The reason you’re coming to this cash-only Miami Gardens restaurant is in the name. This place makes the best roti we’ve had in Miami, and they do it right in front of you, in the same kitchen they’ve been using for nearly half a century. L.C. is a Trinidadian spot, so you can find a buss up shut and doubles on the menu alongside a selection of roti options like goat, duck, conch, and more. It’s all delicious and available for takeout.

Joe’s has been open in South Beach for more than 100 years, making it Miami Beach’s oldest restaurant. And everything about this place is still unapologetically old school—from their limited reservation system to the formally dressed waitstaff. As fancy as this place feels, everyone’s coming here to do the same thing: rip apart a pile of stone crab claws, the best kind of crabs in the world. Everything is à la carte, and must-order sides include the hashed brown potatoes and creamed spinach.

This Allapattah market/restaurant has been around since 1980 and still serves some of the city's best seafood—in soups, ceviche, and fried to crispy perfection. They also have a seafood market that smells like a fishing pier and has fresh snapper, grouper, lobster, shrimp, and more sitting on ice, ready to come home with you. If you're not in the mood to cook, order the fried shrimp and fried fish butterfly from the counter.

Tropical Chinese has been one of Miami’s best Chinese restaurants since 1984, and is responsible for introducing a large portion of Miami-Dade County to the wonders of dim sum. The Bird Road spot has a huge menu of Chinese classics, but the reason we make sure to come here more often than we see our dentist is for that dim sum, a traffic jam of over 50 dishes wheeled around the dining room on huge carts.

What do Paul Rudd, the theory of relativity, and Caffe Abbracci have in common? They’re timeless. This Italian restaurant in Coral Gables is probably where your parents went on their first date. But if you like generous portions of linguine with clams or homemade agnolotti with spinach and ricotta, look no further. And once you try their veal parmesan (it’s off-menu, but ask for it), you’ll crave it like a late night pizza.

Miracle Fry is a Liberty City classic in a small blue building in the center of a parking lot. The menu has wings, burgers, a chicken sandwich—all well under $10. But if you're coming here, you're getting conch fritters. Miracle Fry's are thin, crispy, and flat like a pancake. And they’re really good too, a perfect little golden brown snack. Ask for a double, and a brown paper bag full of them will emerge from the little hole in the front window. Just be sure to bring cash.

It's possible you had your first communion afterparty here in the '90s. And if you did, Casa Juancho was already older than you. This Calle Ocho spot feels like a Disney pavilion. There are stained glass windows, mounted trophy animals, and a running waterfall by the entrance. Servers are dressed in red traje corto outfits and a wandering troupe of guitarists serenade guests as they eat gambas al ajillo. But this is a locals spot, not a tourist trap.

Jackson Soul Food is an Overtown institution and one of the best (and only remaining) places in Miami serving classic soul food for breakfast, lunch, or brunch. They’ve got a big selection of dishes like smothered pork chops, fried catfish, black-eyed peas, as well as the requisite grits, buttery biscuits, and sweet cornbread. Order it all—just make sure to get their super crispy fried catfish. It’s cooked perfectly and has a really crunchy exterior.

Pinolandia is our favorite fritanga in Miami for several reasons: the Little Havana location is open 24 hours a day (useful information when you’re leaving Space), they have ample off-street parking, a 24-hour Nicaraguan bodega, and the food is dependably great. The best thing to get here is the carne asada, which you can watch being grilled while the aroma of flame-licked beef marinated in naranja agría fills the restaurant. You’ll also want to grab a slice or two of queso frito.

This tiny sub shop has been the official hangout for Killian students and anyone searching for an obnoxiously overstuffed sandwich since the late ‘70s. The whole point of coming to Hungry Bear is customization and the gluttonous possibilities of your own imagination. Start with one of their own unique creations, like the oriental chicken, which features shaved meat, a sweet/spicy sauce, and crunchy noodles. Then feel free to add absurd amounts of cheese, condiments, vegetables, and sauces.

This Haitian fried chicken spot was the best restaurant on this strip of NE 2nd Avenue before this area became gentrified, and it continues to be one of our favorites in the neighborhood. Pack does make very good Haitian staples, but you’re coming to this casual restaurant for some of Miami’s best fried chicken. The juicy drumsticks are fried just enough to produce a crispy skin, but aren’t so heavily breaded that you can’t taste the well-seasoned meat in each bite.

Victoriano “Benito” Gonzalez (AKA El Rey) sold fritas in Cuba years before making “Cuban hamburgers” popular when he opened this cafeteria in Miami. And this place still makes our favorite version in the city. The patty is a blend of beef and pork served with onions and papitas on Cuban bread. The fritas aren’t huge and only about $4 each, so you can easily order so many that you can no longer see the table you're sitting at.

Hot dogs have never really gone out of style, which is why Arbetter's has been a chili dog destination since 1959. It’s still as alive as ever on Bird Road, serving a slice of Americana on one of Miami’s most diverse eating streets. This Westchester holdout has a line every day of the week that’s full of little league teams and adults who want to forget the internet exists. You’re getting a hot dog—and the chili cheese dog is the king of the menu.

Since 1980, B&M Market has been a go-to for some of the best West Indian food in Miami. But it’s easy to drive right by this place if you don’t know that, because it looks like just another market—until you walk to the back of the store and smell ackee and saltfish, oxtail stew, and jerk chicken wrapped in one of Miami’s best rotis.

Since 1966, this casual Cuban seafood restaurant, where you can watch yachts and old-school fishing boats drift by over the course of lunch or dinner, has been the best place to eat on the Miami River. And, chances are, it’s still the only place your grandpa ever wants to go for his beloved grouper, which Garcia’s simply fries and serves with classic Cuban sides like rice and tostones. It’s also worth checking out its sister restaurant, La Camaronera, for the incredibly tasty pan con minuta.

Zak The Baker made Miami care more about bread than any bakery in town. And you can now encounter slices of his sourdough in nearly every cafe within Miami-Dade County. But we still love taking trips to this Wynwood bakery, even though the crowds can be intense, because it's only at the bakery that you'll find Zak's best stuff: a rotating cast of croissants, danishes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and traditional Jewish baked goods like boureka and a consistently perfect babka.

Mi Colombia has been holding it down in North Beach for decades. Not only is it still one of our favorite Colombian spots in Miami, but it's been here for us through so many different occasions: early breakfasts, casual post-beach lunches, and, of course, the hangover meal. You have no choice but to interact with your fellow diners and the staff inside. It's pretty much only counter-seating. Prices and portions are always generous.

Although Chef Creole is the first name that comes to mind when many Miamians think of Haitian food, the restaurant makes no claim to be exclusively Haitian. It's more of a general Caribbean-American restaurant, and it's one of the best places to take in a wide selection of the kinds of regional staples Miami does so well. The menu has Haitian classics like griot and ke bèf (oxtails), but it also features the best grilled conch in town.

It seems fair to start this guide with the most famous restaurant belonging to Miami’s most prominent ethnic group. Tourists invariably ask about Versailles, and while it may not serve the city’s best Cuban food, it’s hard to argue with its claim as “The World’s Most Famous Cuban Restaurant.” Inside the palatial dining room, you’ll find solid interpretations of traditional Cuban dishes—but the place to be is always at the ventanita outside.

Piman Bouk is right across the street from a Toussaint L’Ouverture memorial in Little Haiti, an ode to the man responsible for the first successful slave revolt in the Americas as well as the creation of the first free Black republic in the world, Haiti. The bakery has been the go-to spot to grab Haitian pate for decades, which are lard- and butter-enriched puff pastries with spicy, savory meat fillings. Piman Bouk keeps them warm and ready to eat all day along with dense, rich Creole bread.

What started out as a single juice and produce stand has evolved into the entire county's favorite spot for quick, casual Latin food. Now, there are 10 locations throughout Dade and a menu that features everything from fresh coconut water and local tropical produce to boxes of arroz con pollo and brown paper bags of crunchy chicharrones.

Frankie’s is Miami’s oldest pizza shop. Its retro sign has been hanging over Bird Road since 1955, and people have been taking boxes of the square pizza home to eat on the couch ever since. This is not Detroit-style—the slices are much thinner—but the corner slices still have those edges with delicious little burnt bits. Frankie’s also sells “half-baked” pies in case you want to finish yours in the oven at home.

If you are even in the slightest mood for Jamaican food, all roads in Miami lead to Clive’s. This Little Haiti spot makes our favorite versions of so many Jamaican dishes. Their jerk chicken is our favorite in town, but there are more phenomenal staples like curry goat, oxtail, ackee and saltfish, and conch served steamed, fried, or in a curry. Needless to say, ordering here can be a difficult thing. But whatever you get, portions are generous and the quality is consistent.

Not unlike iguanas or professional athletes enjoying their offseason, Miami is saturated with sceney steakhouses. But none of them do the grandiose meat thing better than the city’s original sceney steakhouse, Prime 112. It's still one of South Beach's best places to dress up and spend too much money on steak and dangerously spillable martinis.