There is no neighborhood that better embodies Miami’s ridiculous extremes than Downtown. Here, in just a 10-minute walk, you’ll encounter abandoned lots alongside highrise apartments your favorite celebrity couldn’t even afford—all while dodging squinting people wandering out of Miami clubs at 9am, looking for breakfast. Downtown’s restaurants are every bit as wide-ranging, with dining rooms full of people who might actually say something like, “Well, I just had caviar last night,” mere blocks away from cash-only cafeterias with no AC. This guide spans that entire spectrum.
There is no restaurant in this city like Tam Tam—and not just because Miami lacks the Vietnamese options of many major cities. It just has a very rare combination of exciting food, contagious fun-having, and design details sure to imminently overtake your algorithm. The worn wood paneling left over from the previous occupant makes Tam Tam feel lived-in like a favorite pair of jeans, and one bathroom is a disco karaoke hallucination. The “betel wrapped lamb situation” is our favorite build-your-own dish in the whole city, and the sticky fish sauce caramel wings are so crispy it’s hard to tell if you’re holding a flat or a drum. The overall feeling of Tam Tam speaks to this place’s roots as a supper club, when it was just friends getting together for drinks and one-of-a-kind Vietnamese dishes.
