The best restaurants in North Miami Beach sit on four streets: NE 167th Street and NE 163rd Street, the commercial spine locals and city officials have called Chinatown since the early 1990s, plus West Dixie Highway and the run of Biscayne Boulevard heading south into North Miami. Almost none of it looks like anything from the car. The city is 4.85 square miles of mostly strip mall, and the payoff is Cantonese barbecue, Sichuan, Peruvian, Uzbek, Vietnamese and Brazilian cooking at prices Miami Beach abandoned a decade ago. This guide is organized by street.
Four Streets That Hold the City's Restaurants
North Miami Beach is compact, inland, and far easier to eat in than to look at. Despite the name, the city has no beach inside its limits; the sand is in Sunny Isles Beach across the Intracoastal Waterway. That geography shapes dinner, because waterfront tables are rare here and the real strength is a dense, cheap, international corridor two miles from the ocean.
Work the map west to east. NE 167th Street and NE 163rd Street run parallel through the middle of the city and hold most of what food writers drive north for, including nearly every restaurant on The Infatuation's 2026 corridor guide. West Dixie Highway, one block off Biscayne, carries two small and serious kitchens, and Biscayne Boulevard runs south into North Miami getting cheaper as it goes. Most of the corridor sits between $10 and $25 a head, and the three-figure rooms are on the water or over on the Sunny Isles side. The Greater Miami tourism bureau places the area at the Golden Glades Interchange crossroads, within a 30 minute drive of most of South Florida. For everything beyond dinner, see our guide to things to do in North Miami Beach.
NE 167th Street: Cantonese Barbecue, Dumplings and Thai Heat
NE 167th Street holds the highest concentration of good, cheap food in the city, and the rooms are tiny. Back-of-house space is tighter still, which is why corridor operators run lean inventories and keep the overflow in climate controlled storage in North Miami Beach, where humidity cannot get at paper goods and dry stock.
King Palace Chinese BBQ is the group dinner on this street. Order the Cantonese barbecue platter, which arrives with duck, chicken and two kinds of pork, then add shredded jellyfish salad and walnut shrimp. The largest platter comes in under $40 and feeds four or five. Round tables and a walk-in policy mean six of you can turn up without a plan. 330 NE 167th St. $$
Dumpling King is the easiest solo lunch in North Miami Beach. Soup dumplings come first, then the pan-fried dumplings stuffed with chicken, pork, beef or vegetables; the fried rice and noodles are beside the point. Give the soup dumplings a minute, because they land scalding. 237 NE 167th St. $
Panya Thai does jumping squid and boat noodle soup, and it will bring real heat if you ask for it plainly. The dining room has no windows and a TV on mute, so this is a food trip rather than a setting. Service is quick, which makes it a reliable weeknight stop. 520 NE 167th St. $$
NE 163rd Street: Dim Sum, Sichuan Peppercorn and Uzbek Tables
NE 163rd Street runs east toward the Intracoastal with the widest spread of cuisines in the city, from daily dim sum to Uzbek plov. It is also where the corridor meets Oleta River State Park, which turns lunch into a plan.
Sang's Chinese Food & Dim Sum serves more than 40 dim sum plates every day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., not just on weekends, which quietly makes it the best midweek alternative to a sit-down brunch. General Cheng's chicken, the kitchen's crisper take on general Tso's, is the thing to add. 1925 NE 163rd St. $$. For the rest of the late morning options, see our North Miami Beach brunch guide.
Sichuan Fish is built for sharing, with round tables and entrees sized for four. Get the mapo tofu and a whole fish buried under chopped chilis, then the chicken wontons in chicken-fat broth for anyone at the table avoiding mala. The peppercorn load here is genuinely high, so one non-numbing dish is not optional. 1242 NE 163rd St. $$
Korean Kitchen covers the standards well: bibimbap in a hot stone bowl, budae jjigae, kimchi, wings, and soju by the bottle. There is a small dining room and an outdoor patio, and the patio is the better call from November through April. Takeout is strong enough to fall back on when the room fills. 1661 NE 163rd St. $$
Sim Sim Cafe is Uzbek and Turkish sharing food in a strip mall room with windows painted to look like a mosque. Start with haydari, hummus and the sesame bread, then get the plov piled with lamb, carrots, raisins and chickpeas, plus manti with sour cream. Most appetizers run about $6, so ordering the entire starter list is the correct move. 2995 NE 163rd St. $$
Kabobji sits directly across 163rd Street from Oleta River State Park, which makes it the obvious lunch after a morning of kayaking or riding the trails. The lamb kafta kabob wrap is the order, with falafel and malfouf and its yogurt cucumber dip alongside. The wraps are the platters in sandwich form, so pick one format rather than both. 3055 NE 163rd St. $
Oishi Thai runs a Thai kitchen and a sushi bar under one roof and has been one of the better restaurants on this stretch for years, which is why it still turns up on Eater Miami's essential North Miami guide. It is the dressier end of the corridor without being a production, and the room is small, so reserve on weekends. $$$
West Dixie Highway: Peruvian Seafood and Vietnamese Takeout
West Dixie Highway runs one block west of Biscayne and holds two of the most specific kitchens in the city, both small enough that timing matters more than anything else.
Barra Callao is a 12-seat Peruvian seafood counter, and 12 seats is the whole story. Pulpo al olivo, ceviche and choros a la chalaca are the plates to point at, and pointing at whatever just came out of the kitchen works fine. Reservations are required Tuesday through Thursday from 5 p.m., Saturdays always mean a wait, and a group of six should pick another night. 17034 W Dixie Hwy. $$
PhoMi2Go is roughly the size of a walk-in closet and built around takeout. The banh mi on a crunchy baguette is the reason to stop, with the pho the shop is named for close behind, plus grilled meats over rice and vermicelli salads. Best as a weekday lunch or a solo meal. 17010 W Dixie Hwy. $
Biscayne Boulevard: Cheap Plates Running South Into North Miami
Biscayne Boulevard is where the price floor drops. Head south from the city line into North Miami and the boulevard turns into skewers, pho, pizza counters and a fish market, with one genuinely strange room in the middle of it.
Farofa Taste of Brazil carves picanha, chicken and linguica off slow-turning skewers, served as a platter with yuca fries and fried bananas or packed into a sandwich. Two light eaters can share a single platter and walk out under $15 total. The room is narrow and casual and the menu is short. 14691 Biscayne Blvd. $
Basilic Vietnamese Grill has around ten kinds of pho, plus banh xeo, the large savory crepe, spring rolls and vermicelli bowls. Tall ceilings, comfortable booths and a fish tank make it one of the few rooms on this list that rewards a long sit. Portions all but guarantee leftovers. 14734 Biscayne Blvd. $$
Steve's Pizza has been selling New York style slices and whole pies from a counter on Biscayne for decades and remains the correct answer late at night. There is no atmosphere and no reservation to make. Come after a long dinner on 163rd Street rather than instead of one. $
Captain Jim's Seafood is a fish market with a restaurant attached, so you order at the counter, eat fried or grilled local fish off a paper plate, then buy something from the case to cook at home. Lunch is the right window, when the case is fullest. Not a date night room, and it does not pretend otherwise. $$
Topkapi is the oddity: Turkish food served inside Hurrem Hammam Spa, which means the only way to eat here is to buy a spa day pass, and the pass does not include the food. The trio of dips is the move, especially muhammara and baba ghanoush, followed by manti and grilled lamb. Weekday passes cost less than weekend ones, and you should eat after the hammam rather than before. 14652 Biscayne Blvd. $$$
Waterfront Tables and Special Occasion Rooms
North Miami Beach has one real waterfront restaurant and two nearby rooms that carry an occasion, which is worth knowing before you go hunting for a view inside city limits.
Lique Miami sits on the water at 3957 NE 163rd Street and runs dinner straight into a late lounge, Monday through Thursday from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday until midnight. It is the closest thing the city has to a dressed-up night out that does not require crossing a causeway. Reserve for weekends, and read our North Miami Beach nightlife guide before planning the rest of the evening. $$$
Morton's The Steakhouse on the Sunny Isles side handles the steak dinner, with Midwest beef, butcher cuts and wagyu features. The bar is the value play, since the bar bites menu runs separately from the dining room and does not require committing to a full steak. Weekend reservations are worth making a few days out. $$$
The Surf Club Restaurant in Surfside, inside the restored 1930s beach club that is now a Four Seasons, is the drive to make when the meal is the event. It appears in the Michelin Guide's North Miami area selection and sits about 15 minutes from the middle of North Miami Beach. Book well ahead and expect a dressier room than anything on 163rd Street. $$$
Parking, Reservations, and Timing Along the Corridor
Parking is the easiest part of eating here and the main reason locals stay north. Nearly every restaurant above sits in a strip center with a free lot, so the garage math that governs dinner on Miami Beach does not apply. The exceptions are Surfside and the Sunny Isles side, where you should expect valet or a paid garage.
Reservations follow a clear split. The corridor is walk-in country, with the important exception of Barra Callao, which requires a booking Tuesday through Thursday, while Oishi Thai, Lique Miami and Morton's all want a weekend reservation. Small independent kitchens on 163rd and 167th keep their own schedules and some close one weekday, so call before driving across town for a specific dish. Nothing here is walkable in any useful sense either; the corridor is a driving street with long blocks and fast traffic.
Weather sets the schedule from June through September. Mornings are clear, a thunderstorm rolls through mid to late afternoon, and the evening clears again, so patio meals belong at either end of the day. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 with a peak around September 10, and when a watch goes up, outdoor furniture comes off every patio on the corridor. Operators without a back room rent a 5×15 unit for exactly that stretch of the calendar.
One more thing worth saying out loud: the people who eat through this list hardest are the ones with no working kitchen. A gut renovation puts a household on 167th Street for a month, and a 10×10 storage unit holds the contents of a kitchen and dining room while the contractor works.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best restaurants in North Beach, Miami?
North Beach is a Miami Beach neighborhood around 71st Street and Collins Avenue, not part of North Miami Beach, and the two get confused constantly. If you are already on the beach side, Surfside and Bal Harbour are closest. If you will drive 20 minutes inland, the 163rd and 167th Street corridor gives you far more range for less money.
What are some good restaurants on the water in North Miami?
Lique Miami at 3957 NE 163rd Street is the waterfront restaurant inside North Miami Beach itself, with dinner service that runs into a late lounge. Beyond that, genuine water views mean driving east to Sunny Isles Beach or north to the Aventura and Haulover marinas. The corridor restaurants are inland strip-center rooms, and their appeal is the cooking rather than the view.
What is the difference between North Miami and North Miami Beach?
North Miami and North Miami Beach are two separate cities, side by side, and neither one has a beach. North Miami Beach sits north, holds the 163rd and 167th Street corridor, and covers about 4.85 square miles. North Miami sits directly south along Biscayne Boulevard, is home to MOCA North Miami, and has a deeper Haitian, Jamaican and Nicaraguan food scene.
Where can you eat well in North Miami Beach on a budget?
Four counters do most of the work under $15 a head: PhoMi2Go for banh mi on West Dixie Highway, Dumpling King on 167th Street, Kabobji across from Oleta River State Park, and Farofa Taste of Brazil for skewered picanha on Biscayne Boulevard. Steve's Pizza handles the late slice. None of them take reservations and none of them need one.
When do North Miami Beach restaurants run Miami Spice menus?
Miami Spice runs across August and September, when restaurants around Miami-Dade offer fixed-price menus, and Morton's on the Sunny Isles side is the local participant most people ask about. Late summer is hot and wet and the cheapest stretch of the year to visit, which is the trade. Our guide to the best time to visit North Miami Beach covers the rest of the calendar.
Storage Space Between the Kitchen and the Corridor
Value Store It's North Miami Beach facility sits minutes from the 163rd Street corridor, in a city where the apartments and the kitchens were both built small. A 5×5 locker absorbs the boxes, serving pieces and holiday platters that swallow a closet. 5×10 units take a studio's worth of furniture or a caterer's folding tables and chafing dishes. From there, a 10×15 unit covers a two bedroom, a 10×20 unit holds a whole house or a small business inventory, and a 10×30 drive-up unit is what contractors and restaurant owners ask about. Rentals are month to month with no long term contract, and the location page carries that facility's own hours and contact details.
If a move, a renovation or a growing business has left you short on room in North Miami Beach, Value Store It can help. Then get back to the corridor, because a month of dinners on 163rd and 167th Street is a better consolation prize than most cities offer.
