An insider’s guide to Fort Lauderdale’s best restaurants ahead of the 2025 boat show

In town for the boat show? The Fort Lauderdale food scene is growing, and the Michelin Guide has now made its debut here. Local gourmet and restaurant authority Michael Mayo highlights the city’s new hot spots and its old favourites...

Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse

Nearly a decade after opening the trailblazing KYU restaurant in Wynwood, chef Michael Lewis and  his Scotch and Bacon Group have come to Fort Lauderdale’s New River with an inventive “Asian- inspired and wood-fired” menu at a setting that one reviewer called “effortlessly cool.”

Ukiah opened in May and may be a little tricky to find, but the gloriously simple yet complex fare is worth the effort. Grilled skewers of Wagyu beef or red snapper with brown butter ponzu melt in the mouth, as do vegetable dishes such as Japanese sweet potato with brown sugar, miso butter and grated Parmesan, or roasted cauliflower atop a delicious shishito vinaigrette and buttermilk goat cheese. Smoked platters of pastrami-spiced brisket and short rib are served with roasted kimchi, yuzu pickles and beef-tallow glazed Zak the Baker toast.

Lewis’s CV is impressive (Zuma in London, Dubai and Miami; Jean Georges and Le Bernardin in New York), but it’s the homey touches that resonate. His showstopping coconut cake dessert comes straight from his mom’s kitchen. ukiahrestaurant.com

Catch & Cut

Fresh seafood, including Florida stone crab (the Catch), and prime Allen Brothers steaks (the Cut) are the stars at this Las Olas Boulevard restaurant, which opened  in January. Local restaurateur and former Miami Dolphin footballer Kim Bokamper recruited executive chef André Bienvenu from legendary Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach to bring elevated dining to this two-story eatery, which features a balcony bar on the second floor. There’s sushi, a raw bar, Sunday brunch and 48-hour brined fried chicken, a nod to Bienvenu’s past at Joe’s. catchandcut.com

Jay’s Steakhouse

For those who like their steaks with a side of scene, Jay’s features upscale American fare with music, entertainment and six bars in a space that was formerly a church. It opened in May in the trendy Flagler Village neighborhood, from local restaurateur Jay Shirodkar.

Menu specialties include tableside-carved prime rib, lobster macaroni gratinee, foie gras grilled cheese with fig, duck fat potato wedges, bone marrow with sherry gastrique and an array of steaks, lobster, caviar, raw bar items and sides. Specialty cocktails with names such as Two Hours to Cancun, Flying Private and Cars, Sex & A Rolex will tantalize the libation curious. jaysfortlauderdale.com

Daniel’s, A Florida Steakhouse

This modern steakhouse in a stylish, sophisticated setting features locally sourced beef, fish and produce along with steaks from around the world. Founded by restaurateur Tom Angelo’s Gioia Hospitality Group and named for executive chef Danny Ganem, Daniel’s opened a few weeks before the 2024 boat show and quickly found its stride, meriting “recommended” status in the 2025 Michelin Guide.

Now regarded as the cream of the Fort Lauderdale steakhouse crop, Ganem has wowed guests with dishes such as foie gras crème brûlée — a wondrous alchemy of Hudson Valley foie gras served atop artful waves of mango, toasted coconut and cashews — and Florida blue crab cake with rock shrimp, Meyer lemon, crème fraiche and a dollop of Kaluga caviar.

A placard of daily steak offerings (Australian Wagyu, Florida grass-fed, cuts from ranches in Texas, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas) can be found on tables, while Angelo and daughter Kassidy roam the floor. Angelo pays tribute to his Italian roots with pastas, specials and artisanal olive oil from his ancestral town. Do not miss the truffled potato fonduta. And if a big game is on, you can slide over to the adjacent D’s Sports Bar for dessert and an after-dinner drink. danielssteak.com

Calusso at Pier Sixty-Six 

Pier Sixty-Six reopened in January with multiple dining options, but the showpiece at the waterfront resort (and luxury condo community) is Calusso’s contemporary cuisine with French and Italian Riviera influences. The terrace overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway will be in demand, but the curved dining room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, marble tables and open kitchen, is a fine consolation prize.

Expect the unexpected from executive chef Jonathan Kaiser (formerly at three-Michelin star Joël Robuchon at the Mansion at the MGM Grand Las Vegas) and chef de cuisine Efrain Barquero (who worked at Michelin-starred Stubborn Seed in Miami Beach). Raw oysters Caprese are bathed in tomato water, basil and stracciatella cheese. Chinese eggplant with the texture of foie gras accompanies Ibérico pork pluma, which sits atop bacon gastrique. Shaved Comté cheese blankets a honeycomb semifreddo dessert. There’s also caviar service, premium wines by the glass and Harbour Hour (5:30 to 7:30) at the bar. After dinner, take a stroll for a nightcap  at the revolving rooftop lounge. calussorestaurant.com

Ocean Prime

Glorious sunsets await those who score a second-floor terrace table overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway (the lower level may have a view of a yacht — the restaurant has dockage and guests are permitted to arrive by boat). This upscale steak and seafood chain from Ohio-based Cameron Mitchell Restaurants has other locations throughout the country, but none are as picturesque and envy-inducing as the two-story building on the Intracoastal that opened in April, in a new development known as Las Olas Marina.

The menu includes USDA Prime steaks, fresh fish, seafood towers, raw bar items including king crab legs and an extensive wine list. Service is polished and the second-floor bar gets hopping as the night goes on. ocean-prime.com

Heritage

Homegrown chef-owner Rino Cerbone — who also fronts a rock band — brings rock ’n’ roll attitude to this cozy, hip and delicious Italian-American eatery specializing in pizzas, pastas and appetizers in the burgeoning Flagler Village neighborhood.

Five years after opening, Heritage was honored this year as Greater Fort Lauderdale’s only Bib Gourmand restaurant in the 2025 Michelin Guide, signifying great food at great value. Cerbone grew up working at his father’s pizzeria in suburban Coral Springs, and he has spun things forward with modern, innovative takes — including a patate pizza topped with whipped mascarpone potatoes, a blend of four cheeses, smoked pancetta and micro chives, and a reinvention of clams oreganata using minced razor clams, breadcrumbs and lemon crema. heritageftl.com

The Katherine

Chef Timon Balloo and wife Marissa Katherine Balloo call this intimate downtown restaurant “a love story,” and they meld their global background (Asian, Caribbean, South American) with their local upbringing. Balloo, a past James Beard Award semi-finalist, gained fame for Miami restaurants Sugarcane and Balloo, and he opened The Katherine in 2022 after the pandemic and skyrocketing Miami rents drove him back to the county where he grew up.

The results have been mutually beneficial: Locals now pack the place for dishes such as Thai-style charred cabbage salad with crispy pork, whimsical clam chowder fries and Trini oxtail with pikliz and he’s still being nationally lauded, with the New York Times selecting his Thai red curry fish among its 23 Best Dishes in America in 2023. katherinerestaurant.com

MAASS at The Four Seasons

The 14-seat Chef’s Counter at MAASS, which serves a seasonal tasting-menu extravaganza that may start with
a foie gras macaron or end with a raspberry mochi taco, was the only dining experience in Greater Fort Lauderdale to be awarded a Michelin star in the guide’s 2025 area debut. 

They are priced at $195 (the two-hour Excursion) or $375 (the three-hour Voyage), excluding wine pairing options. But many of the dishes on the tasting menu are available à la carte, such as lamb belly with beetroot. MAASS, which opened in December 2023, is overseen by chef Ryan Ratino, whose Washington D.C. restaurants have earned multiple Michelin stars, and its contemporary American dishes are served with aplomb by a professional staff. maassftl.com

First published in the November 2025 issue of BOAT International US Edition. Get this magazine delivered straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.