Boia De

Boia De is 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. 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.

Each dish is elevated a notch: the beef tartare, for instance, is topped with a crunchy shallot-garlic mixture and fried capers for a burst of briny flavor, and the whole thing is smothered in a delicious tonnato sauce, an Italian condiment made with tuna that binds everything together like a fancy picnic salad. 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.

Google Rating: 4.6/5.0
Address: 5205 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33137, U.S.
Phone: +13059678866
Website: http://www.boiaderestaurant.com/