Finding the best restaurants in Wynwood is a bit like looking for Waldo in those books that used to ask you to find Waldo. There are a lot of bad places doing good impressions of great restaurants, and it’s hard to tell them apart while a sidewalk busker is trying to sketch your face for $15. We made this guide so you don’t get tricked, because it’s happened to us, and it’s not fun to eat wet truffle fries while the absolute worst house music beats down on you.
THE SPOTS
If you’re in Wynwood and don't stop by Zak the Baker, you better have a good excuse. Maybe you tripped over a selfie stick and fell onto a tour bus and woke up in Little Havana. Fine. But anything short of that is unacceptable. Zak is not only partly responsible for establishing Wynwood as a place to eat delicious things, but this minimal bakery continues to make Miami’s best bread and an assortment of pastries that should absolutely be coming home with you. Get the babka, a bagel, or the salmon bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. And just a warning: crowds here can be intense, but the wait is always worth it.
Uchi, a pretty well-known sushi spot in Austin, now has a Wynwood location, and it’s one of the best places to eat sushi in Miami. The menu is very large, and can be tough to navigate—but the servers here are very helpful, so don't be afraid to ask questions. Portions aren’t designed to make you uncomfortably full, but if you want to celebrate an anniversary or just have 10 to 15 bites of phenomenal raw fish, Uchi is a good option. There are really no bad choices on the menu, but we love the unagi, the hama chili, and the sticky/sweet karaage chicken. Oh, and the fried milk dessert is just as fantastic as it sounds. Uchi has a big dining room and some outdoor seating, though it is located alongside the driveway of an apartment building, so expect a steady stream of cars and loud motorcycles to roll by.
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We tend to be as suspicious of big Wynwood restaurants as we are of an unknown number that wants to talk to us about the money we’re owed by the IRS. But Doya is a wonderful surprise, and dinner here is as delightful as finding out the IRS does, in fact, owe you $5,000. There’s really nothing we don’t enjoy about Doya. The big Aegean restaurant has some lovely outdoor seating and a spacious dining room that’s pretty enough for a date but casual enough for an easy Wednesday dinner. The best part about Doya is the food, though. The menu is a huge list of very good meze plates. The octopus in the octopus salad is as tender as fresh mozzarella, the lamb kebab is beautifully cooked, and the huge mussels are served in a perfectly balanced wine and garlic sauce.
B-Side is the best place to eat sushi in Wynwood that isn't a $200 per person omakase. The little counter is smack in the center of 1-800-Lucky, an indoor/outdoor food hall with no shortage of alcohol options. But you don’t have to be in a party mood to appreciate B-Side. They have great sushi rolls, handrolls, and some truly outstanding ceviche and tiradito, which makes sense since this place is related to the best Nikkei spot in town: Itamae. B-Side is a perfect call for a casual weekday dinner, or for cocktails and sushi rolls before bar-hopping.
Enrique Tomas is a Spanish company that sells big legs of jamón Ibérico—but they’re also a restaurant in Wynwood where you can get that same jamón Ibérico sliced by professionals. Enrique Tomas (the restaurant) has straightforward and pretty good Spanish tapas—like a tortilla stuffed with jamón shavings, grilled artichokes, and a wonderful cheesecake made with just a hint of blue cheese. The space is split into three sections: the front room (more laidback), the main room (more upbeat), and an outdoor patio (less roof). This is definitely the best choice if you’re looking for Spanish food in Wynwood. Things get a little loud on the weekends, when there’s a DJ in the dining room, but it’s a more reasonable volume during the week.
Joe's is an NYC pizza institution, and what our friends over in New York have called "thin-crust royalty." And, like so many New Yorkers, they now have a second home in Miami. This place's reputation is deserved. They make a deliciously uncomplicated New York slice. It's big, foldable, and hangs off a paper plate like a teen who outgrew their bed. Joe’s is also efficient. You can stop in and, even if they're busy, be holding a slice in a matter of minutes. They do whole pies too, and topping options are pretty simple. Stick to a classic cheese or pepperoni, and you'll be happy. There's counter seating and a few tables inside, but you can also easily eat a slice while walking around Wynwood.
Hiyakawa wins the award we just made up for “Most Interesting Ceiling In Miami.” But beyond the beautiful curved architecture of this upscale place (which kind of makes you feel like you’re eating inside a fancy cave), there are some very good things to eat here. Try to hit just about every section of the menu when placing an order—especially the sugata-mori appetizer. It's a rotating fish that's presented whole, with delicate strips of sashimi you get to grab right off the fish's belly. After you finish, it's taken back to the kitchen and fried whole, so you can pick the remainder of the crispy skeleton apart like potato chips.
Ted’s Burgers is a pop-up operating out of J. Wakefield on Sundays from 2pm until sold out. They do smash burgers here—the kind that are smashed within a millimeter of their lives, which results in the patty having these incredibly thin, crispy edges. It’s a technique we approve of, because the result is delicious. They serve a classic cheeseburger, a fried onion burger with thinly sliced onions, and they do their own version of a frita too. There’s outdoor seating available, and all the beer you could want is only a few steps away at J. Wakefield, who usually have a great food pop-up outside every single day of the week.
Sometimes, you just want a casual, tasty meal where you don’t have to spend more than $10. There really aren’t any places in Wynwood where you can reliably do that, except for The Taco Stand. That’s why this place is usually pretty crowded—but the line out the door is also because the food is good. Plus, it's one of the only places in Miami for California-style tacos and burritos. So if you’re a bit burnt out on $16 cocktails and $18 small plates, just come here and drop $9 on a very good California burrito, stuffed with beef, cheese, guac, salsa, and French fries.
Before Wynwood was Wynwood, it was a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood known as Little San Juan, and El Bajareque is one of the last remaining reminders of that. This place has been around for more than 40 years and it feels like little has changed here since then. It’s a small spot with some tables and countertop seating. There’s laughter coming from the kitchen and the staff will probably address at least three customers by name while you’re there. The food is mostly familiar classics like mofongo, chicharrones de pollo, and alcapurrias—order all three if you have a hungry eating partner or just want a ton of leftovers.
Service at Freehold is, in our experience, very fast. So the Wynwood spot is a solid option for a quick dinner before bar-hopping or any date you'd like to keep under an hour. The food is pretty straightforward, but it's all solid and reliably tasty. Pizza is what most folks are eating here—a nice, foldable thin-crust version. The outdoor seating is in a courtyard in the center of the building, so you don't have to deal with foot traffic brushing up against your table. There's a giant disco ball, a DJ booth, and a big bar in case you want to stick around for drinks after dinner.
Hiden is one of Miami’s most expensive and hard-to-book omakase restaurants—but it’s also one of the most interesting dining experiences in the city. The eight-seat restaurant is located in the back of The Taco Stand, and you need a special code to even get in the door. You’ve got to book your seat weeks in advance and dinner here costs about $300 per person. It’s some of the best sushi you’ll find in Miami but the entire experience of eating here—which makes you feel like a secret agent on a raw fish mission—is really what makes this place so special.
Omakai is a good choice if you want to have an omakase experience without paying $200 and going somewhere that requires weeks of reservation hunting. A seat at this casual spot is much easier to nab (although making a reservation isn’t a bad idea). They offer a few different omakase options ranging from around $20 for six courses to $84 for over ten courses. Don’t expect to sit at a sushi counter and receive your pieces of sushi directly from the chef. It’s table service here, and you can’t even see the kitchen. But the sushi is very good and the $40 Oma Deluxe menu—which comes with eight pieces of sushi, sashimi, an appetizer, and a couple hand rolls—should be more than enough to fill you up.
Kush is an essential Wynwood spot thanks mostly to its burgers, which are some of the best in the city. But this very tiny restaurant also makes fantastic fried gator, has a great local beer selection, and somehow fits it all into a space the size of a studio apartment. There will be a wait here, but if you come Friday-Sunday you can spend that time at La Botanica, Kush’s next door bar/waiting room. After a beer in the Santeria-inspired room, your table will probably be ready. Squeeze in, order the frita burger, and start thinking of an excuse to come back and do it all again as soon as possible.
Palatino is a great Jamaican spot in a part of Wynwood that doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic, even though it’s one block north from where most people think Wynwood begins. Come here if you want some solid jerk chicken, oxtail, roti, and more Jamaican classics, but save it for when you’re not in a big rush. Palatino is a small operation and normally it’s just the very sweet owner taking orders from everyone, so you might be waiting a bit for your food.
Sometimes the hardest part about going out is finding that middle ground between a place that devotes half its menu to rare caviar and somewhere that considers a spork an acceptable form of silverware. Beaker and Gray is almost always a good call when caught in such a dilemma. We’ve never had a bad meal or cocktail at this place, which serves Latin-inspired dishes like cheeseburger croquettes, alongside very recognizable things like octopus and whole fried fish. It’s good for big groups or parties of two. It’s also part cocktail bar, and the drinks are some of Wynwood's best.
Wynwood’s casual options include things like burgers, ice cream, pizza, and there’s usually a snow cone guy hanging out somewhere on NW 2nd Ave. But sometimes you want something out of the usual casual suspects. The vegan spot Love Life Cafe is a great alternative. The food includes some things you expect, like smoothies and acai bowls, and other things you don’t—like vegan arepas, pizza, and a great meat-free burger with very convincing plant-based cheddar and a bun brushed with coconut oil.
Editor's note: KYU is currently closed for repairs. The restaurant is expected to open back up in spring 2023.
Kyu is probably the toughest place to get a table in Wynwood. It’s not that it’s small or very exclusive (like Hiden), but it’s just very, very popular. It’s a rare Miami restaurant where you can pretty much expect a packed house every night of the week—not just on weekends in winter or during Art Basel. This is because basically every dish at KYU is a crowd-pleaser: the roasted cauliflower, soft-shell crab bao buns, Thai fried rice stone pot, and fried chicken will probably all be on tables around you. This is one instance where you should listen to peer pressure and order them too.
