Fratelli La Bufala

This South Beach restaurant offers an affordable menu of popular, freshly prepared, fun-to-share foods in a bright and informal setting. It also fills a thus-far neglected niche in the local dining scene: water buffalo cuisine. Mozzarella di bufala is the most familiar of buffalo food products and is offered at Fratelli La Bufala in a number of preparations. The cheese's most prominent role is star of its own plate (portioned for two): a one-pound globular ball of delicate, juicy mozzarellona — sweeter than the fresh cow's-milk version — so moist that when it's sliced, milky beads of enzymes appear on the cut surface. A smaller ball of mozzarella takes a supporting turn in a platter of assorted bufala cheeses that also brings a sweet, soft, fresh ricotta; a naturally, subtly smoked mozzarella; and caciotta, which is semifirm and similar to provolone. South Beach diners finally have a home where the buffalo roam and the skies are not cloudy all day.