Required Eating: The Top 100 Miami Restaurants We Can't Live Without

Have you ever traveled to a new city or returned to a favorite one years after your last visit and found yourself flustered by the evolved landscape unfolding before you?

As you recalibrate, you might also wonder: "Now, where's the best place to go for dinner?"

That's sort of what it's like for anyone visiting Miami right now. And, if we're being honest, even a good portion of our very own populace is overwhelmed by South Florida's evolving dining scene.

Over the past few years — the last few months, even — Miami has gone from being the city with no food scene to one of the nation's hottest places to open a restaurant.

It started with the Michelin Guide in 2022 and snowballed into a nod from Bon Appétit as 2023's "Food City of the Year." And what to make of Valerie and Nando Chang, recently named among Food & Wine's "Best New Chefs," while Val's restaurant Maty's appeared among the 24 establishments cited as Bon Appétit's "Best New Restaurants" and then garnered a spot in the newly minted 2023 edition of the New York Times' "Restaurant List."

Earlier this summer, when it came time to reassess our own annual "Required Eating" list of Miami's best restaurants, we were faced with the daunting task of assembling our own distillation of the Top 100 restaurants that, taken as a group, best convey the essence of what it is to dine out in Miami.

These are places that, regardless of the average tab, stand out to us for their high quality, their inventiveness and ingenuity, their staying power, and, perhaps most important, their flavor.

Which brings us to proudly present...


Click on the link above to find everything from humble mom-and-pop joints to straight-up, once-in-a-blue-moon splurges.

See what you think and then share your thoughts with us on social media or via email: [email protected]. We'd love nothing more than to hear about your picks.

— Nicole Danna, New Times food and beverage writer