The food magazine has just named Recoveco, winner of New Times' Best New Restaurant in Miami-Dade 2025, as one of the 20 Best New Restaurants of 2025. It's the only Florida restaurant to make the cut, joining highly acclaimed spots in New Orleans, San Francisco, and New York. The best part? Not only did the magazine mention Recoveco, but it also gave the restaurant a full spread and the cover photo of the October issue, praising chefs Maria Teresa Gallina and Nicolas Martinez for pulling off "restrained plating" that highlights the "kaleidoscopic color and surprising flavor of each dish."
In other words, the editors were really impressed by not just what they cook but also how they present Miami's best and most unique local products.
The magazine describes the tile fish at Recoveco as "a work of art" and even gave it the coveted cover shot for the issue (not this photo, of course).
Recoveco photo
A Bait Fish Becomes a Cover Star
Bon Appétit's Kate Kassin zeroed in on a dish built around ballyhoo, a fish usually written off as bait in the Florida Keys. At Recoveco, it's bathed in white soy ponzu and arranged into twelve perfect pieces, the elongated nose left intact for dramatic effect. The dish was described as "a work of art" and even earned the coveted cover shot for the issue. The editors also pointed to desserts that turn overlooked ingredients into showpieces, like sapodilla adding butterscotch intensity to sticky toffee pudding or mamey pits transformed into an almondlike syrup drizzled over chocolate cake dotted with finger lime. They called every bite "a quiet moment of gratitude for this lush, miraculous habitat."
South Miami and Pinecrest locals have been visiting all year, but it's still the residential area's best-kept secret.
Photo by Gio Guttierez of Chat Chow
Miami Roots, Global Attention
Gallina, already recognized as a StarChefs Rising Star, and Martinez both trained at Alter and Itamae before opening Recoveco in June 2024. They built out the 1,300-square-foot dining room themselves, keeping the menu lean at about ten dishes and focusing on whatever excites them most.That approach is evident in the current lineup, which includes lamb tartare with sungold tomatoes and pickled almonds and the popular beef tongue dish with chimichurri and whipped sesame. Larger plates include grouper with sherry sabayon and shiitake, Berkshire pork collar glazed in mamey sweet-and-sour, and golden chicken paired with pumpkin and potato.
Even desserts stick with the element of surprise, like taleggio cheesecake with Kyoho grapes and peanuts. The payoff is clear. In its first year, Recoveco was listed in the Michelin Guide and featured in Bon Appétit's list of the best new restaurants in the country. (Oh, and as aforementioned, New Times did in fact name it the best new restaurant in Miami in 2025 first.)
For Miami, it proves that the city's next wave of talent isn't just competing nationally, it's leading the conversation.
Recoveco. 5850 SW 73rd St., South Miami; recovecomiami.com.
