MIAGuide
The Best Brunch In Miami
photo credit: Courtesy Schnitzel House
The very short list of things that can convince us to leave our beds and go outside before 11am on a weekend include the following: weed whackers less than ten feet from our window, small children, a small child that somehow got their hands on a weed wacker, and any one of the best brunch restaurants in Miami, which you’ll find on this guide. If you're looking for a buffet situation, check out our guide to brunch buffets in Miami. And if you're trying to embrace chaos, we have a guide to bottomless brunch options too.
THE SPOTS
If the production of brunch is starting to feel more like a chore than a pleasure to you, go to Rosie's. The Little River restaurant will make you fall madly in love with the meal again, even if you never even liked it that much to begin with. This is because the food here is phenomenal, and Rosie's makes the best brunch dishes in Miami. The menu revolves around Southern food, and both the sweet and savory sides of the spectrum are well-represented. You can get a gorgeous stack of fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes or fried chicken and biscuits that look like they just came back from a photo shoot. There are also cocktails, mimosas, coffee, and an excellent seasonal lemonade.
You’ll walk into Edan Bistro and wonder if you’re at the same restaurant that serves the best Basque food in Miami. The deli case near the kitchen sits emptier than your rumbling stomach, and the walls are mostly bare. But rest assured, this is special occasion food in the kind of atmosphere that welcomes your most casual outfit. Definitely get the crispy fried eggs with Iberico ham and black garlic mayonnaise. Their cheeseburger (only available for brunch) has the consistency of steak tartare, and the tortilla española is warm, gooey, and comes with a salty pan con tomate. It's all so much better than you expected when you first stepped through the door.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
So many of the strong Peruvian flavors that make Maty’s one of the best dinner spots in Miami are also present for weekend brunch. The ricotta toast has ají amarillo jam and the challah french toast has whipped cream infused with ají limo. But the one thing you have to get is the fried chicken and picarones, a very Maty’s spin on chicken and waffles that is one of our favorite dishes in Miami right now. There just isn’t a brunch menu around with more interesting flavors than this. And while you can enjoy cocktails (of course the bloody mary has ají amarillo in it), this is a brunch that’s more about the food, so come with friends to share as much as possible.
photo credit: Courtesy Schnitzel House
Going to Schnitzel House at 11am kind of feels like breaking into your favorite bar during the day. The blinds are closed, the lights are on, and you start to think that maybe you shouldn’t be there. But you should, because their weekend brunch is great. There are some excellent brunch-exclusive dishes on the menu—like their take on chicken and waffles (called schnitz and waffles), which comes with crispy little chicken nuggets heaped onto a thin waffle. The steak and eggs is filling and delicious and the breakfast sandwich overflows with cheese. If it’s nice out—and the dining room is reminding you how many martinis you had last night—eat on their sunny back patio.
Brunch usually involves predictable suspects like chicken and waffles, french toast, and eggs benedict. That’s not the case at Doya. The Mediterranean spot has an Aegean breakfast platter that includes 16 assorted cheeses and mezze like spicy tomato and muhammara (so good you’ll rudely double dip). Their poached eggs doused in garlicky labneh and paprika are criminally delicious. They have oven-baked eggs made with thick slices of juicy sucuk. You can also order from their regular menu during brunch if grilled prawns are more your speed at noon on a Sunday. Even if you’re full, order the yogurt mousse for dessert—it’ll prove white chocolate is good chocolate, even if it’s not technically chocolate. Save this place for when it’s temperate so you can sit outside on their lovely shaded patio.
photo credit: CLEVELAND JENNINGS / @EATTHECANVASLLC
La Fresa Francesa looks like a whimsical Parisian souvenir shop designed by a Hialeah abuela. With its old timey French music and flowery tablecloths, you will not find a cuter weekend brunch in Miami. If you're looking for a filling morning plate, get the quack madame. Tender duck is pressed between cheesy sourdough so deliciously heavy you’ll need to take ujjayi breaths between bites. Their spinach galette has cloves of garlic confit tucked in the savory crepe’s crevices—it’s like a glorious Easter egg hunt for your taste buds. To drink, get the Hialeah helicopter latte, a double espresso with evaporated milk and mounds of sugar that will make you fly (and possibly crash a few hours later).
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
One of Miami’s best bakeries has a second location in MiMo. This Caracas outpost feels more like a proper cafe, with an expanded menu, sleek dining room, and the same great cachitos. (Thank God.) The new stuff on Caracas’ menu includes sandwiches like an excellent BEC on a sweet potato bun, a crispy broccoli and cheese sandwich, jambon beurre, and mushroom toast. It works well for any and all laidback brunch plans. You can also come here alone with a laptop to get some work done, and by “get some work done” we mean “eat several cachitos.”
Los Felix is the brunch to book if brunch kind of bores you. The dishes at this Coconut Grove spot are exciting and creative, but not overly fussy. The bowl of chilaquiles is delicious even without the optional (but highly encouraged) pork belly and caviar add-on. The masa pancake has a subtle corn flavor and the egg tostada comes with the most perfect fluffy scrambled eggs we’ve ever met. There’s a DJ in the dining room ensuring the music never sucks, some patio seating, and drink options include a phenomenal michelada alongside a cafe de olla so fragrant you’ll just want to sniff it like a candle.
Krüs Kitchen is directly above Los Félix and serves one of the most exciting dinners in Miami. Brunch here is no different. The smoked coconut rice is very similar to dinner’s, except the brunch version comes with trout roe and cilantro chimichurri instead of cilantro aioli (and we actually like it better than the dinner version). The menu changes a lot, but if you see french toast, order it. It comes with confit pear, chantilly cream, maple syrup, a touch of cognac—and it’s like crème brulée in bread form. Then there's “the perfect omelet,” which absolutely lives up to its name. Here, you can bathe in the sunshine from the vaulted skylight, and enjoy a relaxing brunch with some wine and the best french toast you’ve ever tasted.
There’s no shortage of expensive brunch buffets in Miami, but Edge is our favorite. In the back patio of the upscale hotel steakhouse they cut through tomahawk steaks at a pace that would overwhelm a predatory cat. After you’ve had your fill of that, dedicate any remaining room to the great pastry/dessert section—and also take advantage of the small a la carte menu that supplements the buffet (get the ricotta pancakes). Beyond food, we like this one most because of the service. It’s fast, friendly, and (unlike your typical inclusive chaos brunch) representative of the fact that you’ve paid them over $100 to be there and not vice versa. No one will harass you about a time limit. In fact, your server might even try to convince you to have an espresso before you go.
Chug’s is a great mix of vintage and modern. It has the DNA of a classic diner, but serves food that's exciting and interesting. The interior has a familiar diner aesthetic, with booths, counter seating, and laminated menus you can flip through on each table. But it’s also more lively and energetic than your average neighborhood greasy spoon. The food is the main reason you come here, though. It’s a great call for a quick coffee and pastelitos, but also works if you want to eat like a bear preparing for hibernation. If you’re trying to do the latter, make sure to get the excellent cast iron pancake and La Completa, a hefty plate of three eggs, potatoes, and Cuban toast. A slice of one of the rotating pies for dessert is also a very good idea.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings
Brunch at Klaw feels like an experience reserved for villains—like you’d have to live on an island of stolen Prada bags to enjoy eggs with a view this good. But luckily all you did was take an elevator to the sixth floor. Brunch is served on Klaw's rooftop, which overlooks Biscayne Bay. Some of the seating is technically inside, but they keep the doors open and every table has a panoramic view of emerald waters. The food is just as lovely. You can go full Dr. Evil and order caviar service and a massive seafood tower while trying to devise a way to attach laser beams to a shark's head. Or stick to oysters in shallot and cucumber mignonette, guava cream cheese waffles, or our favorite: the duck steak and eggs.
El Bagel will take some preparation. Since this excellent MiMo food-truck-turned-bagel-shop usually sells out before they close (and even quicker on the weekends), it's wise to place an online order bright and early. We often struggle to decide between the King Guava, a salty/savory work of bagel art that includes guava jam, crispy potato sticks, and a fried egg—or the EB Original with scallion, bacon, and a roasted jalapeno that gives off the perfect amount of heat. But whatever you get is going to be the best bagel in Miami, hands down. This place is mostly a to-go operation, but they have a little back patio that's a great place to tear into your bagel (if it's not 1,000 degrees outside).
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Zak The Baker, especially during tourist season, can be a bit nuts and doesn't take reservations. But we still firmly believe the Kosher bakery is worth braving even the winter Wynwood crowd. Plus, they do that thing where they'll text you when your table is ready, which allows you to kill time by wandering around Wynwood for 30ish minutes. When you're seated, prepare for delicious forms of bread that include: an outstanding salmon Reuben, a perfect bagel, and more minimal (but delicious) toasts and pastries. There's no DJ or piercing soundtrack in the bakery—just the sound of clanking silverware and a small army of bakers making enough sourdough for the entire tri-county region. Oh, and head's up: Zak is closed on Saturday.
Blue Collar’s brunch menu is broken up into three main categories: eggy stuff, sandwichy stuff, and syrupy stuff. If any of those sound good to you, come here, because Blue Collar is one of the most consistently delicious spots in Miami. Whether you want something a little out of the ordinary, like the shrimp benedict, or a brioche french toast that everyone at your table will immediately regret not ordering, this MiMo spot will make you happy you didn’t stay in bed and leave you full enough to make returning home to that bed sound like a very good idea.
POWERED BY
Though drag brunch has now spread far and wide across the country, very few places have been doing it for as long as the Palace has. This place is still a blast, and though they do drag shows at night, you want to be here while the sun is out. It’s $55 per person, which includes food and bottomless mimosas. The food is food, and not the reason you come here. You come to sip as many mimosas as you want for two hours while witnessing the best sidewalk drag show of your life. There are two seatings on weekends: one at 11am and another at 2pm. Come armed with singles to tip the performers.
photo credit: Tasty Planet
Jackson Soul Food is an Overtown institution. As the name implies, they’re known for soul food, but they’re only open until 2pm Wednesday to Friday and until 5pm on weekends, so people usually come here for breakfast, lunch, or brunch. They’ve got a big selection of simple breakfast dishes like eggs and sausage, pancakes, and some breakfast sandwiches. But one of the best things you can get here is their fried catfish, which works just fantastically as a brunch dish, especially if you get a couple of eggs and bacon on the side.
There are a lot of very good things available at this casual neighborhood spot, but you should come to brunch for two of them in particular: the Pinch burger and the insane feat of engineering that is their stuffed french toast. It’s an entire loaf of brioche that has an oozing pool of guava in its center. Splitting it open and watching it all spill onto your plate is both soothing and satisfying, like a babbling creek or Niagara Falls—if both of those things were filled with hot guava instead of water.
Jimmy’s is one of Miami’s favorite old-school diners, where the employees have served through multiple presidential administrations and the flat top in the kitchen has seen more grease than the official John Travolta fan club. Come here if you want to get far, far away from any sort of brunch where the menu tells you the restaurant’s official hashtag. Get something with eggs and take advantage of the bottomless coffee until you feel like you can overhead press a Honda Accord.
photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc
At Aguacate, strangers will wander over to your table and ask for food. They’re just friendly chickens though, and you’re technically in their territory. This Tamiami vegan spot is an animal sanctuary that makes an excellent breakfast burrito, french toast, veggie burger, and great smoothies. Everything is 100% vegan and they serve breakfast all day, so it’s a great brunch option on weekdays or weekends. After eating, check out the cows, fluffy silkie chickens, bunnies, pigs, and giggly turkeys. It’s all outdoors, but the chickens keep the bugs away, and they have plenty of fans and parking. Multiple yoga classes are offered daily, and it’s very family-friendly. Just keep your eyes on Frank The Rooster. He loves plantain chips.
