3 FL Restaurants Make New York Times 'Restaurants List'

TAMPA, FL — If you've been paying attention to the culinary scene in Tampa and Miami, you know it's been booming for several years.

And three restaurants in the city were listed on the New York Times' "The Restaurant List."

The list highlights the "50 places in the United States that we’re most excited about right now," according to the Times.

This year's list is the third ever by the storied publication.

"It wasn’t easy to narrow it down, but here are the 50 restaurants that excite us most right now," the Times wrote.

Salt Shack on the Bay in Tampa made the foodie list, while Maty's and Smoke and Dough represent Miami on the list.

Here's a bit of what Kim Severson wrote about Salt Shack on the Bay:

Jimmy Buffet would have liked this place, where there is no problem a platter of fresh Gulf shrimp and a drink with a pineapple slice couldn’t solve. The place has no walls and snapshot views of Old Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg. The sprawling menu has a vague Caribbean bent, with jackfruit tacos dressed in jicama slaw and jerk burgers with fries, but the real gold is anything that lets all that great Gulf seafood shine.
Opened July 2019 • salt-shack.com

Brett Anderson had this to say about Maty's in Midtown Miami, which focuses on Peruvian-inspired dishes:

To take the inspiration story behind Maty’s literally is to believe that the chef-owner, Val Chang, grew up eating plates of oysters a la chalaca, tuna tiradito laid over citrusy yellow-eye beans and whole roasted dorade draped in aji amarillo beurre blanc. Those are just a few examples of the inspired tributes Ms. Chang pays to the cooking of her native Chiclayo, Peru, and specifically to her grandmother Maty.
Opened March 2023 • matysmiami.com

And lastly, Anderson had this to say about barbecue venue Smoke and Dough:

Smoke & Dough grew out of the bakery business in which the owners Harry and Michelle Coleman spent much of their young adulthood. ... (In) South Florida, the diversity of the Latin American diaspora is expressed in baked goods. Smoke & Dough draws on that heritage, and answers the question of what true Miami barbecue might taste like: ribs glossed with guava-ancho barbecue sauce, brisket rubbed with Cuban coffee, housemade pastrami tequeños, black beans baked with pineapple.
Opened January 2022 • smokeanddough.com

See the full list from the New York Times online here.