It’s a fact that Greater Miami & Miami Beach has a long history of great Italian restaurants, many of them with direct connections to Italy. And as the destination keeps growing, new Italian restaurants keep opening, offering specific and often unique takes on the country’s cuisine. Some mix in Miami flavors, others use Italy’s creations as a starting point. A handful keep it traditional. Here are some of our favorites.

Boia De

Chefs Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer brought a new vibe to a strip mall in Little Haiti with Boia De and received a MICHELIN star. Giangrandi, a Miami native, and Meyer, born in Los Angeles, combined their bicoastal sensibilities and experiences in fine dining to create a simple, Italian-inspired menu with layered flavors and textures. To them, that means baked clams with nduja sausage, beef tartare with a garlic-shallot crumble and squid-ink pasta with king crab. It’s surprising; You can find picante lamb ribs with yogurt and pappardelle with Florida rabbit. And it’s both comforting and luxurious.

Beef tartare at doma — Don't miss the beef tartare at Dōma

Dōma

Luca Lomonaco, a native of Italy, spent time in some of Miami’s top Italian restaurants before striking out on his own in Wynwood to open dōma, which draws inspiration from Mediterranean and Southern Italian cuisine. You’ll find grilled octopus a la puttanesca and zucchini blossoms to start and a selection of crudos and tartares, from yellowfin tuna to beef with black truffle. His signature dishes are divided into “Pasta Clasica,” like candele in a slow-cooked beef ragu, and “Pasta Moderna,” featuring gnocchi with porcini mushrooms and Argentine prawns.

North Italia

With three locations in Miami – Dadeland, Aventura and Brickell – North Italia delivers on its name: Its rich menu of northern Italian cuisine reflects the region, with a wide assortment of favorites. You could make a meal just from the small plates menu, including heirloom tomato and burrata, crispy eggplant parm, black mussels with spicy salumi in white wine garlic sauce and crispy, creamy cacio e pepe arancini. Of course, then you’d miss out on more than half a dozen pizza options, meatball sandwiches and a dozen pastas, including tortelloni and jumbo lump crab cavatelli.

Luca Osteria

Giorgio Rapicavoli tapped into his parents’ Italian and Argentine roots, combined them with his Miami palate, and created Luca Osteria, a sleek restaurant in Coral Gables where every dish holds a surprise. His nduja spread, with locally baked bread, is actually made out of preserved tomato. A patate fritti is a bowl of fried potatoes covered lusciously in cheese and truffle cream. And every dish, like the pasta al limone with 24-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano, uses some of the best ingredients Rapicavoli could make, find locally or import from Italy. It’s no wonder the MICHELIN Guide recommended Luca Osteria.

Casadonna

Casadonna combines coastal Italian cuisine with a beautifully designed waterfront location at The Miami Woman’s Club in Downtown Miami. Casadonna’s menu doesn’t stick to one region. You’ll find dishes inspired by the Italian seaside towns of Naples, Taormina, Bari, Positano and Gaeta. That means oysters with limoncello mignonette, crudos with passion fruit, and seafood fritto misto. Mediterranean branzino and American Wagyu with Calabrian herb butter make a connection between Miami and Italy.

Limoncello

Step into Limoncello off Washington Avenue in South Beach and suddenly you’ll feel like you’re in someone’s family restaurant in Italy, surrounded by checkered patterns, frilly lemon drapes and clapboard wood floors. That sets the mood for a wide menu of favorites. Angus meatball, fried calamari with black pepper and grilled octopus are appetizer highlights. Heartier dishes include pappardelle Bolognese, lobster ravioli and frutti di mare. Even a simple cacio e pepe gets shaved truffles. If you just want pizza and a negroni, Limoncello has you covered there as well.

Il Pastaiolo

Mirko Cipriano, the owner of Il Pastaiolo in South Beach, came to Miami 25 years ago and brought with him the culinary influences of his home in Naples – and his Nonna Maria’s cookbook. From these pages, he’s created dishes rooted in the classics, some with modern twists to bring them up to date. Beef and veal meatballs are like his grandmother used to make. Crispy calamari, shrimp and zucchini are a hearty starter. Pastas range from ravioli with osso buco to maccheroni ragu to rigatoni carbonara with roasted guanciale. The cacio e pepe is finished tableside, inside a huge wheel of Pecorino Romano. Il Pastaiolo is both a dinner and show.

Casa Isolo Osteria

Chef José Mendín made this location in Sunset Harbour his home for over a decade, first with Pubbelly, where he was nominated for five James Beard Awards, then turning it into his latest treat, Casa Isola Osteria. Mendín knows how to combine flavors, and you’ll see that in his tuna crudo, which uses leche de tigre usually found in ceviche. The grilled octopus combines piquillo peppers and roasted eggplant in the sauce. In larger dishes, the Puerto Rico native combines mofongo with Florida clams. His version of agnolotti is actually a corn gyoza. Mendín mixes flavors and cultures in a unique way.

IT Italian Trattoria

Pizza, pasta and dolci: Those are the three pillars that make up IT Italian Trattoria. The restaurant keeps it simple with the classics. Half a dozen pastas are made in the traditional way with your choice of flavor profiles: pomodoro, Siciliana, del capo and more. It’s easy to order pasta and a pizza, such as margarita, capricciosa and spicy diavola. Finish with something sweet, like tiramisu with strawberries or one of the classics, including cannolis and panna cotta. IT Italian Trattoria has two locations in Miami Beach.

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