Only One Miami Spot Ranked Among 50 Best Restaurants in U.S.

Sunny's Steakhouse has only been around since last October, but it just landed one of the biggest nods a restaurant can get. The New York Times included the Little River spot on its 2025 Restaurant List, the paper's annual rundown of the 50 best restaurants in America that critics can't stop thinking about. It is the only restaurant in Florida to make the cut.

The Times' editors describe the list as a look at 50 restaurants that combine great food with "a generosity of spirit and a singular point of view. More than half of this year's picks have opened since the 2024 edition, reflecting how quickly the dining scene shifts. Out of hundreds of meals across 33 states that the editors tried, Sunny's was one of the few that stood out enough to earn a place.

From Pandemic Pop-Up to Permanent Player

Sunny's story is familiar to Miami diners who hunted for tables during the pandemic. It began as Sunny's Someday Steakhouse, a short-term project at Lot 6 in Little River that opened during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its open-air courtyard under a massive banyan tree became one of the most coveted seats in town. Co-owners Will Thompson and Carey Hynes brought the concept back last fall as a permanent restaurant at 7357 NW Miami Ct.

The new Sunny's added an indoor dining room to the courtyard, pairing Murano glass fixtures and marble floors with a U-shaped bar and rough-plastered walls that nod to the space's industrial past. Thompson explained that when the restaurant opened, the goal was to bring back the magic of dining out in a space that works as well for a quick martini and fries as it does for a milestone celebration meal.

The Times Review: As Good As It Looks

Brett Anderson, writing for the New York Times, set the scene with the banyan-shaded courtyard where "dining rooms, their windows flung open," surround the patio. He added that "the restaurant is, improbably, every bit as good as it looks."

He called Sunny's a modern steakhouse that will satisfy cravings for Wagyu and foie gras, but stressed that the menu "contains no dead weight." Anderson noted that executive chef Aaron Brooks has built something bigger than a steakhouse alone. The pasta is "superb," the seafood shows “delicacy” in dishes like oysters with pineapple hot sauce and crudo, and the pollo a la brassa proves the team is not afraid to go bold.

In his words, Sunny's has become "a flamboyant South Florida steakhouse that feels worth it, even after you settle the bill."

What's on the Menu

Brooks, who made his name at Brickell's Edge Steak & Bar, runs a menu that shifts between steakhouse classics, pasta, and seafood. Steaks span from a 10-ounce hanger to a 32-ounce Wagyu porterhouse with sauces like Béarnaise, green peppercorn, and bone marrow vinaigrette. Pastas keep the Jaguar Sun thread alive with spicy rigatoni, corn and blue crab agnolotti, duck ragu cavatelli, and mushroom chitarra.

Seafood rounds out the mix with oysters, razor clams with mango criolla, hiramasa crudo, dorade with chervil and caper vinaigrette, grouper in spiced carrot butter, and octopus ceviche. Parker House rolls, pommes purée, creamed spinach, and thick-cut bacon with sweet plantain jam handle the sides, while dessert leans playful with options like banana toffee cheesecake, a piña colada sundae, and a kouign-amann ice cream sandwich.

The cocktail list brings back the pick-your-martini setup while mixing in new creations like the "Guava Cosmopolitan" and the "Wolf Whistle," made with tequila and espresso. Jaguar Sun staples such as the "Green Ghoul" remain, joined by drinks like the "PX Rum Sazerac" and "Sunny's Old Fashioned." Wine director Matt Whitney keeps the list broad, with bottles from Bordeaux and Burgundy to Swartland and Rías Baixas.

Sunny's Steakhouse. 7357 NW Miami Ct., Miami; sunnysmia.com.