Here are our favorite new Miami restaurants of 2024. Did your favorite make the list?
No matter how hungry you may be, eating at every new restaurant that opened in Miami-Dade County in 2024 feels impossible. It’s probably not, but you’d have to be extremely committed, not only to ingesting food but also in buying a new wardrobe at a slightly larger size.
So saying these are the best new restaurants to come to South Florida in 2024 isn’t quite fair. We haven’t been to every single place — not yet. But we can tell you these are our favorites among the new spots we’ve tried, and remain hopeful we cross many of the others off our list soon.
Sunny’s Steakhouse
The closing of the Michelin-recognized Jaguar Sun in 2024 could have been a tragedy for Miami, but instead, it heralded a new beginning. Co-owners Will Thompson and Chef Carey Hynes turned their outdoor pandemic pop-up in Little River into a full-time reality, keeping the gorgeous space for dining under the giant banyan tree but adding a retro-Florida indoor dining room as well. They’ve also enlisted Aaron Brooks of Edge Steak & Bar as executive chef and added some of Jaguar Sun’s pasta favorites to the menu, including the corn agnolotti with blue crab and saffron. There’s also a stunning bar, a room you’ll want to spend more time in, thanks to Thompson’s fierce attention to cocktails. A table at Sunny’s may well be the toughest reservation to get in Miami at the moment, but it’s worth the wait.
7357 NW Miami Ct., Miami; sunnysmia.com
Paya
The overachieving Chef Niven Patel and his business partner Mohamed Alkassar of Feal Hospitality opened two restaurants in 2024. One was a dazzling second location of Kendall’s Ghee Indian Kitchen, now open in Wynwood. But we’re here to talk about Paya, the island-inspired restaurant in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood of Miami Beach. The menu is a dizzying and delightful testament to Patel’s mastery of herbs, spices and flavor, from the scallop crudo with peaches, jalapeño, shallot and passionfruit to the octopus escabeche with malanga, pickled vegetables and Allspice (the best octopus I’ve had anywhere in Miami). The hits continue in the entrees with a crispy hogfish with fennel, heirloom tomatoes and a ginger sesame sauce and a calabaza gnocchi with maitake mushrooms, goat cheese and chili crunch. Haven’t found anything on the menu we wouldn’t happily devour.
1209 17th St., Miami Beach; www.payamiami.com
Recoveco
This intimate restaurant in South Miami doesn’t exactly have a strict concept, but that’s the way the husband-and-wife chef team of Nicolas Martinez and Maria Teresa Gallina want it. The chefs met while working as sous chefs at Chef Brad Kilgore’s legendary Alter in Wynwood and went on to the kitchen at the Design District’s beloved Itamae. What you can count on from them at Recoveco (which means “nook”) is a small but remarkable menu created with sharp focus and imagination. The menu, which changes with the seasons, usually offers four starters and three entrees (at the moment, the choices are black grouper, Pennsylvania golden chicken or wagyu ribeye). The only rule you need to follow is to order as a starter the grass-fed beef tongue, shaved paper-thin and served with whipped sesame, chimichurri and carta de musica (a thin Italian flatbread). Even if the words “beef tongue” disturb you, order it anyway. You won’t be disappointed.
6000 SW 74th St., Suite 1, South Miami; recovecorestaurant.com
Sra. Martinez
Twelve years after it closed in Miami’s Design District, Sra. Martinez, the Spanish restaurant from Chef Michelle Bernstein and husband David Martinez, has returned, this time to a new address in Coral Gables. The menu is new, of course, but like the original it’s full of delights, from the light and fresh kanpachi crudo with fennel and grapefruit to the comfort-food gem of egg yolk carpaccio with Key West shrimp, green butter and a crunchy potato haystack. Don’t worry, you can still order some of Bernstein’s specialty croquetas as a starter. Among the large plates, the oxtail paella with melting bone marrow is one of the highlights — it’s so good ordering anything else will be hard. But we intend to try.
2325 Galiano St., Coral Gables; www.sramartinezmiami.com
Daniel’s, A Florida Steakhouse
This Florida-focused steakhouse is located just south of the tunnel in Fort Lauderdale, not Miami, but it boasts a Miami pedigree (founder and owner Tom Angelo and executive chef Daniel Ganem hail from the elegant Italian restaurant Fiola in Coral Gables). Meat is obviously a priority at Daniel’s, from its juicy ribeye to a Florida grass-fed beef short rib. But it’s the other, smaller touches that make this restaurant stand out: appetizers like the foie gras creme brulee, hamachi crudo with strawberries or Wagyu & Pearls (wagyu tartare, shiso, black garlic aoili and Kaluga caviar). Even sides like corn pudding or a slow-cooked bacon with chimichurri, chili flakes and charred cipollini onions are unforgettable.
620 S. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale; www.danielssteak.com
This story was originally published December 27, 2024 at 4:30 AM.