Restaurants in Miami South Beach: Seven Places to Eat

South Beach has three kinds of meals: a classic splurge, Cuban food and cheap eats. This list covers all three, with the address, the dishes and the prices for each stop. You do not need a tour to eat well here. Pick a place below, walk in or book, and order a full plate. A food tour is worth it only if you want small tastings at several places in one go. If you would rather taste a few places with a guide, our page on miami culinary tours compares the food walks.

1. Joe's Stone Crab: best for a splurge dinner

Joe's Stone Crab at 11 Washington Avenue is the place to go for stone crab and a classic South Beach dinner. Miami's tourism board calls it a Miami Beach institution since 1913. Stone crab season runs from October 15 to May 1, and Joe's menu lists medium claws at $49.95, large at $79.95 and jumbo at $139.95. Joe's Key Lime Pie costs $14.95.

Dinner is served from 5 p.m., until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Lunch is Wednesday to Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The restaurant says reservations are accepted through OpenTable. Walk-ins are always welcome and seated by availability, and it asks you to allow up to 15 minutes at peak hours.

The catch is the fee. A cancellation less than 24 hours ahead, or a no-show, costs $25 per person. If you want the crab without the dining room, Joe's Take Away next door is open daily and needs no reservation.

Key Takeaway Plan on $49.95 to $139.95 for one order of stone crab claws at Joe's, and book on OpenTable to avoid the wait.

2. Havana 1957 on Ocean Drive: best for Cuban food with music

Havana 1957 at 1410 Ocean Drive serves Cuban food in a dining room with live music and old photos. Its listing marks it as a two-dollar-sign restaurant and names croquetas, media noche, picadillo and grilled grouper. Its Miami Spice dinner menu also listed vaca frita, a braised flank steak.

The patio is good for people-watching. Stay outside if you want the street scene, and sit inside if you want the music. The listing gives no hours, so check before you walk over.

3. Playa Cafe on Washington Avenue: best for a cheap Cuban sandwich

Playa Cafe on Washington Avenue is a family-owned Cuban spot where sandwiches cost under $8. Miami's tourism board lists a $5 breakfast special, Cuban, steak, tuna and medianoche sandwiches, and flan and tres leches for under $4. It says the cafe has been open for more than 20 years.

Playa Cafe is one of the cheapest sit-down meals on the beach. The page gives no street number, so look for it on Washington Avenue. Its prices for hot plates such as ropa vieja are not published.

For a price check on Cuban plates, use the Versailles menu. Its English menu lists ropa vieja, shredded beef in tomato sauce with rice and plantains, at $14.50. The Cuban sandwich costs $10.25 there, picadillo $12.95 and vaca frita $14.95. A Cuban espresso costs $1.75. Expect prices in that range at a Cuban counter, before tax and tip.

The best meal in a tourist district is often the plain one a few blocks from the main street.

4. Española Way: best for a walk past many small restaurants

Española Way is the best street for browsing menus, because one two-block stretch holds Italian, Spanish, French and Cuban places. It runs between Washington and Pennsylvania Avenues, between 14th and 15th Streets, three blocks south of Lincoln Road, according to the tourism board.

The same page names Pane & Vino for handmade pasta, Tapas y Tintos for tapas and paella, A La Folie for crêpes and Havana 1957 for Cuban food. The list may be out of date, so look at each door before you commit. The tourism board also names La Mulata on Española Way for Cuban food.

South Beach is not only Cuban. On this page you find Italian, Spanish and French food on Española Way. Ocean Drive adds steak and seafood at LT Steak & Seafood. The cheap-eats list adds pizza at Mega Pizza and tacos at Bodega. The food tour stops at Peruvian and Colombian spots.

A guide can save you the guessing. The South Beach food tour starts at 841 Washington Avenue, lasts 2.5 hours and is run by Miami Culinary Tours. It takes up to 14 people to Peruvian, Cuban and Colombian stalls and restaurants, with Ocean Drive and Española Way on the route. Food, drinks and taxes are included. The South Beach Tour des Forks starts at 927 Lincoln Road, lasts 3 hours and is run by Miami Food Tours. It takes up to 10 people to five restaurants and cafes, and the listing says that is enough for lunch. It is not suited to people with mobility impairments or babies under 1 year.

Both tours are from €67 per person, as checked on 2026-10-23. Neither has hotel pickup, so you walk to the meeting point. Tips are not included. Best Things to Do in Miami's count of GetYourGuide listings in October 2026 found 27 food and tasting tours, from €32.

5. La Sandwicherie, Mega Pizza and Bodega: best for cheap eats

The cheapest quick meals on South Beach cost under $15, and the tourism board's budget list names several. La Sandwicherie has a handful of sandwiches under $10 before tax, none of its signature sandwiches above $13.75, and hours from 7 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Mega Pizza sells jumbo slices for $9.50 to $11.95. Bodega Taqueria y Tequila lists classic tacos at a little over $5. Its $30 margarita pitcher is the one big item. Moshi Moshi has a $10 happy hour menu and $4 cocktails from 4 to 7 p.m. daily.

6. Ocean Drive restaurants: best for the view, if you check the menu

Ocean Drive restaurants are best for the Art Deco hotels and the people-watching, not for the cheapest meal. The tourism board describes the street as the heart of South Beach and lists places such as Havana 1957, LT Steak & Seafood in an Art Deco dining room and Gianni's in the former Versace Mansion.

We found no official list of tourist traps, so we name none. A simple rule helps on any busy strip: read the printed menu and the drink prices before you sit down. For the buildings themselves, see our page on South Beach Art Deco tours.

7. Versailles in Little Havana: best for a Cuban lunch off the beach

Versailles is a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana, not in South Beach, and it is the best-known one in the city. The address is 3555 SW 8th Street, and its site says it has been open since 1971 and serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts. Hours are 8 a.m. to midnight Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

You can reach Little Havana without a car, and our page on getting around Miami covers the options. The Little Havana food walking tour starts at the Tower Theatre, 1508 SW 8th Street. Miami Culinary Tours runs it for 2.5 hours, and it has a rating of 4.9 from 1,302 reviews, from €62 per person. That rating is what GetYourGuide showed on 2026-10-23, and we did not check the reviews ourselves. Cancellation is free. Groups are capped at 14 people, and there is no pickup. Tastings, a mojito, Cuban coffee and guarapo juice are included. Tips for the guide are not included. It says the tour is not suited to vegans or people with food allergies.

A tour is the wrong choice if you want to pick your own table and order a full plate. It gives you small tastings, not a sit-down dinner. For lunch at Versailles, go on your own.

Pro Tip Order a cafecito, a small sweet espresso, at a Cuban counter, and add a croqueta for under $2 as a snack between meals.

How to choose restaurants in Miami South Beach by budget

Pick by what you want to spend: under $15 for a quick meal, around $60 for a mid-range dinner, or $50 and up for stone crab. In October 2026, published guides put a mid-range restaurant meal in Miami at about $60 per person ($60 to $69), before drinks, according to the 2026 Miami Travel Cost Study. For dinner for two, double that and add drinks, tax and tip. No official page gives an average for South Beach alone.

The tourism board lists a Cuban sandwich as roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard pressed into Cuban bread, and croquetas as fried ham or chicken cylinders. Order those two first if you are new to Cuban food.

The tourism board's Cuban food guide names more dishes to know. Ropa vieja is shredded beef cooked with onions and peppers. Vaca frita is crispy shredded flank steak. Picadillo is a ground beef dish. Lechón asado is roast pork. A pastelito is a sweet or savory pastry. For coffee, order a cafecito, a cortadito or a café con leche.

After dinner, many visitors stay out in South Beach. See our guide to miami nightlife tours for pub crawls, salsa nights and club nights.