The Miami Restaurants Where We Want to Be Regulars

The cries you heard when local favorite Jaguar Sun announced it was closing were soon drowned out by cheers when the same team opened Sunny’s, a mod-meets-retro steakhouse full of martinis, meats, and vibes. Start classic with shrimp cocktail and a little gem salad at your indoor or outdoor table (the more you go, they’ll remember where you like to sit). Don’t skip a pasta course, like the agnolotti with blue crab and corn, a carryover from Jaguar Sun. With Australian-born chef Aaron Brooks (formerly of Edge Steak) in the kitchen, you’d be wise to consider the 30-ounce Australian wagyu ribeye to share or the saddle of lamb — Brooks’ favorite protein — with eggplant and charred scallion.

At Maty’s, chef Val Chang’s homage to the foods she grew up eating in Peru from her Chinese-born grandmother, some favorite menu items are likely there for the long haul, like perfect grouper cebiche and Chang’s showstopping butterflied dorade over a vivid golden-yellow aji amarillo beurre blanc. But Chang is always tinkering on other parts of the menu, including seasonal dishes and different ingredient pairings. Guess who she asks to try out those potential menu items on, say, a random Wednesday when she’s experimenting in the kitchen? Maty’s regulars. Be one.

One of Miami’s best-kept culinary secrets, chef Frederic Joulin’s French-American bistro Semilla has humbly hummed along in the heart of South Beach since 2013. It won’t take more than a visit or two before Joulin is greeting you by name and treating you like family, popping out of the kitchen to open a wine bottle or refill water glasses. He’s cooked in Michelin-starred Paris kitchens, but Joulin’s food here is all classic comfort, no fancy fuss. From duck confit and baked brie to beef bourguignon and pasta with truffles, a meal at Semilla feels like home. Try it, and you may go from wondering how you missed it all these years to becoming a regular in no time.

Toni’s is an anomaly in that it’s situated on one of the most tourist-trafficked blocks in South Beach, yet it has remained a haven for locals since 1987. A recent design update added a Japanese bamboo canopy over the dining room, but it’s the sushi bar where you’ll find Toni’s regulars tucking into plates of hamachi kama, grilled eggplant with miso, and special pieces of nigiri and sashimi like conch, aburi salmon belly, and otoro. Do regulars ever get gifts of handrolls and other treats from the sushi chefs? It doesn’t hurt to belly up and find out.

A top perk of being a regular is when they know your order without you having to say it. Which, at Mandolin, means you can spend less time scanning the menu and more time people-watching and sipping cold rosé, like the strawberry- and orange-rind notes of a 2021 Ktima Roussos from the Greek island Paros. Before you know it, your usual — Greek village salad and manti dumplings swimming in garlicky yogurt and brown butter dusted with Aleppo pepper — will appear at your table. How sweet it is to be a regular.

Michael Schwartz won the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: South award in 2010, three years after opening his pioneering Design District flagship restaurant. Lucky for MGFD regulars that some items have remained on the menu nearly the whole time (crispy hominy with chile and lime, we’ll love you forever!) while Schwartz and his chefs keep finding new ways to coax delicious flavors out of the restaurant’s wood-burning oven. You definitely want a local grouper or a 1/2 chicken roasted in that oven. Maybe some fresh bok choy or fingerling potatoes kissed with that wood smoke, too. And while MGFD has an outstanding wine program and some fun zero-proof options, beer often feels like the goes-with-everything beverage of choice here. Philadelphia-born Schwartz usually has a Victory Golden Monkey or other Pennsylvania craft beer available.

In a family-run restaurant as intimate and beloved as Macchialina, where everyone is treated like a regular, imagine how well its actual regulars are coddled. We imagine truffles and tiramisu may be involved. Chef-owner Michael Pirolo’s four-course, $70 tasting menu ($55 to add wine pairings) remains one of the best values in town. And while his housemade pastas — from spaghetti pomodoro and tagliolini with mushrooms to lobster fra diavolo and meatball cavatelli — often call for a red wine pairing, consider a sparkler like Movia “Puro” from Slovenia. Its big effervescence primes the palate for each new bite of food, and its unique underwater opening method makes for fun tableside theater.

A big part of being a restaurant regular is finding comfort in routine and repetition — qualities that professional kitchens value as well. There’s definitely comfort in stepping into the nearly 10-year-old KYU and being able to taste some of the same dishes you ate there in 2016 or 2017. They’re being executed at the same high level as before, thanks to the recent return of chef Raheem Sealey, who was part of the opening team but took some time away to open Drinking Pig BBQ. Pork belly bao with yuzu pickles, crispy Korean fried chicken that shatters on contact, whole-roasted cauliflower on a green shishito-herb vinaigrette — with dishes that tried and true, who wouldn’t want to be a regular at KYU?