La-Sirenuse-restaurant-dining-room-Florida-banner.
Travel & Leisure Travel, Food & Drink

A Guide to Florida’s Best Restaurants

If you prefer dining out to watching Super Bowl LIV, this time of year can be a great opportunity to secure a table at some of the hottest restaurants in the Sunshine State

With world-class produce from local farms, fresh seafood, and several award-winning chefs, there’s no shortage of memorable meals to enjoy in the Sunshine State. And if you’re not planning on watching the Super Bowl LIV, or attending one of the many events leading up to the big game, it could be the best time to experience Florida‘s best restaurants.

Miami’s Best Restaurants

In this bright and buzzing city, where you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to celebrated Latin American fare, La Mar by Gastón Acurio leads the pack. Tucked into the Mandarin Oriental resort overlooking Biscayne Bay in upscale Brickell Key, dishes here range from novo-Andean fare—dishes and ingredients from Peru’s pre-Hispanic past—to Asian-Peruvian fusion and ceviche. Try the barrio with yellowtail snapper, mussels, shrimp, crispy calamari, and rocoto tiger’s milk.

Anticuchos (Peruvian grilled skewers) are reinvented with Wagyu beef, free-range chicken, octopus, and whole jumbo prawn. For heartier fare, the lomo saltado, a traditional dish combining stir-fried beef tenderloin, potatoes, red onions, tomatoes, soy sauce, cilantro, and aji amarillo, served with rice, is not to be missed. An impressive cocktail menu includes Peruvian classics infused with pisco, a South American grape brandy.

miami-fine-dining-la-mar-terrace
La Mar by Gaston Acurio showcases novo-Andean dishes in a contemporary setting in Brickell Key, Miami.

Across the bridge in Miami Beach, La Sirenuse recalls the old-school glamour of Italy’s Amalfi Coast, combined with Miami’s Art Deco jazz era. Located inside the Surf Club hotel, La Sirenuse serves some of the city’s best Mediterranean cuisine—and the stunning Atlantic Ocean views aren’t bad, either. For the best experience, try the 10-course passione tasting menu where chef Antonio Mermolia serves his personal favorites including authentic Italian ingredients, such as his prized pasta from the Italian town of Gragnano and heirloom pomodorino di piennolo. If you prefer to dine à la carte, the linguine with clams, and the vitello, bieta olive nere, a roasted European veal tenderloin served with swiss chard and black olives. A selection of hard-to-find Italian wines and award-winning champagne makes the perfect accompaniment to the meal.

La-Sirenuse-Florida-bar-drinks
The champagne bar at La Sirenuse At The Surf Club overlooks the beach, and is the perfect place to toast la dolce vita with a glass of champagne or an Italian aperitivo in hand.

For a slightly more casual take on upscale cuisine, James Beard Award-winning chef Brad Kilgore’s buzzworthy Alter, is literally designed to “alter the way you think about fine dining.” Choose from a five- or seven-course tasting menu (French apple soup, kombucha-ponzu, smoked Peking duck) or go for the full chef’s experience, which adds caviar and Wagyu au poivre to the selections. You won’t want to pass on the cocktail menu. From the Calle 23 featuring Smooth Ambler bourbon and honey blackberry jam, and orange bitters, to a Kilgore’s Highball made with Maker’s Mark whiskey, the concoctions are as eclectic as the art-and-design-centric Wynwood neighborhood where the restaurant is located.

Smoked-peking-duck
Peking duck appears on the seven-course tasting menu at Alter restaurant in Miami.

Where to Dine in Palm Beach

72 miles (100 km) north by car is chic Palm Beach (or a 20-minute seaplane jaunt, depending on your preference). Let the diehard Super Bowl fans have the beach bars and the politicos have Mar-a-Lago and instead park yourself at Clay Conley’s award-winning Būccan. A four-time finalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the South and winner of several more culinary accolades many times over, Clay’s wood-fire grilled and roasted small plates include sweetbreads, mushroom spring rolls with minted pea aioli and pea shoots, and the squid ink orecchiette with Italian sausage, Caribbean conch, and Calabrese chilies.

Flories-restaurant-Florida
The beautiful Florie’s restaurant at the Four Season’s Palm Beach has a terrace with views of the ocean.

Conley’s newest restaurant, the Chateau Miami, will debut in March in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. “We’ve hired Zach Bell, who worked directly with Daniel Boulud for many years, to helm the new restaurant,” Conley says, adding that he’ll be moving back to Miami part-time for the next six to 12 months so he can oversee operations while also keeping an eye on his Palm Beach restaurants. The restored French château will feature a conservatory and an outdoor lounge, both perfect spots for a sunny brunch. “We have a cool brunch dish inspired by the Latin culture there, the media noche pain pardeaux,” Conley says. “It’s a layered brioche with ham, gruyère, mustard butter, and cornichons.” The dinner menu will include a carbonara fonduta raviolini with quail egg, bacon, peas, and Parmesan.

Inside the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, chef-partner Mauro Colagreco, whose French Riviera seaside restaurant, Mirazur, has a three-Michelin-star ranking and the distinction of being number three on the World’s Best Restaurants list, just debuted Florie’s, his first restaurant in the United States. The menu focuses on global fire-cooking techniques, specifically those prepared à la broche, a spit-roasting method. Try the king prawns marinated in garlic with a spicy avocado sauce, or the pork ribs or lamb shank—the latter two are roasted inside a tandoor, giving them a deep, earthy flavor. Pizzas and pastas are cooked inside a hearth oven—go for the black truffle with porcini mushrooms and the oxtail calzone with chili, egg, and cilantro.

Flories-bar-drinks-wine
Florie’s Bar at the Four Season’s Palm Beach serves cocktails and aperitifs with fruit, herbs, and botanicals sourced from the resort’s garden.

The Top Tables in Orlando

While the action of Super Bowl LIV takes place in Miami, it would be remiss to talk about Florida’s best restaurant scene without mentioning a few of the top tables in Orlando. For more than 30 years, Victoria & Albert’s inside Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa has made the lists of top-notch fine dining establishments in the state, and for good reason. Eight-time James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef in the South, executive chef Scott Hunnel, serves two tasting menus, one of which includes a Chilean sea bass with Nantucket scallops that no diner forgets thanks to a crispy crust made from fried broccolini buds. Other standouts include the simple tagliatelle pasta with Italian white truffle shavings and the more complex Australian Kobe-style beef, infused with rosemary and thyme and served with a potato pinwheel.

Grand-Floridian-Dining-Room-Victoria-Alberts
The opulent Victorian decor of Victoria & Albert’s restaurant, inside Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, is the perfect backdrop for its exquisite meals. Image: Kent Phillips

Just a few minutes away by car at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando, Capa is a romantic rooftop steakhouse that also serves fresh Florida seafood, Spanish-inspired tapas, and meats from a wood-burning grill. Enjoy spectacular views of the Disney fireworks nightly display from either of the restaurant’s outdoor terraces while indulging in chef Gabriel Massip’s 32-ounce prime porterhouse steak—the chef’s signature dish.

Across town at Luma on Park in upscale Winter Park, chef Brandon McGlamery, whose former posts include California’s French Laundry and Chez Panisse, was one of the first in the city to open a true farm-to-table restaurant. Dishes such as the chestnut-stuffed chicken with purple rice grits and cilantro-cured flounder with green strawberries and Florida peaches have won him loyal fans over the past 15 years. As has his two-story wine vault filled with thousands of bottles.

Capa-terrace-fireworks-Florida
From the terrace at steak and seafood restaurant Capa, you can see the fireworks at Disneyland Resort, Florida. Capa was also named one of the Best 100 Wine Restaurants in the United States by Wine Enthusiast magazine.

Just down the street, Hamilton’s Kitchen inside the elegant Alfond Inn has also been earning a reputation as a top culinary destination with a menu featuring fresh ingredients from local farms, at times prepared with a Southern twist. From the baked brie en croute with local honey and pear chutney to the walnut-crusted wild halibut, and the homemade shepherd’s pie, Hamilton’s never disappoints. Linger around the inn after your meal and take in the world-class art collection; tours take place on the first Wednesday of every month. The collection comprises more than 300 works by contemporary international artists and is part of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum’s permanent collection.

Luma-Park-restaurant-Florida
Diners at farm-to-table restaurant Luma on Park sit on the restaurants terrace in Winter Park, Florida

Wherever you decide to dine, Super Bowl weekend is the perfect time to enjoy fewer crowds at some of the Sunshine State’s top tables. Not that you need a reason to eat at any of these fine restaurants—though a little more elbow room never hurts.

Banner image: La Sirenuse, Miami Beach, Florida