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11th St Diner
This deco diner housed inside a gleaming Pullman train car sees round-the-clock activity and is especially popular with people staggering home from clubs.
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Allen's Drug Store
Don't worry: they do diner in the Gables. In Allen's case, they've just plopped one into a pharmacy. Don't let the proximity of Pepto Bismo and retirees put you off the meatloaf, vinyl booths or the little jukeboxes, because this is Florida. You should be eating among a bunch of seniors with walkers. It's called 'cultural immersion.'
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Andiamo!
It looks like a '50s drive-through (it's actually an old car wash), but Andiamo! isn't old-fashioned. This airy eatery breaks ground with award-winning pizza and toppings that range from goat cheese to white tuna, so you can get creative or settle for excellent interpretations of classics such as the Vesuvius: salami, hot peppers and olives, mmm.
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Berries Restaurant
Plenty of places have jumped on the seasonal produce and fresh ingredient bandwagon, and Berries, with its all-in-black ninja-clan waitstaff, makes the genre accessible and attitude-free. The enormous portions could feed two, but who could bear to share skirt steak with melted blue cheese or three-mushroom risotto, which reminds us: veggies get it good here.
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Big Pink
Big Pink is big fun, 50s style. What can you say about a place whose signature dish is an authentic, American-style TV dinner served on a six-compartment steel tray? Dine inside or at sidewalk tables on a selection of burgers, sandwiches, pizza, meal-sized salads, nacho platters, buckets of fries and chicken wings. Either way, save room for the Key lime pie.
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Flanigan's
Flanigan's says it has the best ribs in Miami, and they are good, but we're not giving much more credit than that. Still, this is a pleasantly rowdy, all-American kind of joint tucked into a liquor store (bonus), and a great spot to drink beer, eat decent grub and yell at TV sports.
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Green Street Cafe
As sidewalk spots go, it doesn't get more popular (and many say delicious) than Green Street, which is now contending with a next door Senor Frogs. But the excellent menu of lamb burgers with goat cheese and salmon salads, occasional art shows and general indie-defiance of the gentrifying Grove is definitely up to the challenge.
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Guayacan
Apparently Nicaraguans do diner too, judging by the friendly service and gut-busting satisfaction of Guayacan. Antojitos (snacks) like tamales make a meal or settle for specials (we love the roast pork) loaded with sides: salad, rice and beans, plantains, french fries, corn tortillas and bread.
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Jerry's Famous Deli
Jerry's does it all - from pastrami melts to Chinese chicken salad to fettuccine alfredo - and does it all day long. It also does it big, with huge portions served in a big, open, deco space.
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Lots Of Lox
In a city with no shortage of delis, especially in mid-Miami Beach, who would have thought some of the best chopped liver on rye could be found in this unassuming place all the way down in Palmetto Bay? It's bustling, it's friendly and the excellent lunch meats sneer at their cousins on Arthur Godfrey Rd, secure in their dominance of Greater Miami's deli ranks.
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Mark's South Beach
Rejoice: Mark's is excellent New American cuisine, and It is Good. Better than good, actually. The menu changes daily based on whatever excellent ingredients the kitchen can procure, the subterranean dining room is cozy and elegant, staff helpful and assured, and appreciative foodies outnumber posing status-seekers - a nice touch.
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Michael's Genuine Food & Drink
The 'genuine' in Michael Schwartz's restaurant is a sincere tribute to locally sourced ingredients and a healthy dose of innovation moderated by respect for things that work. Hence, pork shoulder in parsley sauce and cheese grits that taste like your grandma just became a cordon bleu chef. The chocolate-and-red interior feels cheerful and welcoming rather than snobbish and intimidating, and that goes for the attentive waitstaff as well.
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Nemo
Raw bars and warm copper sconces are a good sign. That nudge into greatness comes when Asian elegance graces Latin-American exuberance: grouper with chimichurri sauce and kiss-the-grill nori-dusted tuna are a few jewels plucked off this fusion gem mine.
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News Café
Some kind of lodestone attracts every tourist in South Beach to this Ocean Dr landmark. Frankly, we don't get it, but thousands of travelers do and you may as well. So take a perch, eat some over-the-average but not-too-special food and enjoy the anthropological study that is South Beach as she rollerblades, salsas and otherwise shambles by.
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Original Restaurant
Friendly, family-run, clean and bright, this Little Haiti standout serves excellent island standards such as ragout (cow's feet), queu boeuf (oxtail), foie (liver) and griot (fried spicy pork); the last is one of our favorite only-in-Miami dishes (well, if you're in America). This is a neighborhood spot, and staff might be surprised to see you, but that doesn't mean they'll be any less courteous to their newfound customer.
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Pizza Rustica
South Beach's favorite pizza has three locations to satisfy the demand for Roman-style crusty/chewy slices topped with exotic offerings. A slice is a meal unto itself. Mosey down to 863 Washington Ave (tel: 305-674-8244) or over to 667 Lincoln Rd to sample similar fare at the other Pizza Rustica branches.
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Presto Pizza
Presto goes NYC style on the pie, and is beloved by Northeasterners longing for a thin-crust slice of home. It's a good, greasy alternative to all that healthy stuff in Pizza Rustica.
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Raleigh Restaurant
You are 1920s class, dammit. Get in your pinstripes (or flapper dress) and kick back on a wicker chair under the seagrape trees on the terrace, or in the wood-paneled dining room - and have some suckling pig with sour orange while you're at it.
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Rusty Pelican
More than the fare, it's the panoramic views that draw the faithful and romantic to this airy, tropical restaurant. If you do come for a drink, the fresh air could seduce you into sampling the surf-n-turf menu, which is good enough considering the setting and lack of options.
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Sam's Deli & Grill
'It's good,' says the Israeli, with typical sabra understatement, walking out of what looks like a rabbi convention. Sam's holds the title for most popular deli on the Beach, evidenced by round-the-clock crowds noshing matzo ball soup, brisket and the excellent New Yorker: turkey and corned beef piled on rye and dripping with Russian dressing.
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Shorty's Bbq
If you're gonna make a mess of yourself, best do it by dribbling some smoky barbecue sauce on the long wooden picnic tables at this South Dade institution. It's not the best 'que in the world, but for Texas-style brisket in South Florida it's as good as life gets.
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Soyka
Mark Soyka, the man behind News Café and Van Dyke Café, has got the magic touch when it comes to restaurants in Miami, and this gem is his best effort yet. It's housed in a bouncy rococo space, and the eclectic menu jumps across several horizons of flavor, from sautéed chicken livers to sesame-seared salmon, with consistently tasty results.
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Table 8
You know what? Forget that Table 8 has Oprah cachet. Forget that celebrity chef Govind Armstrong is a celebrity chef. If all that wasn't so, Table 8 would still be one of the best high-end restaurants on South Beach, partly because it never feels too high end.
That is to say, it delivers comforting innovation - duck breast with green beans and frisée (endive), mahi mahi blue crab chowder and kobe beef burgers - in an understated, accessible fashion.
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Timo's
When chef Tim Andriola left Mark's South Beach in 2003, he opened this classy bistro and brought Sobe style into a Nobe setting. His legend grows through dishes such as porcini-dusted veal and cheese platters topped with shaved black truffles.
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Van Dyke Café
One of Lincoln Rd's most touristed spots, the Van Dyke is an institution akin to the News Café, serving adequate food in a primo spot for people-watching. It's usually packed and takes over half the sidewalk. Service is friendly and efficient, and you get free preening models with your burgers and eggplant parmigiana. There's also nightly jazz upstairs.
