The folks from Michelin will toss around stars in Miami for the first time in 2022, and they ought to be looking at this outpost of a D.C. power crowd favorite. Miami’s Fiola is a restaurant that seems almost faultless: a staff that knows the perfect level of attentive but not obtrusive service, a wine program as good as any, and cocktails made with serious care. All that is good and fine but then there’s also the creative and often perfectly executed dishes put out by chef Danny Ganem, a Miami native who likes to reinvent and rethink dishes, like his served-upright lasagna with short rib and, if you can believe it, eel. All this greatness will cost you—a hundred bucks a head, easy—so just remember Fiola next time dad or the boss offers to pick up the bill.
Market research shows there are a million people in this country working in 100,000 Italian restaurants, and, without actual scientific data, we think that a good half of them are in Miami. OK, yes, that’s hyperbole, but it’s just true that if you look out your window right now there’s probably an osteria or trattoria run by some famous chef not far away (and you thought we were going to say a Cuban restaurant). It's a good thing for any fan of dining out, because all those Italian restaurants in Miami mean lots of choices the next time you’re jonesing for red sauce. That said, it's also hard to pick a fave, which is why we ended up with so many on this list: These are places we simply could not skip, the absolute best 17 Italian restaurants in Miami.