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Raise your hand if you had a dilapidated strip mall in Little Haiti pegged as Miami’s next great culinary hub. First came Boia De, Alex Meyer and Luciana Giangrandi’s intimate 27-seat canteen whose creative Italian-American mashups earned it a Michelin Star. Following Boia De’s runaway success comes Walrus Rodeo, a playful sister restaurant a few doors down opened in partnership with Chef Jeff Maxfield (Toscana Divino, Ironside Pizza). 
The imported Napoli pizza oven is the beating heart of the lively dining room, which is decked out with a pressed tin ceiling, custom country western wallpaper by local artist Beth Rhodes, and an ethereal mural behind the oven by San Diego-based Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio. 
Highlights on the wood-fired menu include charred bone marrow with crispy capers, sourdough, and garlicky bagna càuda dipping sauce; fired romaine topped with pecorino, hazelnuts, and crispy leeks; and fall-off-the-bone short rib glazed in bbq bordelaise. For cocktails, you want the Silk Press: a combo of Great Circle Coffee espresso, raspberry, and cognac, served in a Nick and Nora glass (invented circa 1987 at the Rainbow Room). 
Here, three more standout dishes to try.

New York City is constantly referencing itself—a fact laid bare by the many restaurants that pay tribute to its essence. Cue Daniel Boulud, the renowned French chef and fixture of Manhattan’s dining scene for more than 40 years. For his latest venture in the splashy One Vanderbilt tower, Boulud chose the name Le Pavillon, resurrecting a vestige of the 1939 New York World’s Fair.  
An iconic locale, the original Le Pavillon went on to define French cuisine in the city. Boulud pays homage to that legacy, fusing the classic and the contemporary. Designed by Isay Weinfeld, the soaring windows, sculptural glass chandelier, and 20-foot olive trees are nothing short of transportive. The menu includes charred octopus with Bang Island mussels and squid in saffron with cherry tomatoes and kimchi; Kaluga caviar–studded Norwegian salmon; and butter-poached Maine lobster with tonka bean chestnut puree.
Below, three more standout dishes to try.

We’d wager the incognito magistrates behind the Michelin Guide knew Le Jardinier Miami would earn a coveted star before they even crossed the threshold. It’s true that we eat with our eyes first, and to step foot in the jewel box of a space is to be instantly transported into the visionary world of French interior designer Pierre-Yves Rochon. The restaurant is eye candy, an Art Deco-meets-modernist warren of kelly greens and gleaming black marble.

The Francophile menu by Chef Alain Verzeroli presents vegetables as haute art, from the golden beets served with red beet mostarda and goat cheese drizzled in herbal oil to the mushroom velouté in parsley emulsion and sourdough croutons. Don’t miss the citrus cheesecake with graham crumbs and white chocolate for dessert.
Below, three more standout dishes to try.

When The New York Times food czar Pete Wells deemed Bangkok Supper Club a much-coveted “Critic’s Pick” recently, he shined a spotlight on what we already knew. It’s good. Really, really good. The restaurant was designed by Bangkok-based firm Taste Space, which used only Thai materials in the interiors, even the paint. The food is just as authentic.

Tucked away on Hudson Street, the 60-seat bolthole champions charcoal-grilled dishes you might find in Bangkok itself—albeit served in a more made-for-photography fashion, Chef Max Wittawat having appeared on Iron Chef stateside and in Thailand and Japan.

There’s beef tongue brined in galangal and lemongrass for more than 24 hours, charred and served alongside Tamarind Jaew sauce and toasted rice powder. The octopus, too, is slow-cooked over charcoal and arrives with pickled garlic sauce. Don’t forget to order a Smokey Milk cocktail (sake, gin, fermented rambutan, clarified milk, and pear cordial) for a palate cleanser.

Below, three more standout dishes to try.

No one gets the wrong end of the stick at Kebab Queen, a 10-seat London speakeasy tucked in a subterranean lair under Covent Garden’s Maison Bab. Notably, all the dishes on the eight-course tasting menu here are served without plates—and without silverware. Instead, each morsel is either handed to you or artfully arranged on the heated Dekton countertop by the chefs whirring about the open kitchen.

That unexpected approach to service adds a dollop of wonder and childlike fun to the dining experience, not to mention a sensorial boost, whether you’re indulging in a barbecue-glazed Xinjiang lamb skewer or Japanese milk bread served with a rainbow lineup of butter in flavors ranging from maple and miso to fermented gooseberry and lime.

The brainchild of Michelin-grade chefs and restaurateurs Manu Canales, Ed Brunet, and Stephen Tozer, Kebab Queen’s chef-in-residence program recently welcomed Pamir Zeydan, a Turkish-born toque who aims to explore the genesis of the kebab, bite by bite, over six courses. We’re here for every soupçon.

Here, three standout dishes from the current menu.