An exclamation sign glows pink in the tropical night. This icon, rendered in neon, hangs conspicuously in a strip mall located a few blocks east of Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. Passersby might think it’s a vintage store’s signage, or even a relic still burning from the era of record shops. But, no: this punctuation mark is the marquee of Boia De, the Magic City’s current hottest restaurant—and one that’s been MICHELIN Starred since 2022. “Boia De” translates from Italian to English as “oh my,” which is the practical reason for the mark, yet this exclamation point feels apropos of the buzz: Boia De’s entire package is highly deserving of emphasis.
This Italian hideaway—well, hidden barring the fluorescence outside—is the beef tartare-slinging, tagliolini nero-heaping brainchild of chefs Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer. It’s kind of a hole-in-the-wall. Upon entering, a long narrow room with dark green paint unfurls, featuring a chipped-marble inlaid bar top and a spare, slightly tight layout where the focus is the food, less the scene.
“It’s the concept of being a neighborhood restaurant we would want to visit once a week,” says Meyer, speaking with the MICHELIN Guide from Miami. “We chose this unassuming strip mall that came with lots of fringe benefits: It has plentiful parking, the rent is good, which incentivizes us to offer some more luxury items like foie gras, truffles, and caviar at very reasonable prices. And, being our first restaurant, we did what came naturally to us, again really focusing on what we’d want to eat. We hoped it would translate to the general public and, apparently, people enjoy indulging as much as we do!”
If there’s one thing Miamians and the city’s millions of annual visitors love, it may well be indulgence. But oftentimes here, expectations can outpace results, and there’s sometimes a sense of disappointment—Miami is a place of sensory overload, and it can be hard to meet the level of hype that comes with it.
“Luci and I have both worked at restaurants that expected perfection,” says Meyer. “We didn’t want to bring that extreme attitude here. The foundation of the restaurant, instead, is excellence.”
Excellent is a great word to describe their menu—it’s not huge, but it hits a range of flavor profiles, from potato skins with stracciatella and a generous tablespoon of caviar, to heartier pappardelle alla lepre. Boia De’s dishes are relatively simple: Luci’s Chopped Salad, for example, is composed of not much more than greens, but they’re incredibly fresh, crisp, and well-dressed.
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“We were excited to see how successful the pappardelle alla lepre has become,” says Meyer when asked about the restaurant's most successful menu items. “The dish is very classically Tuscan—one that Luci enjoyed a lot when growing up, visiting the area. We love that such a humble dish has been so impactful.”
The general consensus amongst visitors is that it’s hard to go wrong—that Boia De delivers on all fronts. And, to note, their food is rounded out but a precisely curated wine list, as well as low ABV-cocktails, like their “La Morena 2.0,” a sherry, espresso, egg white and walnut bitters version of an Espresso Martini. This crafty little concoction alone is worth an exclamation point.
Hero image: © David Bley/Boia De
