23 Best Restaurants in Miami

Tell us about your first impressions when you arrived.
The homey feeling you get from Mandolin is no accident: more than a decade ago, husband and wife team Ahmet Erkaya and Anastasia Koutsioukis came across a quaint little 1940s bungalow in the Design District (before it was the “Design District”) and determined it would be the perfect canvas for their dream restaurant: a charming little Greek cottage focused on serving simply prepared bites of Greek and Turkish cuisine. In 2009, they opened Mandolin, and have made its regular slate of visitors part of the family, too.

What should we be drinking?
To enhance the meal, wine is probably a better choice than the Greek beer here—there are more than a half-dozen varieties by the glass, with a preference toward white, pink, and sparklers. But if you can only drink one thing, make it a pitcher of Aegean Sangria, a smooth white sangria that gets its unique flavor from the rose water and Stone IPA beer that helps form its base.

Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown.
With a menu that’s divided into mezes, salads, sandwiches, mains, and sides, the restaurant makes it easy to indulge in as much—or as little—as you feel like. If there’s more than one of you, start out with the Greek or Turkish sampler (or both), which will net you a couple of bites of Mandolin’s most noteworthy appetizers. When you’re ready to order more, the whole Mediterranean sea bass—grilled with olive oil, lemon, and oregano—is as delightful to Instagram as it is to eat.

And how did the front-of-house folks treat you?
The service team is ultra-professional here. Unlike some restaurants, which seem to want to push you through the meal and turn the table over, Mandolin’s team is excited to show you what their kitchen cohorts are cooking up, and don’t mind if you spend all night.

Who should we bring with us?
The familial vibe of Mandolin easily lends itself to an ideal dating situation.