CHEF PROFILES | MIAMI
Miami’s Dining Scene is Red Hot Right Now, and These Are the Chefs Behind It
By Eric Barton | Jan. 10, 2026
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.
Miami’s dining scene is running hot enough to melt the ice in a cocktail before it hits the bar. And it is not an accident.
This city is in the middle of a real restaurant moment, where serious money keeps showing up, serious dining rooms keep opening, and the kitchen talent keeps getting sharper. The result is a dining scene that feels less like a collection of hits and more like an arms race, with chefs competing on execution, restraint, and how fast they can make a table forget whatever they ate last week.
These are the chefs who are driving that momentum, and the restaurants where they are doing their best work.
Shingo Akikuni, Shingo
Shingo Akikuni’s omakase counter in Coral Gables feels more like a shrine than a restaurant. There are 14 seats, a slab of rare Hinoki wood flown in from Kyoto, and a sense of reverence that settles the moment he begins slicing. Akikuni trained in Michelin-starred kitchens in Tokyo and Miami (and now has a star of his own), and it shows—each course feels like a word in a poem you don’t fully understand but can’t stop reading. His nigiri is clean, deliberate, and somehow emotional. It’s sushi that makes you sit quiet, take a moment, and take in a master at work.
Michael Beltran, Ariete
At whatever restaurant he’s opening next, and he has several around town, Michael Beltran manages to build a menu that reflects his background. There’s always the traditional fine-dining techniques, sure, but then there’s also dishes that tell his story, that Cuban heritage and Miami-against-the-world spirit that he brings to his kitchens. At Ariete, that’s best exemplified by the duck press, one of the most unique and special dishes in Miami. At Chug’s, that’s represented on his Chef’s Breakfast plate (white rice, three eggs, sazón completa, herbs), which is what any good chefs needs to start the day. Whatever he’s opening next, his restaurant will be pure Michael Beltran.
Aaron Brooks, Sunny’s Miami
Aaron Brooks might’ve come to Miami via Australia, but he gets this city in a way few outsiders do. At Sunny’s, he’s built the kind of modern steakhouse where nothing feels overwrought, but everything is on point—from the marbled ribeyes to the martinis. He’s got that rare ability to cook for both the die-hard carnivore and the pescatarian date trying to pretend this isn’t a steakhouse. It’s the kind of place where you plan to split one bottle of wine and end up ordering three, where the vibe and the dishes that arrive will turn dining here beyond dinner and into a full-fledged night out.
>>>READ ALSO: Sunny’s Steakhouse: Martinis, duck lasagna, and killer backyard vibes>>>
Erhan Kostepen, Doya
Erhan Kostepen runs Doya like a love letter to the Aegean that still knows it is in Wynwood, which means the room feels built for a long lunch that turns into dinner and accidentally keeps going. He cooks Greek-and-Turkish meze over wood and coal fire, so the hits come with a little scorch and intention, like the truffle-and-kasseri pide, the wood-fired chicken thighs with sumac and onions, and the charred chopped lamb that regularly sells out. This is the rare Miami restaurant that feels like a scene, full of both the pretty people and big families sharing plates, and also a place where you can eat very well, thanks to cooking that never feels far from its Aegean roots.
>>>READ ALSO: He Was Paid in Cokes to Prep Octopus. Now Erhan Kostepen Runs One of Miami’s Best Restaurants>>>
Danny Ganem, Daniel’s Miami
Danny Ganem spent years feeding Miami celebrations at Fiola, and now he is back in that same address with Daniel’s Steakhouse, which immediately started acting like one of Miami’s most important restaurants. The menu reads like a classic steakhouse with a Miami passport, with big-ticket steaks, seafood towers, and a pasta lane that quietly reminds everyone what used to live here. The reception has been loud and measurable, because reservations disappear and the restaurant cracked the 2026 World’s Best 101 Steak Restaurants list at No. 9 within months of opening, the first, I’m assuming, of many more accolades.
>>>READ ALSO: Goodbye Fiola, Hello Daniel’s: Fort Lauderdale Favorite Expands to Coral Gables>>>
Masayuki Komatsu, Ogawa
Masayuki Komatsu isn’t just preparing sushi—he’s conducting a ceremony. At Ogawa’s 12-seat omakase counter, Komatsu watches his guests as closely as he watches his knives, adapting in real time. When he noticed my wife didn’t eat her uni, he swapped her next course without a word. That kind of attentiveness isn’t common, and neither is his pedigree: a Michelin-starred background and the calm precision of someone who knows he’s at the top of his game. The Ogawa sister restaurants he also oversees, Hiyakawa and Midorie, are no less excellent. Watching him work is like seeing a calligrapher draw with fish.
>>>READ ALSO: Wabi Sabi Becomes Midorie, Adding a Temaki Bar and Luxe Omakase To-Go Boxes in Miami>>>
Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer, Boia De
Boia De is the kind of place that’s barely marked, hidden in a strip mall, and somehow still always has a waitlist longer than a TSA line. That’s because Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer are doing high-wire acts with Italian food that don’t feel showy—just quietly brilliant. They’ll hand you cold tagliolini nero with king crab, and you’ll start wondering why pasta ever needed to be hot. The room is boisterous, the dishes just simply never miss, and the vibe is that rarest thing in Miami: unforced cool.
Michaël Michaelidis, Claudie
You don’t work in kitchens that earned 26 Michelin stars by accident. Michaël Michaelidis brought his precision from Paris to Miami in 2024 and immediately began upping the city’s game. At MILA, he created what is simply one of the country’s most financially successful restaurants. At Claudie, it’s Riviera nostalgia done with restraint—spiny lobster, heirloom tomatoes, truffle vinaigrette, and not a single note out of place. Even Casa Neos, his waterfront stunner, feels less like a clubstaurant and more like a studied seduction. Miami’s not short on sceney restaurants. Michaelidis just makes sure they serve plates that taste as good as the surroundings are pretty.
>>>READ ALSO: Claudie Miami Review: Escargot, Loup de Mer, and the South of France in Brickell>>>
Bernardo Paladini, Torno Subito
Bernardo Paladini is the chef translating Massimo Bottura’s ideas into actual plates in Miami, and Torno Subito now has a cleaner, more logical home at The Moore in the Design District. He leans into the restaurant’s whole point—Italian comfort with a wink and a conscience—so the menu moves from crab in saor and tortellini to the dessert that basically dares Miami to order it: “Oops, I Burned the Key Lime Pie.” The reopening on December one got treated like real news around town, which is usually the clearest sign a restaurant is getting more attention than it can politely return.
>>>READ ALSO: Inside the New Torno Subito at The Moore>>>
Niven Patel, Ghee
If you’ve been following Niven Patel since the early days of Ghee, you already know the guy can pull intensity from turmeric the way Miles Davis did from a single note. He grows the ingredients on his farm, yes, but the story is bigger than that—he translates them. Paya, his latest, folds in Caribbean spice and Florida sun with Patel’s Indian instincts, creating something that doesn’t fit into any box but still feels familiar. It’s his best yet, and that includes a hell of a track record.
>>>READ ALSO: The Best Miami Beach Restaurants: Here’s How to Avoid the Tourist Traps>>>
Tam Pham, Tâm Tâm
At his downtown restaurant, Tam Pham crafted a menu inspired by his childhood in Saigon's Chinatown, combining Vietnamese flavors with the Cantonese dishes his mom made at home. That means Cantonese-style grouper, crispy wings in caramel fish sauce, and a wagyu tartare topped with citrusy fire ants. With Harrison Ramhofer handling the front-of-the-house vibes, they’ve created one of the more fun restaurants at the moment in Miami, and it’s also a place where everything on the menu reflects the chef cooking it.
Michael Pirolo, Macchialina
Born in Queens, raised in Italy, Michael Pirolo’s food is the beautiful result of that split identity, with a deep understanding of the old-school rules of Italian regional dishes but also willing to break them to make something more delicious. One moment you’re eating spaghetti pomodoro so traditional it might as well have a Vatican stamp; the next, you’re spooning into creamy polenta that feels like it was invented in Miami Beach last week. His cavatelli with baby meatballs doesn’t just hit—it lingers. After years of holding down one of Miami’s Best Italian restaurants as his lone projects, Pirolo branched out last year with the Little River pizza spot Bar Bucce. But at both of his places, Pirolo isn’t trying to reinvent Italian cuisine. He’s just reminding you how good it tastes when someone knows what they’re doing.
Michael Schwartz, Michael’s Genuine
You could argue Michael Schwartz invented modern Miami dining—or at least gave it permission to be seasonal and smart without being fussy. Michael’s Genuine still feels like a Design District anchor, the place you go to remember why anyone ever got excited about locally grown radishes, still served as bar snacks. It’s the kind of restaurant that spawned a dozen imitators, but none of them have managed Schwartz’s mix of discipline and looseness. At Amara at Paraiso, he created a never-misses waterfront spot with one of the city’s best brunches. The truth of it is that Schwartz made casual fine dining cool before it was a marketing term.
Raheem Sealey, Shiso
Raheem Sealey is that chef whose résumé reads like a Miami dining who’s who—and he’s only getting started. He’s Global Executive Chef for KYU, overseeing locations from Miami to New York, Las Vegas, and later this year, Los Angeles. And he has a new location for Drinking Pig BBQ in Coconut Grove. Last year he opened Shiso in Wynwood, an Asian smokehouse where wood-fired BBQ meets Japanese precision and Caribbean soul; think smoked Cornish hen and oxtail gunkan under Wynwood street-art vibes. Sealey cooks like he’s built every plate around joy and community. This isn’t fusion. It’s synthesis, and it hits like home.
Janice Buraschi and Juan Manuel Umbert, PASTA
Janice Buraschi and Juan Manuel Umbert, the husband-and-wife duo, brought PASTA from Lima to Wynwood in late 2024, setting up shop in a 70-seat space that somehow feels intimate, thanks to warm wood, a glowing canopy of rattan lights, and a silky quartz chef’s counter that doubles as the best seat in the house. From there, you’ll see everything: the stracciatella being pulled by hand, the sourdough starter getting its daily stir, the ragù bubbling behind the line. Their pastas are focused and deceptively simple—pappardelle with beef cheek ragù, agnolotti filled with mushroom broth that bursts like soup dumplings. Even the desserts stay grounded: lúcuma gelato, a sharp and creamy gorgonzola cheesecake. There are other pasta specialists in town. But none feel this personal.
>>>READ ALSO: Meet Janice Buraschi, the Pastry Chef Behind One of Miami’s Best New Restaurants>>>
Pablo Zitzmann, Zitz Sum
Pablo Zitzmann once told me he yanked ramen off the menu at Zitz Sum because too many people were ordering it. He didn’t want the place to become a ramen restaurant, and he was willing to remove a best-selling dish to make sure his concept stayed true. It’s undeniable it has. Zitz Sum is a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand spot in Coral Gables that started as a dumpling pop-up and still runs on restless energy, with a rotating lineup anchored by signatures like wonton in brodo, where chicken-thigh dumplings float in a parmesan-soy dashi. His newest venture, Dōjō Izakaya, takes that same “no comfort-food autopilot” attitude and points it at Japanese bar culture, leaning on charcoal, seafood, and sake in a room that feels built for long orders and repeat rounds. Zitzmann’s food stays hard to summarize on purpose, and Miami is better for it.
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