Forget those hackneyed airboat tours across the Everglades. Nibbling on the alligator empanadas at Florida Cookery is a truer taste of Florida. At this South Beach restaurant, you won't find margherita pizzas, niçoise salads, or neon-blue frozen cocktails with too much sugar, too little booze, and one too many paper umbrellas. What you will find are frogs' legs ($17), wild boar chops ($36), and local quail ($26). There are spicy micheladas and tasty desserts such as dulce de leche rice custard and Puerto Rican pineapple rum cake ($9). The restaurant is inspired by a late-'40s pamphlet about Sunshine State cuisine, which belonged to chef and partner Kris Wessel's grandmother. Wessel clearly loves Florida's diverse ethnic and cultural influences: the Caribbean, Latin America, and the American South and Northeast. So when you have visitors, chomp on this!

Chloe Levi is your average Miami Beach resident. She favors coconut milk smoothies, practices Bikram yoga on weekends, and keeps a mostly vegetarian diet. Chloe dislikes chain restaurants, yet she frequents Maoz Vegetarian often. The falafel joint, located just a few steps from Lincoln Road on Washington Avenue, is part of a unique group of eateries. There are franchises in Barcelona, Paris, and New York that are completely vegetarian, kosher, and, in some cases, even vegan and gluten-free. There is a falafel sandwich for $5.95 and a salad option for $7.95. There are vegan soups, juices, and complimentary toppings from a salad bar — including sliced red cabbage, tabouli, and roasted cauliflower and broccoli. Chloe loves Maoz because it's affordable, healthful, and very unchain-like. Trust Chloe. She knows what's up.

Few things can trump nibbling on a pan con minuta ($5) while standing at the counter of the West Flagler staple La Camaronera. For 40 years, the cash-only seafood shack has sold delectable fried shrimp, oysters ($8.50), and fish roe ($7). But recently, there have been changes. The restaurant added pan-seared fish fillets and shrimp tacos to its bill of fare. And it took over an adjoining space. Now there are waiters taking orders. There are menus. There are even chairs! Hours were amended too. La Camaronera is open for dinner on weekends. That means those daytime, counter fish-fry lunches have been upgraded to evening, sit-down grouper-soup suppers. Plus, beer and wine will be coming soon. Talk about a fish-fry spruce-up!

Miami's temperature is approaching 90 degrees. South Beach's streets are clammy, damp from the midsummer mist. You are hungry, but you don't want steak frites, lasagna Bolognese, or thick vegetable curries with sticky rice. You want Khong River House's boat noodles ($18) — a robust, auburn noodle-and-broth soup enriched with fish sauce, beef blood, fried garlic, and chili vinegar. You want Khong's Vietnamese-style crispy prawns ($31) with spring onions and shallots or Thai tofu salad ($13) with deep-fried bits of soybean curd and vibrant vegetables. Owned by 50 Eggs Inc., the folks behind Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, the restaurant is an oasis of intrepid flavors and startlingly spicy cuisine. Its cooking is based on foods found across the northern Mekong River, particularly in Laos, Burma, Vietnam, and Thailand. Many dishes were previously hard to find around town. Now, when it's hot out, Khong's jolts of piquancy and bursts of freshness feel so right.

No name could suit this restaurant better than "the Bazaar." The mastermind behind the dining spot's whimsical and delightful cuisine is José Andrés, the James Beard Award-winning restaurateur and culinary icon. At this South Beach eatery situated inside the SLS Hotel, caipirinhas are prepared tableside with liquid nitrogen, Brazilian cachaça, fresh lime, and sugar. The caprese salad ($12) brings cherry tomatoes and spheres of liquid mozzarella that burst and ooze with fresh milk after just one bite. Some dishes offer nods to Miami, such as the Cuban sandwich and the bao con lechón. Others originate in Spain. In the black rossejat ($16), thin, short-cut pasta is tinted with black squid ink and topped with luscious shrimp and garlicky aioli. So what if your teeth turn black after a few bites? The Bazaar is where you go for more than a meal. You visit it for a sublime moment of wonder. Worry about whitening later.

Few would doubt Michael Schwartz's status as one of Miami's best-loved chefs. His Michael's Genuine Food & Drink is known worldwide for serving beautiful food at honest prices in a casual and understated setting. Schwartz followed up his first restaurant with Harry's Pizzeria, a totally casual and family-friendly place to get a wonderful pizza and a brew. Now, Schwartz has gone to the other end of the spectrum by opening the Cypress Room, a nod to a time when people dressed for dinner and dining out was considered an occasion. A blue neon sign, reminiscent of the Jazz Age, welcomes patrons to the Design District building. Inside, robin's-egg blue banquettes and white tablecloths whisper understated elegance, while trophies on the wall and floral china give the room the air of a French country manor. But enough about décor, because Schwartz has always been about the food. Before taking its place in the restaurant's pantry, each vegetable, each piece of meat, each tomato is selected to be the best. That level of quality is reflected in the dishes — and the prices. A marrow bone appetizer with preserved lemon, celery, and garlic toast is delicious, but pricey at $19. Entrées range from $24 for the Cypress burger with Jasper Hill Landaff cheese, onion marmalade, and thrice-cooked fries all the way to a côte de bœuf for two for $129. Or splurge for the five-course wine-pairing dinner at $155 per person. And, of course, you simply must have a sweet ending to your decadent dinner with a dessert by Hedy Goldsmith. Pair your $15 treat with a $5 cup of cold-pressed Panther coffee. When the check comes, don't look. Just plunk down your card and float on a sea of good food and lovely surroundings this once. You can always brown-bag it for the next month.

Some restaurants garnish plates with minced herbs or segmented citrus. Others, such as Lemoni Café — the tiny, casual Mediterranean restaurant in the Design District — adorn their dishes with something more substantial and much tastier. At the petite restaurant, the food features many vivid vegetables: roasted red bell peppers, black olives, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, and red onions. At Lemoni, the cuisine is healthful and simple. There is tabbouleh, served alongside warm pita slices, house-made hummus, feta, and spicy Moroccan eggplant ($13). There are lush chicken salads, prosciutto sandwiches, and turkey wraps, all priced around $7 to $9. Sometimes the fare is dotted with bits of parsley or vibrant pesto. But that's only embellishment to what is already good-looking: Lemoni Café's resoundingly natural and fresh fare.

What follows are the requirements for the perfect barbecue restaurant. To start, the locale must be family-owned — preferably by kin who've been running the joint for 20 years or more. Smoke from burning hickory must waft through the air. If possible, its blazing aroma should reach beyond the parking lot and into the street. There must be peerless pulled pork, beef ribs, pork ribs, and brisket. Side orders should include collard greens, beans, and cornbread. The only permissible salad is coleslaw. All other greenery must be paired with fried chicken. It is preferable if paper towel rolls and squeeze bottles, holding house-made sauces, are the only furnishings atop the picnic tables. Last, and perhaps most important, the restaurant must be located in an off-center, peripheral spot that, ideally, requires a lengthy drive. The best barbecue is always worth driving for, and no place merits the travel more than Shiver's BBQ in Homestead — an old-school shrine to smoke and hogs that fulfills all of those requirements and so much more.

When New York got too expensive, the great delis moved to Pittsburgh. But Pittsburgh sucks, and Roasters' n Toasters is smart. The proprietors have been serving heaping helpings of goodness in Miami since 1984. A fresh bagel loaded with a large scoop of chopped liver, tuna, egg, or chicken salad is a beautiful tradition ($9.95). So are the smoked fish platters with nova, sable, and whitefish ($16.50). The brisket sandwich, Danny's Special, comes with coleslaw, horseradish, sweet roasted peppers, and Russian dressing — all on garlic bread — and it's unbelievable ($12.95). The beauty of a great deli is that it usually charges a bit more than you want to spend, but by the end of your meal, you feel like you got off cheap. For instance, the Carnegie Style sandwich costs $16.95 but offers more than a pound of perfectly hand-sliced, melt-in-your-mouth meat delivered New York-style. Breakfast, served all day, includes thick-cut challah French toast ($8.25) and a bagel with cream cheese ($2.95). There are deals too: Chicken soup with half of a hot pastrami sandwich is only $9.95. Wanna add a matzo ball? Only 95 cents. Top it all off with an éclair ($4.95) and you won't need to eat for a week. Now that's a deli.

Fish cannot usually fly across the Mediterranean. They can, however, board a plane from Greece to Miami and ride in a car from the airport to a South Beach restaurant. That's precisely how they arrive at Estiatorio Milos, an haute SoFi dining spot for pristine seafood that has locations in Montreal, Las Vegas, New York, and Athens. At Milos, there are rare species such as fagri, skorpina, and tsipoura — sold for about $50 a pound. There are also sashimis of bigeye tuna and salmon, as well as Maryland blue crab cakes. Savvy seafood lovers know that Milos offers a $24.07 three-course lunch special that includes choices such as diver scallop skewers, grilled Mediterranean bass, shrimp saganaki, and Greek yogurt with thyme honey. So, because most fish don't have wings for a transatlantic flight, simply head to Estiatorio Milos.