The Best Places to Eat in West Palm Beach, by the Record
The best places to eat in West Palm Beach, by the professional record: Michelin Guide and James Beard Awards have both weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Emelina comes out on top.
Aioli and Palm Beach Meats hold the next two places. Michelin Guide shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with James Beard Awards next.
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A handful of counter seats face an open kitchen where the team is quietly asking what Cuban food could be if it kept its roots and borrowed ideas from everywhere else. The Michelin-starred result is a tasting-counter experience that feels personal rather than performative, with most ingredients coming from South Florida farms and ranches. Expect refined, composed cooking: familiar flavors refracted just enough to stop you mid-bite.
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Rank 2. Aioli
Bakery
An all-day bakery and café on South Dixie where the in-house bread pulls double duty, appearing in the breakfast sandwiches, alongside the soups at lunch, and leaving with you by the loaf on the way out. The menu shifts often, which keeps the regulars from coasting. Dinner options exist, though they're the take-home-and-reheat variety, which is either very convenient or very honest about how evenings in West Palm go. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 2. Palm Beach Meats
Wagyu Steakhouse
Half gourmet butcher shop, half casual wagyu restaurant, this West Palm spot earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand by applying one ingredient to almost every item on the menu, including the Nutella brownie. Japanese, Australian, and American wagyu shows up in a breakfast sandwich, a burger, lumpia, and a burrito with tots. The room is wood tables and caramel leather, relaxed enough that the "Nice to Meat You" sign lands without embarrassment.
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The beer list is the twist: this omakase bar inside the Hilton West Palm Beach was opened by a Chicago brewer, and the pairings lean into craft ales the way a traditional house leans into sake. The sushi itself tilts Western, with garnishes, sauces, and a Floridian looseness that keeps things from feeling reverent. Dark, intimate, and priced accordingly. The kind of room where wagyu hand rolls arrive with croutons fried in beef tallow, and somehow that makes complete sense.
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- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: South · Clay Conley
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: South · Clay Conley
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Rank 6. Queen of Sheeba
Ethiopian
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