From a One-Bedroom Apartment to Three Locations: The Story Behind Sufrat Mediterranean Grill

By Eric Barton | Nov. 1, 2025

AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.

After long shifts in a Cuban cafeteria, 19-year-old Tamer Altillawi would go home to his little Miami apartment and cook like his mother was about to walk in. Not just dinner. A spread. Rice spiced the way he remembered it from Jordan. Chicken braised low. Bowls meant for passing, not plating. He’d call friends, feed whoever showed up, and watch the table go quiet in that way it does when people are actually tasting.

“Everyone kept telling me, ‘You should open a restaurant,’” he says. “At that time, I realized Miami was missing great Mediterranean food and the kind of warm hospitality that makes you feel at home.”

Those late-night tables became the blueprint. What he was testing in that apartment wasn’t just food. It was a feeling — that you sit, you’re fed, and you belong there. That same idea is now Sufrat Mediterranean Grill, which has grown into three South Florida locations, run by Altillawi and his brothers, Samer and Ahmad. The mission hasn’t changed since the apartment years. Keep the recipes honest. Make it affordable enough that nearly anyone can sit down. And never lose the part that matters most to him: “Sufrat isn’t just a restaurant,” he says. “It’s an extension of our home.”

Sufrat Samer Altillawi, Tamer Altillawi, and Ahmad Don Altillawi

From left: Samer, Tamer, and Ahmad Altillawi

The Altillawi brothers grew up in Jordan in a house where meals were the center of gravity. His mother cooked constantly. People were always over. Lunch and dinner weren’t plates; they were spreads. “Meals were never just about eating; they were about gathering,” Tamer Altillawi says. “My earliest memories are of her in the kitchen, cooking for family and hosting guests... It wasn’t fancy, but it was full of heart.” She didn’t measure or write anything down. She cooked by taste and memory, and she fed big. Watching her, he understood that a meal is supposed to feel generous, not performative.

Altillawi’s father, a doctor, had a different vision, that his son would join him in medicine and eventually take over the clinic. That’s stability in Jordan. That’s pride. Moving to Miami as a teenager to cook was not in the plan. “It wasn’t an easy conversation when I told him I was moving to Miami to follow a different path,” Altillawi says. “There was some disappointment at first.”

Mezze

Altillawi arrived in Miami alone. Little English, no Spanish. He got a job in a Cuban cafeteria and learned fast, because he had to. “That was one of the hardest and most exciting times of my life,” he says. “I learned by listening, asking questions, and observing. I fell in love with Miami’s culture.” The job gave him kitchen discipline — timing, prep, command under pressure. It also gave him Spanish, which he picked up on the line and in the walk-in.

Greek salad

Tamer Altillawi Sufrat Mediterranean Grill Restaurant Miami Octopus.jpg

Octopus with labneh

Those nights cooking at home turned into R&D. He made the dishes he missed: seasoned rice and chicken, spreads built for passing and tearing bread, plates meant to sit in the middle of the table. He also started paying attention to the overlap between the flavors he grew up with and what Miami loved. He’ll tell you arroz con pollo exists in both cultures, but the seasoning shifts. And now at Sufrat there’s grilled octopus: something you’d expect on a Mediterranean table, served over labneh, but also very Miami in how it leans into seafood. “It’s a beautiful blend of Mediterranean and Latin influences,” he says. “A true reflection of Miami’s culture.”

Tamer Altillawi Sufrat Grill Restaurant Miami

Sufrat in Pembroke Pines came first in 2020. Miami Beach followed in 2022, then Doral in 2023. By then his brothers had joined him in the U.S., and each one took responsibility for a location. Consistency is non-negotiable. “We taste everything, we cook together,” he says. “Family is everything to us.”

The family part is literal. The menu is built on their mother’s recipes. The tone in the dining room is modeled on their own table. And the approval that mattered most eventually came around. “My father always dreamed I’d become a doctor like him,” he says. “But today he’s here with me in Miami, and I know he’s proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Ask Altillawi what he wants people to feel when they walk in, and he doesn’t talk about decor or branding. He talks about being welcomed. “When people walk into Sufrat, I want them to feel like they’ve been invited to a family feast,” he says. “We want our food to tell a story: of Jordan, of Miami, and of taking risks.”