Look outside the stadium for Miami Gardens’ best restaurants. Here’s where to go
Forget stadium food.
Since Miami Gardens last hosted a Super Bowl 10 years ago, the city has grown to offer fans a host of reasons — and restaurants — to dine around the city.
Sure, many fans in town for Super Bowl LIV will party and eat at the fan zones in downtown Miami and Miami Beach (and we have some suggestions for them below, too) before coming to Hard Rock Stadium.
But staying in that comfort zone means missing out on several restaurants that speak to South Florida’s wide range of delicious cultures.
Miami Gardens has blossomed with local, independent restaurants offering a wide range of only-in-Miami cuisines. The 27th Avenue corridor opposite the stadium especially has sprouted new opportunities to eat like a local.
These are just some of our favorite Miami Gardens restaurants to try during a Super Bowl — or an average Tuesday night.
Awash
This soulful and satisfying restaurant by husband and wife owners Fouad and Eka Wassel is South Florida’s only Ethiopian restaurant, where they skillfully make everything from the rolls of sourdough injira bread to a host of rich wat stews. Go with the Awash sampler, a mandala of colors, flavors and textures that includes doro wat (stewed chicken), shiro (split yellow peas) and misir (red lentils). You’ll get plenty of spongy rolls of injira to sop it up. Order the Ethiopian coffee to finish and they’ll roast fragrant beans to order.
19934 NW 2nd Ave., Miami Gardens
The Licking
DJ Khaled put this restaurant (formerly called Finga Licking) on the map with his social media following and it soon became a hangout for locals and music celebs who wanted this particular mix of Miami Caribbean and soul food. (Credit record producer Elric “E Class” Prince for bringing his clients and partnering with local chef and restaurateur Latosia Colvin.) From fried conch and lobster to lemon-pepper turkey wings and chicken with red velvet waffles, it’s Miami flavors on a platter.
17647 NW 27th Ave., Miami Gardens
Lornas
Lorna Westmoreland grew up in both Jamaica and the Bahamas and she fused those flavors with Southern soul food to create a restaurant that became a hit with locals when it was a tiny window in south Miami Gardens. It recently moved to sleek new restaurant, with a full bar and live music where the draw is still the succulent food. Brown stew chicken, Jamaican dumplings, conch stew and jerk everything are served in perhaps the nicest restaurant in the city.
19752 NW 27th Ave., Miami Gardens
Shuckin’ & Jivin’
Cajun inspired, this tiny restaurant wedged into the corner of a strip mall draws long lines for dishes like shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles. A sandwich is definitely the way to go here. Grab and go with a spicy, crunchy chicken sandwich that is worth seeking out .
4759 NW 167th St., Miami Gardens; www.weshuckin.com
Sunday’s Eatery
Call this tiny, quick-bite spot a sister restaurant to The Licking, owned by the same chef-owner Colvin, who partnered with another Miami musician, Trick Daddy. Don’t miss the fried pork ribs, collard greens and candied yams.
2675 NW 207th St, Miami Gardens
Taste Rite Bakery
Miami Gardens is blessed with several Caribbean cultures and Jamaican patties are plentiful in strip malls throughout. The ones at Taste Rite were “ so good I spent my light bill money,” blogger Starex Smith wrote for the Miami Herald. The ackee and salt fish patty is their specialty, with all the dough and fillings made in-house daily. But you can’t go wrong with the traditional beef patty. Eat it like a local: Buy a piece of pillowy soft coco bread bun and wedge the flaky, buttery Jamaican patty inside for a perfect bite.
18400 NW 2nd Ave., Miami Gardens
Yarumba
Dominican fare takes center stage at this restaurant just off the Palmetto Expressway. Start with mangú green plantain croquetas with Dominican sausage and cheese and work your way up to sancocho braised goat stew. Don’t forget to order a wedge of fried cheese (!) on the side.
4740 NW 167th St., Miami Gardens
Dessert: Ice Cream Heaven
Are you real enough to eat an entire Big Ass Ice Cream Cookie? If so, what you’ll have is ice cream homemade by a veteran of one of South Florida’s best known ice cream shops (Jaxson’s) wedged between an eight-inch cookie from one of Miami’s best cookie makers (Cindy Lou’s Cookies in Little River.) Too much? That’s ok. You can also Half Ass it for a half-sized cookie sandwich.
17560 NW 27th Ave., Miami Gardens
Staying near the fan zones?
Here are some suggestions for dining in downtown Miami near Super Bowl Live and Miami Beach’s Super Bowl Experience.
Downtown
Balloo: Timon Balloo, named by the New York Times as one of the 16 black chefs changing American cuisine, cooks a mix of Chinese, Trinidadian and Caribbean at this hidden downtown gem, from calabaza with labneh to Trinidadian ox tail with plenty of homemade roti bread.
19 SE 2nd Ave Suite #4, downtown
Fooq’s: David Foulquier was named a Forbes magazine 30 Under 30 for this special little restaurant, where they seamlessly integrate French, Persian and uniquely Miami comfort food. Picture feta-stuffed dates drizzled in balsamic vinegar, hummus garnished with fried chickpeas, or smoky eggplant dip made from roasted eggplant. Try the weekly khoresh Persian stew over tahdig crispy rice.
1035 North Miami Ave., downtown
Pollos y Jarras: You can always get a table here for rustic country Peruvian, where rows of chickens are roasting on spits, every meal starts with a cup of aguadito de pollo soup you drink like a shot and ceviches are served at more approachable prices.
115 NE 3rd Ave., downtown
Mignonette: Order high-end items like caviar and blini or seafood towers of oysters, clams, snow crabs, all the way down to comfort dishes such as a bouillabaisse that will warrant extra bread to sop up every last saucy drop.
210 NE 18th St., downtown
Niu Kitchen: It’s no long new to Miami, but Niu Kitchen remains one of the best restaurants in downtown Miami — Spanish tapas (skewing toward Catalan flavors) with great wines in a cozy family-run setting. The menu is always rotating. Current hits are the paper-thin, buttery-soft octopus carpaccio over chickpea purée and meaty pork baby back ribs over a romesco.
134 NE 2nd Ave., downtown
Miami Beach
Macchialina: These small plates meant to be shared unleash creativity in every Italian-inspired dish, from meatballs to write home to Mama about, to a delicious hunk of lasagna.
820 Alton Rd, Miami Beach
Mister O1: This pizza is so good the U.S. government granted the chef an O-1 visa for “individuals with extraordinary ability,” to bring his pizza making skills stateside. Each thin-crusted, Neapolitan-style pie is made to serve one person. The “exceptional” pies are shaped into stars where each peak is stuffed with delicious ricotta cheese.
1680 Michigan Ave #101, Miami Beach
Naiyara: Thai street food is raised to a level of respect by Northern Thailand’s Chef “Bee.” Sticky spare ribs, crispy bok choi, a salmon-belly Naiyara Roll and Drunken Udon noodles make for a memorable meal in a sleek restaurant in Miami Beach’s posh Sunset Harbour.
1854 Bay Rd., Sunset Harbour
Sushi Garage: An old service station was transformed with dangling art exhibit in this little sister restaurant to the rooftop Juvia on Lincoln Road. But the food is just as refined, with elegant sushi, ceviches and tempuras.
1784 West Ave., Sunset Harbour
Via Emilia 9: A chef born in Bologna with several family restaurants there opened this regional northern Italian restaurant where pasta is handmade in the window every morning. He takes so much pride in his work, you can see it in the perfectly folded tortellini.
1120 15th Street, Miami Beach
