This Miami restaurant was just named one of the best in the U.S. for outdoor dining

Dining outdoors has always been important to Chef Erhan Kostepen. Growing up along Turkey’s coast, he and his family ate outside as often as they could, feeling a fresh sea breeze blow as they reveled in an ocean of Aegean specialties.

“Any restaurant I opened, first thing I look at is the outdoors,” says Kostepen, the founder and former executive chef of Miami’s beloved Mandolin Aegean Bistro. “We always eat outdoors every single day. That’s how we were raised. Now, here, I eat on my balcony. That’s the Aegean style.”

Kostepen’s love for outdoor dining is evident at his latest restaurant, Doya in Wynwood, which was the only Miami restaurant to be named to OpenTable’s recent Most Popular Restaurants for Outdoor Dining list (other local restaurants mentioned include Takato and Louie Bossi in Fort Lauderdale, plus Latitudes Key West on Sunset Key).

Kostepen says when he first saw the Doya space on 24th Street in Wynwood, he knew he needed to create a garden for dining.

“We put in a lot of windows and sliding doors,” he says. “In winter we open all the sliding doors to have an indoor and outdoor space. That makes it so lively.”

Miami summers, of course, are not the best time to try and eat outside, what with the temperature roughly consistent to that of the surface of the sun. The good news is that dining inside is an incredibly pleasurable experience, too. Doya’s warm, open Aegean hospitality and atmosphere only enhance the food, a blend of Turkish and Greek cuisine that embraces the best of the Mediterranean.

The restaurant, which opened in 2021 after a delay due to the 2020 pandemic, has been named a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a designation that praises restaurants serving quality food at a reasonable price. The honor means a lot to Kostepen, who says he always checks the Bib Gourmand restaurants when he travels to different cities.

“When I opened the restaurant, I wasn’t planning to be Michelin at all,” he admits. The Bib Gourmand designation is “Michelin but more comfortable. For me, I like to go to an everyday place.”

Doya shares some similarities with Mandolin, but only a few. The restaurant is bigger, with around 70 percent of the dishes from the Turkish side of the Aegean. Meats and seafood are often cooked on charcoal or wood fires. Shared plates are encouraged, and if you want to sit at the bar by the kitchen and watch the busy chefs, you can.

The menu is split into hot and cold meze (small plates) and printed daily because Kostepen can’t quite seem to stop himself from adding items and daily specials. Hot mezes include the kofte (grilled Turkish meatballs), lamb kebaps, baked feta and a delicious zucchini and spinach pancake as well as grilled vegetables and roasted cauliflower and mastic octopus, different from any octopus you’ve tried before (mastic is the resin of the mastic tree, kind of a syrup).

Cold standouts include shaved zucchini (perfect on a hot night) and addictive dips like muhammara (a roasted red pepper dip with pomegranate, walnuts, garlic and breadcrumbs) and Green Goddess (garlic yogurt, feta, parsley, basil, mint, spinach, dill and scallions). Order lavash bread made to order in the wood-fired oven and let the dipping begin.

The menu is naturally vegetable friendly, which means Doya is a perfect spot for vegetarians and vegans.

“I’m the last person to be vegan,” Kostepen admits, “but the cabbage kebap, you’re not going to believe it’s vegan. We use the same sauce with the other kebaps, a beautiful sauce. It’s very healthy — the Mediterranean diet, they used to call it.”

Doya also has a robust cocktail menu and a buzzing, energetic bar in the center of the restaurant that adds to the buzzing, friendly atmosphere, especially at night.

So while the outdoor patio may be one of the most popular in the country, you don’t have to sit out there to have a good time.

“I would come to this place if I was by myself,” Kostepen says. “That’s what I try to create — a place I would be happy to go to.”

Doya

Where: 347 NW 24th St., Miami

Hours: Noon-midnight daily

Reservations: OpenTable

More information: www.doyarestaurant.com or 305-501-2848

This story was originally published July 13, 2023 at 4:30 AM.