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Best Black Bean Soup

Little Havana Restaurant

This Cuban restaurant is an all-around winner. They serve topnotch meats and seafood alongside Cuban staples. But it's the black bean soup that is a standout. Velvety smooth, with a lemony tinge. They won't divulge their secret ingredient, but it's worth a trip up Biscayne Boulevard to try and figure it out for yourself.

Best Seafood Restaurant

Fishbone Grille

If you're looking for really top-quality seafood, you'd be better off going to La Dorada or Baleen. Yet for affordable, consistently fresh fish in a friendly environment, Fishbone Grille is still our favorite. A wide array of seafood comes grilled, blackened, sautéed, or fused with New World accompaniments, such as seven-spiced tuna with green mango, kim chee, and peanut sauce; or crisp whole Key West yellowtail with black beans, rice, and scotch bonnet vinaigrette. Chalkboard specials are appealing, too, as are the various types of raw oysters on hand. The décor at both locations, downtown and in a former HoJo on U.S. 1, is comfortable if less-than-pleasing to the eye, but the crowd is jovial, service efficient, and the triangular wedge of jalapeño cornbread that comes with each meal is worth the trip by itself.

Best Greek Restaurant

Mykonos Restaurant

A Miami institution for nearly three decades, Mykonos consistently offers the best in Greek cuisine. From standards such as gyros and souvlaki to richer dishes, including moussaka and pastitsio. They can even make roasting half a chicken seem exotic, seasoning it with just the right herbs and spices. The portions are large and the prices are so reasonable that over time, you'll be able to save enough money to take your own trip to Greece (and stop in on that party island all covered in blue and white, also called Mykonos). But when you do, you probably won't find the food any better. The best thing about this Mykonos: the people. Most of the staff are relatives of owners John Kafouros and Nick Pantelaras, which gives the place the warm feel of a small, family-run eatery.

Best Pita Bread

Oriental Bakery and Grocery

Every morning Rafat Monem gets up at about 4:00 and heads to work, where he will bake more than 7000 individual loaves of pita bread. By early afternoon they will all be sold. Each loaf is an individual work of art, a light and airy source of comfort, whose gentle folds ply easily apart exposing a soft and inviting interior. Monem, the son of the store's owner, Okashah Monem, has been baking pita bread for seventeen years. What makes it special? "It's the ingredients we use," says Monem, a Palestinian who was born in Jerusalem. And what are those ingredients? "I can't tell you that," he laughs. "It's a secret."

Best Natural Food/Vegetarian Restaurant

Suzanne's Vegetarian Bistro

Like any blank canvas, tofu is only as good as the artist who prepares it, and "natural" food can sometimes taste like a form of punishment. Lucky for us Suzanne's chef is first-rate, and her menu is downright indulgent (in a health-nutty, new-agey way). Open since November 1999 for take-out, lunch, and dinner, this meatless wonder offers classy (not stuffy) fare that's kind to animals and your (nonleather) wallet. Although the menu is vegan (no dairy, eggs, et cetera, are used), the results are hearty and flavorful enough to tempt even die-hard flesh-eaters. The organic wines, available by the glass (from $3.95) or bottle (from $17.95), don't hurt, either. An introductory dinner here -- grilled tofu, steamed organic vegetables, and brown rice in tahini sauce ($8.95) -- was a sign of good things to come, including a juicy, robust tofu Reuben with deliciously (un)creamy coleslaw. And hey, if it'll enhance your pleasure, go ahead and pretend you're dining on the deceased. We won't squeal to PETA.

Best Fine Dining To Do Take-Out

Joe's Take Away

You don't have to know the maitre d' to get a good meal quick from Joe's. The take-out division, just to the north of the landmark seafood restaurant, serves the same menu -- without the three-hour wait (same prices, without the tip). In addition to the standard dinner of stone crabs, coleslaw, creamed spinach, and a slice of key lime pie (a meal we heartily endorse), take-out customers can choose from a wide variety of other wonderful selections, from po'boys to fried chicken to swordfish steaks. Quality, the ingredient that has made Joe's an institution, is dependably maintained. And, we repeat, without the wait. Joe's is closed from May 15 to October 15.

Best Restaurant For A Power Lunch

Bice

The ambiance is one of restrained elegance. The menu is one of distinct priciness. And the clientele is easily of the double-breasted caliber. So there's no doubt, whether you're a long-time lawyer entertaining clients or a Gen X dot.com millionaire meeting potential venture capitalists, you'll want to invest in fine northern Italian fare: delicate seafood and pasta for the fluttery of stomach, hearty meat dishes for the cast-iron all-business body. Whether you're betting on a jury or taking a ride with a pre-IPO CEO, at least you'll be able to keep your chops in fine form by biting down on a, well, chop.

Best Cake Artist

Sweet Art by Lucila

Lucila Jimenez has turned her family tradition of baking festive and inventive cakes into a thriving business. Her two Sweet Art bakeries, with their 50 employees, seem to be able to coax batter and icing into almost any shape, for any event. Mountains, hearts, toys, the island of Cuba -- nearly anything is possible. Her signature "jewelry box" cakes are a true marvel: They look for all the world like oversize Limoges porcelain boxes, complete with gold fittings, and yet, amazingly, they are not only edible, but delicious. Try one of Lucila's cakes for a special occasion, and her tradition will quickly become yours as well.

Best Bread

Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House

What sets this Jewish diner apart is the bread, made fresh every day in the adjacent bakery. Three plates of goodies are served with every meal. Besides your traditional soft and chewy rolls, they toss in white toast swirled throughout with sweet cinnamon. Also offered are chunks of raisin bread dotted with the gooey black stuff and covered with a thin coat of sugar. Real butter and cream cheese are served on the side to spread across the delicacies. For diners who can't finish the bread, servers offer a doggy bag to enjoy it at home or the office. Don't feel like waiting for the sometimes slow service or interminable lines? Then walk straight into the bakery, where the selection grows to include buttered toast, pumpernickel, and sticky honeybuns. And don't fret when you get a craving -- they're open 24 hours.

Best Restaurant When Someone Else Is Paying

Petrossian

Can you say beluga, sevruga, osetra? Petrossian can: It's the largest importer of Russian caviar in the world. Can you say foie gras? Petrossian can: The company's farms in France produce plump, silken specimens. Can you say expensive? Petrossian can, because it ain't cheap to get all that good stuff over here. Indeed you can ply your senses with twenty grams of sevruga for $23, or beluga for $47. But you should be aware that while for drug addicts, twenty grams is a feast, for caviar aficionados it's barely a snort. And if you're planning on accompanying those sturgeon eggs with champagne, be prepared for some bottles to run over the $400 mark. Needless to say the best time to dine at Petrossian is when you have grateful guests in the house. Allow them to think of the dinner check as room and board, and in the end, everyone -- especially your waiter (what's fifteen percent of $400?) -- is more than sensually sated.

Best Of Miami®

Best Of Miami®

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