishes, buns, glory bread, and other baked goods lie glistening or powdered behind glass. The bakery itself is simple: white, nondescript,... More >>
• Best Gelato (2 Comments)
  Bacio Gelateria
  An Italian franchise that opened its doors in Miami in 2001, Bacio's gelato is simply the most delizioso. At least two dozen flavors are available on any given day, ranging from nutty (hazelnut, toasted almond) to fruity (lemon, mango) to chocolaty (at least five different variations on the... More >>
• Best Ice Cream Parlor (1 Comment)
  Whip 'N Dip
  Ignore the droves of soccer moms chauffeuring their sugar-craving offspring. And block out the Saturday-night teenybopper brigade heading postmovie to this South Miami institution. The smooth, creamy deliciousness that is Whip 'N Dip ice cream makes it worthwhile. Although the traditional... More >>
• Best Smoothie
  Gourmet Carrot
  There is no doubt smoothies made from the nutrient-packed and easy-to-digest juices of fresh fruits are better for you than milkshakes full of fatty dairy products. Nevertheless some juice bars' smoothies, especially those whose heft comes from powders and so forth, do taste like they came out... More >>
• Best Microbrewed Beer
  Abbey Brewing Co.
  In the land of mojitos, the Abbey Brewing Company is king of beer. Among Miami's precious few microbrew purveyors, the Abbey serves up a tasty selection of home-brewed elixirs. This is the place for full-body, high-alcohol-content drafts such as the Abbey India Pale Ale ($5.25 a pint); the... More >>
• Best Café con Leche
  Villa Habana Restaurant
  The $2 café con leches are always perfect at this tiny, uncrowded Cuban diner on Coral Way. You never have to fumble with the sugar, because the Bustelo espresso, served aside a cup of steamed milk in a little tin pourer, is just as sweet as the cute and friendly little waitresses behind... More >>
• Best Café Cubano
  David's Café
  If café Cubano is fuel for your own biped power vehicle, then David's is the best and most convenient service station in town. Located just off Lincoln Road, this South Beach stalwart has been around for almost three decades. Every day of the year David's dishes up hearty Cuban fare in... More >>
• Best Cuban Party Platters
  La Nueva Fe Bakery
  Good bakeries open early, and great bakeries open at 5:00 a.m. There are not many places left in Miami where you can pick up your food before sunrise, but La Nueva Fe is one of them. Even if you don't need to have your party table set up before you drink your coffee, this Hialeah gem will still... More >>
• Best Cuban Sandwich
  Las Olas Café
  In a region so densely populated by Cubans and their ancestors, a tasty Cubano should be as easy to come across as a wannabe model in South Beach. Not so. Finding a place that serves the ubiquitous sandwich is a breeze, but sinking your teeth into a truly fresh and flavorsome version presents a... More >>
• Best Fajita
  Paquito's Mexican Restaurant
  At first glance, you might think a Technicolor piñata had exploded here. Tables hide their tops in throbbing shades of violet and orange, vibrant streamers flirt from the ceiling, and landscapes in the colors of a Frida Kahlo painting cram just about every inch of available wall space.... More >>
• Best Taco
  Rosita's
  Consider the taco an element, like boron or lead or molybdenum. Beans, cheese, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream -- such abominations correspond to a taco about as much as wasabi beurre blanc does. A soft corn tortilla, meat -- lots of it, gum-tender, and highly seasoned -- and a dollop of salsa,... More >>
• Best Paella (3 Comments)
  La Dorada
  "The sign of good paella is really in the rice," says Beatrice Bajares, owner of Spanish restaurant La Dorada. "It's the same as with pasta. If pasta is not cooked al dente it tastes bad." And to get the rice right, explains Bajares, a good paella must be prepared fresh, slowly, and on the... More >>
• Best Mofongo
  Benny's Seafood Restaurant
  Mofongo is the signature dish of any Puerto Rican restaurant worth its salt. Whether served as an entrée or an accompaniment, the mashed plantain concoction must not be too dry or too mushy, and it must strike the perfect balance between the mild saltiness that keeps it from being bland,... More >>
• Best Tapas
  Bahía at the Four Seasons
  Bahía, the outdoor tapas lounge on the Four Seasons Hotel's seventh-floor terrace, offers the European snack with a distinctively Latin American, oceangoing twist. Tapas developed from an old Spanish bar custom of placing a saucer on top of wine glasses. Someone put a few olives on the saucer,... More >>
• Best Jamaican Patties (5 Comments)
  Sonia's Patties
  "What is ackee?" the newcomer to Sonia's will ask. And the proprietor will answer, "It's a Jamaican fruit that looks sort of like scrambled eggs." Eeeew! But no. Listen. For $5.49, you can get an ackee patty, made with tomatoes, onion, and cod fish, whose fragrant spice and flaky pastry will... More >>
• Best Conch Fritters
  Captain Nate's
  If there were an official Florida state fast food, it would have to be the conch fritter. Although Florida's queen conch population is so depleted that our conch meat comes from the Bahamas (and beyond), the fritters are everywhere. Too bad most are mediocre at best -- bland lumps of batter as... More >>
• Best Croquetas
  Tinta y Café
  These fried snacks can deliver a hit-or-miss assault on the taste buds, depending on how long they have been sweltering under a hot light. Coated in a toasty layer of breadcrumbs, a properly prepared fresh croqueta should be tender, flaky, and mouthwatering. But when these thumb-size devils are... More >>
• Best Ceviche
  Captain Jim's Seafood
  Ceviche is to South Florida what ice cream is to the rest of the nation: a refreshing, warm-weather treat that comes in so many flavors that Baskin-Robbins is blushing with envy. There is tuna ceviche with crabmeat, shallots, jicama, and black beer sorbet at Ola on Ocean. Salmon with watermelon,... More >>
• Best Fish Sandwich
  Heads or Tails Seafood
  A fantastic fish sandwich requires just two things: fresh bread and fresh fish. As you enter Heads or Tails, you can watch fishmongers filleting your lunch in the retail portion of the restaurant. That's fresh. Grab a stool at one of the long counters that line each side of the room and make... More >>
• Best Fresh Seafood
  Casablanca Fish Market
  When this extraordinary seafood market was evicted from its long-time Watson Island location, Miami lost not only a small piece of its past but also an equally microcosmic yet very pleasant few moments of its multicultural present. Gone are the hordes that used to gather in the scruffy but... More >>
• Best Raw Bar
  The Champagne, Crustacean and Caviar Bar
  The Setai hotel's Champagne, Crustacean and Caviar Bar is a raw bar. But it's a raw bar on steroids. The fruits de mer are here, albeit a more opulent selection than normal -- not one but two varieties of chilled lobster tail (Maine and Florida); crisp cold-water oysters ($5 each), such as... More >>
• Best Salads (1 Comment)
  Afterglo
  Why are Americans obese? Blame it on Rich Melman and Jerry Orzoff, two Chicago restaurateurs who, in 1971, installed the first known salad bar in their aptly named J.R. Grunts. Ten billion pounds of mayo-soaked surimi salad later, Americans gleefully waddle from all-you-can-eat salad buffet to... More >>
• Best Caesar Salad
  Joe Allen
  Making caesar salad is like playing rock guitar: Everyone does it, but hardly anyone does it well. Joe Allen does caesar salad well. The world's most popular salad (well, it seems to be, anyway) arrives at your table a study in pastels -- pale, crisp inner leaves of romaine under a blizzard of... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken
  o-R-o
  With its towering translucent blue columns offsetting imposing crystal chandeliers and an all-white décor, o-R-o looks like a Fifties Hollywood set designer's idea of Heaven. Meaning it is the kind of place where Marilyn Monroe's soul might hover in a sable stole (bleached white,... More >>
• Best Peruvian Pollo a la Brasa (1 Comment)
  El Pollon Grill
  It slowly turns, browning to perfection, becoming so tender it falls off the bone. The chicken at this Peruvian grill will take you back to the glory days of Lima's La Granja Azul. And though no chicken outside Peru could ever match what you got in Santa Clara, El Pollon makes for a tasty... More >>
• Best Chicken Wings (1 Comment)
  Sports Grill
  Fact: Our planet is home to more chickens than people. And just as all men are not created equal, neither are all fowls. Don't believe us? Strut over to Sports Grill and order a platter of wings (10 pieces for $7.50; 16 for $10.80; 25 for $16.25) and then say we lie. One look at these monstrous,... More >>
• Best Chili
  Cheyenne Lee's Snak Shak
  David Baglin is on a roll. Earlier this year he won Most Edible Hot Chili at Homestead/Florida City's annual Super Chili-Bowl Cook-Off. Last year he took first place at the Springs River Festival in Miami Springs after securing second in 2003. The 45-year-old Baglin credits his grandmother's... More >>
• Best Hamburger
  Clarke's Miami Beach
  A new McDonald's opens somewhere in the world every six hours, which means there are lots of bad burgers being eaten around the globe. And that makes the big, juicy, nine-ounce Black Angus hamburger at Clarke's Miami Beach all the more special. Just looking at it, coddled in a puffy poppy seed... More >>
• Best Hamburger Alternative
  Burgerito at Sara's Vegetarian Café
  You have your turkey burger, chicken burger, tofu burger, tempeh burger, Boca burger, Garden burger, soy burger, veggie burger, but it took a creative mind over at Sara's Vegetarian Café to think of substituting falafel for chopped beef. The "burgerito" here features a soft challah bun... More >>
• Best French Fries
  Bistro Bisou
  The perfect French fry is a thing of true beauty. It should be skinny, but not so skinny as to upset its delicate balance of textures. It must be golden, not too pale, not too brown. Of course it must be crisp, typically the result of frying at least twice (once to seal the exterior and mostly... More >>
• Best Hot Dogs (7 Comments)
  Arbetter's Hot Dogs
  The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates Americans will eat more than seven billion little red tubes of "specially selected meat trimmings" between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Most will come fluffed in the traditional white hot-dog bun that H.L. Mencken once described as being... More >>
• Best Homemade Pasta (4 Comments)
  Salvatore Pizza & Pasta
  Proprietor Salvatore Squadrito wants to fatten you up. That's the conclusion you reach once you're served any one of his pasta dishes. You get loads of silver-dollar-size ravioli. You get baseball-size meatballs in your spaghetti. You get heaping mounds of baked ziti. All of it made with the... More >>
• Best Carry-Out Chinese
  King Palace
  When it comes to Chinese take-out, some produce powerful essence and others do not. And it is vital the food magically permeates your automobile's interior with that uniquely intoxicating aroma we like to call essence of carry-out Chinese. What, exactly, causes this heavenly fragrance? Perhaps a... More >>
• Best Curry (2 Comments)
  Kebab Indian Restaurant
  Saag paneer. Chana masala. Rogan josh. Chicken tikka masala. Bengun bharta. If these words mean nothing to you, immediately get in your car and drive north. You have not yet experienced the mix of spice, ginger, vegetables, or meat, cooked with a touch of cream and carefully spooned over... More >>
• Best Falafel (1 Comment)
  Pita Plus
  Ever since Bill O'Reilly uttered the romantic phrase "and then I would take the other hand with the falafel thing and I'd put it on your ..." -- well, we understand if getting back into eating the fried chickpea balls has been difficult. It may help to think of the Middle Eastern snack in a more... More >>