You might not want to tell friends about Sumi Yakitori, an unlikely Japanese restaurant in Brickell. It’s a peculiar place, furnished with an open kitchen and festooned with bottles of booze. Sometimes, a young crowd wanders through the glass doors, stares at the quiet chefs in black T-shirts, and lingers…

Jose Mendin knows good food. As director of culinary operations for the Pubbelly Hospitality Group, the chef oversees some of the most popular kitchens in town — an impressive array that includes Pubbelly, Pubbelly Sushi, Barceloneta, Macchialina, and PB Steak. Here, in his own words, are his favorite restaurants in…

You might not want to tell friends about Sumi Yakitori, an unlikely Japanese restaurant in Brickell. It’s a peculiar place, furnished with an open kitchen and festooned with bottles of booze. Sometimes, a young crowd wanders through the glass doors, stares at the quiet chefs in black T-shirts, and lingers…

Start with the salad, a brilliant mixture of tofu, mango, and greens sloshed in an orange-sesame dressing. Chase it with the shrimp dumplings, tiny bulbs coated in spicy peanut sauce. Go ahead! Try the lumpia, deep-fried rolls crammed with chicken, cabbage, and carrots. Thirsty? Slurp that bowl of steaming miso…

Start with the salad, a brilliant mixture of tofu, mango, and greens sloshed in an orange-sesame dressing. Chase it with the shrimp dumplings, tiny bulbs coated in spicy peanut sauce. Go ahead! Try the lumpia, deep-fried rolls crammed with chicken, cabbage, and carrots. Thirsty? Slurp that bowl of steaming miso…

The pretty cashier at Huahua’s Taqueria wears a sombrero. It’s bulky, with a wide brim and fuchsia splotches that match the chalkboard menu hanging above her head. Some nights, she opts for plastic Wayfarers instead. Stamped with the restaurant’s name, the specs have clear lenses, thick rims, and cobalt temples…

The pretty cashier at Huahua’s Taqueria wears a sombrero. It’s bulky, with a wide brim and fuschia splotches that match the chalkboard menu hanging above her head. Some nights, she opts for plastic Wayfarers instead. Stamped with the restaurant’s name, the specs have clear lenses, thick rims, and cobalt temples…

Antonio Bachour oversees a temperature-controlled chamber called the chocolate room. But as he squeezes into this nook at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort today, it’s the macarons that capture his attention. Dressed in a pressed white coat, the bespectacled chef pulls a confection-filled tray from a stack. “Bacon macarons!”…

Antonio Bachour oversees a temperature-controlled chamber called the chocolate room. But as he squeezes into this nook at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort today, it’s the macarons that capture his attention. Dressed in a pressed white coat, the bespectacled chef pulls a confection-filled tray from a stack. “Bacon macarons!”…

Danilo Gonzalez opened the Art Place Wynwood five years ago, a time when the neighborhood boasted more drab warehouses than posh galleries and specialty cafés. But things have changed a lot since then. Now the arts district is home to trendy restaurants, bars, and shops. “The transformation of Wynwood is…

Vegan Chefs, Dreaming of Success, Emerge in Miami

Keith Kalmanowicz is a busy guy. In the past two hours, he’s petted a black emu, chatted up a Jamaican medicine man, shown me a composting toilet, and confessed that he’s fed a chubby pig named Shuffles perhaps too much brioche. Sitting on a bench at Earth N’ Us Farm…

Michael Schwartz isn’t sure about a few things. He doesn’t know how many hours he works in a day, whether his employees think he’s a good manager, or where exactly he’s taking his restaurant group next. What he does know is this: a lot has changed since he landed his…

David Dodge wears shoes with coiled heels, considers refined wheat to be toxic, and hasn’t taken medicine in more than 40 years. His choice of footwear relieves pain associated with lower-body conditions. And if you look closely enough, you’ll notice flour dusting the black Velcro on his feet. For four…

Smoked salmon spring rolls aren’t the obvious choice at Biscayne Tavern, a downtown restaurant that peddles more fried potatoes than lox. So when your waiter says he prefers the dish over the “crispy Gulf shrimp dynamite,” you order the rolls halfheartedly and glare at the shrimp platters passing by. But…

Smoked salmon spring rolls aren’t the obvious choice at Biscayne Tavern, a downtown restaurant that peddles more fried potatoes than lox. So when your waiter says he prefers the dish over the “crispy Gulf shrimp dynamite,” you order the rolls halfheartedly and glare at the shrimp platters passing by. But…

Where the Chefs Eat is a series in which we ask Miami chefs to list their favorite local restaurants. In this installment, we spoke to Dena Marino — chef of MC Kitchen in the Design District — about her preferred Magic City spots. Dena Marino likes fancy eats. Which makes…