Cecconi's Miami Beach

About Cecconi's Miami Beach

Cecconi's Miami Beach is the Florida outpost of the London-born Italian restaurant, set in the same Mid-Beach building as Soho Beach House at 4385 Collins Avenue in Miami. The original Cecconi's opened in London's Mayfair in 1978, and the Miami Beach branch arrived with Soho Beach House in 2010. The cooking is Northern Italian with a Venetian lean, served all day in a tropical, greenery-filled open-air courtyard, with a weekend brunch that draws crowds.

For more of the city's Italian tables, compare the modern Italian at Scarpetta, the buzzy Carbone and the Tuscan cooking at Forte dei Marmi. For the category, see our Italian guide.

The Kitchen

The menu is built on Cecconi's classics. The lobster spaghetti is the signature plate, alongside wood-fired pizzas, fresh pastas and a daily-changing list of cicchetti, the small Venetian bites priced at 4, 7 and 9 dollars during the afternoon aperitivo, from soft Robiola with almonds and honey to bresaola with pickled vegetables. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch all run from the same kitchen, so the room shifts character through the day. Prices sit in the mid-to-upper range for the area, with the aperitivo and pizzas the better-value way in. It is dependable Italian cooking pitched at the setting as much as the plate.

The Room

The courtyard is the reason to come: an open-air room shaded by tropical greenery and strung with lights, attached to the members' club but open to all diners. The mood is stylish, social and relaxed, busy at brunch and into the evening, and service is geared to a long, easy meal rather than a hushed one. It sits on Collins Avenue in Mid-Beach, a short drive from South Beach. The room fills quickly, especially for weekend brunch and special events, so a reservation through the restaurant or OpenTable is strongly advised; without one, you may not get in.