Boia De

Boia De, located in a modest but adequate commercial complex that is bordered by a mom-and-pop grocery store and a laundromat on the outskirts of Little Haiti, an immigrant neighborhood on the cusp of significant transformation, is one of the Best Restaurants in Miami. Reservations are required because the retro-styled restaurant only has 24 seats.

You may see Michelin-trained chefs Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer working at the black-and-white terrazzo counter: The two walk rhythmically around one another as songs by Neil Young and Paul McCartney are played on the speakers. Meyer slices porchetta for a novel salumi-style beginning that is topped with sunchokes and matsutake mushrooms, and Giangrandi painstakingly assembles the absolutely superb beef tartare.

The ingredient-driven menu, which doesn't really distinguish between starters and mains, is designed for sharing, but you'll want to save certain things for yourself. Eat a bowl of the silky tortellini en brodo, Italy's take on a dumpling soup, which consists of tiny pasta pouches of foie gras floating in a luscious duck consommé. Divide the fiery grilled octopus with roasted peppers and the pillowy ricotta gnocchi with cherry pomodoro—the egg yolk is blended into the sauce, making it heavier than expected. These days, the trendy cephalopod can be found on almost every menu in Miami, but nowhere else will you find tentacles that are as soft; after being cooked sous vide for hours and then grilled, they can be cut with a fork.

• What is it? A cross between an L.A. strip-mall gem and a cozy, narrow Brooklyn dive, Boia De sits on the edge of Little Haiti, where it serves modern American dishes with a few that lean Italian.

• Why we love it: Michelin-trained chefs Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer pour themselves into this place, constantly reinventing the classics. The beef tartare, for example, is topped with a crunchy shallot-garlic concoction as well as capers, which are fried for a burst of briny flavor, and then the whole thing is smothered in a yummy tonnato sauce, a tuna-based Italian condiment that holds everything together like some kind of fancy picnic salad. The pasta is fresh and the wine list superb, offering a few skin-contact options to coax you out of your comfort zone.

Google Rating: 4.6/5.0
Address: 5205 NE Second AveMiami33137
Phone: 305-967-8866
Opening hours: Mon, Wed, Thu 5:30–10:30pm; Fri, Sat 5:30–11:30pm
Website: www.boiaderestaurant.com