All 12 Michelin-starred restaurants in Miami

Few chefs bake their heritage into their dishes more perfectly than Michael Beltran. You’ll find that to be true at his Cuban-American diner, Chug’s, where he reinvents dishes from his childhood growing up in Miami, and you’ll find it here at Ariete, a fine dining restaurant where Beltran crushes technique and fresh ingredients and spotless service. What should you order? The pressed duck has to be one of the most special dishes in town, but then so is much of what Beltran cooks.

For those who make dining out a pastime, Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer should be two chefs to list among your favorites. It’s not just that they have a charming-as-a-Hallmark-Special story: they worked the line at Michelin-starred restaurants before opening a chicken sando food truck in Miami that was so good they had no choice but to open a restaurant. It’s also that everything they make is heavenly, like the cold squid ink tagliolini with crab or the much-Instagrammed tortellini in brodo or whatever seasonal thing they’re coming up with next.

This Korean steakhouse concept scored a Michelin star for its New York City location before opening up this stunning spot in the Design District. Proprietor Simon Kim assured everything here works, from the decor that feels like a secret Seoul supper club, the knowledgeable wait staff that largely cooks the dishes for you from a cooker in the center of the table, to a cocktail menu that makes the always-happening bar worthy of regular drop-ins. All of this is well and good but then comes the food, like the fluffy egg souffle and 45-day dry-aged beef. First-timers should hit the Butcher’s Feast, a Michelin-worthy sample for $60 per person.

The point of an omakase-style dinner is to appreciate the dishes in front of you, largely single pieces of fish served simply in order to venerate the ingredients. It would be tough to find a place that does this more expertly than The Den, where the omakase feels like a damn near-religious experience. Each piece arriving from chef Atsushi Okawara’s team seems put on a pedestal—beautiful fatty tuna, well-seared wagyu and whatever else they feel like elevating to new levels that night.

Chef Juan Manuel Barrientos earned fame, and a Michelin star, in D.C. before adding an outpost in Brickell. Born in Colombia, here Barrientos combines the fresh ingredients of farm-to-table with molecular gastronomy and some of the prettiest plating around. Michelin called it “culinary artistry,” and even with the hefty tab at the end, who’s to disagree?

There can’t be many Michelin-starred restaurants anywhere that are accessed through a door in the back of a taco shop. But pass through the back of the Taco Stand in Wynwood and you’ll find an omakase restaurant that’s more whimsical than traditional, full of items that are ever-changing with the seasons. Reservations here are near impossible to land—think months out before you get a secret code to the door—and it’s one of the more expensive spots in the city, at $170 per person. But the 15-course tasting menu drawn from different regions in Japan is surprising, often delicious and decidedly worth it.

When the chefs behind the Joël Robuchon restaurant empire arrived in Miami, they opened two restaurants in one spot, the aforementioned two-star L’Atelier and a more casual downstairs stepsister, Le Jardinier. Even though this spot has one less star than its neighbor upstairs, there are many reasons you might like it more, thanks to a far more casual vibe and a menu focused on highlighting seasonal vegetables, like a roasted leeks dish that turns what’s typically a simple stew ingredient into a main course. The super sleek indoor space feels like it arrived from the year 3000, but the garden veranda outside might be the finest spot for a Design District brunch.

Chef Sebastian Vargas and the entire team behind this charming Coconut Grove spot created a true homage to Mexican cuisine. That starts with the just-perfect tortillas pressed from masa in a machine on-site and then moves far beyond it, with everything from salsas to pork cheek carnitas, well thought out and plated with tweezer-level perfection.

If many of the Michelin-recommended restaurants leave you feeling like you just left an art history lecture, head to chef Jeremy Ford’s lively spot on Miami Beach. The place seems always jumping, with sleek industrial-chic decor and meticulously plates dishes that are always, at their core, delicious. They’re also often reminiscent of something, like Ford’s cacio e pepe cheese puffs, which taste like airy reminders of nana’s grilled cheese sandwiches.

Tambourine Room is ushering in Miami's next big food trend: the chef-driven tasting menu. Expect meticulous plates and precision service at a steep price. Chef Tristan Brandt's 18-seat restaurant tucked away off the lobby of The Carillon Miami is an intimate, dinner party-styled homage to the resort’s 1958 cocktail lounge of the same name. The restaurant offers two tasting menu experiences reminiscent of high-end dining in Europe: meticulous plates that honor seasonal, local ingredients, with a focus on modern-classic French cuisine with Asian influences. 

Look, it’s Thomas Keller, the venerated chef from The French Laundry and Vegas and that show you saw him on once, so of course, he’s going to have a Michelin star. But here, it’s well deserved, for a restaurant that nails service, presentation, taste and every single category needed for a good restaurant. You should order the oysters Rockefeller with a martini, the Maine lobster thermidor with whichever wine the sommelier recommends, and then feel very much like you’re celebrating winning everything.