Best Dining Bets

Best for Celebrating a Big Deal: The Forge Restaurant on Miami Beach (tel. 305/538-8533) is a multichambered, ornately decorated (and priced) monument known for its decadent wines, steak, and fish.

Best Romantic Restaurant: Casa Tua, in South Beach (tel. 305/673-1010), offers exquisite Italian cuisine in a Mediterranean villa that's hidden from the street with lush landscaping and an iron gate, resplendent outdoor garden, cozy Hamptons-esque dining room, communal kitchen, and intimate upstairs lounge and patio.

Best Restaurant for Zone Dieters Not on A Budget: Prime 112, in South Beach (tel. 305/532-8112), serves the best aged beef this side of Chicago, not to mention $20 Kobe beef hot dogs, dried sticks of bacon at the bar in lieu of peanuts, and, if you must cheat, the best truffle-infused macaroni and cheese you'll ever eat

Best Waterfront Dining: It's a tossup between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, but whichever you prefer, there are two restaurants that provide front-row seats to both. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel's global fusion restaurant, Azul (tel. 305/913-8258), faces the Miami skyline and beautiful, tranquil Biscayne Bay, while the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne's Cioppino (tel. 305/365-4500) faces the Atlantic, but its Mediterranean cuisine could have you thinking you're floating off the coast of, say, Portofino. Tough decisions, but both are winners.

Louie's Backyard in Key West (tel. 305/294-1061) offers Caribbean cuisine and one of the best views of the gulf you'll ever have.

Best Restaurant Not Worth the Wait for a Table: The legendary South Florida institution known as Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant, in Miami Beach (tel. 305/673-0365), refuses to take reservations, but that doesn't stop people from clawing their way into the restaurant for a table -- despite a wait that's often in excess of 3 hours. Thing is, if only they knew about Joe's Take Away, directly next door, the only thing they'd be waiting for is seconds.

Best Cuban Restaurant: There's always a debate on who has the best, most authentic Cuban cuisine, but for those of you who have never been to Havana, Miami's Versailles, in Little Havana (tel. 305/444-0240), is the quintessential Cuban diner, featuring enormous portions at paltry prices.

Best Old School Steakhouse: Miami's Capital Grille (tel. 305/374-4500) may be part of a chain, but its dry-aged steaks are still a cut above the rest.

In addition to the Forge Restaurant , Christy's, in Coral Gables (tel. 305/446-1400), is another top carnivorous choice, with superb steaks and famous Caesar salads.

Best New World Cuisine: It's a tossup between the restaurants of the original founders of the palate-pleasing fusion of Florida and Caribbean (Floribbean) ingredients: Norman's, in Coral Gables (tel. 305/446-6767), owned by James Beard chef Norman van Aken, and Chef Allen's, in Aventura (tel. 305/935-2900), owned by chef Allen Susser. Whichever chef's cuisine you choose, they both do wonders with mangos.

Sexiest Restaurant: The Restaurant at the Setai, on South Beach (tel. 305/573-3355), brings an exotic, authentic Asian vibe to a place where even Italian restaurants serve sushi. The Indo-Asian decor, dim lighting and reflecting pools give way to a very exotic, erotic Kama Sutra vibe.

Best Scene: Nobu, in Miami Beach (tel. 305/695-3232), is the unrivaled sushi den in which everyone from Justin Timberlake to Madonna have been spotted swooning over their sashimi.

Taverna Opa, also in Miami Beach, Hollywood, and Ft. Lauderdale (tel. 305/673-6730; 954/929-4010; 954/567-1630, respectively), makes the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding look like a big fat bore with its own plate breaking, table dancing, ouzo pouring version of a Greek bacchanalia.

Best Sunday Brunch: The Blue Door on Miami Beach (tel. 305/674-6400) turns the sleek and chic Delano lobby into a help-yourself-to-anything, calorie-busting Sunday brunch of gourmet fare and insanely good desserts.

At the stately Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Palme d'Or (tel. 305/445-1926) rolls out a regal buffet that's good enough to feed royalty. Delray Beach's De La Tierra (tel. 561/272-5678) features a gourmet all-you-can-eat $35 brunch including alcoholic beverages -- an unheard-of value that comes complete with a stunning outdoor garden setting.

Best View: Big Fish, in Miami (tel. 305/373-1770), is all about gritty-chic, located on the Miami River, where tugboats and cargo ships slink by as you indulge in fresh fish and sip good Italian wine under the glow of the brilliant downtown skyline hovering above. On South Beach, the cavernous o-R-o (tel. 305/673-3444), offers sweeping, panoramic views of the Miami Beach Marina and Miami city skyline. Red Fish Grill (tel. 305/668-8788) is ensconced in Coral Gables' Matheson Hammock Park and located on the edge of a saltwater lagoon, a setting so blissfully distracting, you may forget to pay attention to what's on your plate. Le Tub (tel. 954/921-9425) may not be considered fine dining, but when you sink your teeth into one of their incredible burgers while overlooking the Intracoastal, nothing could be finer.

Best Haute Cuisine: Mark's Las Olas, in Fort Lauderdale (tel. 954/463-1000), and Miami's Table 8 (tel. 305/695-4114) are both run by celebrity chefs Mark Militello (whose New American cuisine restores the faith of gourmands whose palates once belonged to the Pan-Asian Fusion movement) and Govind Armstrong, a charismatic chef who launched his career at the tender age of 13 with Wolfgang Puck at L.A.'s legendary Spago.

Best People-Watching: The News Café, in South Beach (tel. 305/538-6397), practically invented the sport of people-watching, encouraging its customers to sit at an outdoor table all day if they want, lingering over the passing parades of people while sipping a cappuccino. Lincoln Road's Euro-fabulous Segafredo Espresso cafe (tel. 305/673-0047), provides a front-row seat to the hordes of people who parade along the pedestrian mall.

Best Comfort Food: Big Pink, in Miami Beach (tel. 305/532-4700), serves kitsch in large doses, featuring TV dinners served in compartmentalized trays. It's fun and funky, and the food's pretty good, too.

Best Italian Food: Miami Beach's Macaluso's (tel. 305/604-1811) would make Tony Soprano very proud of his Italian heritage, thanks to Chef Michael's expertly prepared Staten Island-meets-SoHo cuisine. Tuscan Today Trattoria, in Ft. Lauderdale (tel. 954/566-1716), churns out primo Tuscan fare in its imported-from-Italy wood-burning brick oven.

Best Kids' Restaurant: South Miami's GameWorks (tel. 305/667-4263) is the brainchild of co-owner Steven Spielberg, whose virtual reality and video games contribute to the actual reality of kids cleaning their plates so that they can play. The videogames also appeal to adults, as do the restaurant and full bar, which make nights at GameWorks a 21-and-over hangout.

Best Mexican: The fresh, authentic Mexican fare at Baja Cafe, in Boca Raton (tel. 561/394-5449), will have you swearing off Taco Bell forever. And the gourmet Mexican fare in Fort Lauderdale's lauded Eduardo de San Angel (tel. 954/772-4731) is Like Water for Chocolate and from the Gods.

Best Star-Studded Sushi Restaurant: Nobu, at The Shore Club hotel in Miami Beach (tel. 305/695-3100), is known for its star sushi chef and owner, the legendary Nobu Matsuhisa, but the raw facts about this restaurant are as simple as its stellar clientele (which includes Madonna, among others): It's unquestionably the best sushi in town. For fabulous sushi minus the Hollywood vibe, Miami Beach's Shoji Sushi (tel. 305/532-4245) is at the top of the A-list.

Best Seafood: Sunfish Grill, in South Beach (tel. 954/788-2434), is simple, unpretentious, and consistently serves the freshest fish in town -- any which way you desire.

Best Late-Night Dining: In addition to the 24-hour News Café and Big Pink , Jerry's Famous Deli (tel. 305/534-3244) on South Beach serves a deluge of deli food 24/7. Ft. Lauderdale's Lester's Diner (tel. 954/525-5641) is a 24-hour institution, serving classic greasy-spoon fare at ridiculously cheap prices. The Floridian Restaurant, also in Fort Lauderdale (tel. 954/463-4041), serves everything from eggs to steaks, 24 hours a day, but the vantage point for people-watching rates higher than the food.

Kitschiest Dining: Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House (tel. 305/947-4581) is a must for those looking for a retro-fabulous North Miami Beach experience, with a wait staff as old as the vinyl booths and the best corned beef on rye south of the Lower East Side. Dogma Grill (tel. 305/759-8434) is a cool little hotdog stand whose motto is "A Frank Philosophy."