Vice City Pizza

Vice City serves the kind of pizza that forces you to inspect the empty space left by your first bite, turn around, and see if anyone else is having a similar existential reaction. The Detroit-style pizza spot has evolved quite a bit since its pop-up days in the back of a bar in Downtown Dadeland, when the pizza was good, but not this good. It’s now an actual restaurant—one of the most exciting ones West Kendall’s seen in recent memory—and has a growing list of reasons to return that go beyond its excellent pizza.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

But let’s talk about that first, because pizza is still the best thing on the menu. The rectangular pies have crispy corners that spike up into shards of salty cheese. That cheese coats the thick, buttery bread and defies gravity around the edges, creating a fence that contains a variety of rotating toppings like housemade fennel sausage and charred pepperoni cups, or pistachio, fig jam, and gorgonzola dolce. The entire pizza tastes like a coveted corner piece.

Plus, Vice City has a lot of utility for such a small place. At the bar, you’ll see a line of porróns—perfect for streaming draft wines into your mouth (and shirt and shoes) with friends. But there’s also room at the tables for a highchair if the only thing you're getting on your shirt these days is baby spit. And every seat has a view of the oven, where square pies slide in like tetris pieces. If you live nowhere near West Kendall and are thinking, “I’m not driving to the Everglades for a pizza,” then rest assured there’s more than just pizza here—like a tequila mango cocktail aptly named I’m Not Driving To The Everglades For A Pizza, a spicy drink that’s only $13. 

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

Here's an even better reason to go: lunch—specifically for the chicken parm sando. Vice City's three hoagies—meatball, chicken caesar, and chicken parm—are only available during lunch hours. And whoever designed these subs must be an architect because the meat-to-bread ratio is straight out of a structural design course. But if you can’t swing by for lunch, crispy fried provolone and wings are also great choices that are always on the menu. 

Whatever your reasons are for going to Vice City (and they grow each day), plan ahead. The restaurant does not currently take reservations. During peak hours on weekends, there’s usually a line out the door with takeout orders and folks waiting for a table. But there’s usually room at the bar for smaller parties. Miami’s been waiting a long time for great pizza, and there are currently plenty of options. So how lucky are we that West Kendall is now proudly represented on that map—not just by a place that makes irresistible pizzas, but one that’s perfect for families, impromptu date nights, and even people who don’t feel like pizza (although we’re pretty sure those don’t exist). 

Food Rundown

The menu at Vice City changes frequently, but here are a few examples of the kind of dishes you might find here.

Meatballs

These rich meatballs are made with brisket, short rib, and pork. Each is baptized in a bowl of marinara and ricotta. But for lunch, these little dudes wriggle their way into hoagie bread with red sauce, pesto, and a whole lot of cheese—making something already delicious even more amazing.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

Fried Provolone

This would be perfect for a new sport we’re calling “Cheese Golf.” It’s where you take Vice City’s disk-shaped fried provolone and land it on a plate of vodka sauce with as few throws as possible. Extra points if you can hit the dish without breaking the crispy coating and getting gooey cheese everywhere. But we’re pretty sure this’ll get us thrown out, so just eat it instead because it’s very good.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

Chicken Parm Sando

We’d like to petition for the chicken parm sandwich to be available for dinner too, but this is a great reason to pop in for lunch. It’s an eight inch sub filled with melted stracciatella and parmesan that clings to the chicken like Spiderman’s webbing. The bread’s exterior cracks like glass but the pesto and vodka sauce bring it all together.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

Brie & Fig

This is our favorite pizza here. It’s a white pie topped with mozzarella, brie, gorgonzola dolce, caramelized onions, fig jam, and pistachios—every cheese lover with a sweet tooth’s dream. Add bacon if you want to take the best pizza on the menu and turn it into one of the best pizzas you’ve ever had in your life.

photo credit: Cleveland Jennings / @eatthecanvasllc

Ron Swanson

Three little pigs—bacon, pepperoni, and sausage—reside on a cheesy crust with slivers of banana peppers for a vinegary touch. It's all under a warm red sauce and drizzle of hot honey. It’s so good, it’ll make you want to grow a beard and talk about how “the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayer’s teat.”