These are the best things we ate in Miami restaurants this year. How many have you tried?
When I close my eyes, I can still taste that curried goat.
I taste the tartness of a cherry-vanilla farmhouse ale. The succulence of a croqueta made to mimic a medianoche. I taste that brisket.
When I think back on the most memorable dishes I tried while writing about food for the Miami Herald in 2019, my mind goes to the bites that created a flavor memory for me.
There weren’t 19 for 2019. There weren’t 10 for the past decade in Miami dining. There were exactly as many as still stand out to me after looking back on the past year.
It’s not a bucket list of Miami’s most iconic places. (I already wrote one of those.) It’s separate from my evolving list of how to eat like a local in Miami.
These are dishes that made me say, “Wow” — usually out loud — this year.
These are the splendid, surprising bites that will have me returning in 2020 to see what these restaurants come up with next, curious about which new restaurants will emerge — and which bites I still will be savoring a year from now.
Beef brisket (no, wait, the wood-fired Oaxacan chicken)
Hometown Bar-B-Cue
True central Texas-style barbecue came to Allapattah (along with the existential threat of gentrification) via Brooklyn, where Bill Durney created one of the best barbecue restaurants in the country. Miami’s Hometown is a temple to beef, where the brisket is Prime or upper two-thirds quality, minimally seasoned with salt and pepper, smoked for 12 to 16 hours over Texas post oak, and develops an auspicious pink smoke ring where the marbled fat renders throughout every satisfying bite.
That said, the Oaxaca chicken is one of the most complex dishes on the menu. It is brined for 24 hours, marinated for three days, grilled for a crispy skin and then roasted in a wood-fire oven blazing in the center of the kitchen before it’s finished on an open grill grate. It’s then served with a dazzling salsa verde drizzle and pickled red onions that makes you rethink what is possible for chicken, for barbecue, for a transplant restaurant that fits so effortlessly into Miami.
1200 NW 22nd St., Allapattah
Cherry-vanilla wild ale
Unseen Creatures Brewery
Craft beer lovers have been patiently waiting for years for Unseen Creatures, a new brewery in the Bird Road Art District that focuses on wild ales, beers that use local yeasts and cultures for uniquely Miami flavors. Marco Leyte-Vidal cultivated everything from anonymous little white flowers on his street to the fig tree in his backyard to create his beers. No Mountains is a tart and refreshing cherry-vanilla farmhouse ale with a silky smooth finish. This will be my go-to beer for as long as they brew it.
4178 SW 74th Ct., Miami
Beef rib
Society BBQ
Richard Hales was three months behind Hometown in the Texas beef barbecue trend, but only because a long illness put him off from opening this new spot instead of an outpost of his successful Sakaya Kitchen at The Citadel food hall. Now open several weeks, the beef rib proves itself worth the wait — a tender, smoky, dinosaur-sized pound-and-a-half portion dusted with flaked salt that produces the flavorful essence of bone-in beef barbecue.
8300 NE Second Ave., Little River
Jamaican curry goat with roti
Balloo
This is a dish that could only happen in Miami. Timon Balloo, who made Midtown’s Sugarcane a success 10 years running, explores his culinary heritage — Trinidadian, Indian, Chinese, black — with a menu that reads like a memoir. His Jamaican curry goat is the apex of his dishes at the new seven-table Balloo. With a mix of Trini, Indian and Chinese spices, the goat is long-stewed and served in its own finger-licking sauces like an Indian aloo chana. It comes with a side of his housemade Trini roti bread, baked on the flattop and made for scooping up perfect chunks of meat. There’s so much on this menu to explore, including the above-pictured roasted curry calabaza (labneh yogurt, black lime, fried curry leaves) and a succulent Trini-spiced oxtail that all Caribbean cultures will recognize and appreciate. I’ll be eating here a lot in 2020.
19 SE Second Ave., Suite #4, downtown Miami
Prosciutto bocadillo
Happy Wine
I’m always guaranteed to discover a new wine I like at Happy Wine, a bare bones wine shop with racks made from 2-by-4s, where owners J.C. Restrepo and his spouse, Joanna Fajardo, lavish attention on customers. After a health scare that nearly cost him his life, Restrepo doubled down on this hidden Calle Ocho wine shop where he buys great wines and sells them at great prices, with tapas and festive music. I cannot stop ordering the simple prosciutto sandwich with Swiss cheese, tomato and garlic sauce in a pressed and toasted baguette with whatever wine J.C. recommends. (I recently fell in love with F Bomb, a mélange of red wines from Nine North Wine Company’s Dirty Pure Project.)
5792 SW Eighth St., Miami
Turnips carbonara
Erba
Turnips aren’t supposed to be sexy. But somehow Niven Patel accomplished it at Erba, his pasta- and veggie-focused restaurant in Downtown Dadeland. After expanding his backyard farm in Homestead with a separate two-acre plot in a deal with local farmers he puts on his payroll, he can provide locally grown produce to experiment with at the new Erba and Ghee Indian Kitchen. The turnip dish comes complete with warm egg yolk, spicy black pepper, vellum-thin shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano and is sprinkled with pancetta for a smoky flavor. This place will make you love vegetables.
8975 SW 72nd Pl., Kendall
Pimento cheese stuffed beignets
Ember
I’m ruined forever for other dinner rolls after having the beignets at Ember, the Midtown restaurant where chef Brad Kilgore applies the advanced cooking techniques that made him a James Beard award finalist to comfort food dishes diners recognize. The beignet here is more of a dinner roll, stuffed with pimento cream cheese and piled atop harissa hot sauce. They’re dusted with what Kilgore calls onion ash. They pull apart with a buttery succulence that will have you savoring them before you take your first bite.
151 NE 41st St., Suite 117, Design District
Rachel sandwich
Stephen’s Deli
People came from Miami and Miami Beach, from the Shores and Pembroke Pines, to see if this deli in Hialeah — quietly here before Cuban food, since 1954 — was indeed the real deal. They have seen that it is. Under owner No. 8, Matt Kuscher, who is Puerto Rican and Jewish, Stephen’s is the oldest of South Florida’s Jewish delis and remains relevant with faithful dishes like this Rachel. The housemade hot pastrami is hand-carved by Henderson “Junior” Biggers, who has been with the restaurant for more than 60 years. And with a layer of house Russian dressing and coleslaw under buttery toasted seeded rye bread baked locally, it’s more than reason enough to seek it out in Hialeah.
1000 E. 16th St., Hialeah
Flan
KFC in Hialeah
Roll your eyes if you want. Yes, I’m highlighting a flan at KFC as one of the best bites I had this year. Why? Because it’s a superb flan, a rich, creamy rendition and it is made at the only KFC in the world that makes a flan in house. Of course, it’s in Hialeah. It was invented here more than 40 years ago by an older Cuban immigrant who was a sous chef in Cuba, making a staff meal for his fellow co-workers in the giant 16-quart pressure cookers where KFC used to fry its chicken. Years later, KFC gave them special dispensation to make it the same way, and it’s made by Baldomero Gonzalez’s proteges years after his passing.
811 W. 49th St., Hialeah
Croqueta stuffed inside of a chocolate chip cookie
Dos Croquetas/NightOwl
Psyche! It was definitely memorable, for all the wrong reasons. This thing was an abomination, the result of nostalgia for Cuban flavors fused with a chocolate chip cookie. Call the police. They were so busy wondering whether they could do this that no one stopped to ask whether they should. Let’s forget this thing ever happened. Instead, go to the world’s first “croqueta bar,” Dos Croquetas’ Westchester restaurant, where they put modern spins on classic croquetas. You won’t forget the truffle mac and cheese croqueta with bacon — in a good way.
10505 SW 40th St., Westchester
Deep fried pork ribs
Sunday’s Eatery
You read that right. Sunday’s lightly batters its pork spare ribs in spice-dusted flour and cornmeal and then deep fries them. The thinner batter is the Caribbean take you more commonly see on chicken (rather than a thicker, heavier Southern batter), which makes the ribs crisp rather than crunchy. It also means you can eat a whole lot more of them. The spices put the flavors right on your palate, and the tender meat pulls off the bone with a satisfying snick.
2675 NW 207th St., Miami Gardens
Whole roasted chicken
The Surf Club
When you visit Thomas Keller’s first South Florida restaurant, you throw out the trope that you don’t order chicken at a nice restaurant. The roasted free-range organic chicken for two is presented whole, like three-dimensional artwork, then carved tableside. Because the bird is air dried the night before, in the oven the skin becomes crispy like Peking duck, shattering in places like the sugar on a perfect creme bruleé. We proved you could (and should) eat there for less than $200 a couple.
9011 Collins Ave., Surfside
Griot
Bon Gout
Three Little Haiti locals decided to set down roots for their roadside barbecue stand and created this new locals’ favorite. Aside from using Haitian seasonings for their chicken and pork barbecue, one of the owners brought in his mom, longtime Little Haiti restaurateur Miselie Marseille (everyone just calls her Mamma Chef), who makes a killer griot — Haitian-style fried pork chunks. Order the pork ribs or the zacos (Haitian-spiced tacos) if you like, but don’t sleep on this homestyle Haitian cuisine.
99 NW 54th St., Little Haiti
Pulpo al olivo
Itamae
The Chang Gang is the ultimate Miami story of a Peruvian family who immigrated and was reunited in Miami, and started a Peruvian Nikkei restaurant. Among the fresh and bright ceviches is this sushi dish, Hamachi topped with slivers of tender octopus and a tart salsa criolla, perfumed with olive oil. Chef Nando Chang (who was nominated for a James Beard award for his work here with his sister, Val) might even drop a rhyme if you ask him. (He’s also a rapper.)
140 NE 39th St., Design District
Medianoche croquetas
The Local Cuban
I’ve been a fan of Alberto Cabrera since his days as the first chef of The Local in Coral Gables. He has resurfaced this year at the Timeout Miami food hall with The Local Cuban, where he experiments with the flavors he found in the homes of his Venezuelan, Colombian and Nicaraguan friends growing up in Miami. His medianoche croquetas are the perfect homage to the Miami sandwich, with minced ham and pickles in the actual croqueta, served with mustard aioli. They beautifully melt in your mouth. I’m excited for his first new stand-alone restaurant, Marabu, coming to Brickell City Centre in 2020.
1601 Drexel Ave., South Beach
Cast-iron pancake
Chug’s Diner
Why did no one think of a place like this before, a greasy spoon that does classic Cuban breakfast and lunch food with more skill and better ingredients. It required the Miami-born Cuban-American Mike Beltran, apparently, to expand from his finer-dining Ariete to write this love letter to Miami. It’s a perfect breakfast and lunch spot, where you’ll find a hearty breakfast frita (again, why did no one think of this before) as well as pastelitos stuffed with interesting fillings like peanut butter and jelly from sous chef and partner Gio Fesser. Among them is one giant pancake made in a cast-iron skillet, that comes alive with flavor. And if you listen to his Pan Con Podcast, you know the only way to have it is pouring syrup beneath the pancake so each bite absorbs just the right amount of maple flavor.
3444 Main Hwy., Suite 21, Coconut Grove
Croissant
Bachour
I struggle to make peace with a $4 croissant, but the inner turmoil is eased the moment I tear apart the flaky, buttery, laminated layers in Antonio Bachour’s perfect croissant. France has never made a better one. And now you can find it airline-free in Coral Gables, where it sits mild-mannered alongside his delicate, Instagram-worthy pastries and a pain au chocolat (made with hazelnut and chocolate) that might elicit a single tear.
2020 Salzedo St., Coral Gables
Paella croquetas
Café La Trova
Michelle Bernstein is the croqueta queen. Long may she reign! Earlier this year she partnered with Cuban bartender Julio Cabrera to open this fusion of a Calle Ocho Cuban jazz club and bar with the kind of food only she could make, including her mother’s recipe for a perfect and nontraditional arroz con pollo. And while her molten ham croquetas with fig jam are the same luxurious ones that were the stars of the gone-but-not-forgotten Sra. Martinez in the Design District, the paella ones are an innovation. They are served with a side of seafood stock and saffron aioli which only elevates the flavor. I’ll take mine with Cabrera’s Guayabero (tequila, guava marmalade, cayenne-agave syrup, lime juice, topped with a tiny timba square of guava and white cheese along with a frilly umbrella.
971 SW Eighth St., Little Havana
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 12:43 PM.
