Eat your way through Miami: A local’s guide to dining in the 305
Asturias in Hialeah was the first restaurant where I was allowed to order like an adult.
We ate there on Saturdays on the way to visit Abuelo, who lived near Hialeah Park. It was a special place to us, a nook at the end of a Sedano’s strip mall with faux brick panels on the wall and red tablecloths. It was the place where we went after church and where my parents treated my older brother, Rogerio, to the bistec a la milanesa he couldn’t get in Los Angeles where he lived with his mom. Those times he visited were some of the best of my childhood.
So I was crushed when I learned years later it had closed for good — not because I couldn’t get that kind of food anywhere else. I hadn’t even been there in years. Memories — good memories — were tied up in it.
And maybe that’s why restaurants matter at all to us. They’re not just places we eat when we’re bored of eating at home (though they are that, too). They are where we share small, quiet moments and celebrate big, momentous occasions. It’s why a reader wrote in when she learned of Nunzio’s Ristorante in the western suburbs closing after 48 years.
“The memory of many, many, many shared meals with family friends there warms my heart, and now brings tears to my eyes,” she wrote.
It’s why people reacted so strongly to learning Caffe Abbracci founder Nino Pernetti had been in the hospital for a year recovering from the effects of COVID-19. And why my inbox filled with praise when the James Beard Foundation announced Zak Stern — the kid from South Dade who sold artisanal bread out of his garage before opening Wynwood’s Zak the Baker — was one of the best bakers in the country last week.
We care about restaurants because they are part of our community, a reflection of our culture: Cuban, Peruvian, Colombian, Haitian, Black Southern and on and on and on.
So it’s in that spirit that I share some of my favorite restaurants, places that feel special to me in my six-plus years covering restaurants for the Miami Herald. These are places with great food, but also great stories and people behind them that help stitch together the fabric of Miami culture.
This list is not a best-of, and it’s not comprehensive. It’s totally subjective! The list is sortable by price, type of cuisine and part of town.
My hope is this dining guide will give you permission to get out of your comfort zone and explore places that are not just new but perhaps new to you. You might find a new favorite to host new memories.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
