MIAGuide
The Miami Hit List: Our Favorite New Restaurants In Miami
The new spots we checked out—and loved.
The Hit List is our guide to the new restaurants you should be eating at in Miami. We track new openings across the city, and then visit as many as we can. One thing you can always rely on is that we’ll only include places we have genuinely checked out (and loved). Our only requirement is that they're under a year old and making something delicious.
THE SPOTS
Bringing a classic restaurant back from the dead can sometimes feel a bit Pet Sematary-ish. But the team from Gramps brought out the defibrillators for 79th Street’s Schnitzel Haus, and pulled it off beautifully. This place achieves nostalgia without feeling like an ‘80s-themed house party—yes the walls are mirrored and the colors are primary, but the details are subtle enough to get noticed slowly throughout dinner. That dinner is delicious too. There are big plates of multiple sausages, a fascinating herring cake that’s exactly what it sounds like, and the titular schnitzel is the best we’ve had in Miami. Stick around for drinks and glass-block-window-appreciating in the backyard.
After existing in pop-up limbo for the last six months, Tam Tam’s arrival feels even more glorious. There is no restaurant in this city like it—and not just because Miami lacks Vietnamese options. It just has a very rare combination of exciting food, contagious fun-having, and design details sure to imminently overtake your algorithm. The worn wood paneling left over from the previous occupant makes Tam Tam feel lived-in like a favorite pair of jeans, and one bathroom is a disco karaoke hallucination. The overall feeling of Tam Tam speaks to this place’s roots as a supper club, when it was just friends getting together for drinks and one-of-a-kind Vietnamese dishes.
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Maty’s is a restaurant from the team behind Itamae, a Nikkei spot that’s made us want to consult a lawyer about the possibility of being adopted by a restaurant. But the Peruvian dishes at Maty’s aren’t strictly Nikkei. They are adapted from the chef’s family recipes—the same family whose photos line the simple white walls of the spacious Midtown restaurant. The big protein dishes are where Maty’s really goes all out. The one non-negotiable plate from that section of the menu is the whole roasted dorade, an unbelievably tender fish served butterflied so it looks like it’s been flattened by a steamroller. The cocktails are great too, so keep Maty’s on your shortlist for a fun dinner with friends.
Yakko Bistro is the kind of casual, delicious Japanese restaurant you probably thought Miami didn’t have since Yakko San (the team’s old restaurant) closed. But that team is back together at Yakko Bistro in a smaller (but much cuter) dining room on a quiet street in North Miami Beach. Their menu reads like our own personal list of Japanese dishes we’ve been trying to manifest more of in this city. They have good sushi, but our favorite things here are the cooked dishes. They have a lot of kushiyaki options—including the best tsukune skewers we've had in Miami—as well as a big plate of omurice and okonomiyaki.
Midorie is a casual Coconut Grove sushi spot by the Wabi Sabi folks, and the two menus are nearly identical. This simple sushi counter is hidden in the little courtyard on Main Highway. Inside, there’s white oak furniture, a school of tiny ceramic fish on the green wall, and a couple of tables outside. But what you really need to know about Midorie is that you can come here for high-quality sushi and not spend more than $25 on a filling donburi bowl. The handrolls—each with a perfect ratio of rice, fish, and wasabi—are also excellent.
One of Miami’s best bakeries has a second location in MiMo. This Caracas outpost feels more like a proper cafe, with an expanded menu, sleek dining room, and the same great cachitos. (Thank God.) The new stuff on Caracas’ menu includes sandwiches like an excellent BEC on a sweet potato bun, a crispy broccoli and cheese sandwich, jambon beurre, and mushroom toast. It works well for any and all laidback breakfasts, brunches, or lunch plans. You can also come here alone with a laptop to get some work done, and by “get some work done” we mean “eat several cachitos.”
Some new restaurants feel like long-awaited albums from generational talents. And Walrus Rodeo, the sister restaurant of Boia De, is the equivalent of a collaborative Rihanna/Frank Ocean album with a surprise cameo by the original members of The Wiggles. Except it might be better, because it’s real. Even though it occupies the space (and inherited the pizza oven) of a former pizzeria, Walrus Rodeo isn’t quite Italian. The menu has some Italian-ish things—but then there are completely unique dishes like a carrot tartare that’ll make you as excited about carrots as that kid on Tik Tok was about corn. The interior is a bright country western meets disco aesthetic, with a silver ceiling, white brick walls, and two very fun bathrooms.
Next Door is a wine bar run by (and right next door to) Key Biscayne’s Flour & Weirdoughs. And it’s a perfect option for all occasions that call for a chill night out with a bottle of wine and some excellent dishes involving bread. The menu is tight, but as good as you’d expect from one of Miami’s best bakeries. They make a simple, outstanding choripan, eggplant escabeche served with sliced baguette and crispy baguette chips, and a few sourdough pizzas. Nothing on the menu costs more than $20 either. The space isn’t huge, but it’s perfect for small groups or couples on a pizza date.
