It may be the thick of South Florida’s dining offseason, but the region is radiating even more Michelin stars with new additions in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.
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The Michelin Guide on Thursday afternoon announced that a pair of chef counters, Emelina in West Palm Beach and Mutra in North Miami, each earned one star.
The French tire company announced the winners via a YouTube livestream, a reversal from 2025, when it bestowed its first-ever stars to restaurants in Palm Beach and Broward counties during an in-person ceremony at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
The distinction comes as Michelin expands its selections to encompass the entire state — another departure from last year, when the guide limited its scope to South Florida, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. All told, the 2026 Guide now spans 200 Florida winners after adding cities such as Key West, St. Augustine, Pensacola, Naples and Jacksonville.
South Florida was no slouch this year, also picking up four new Bib Gourmands and four new Recommendeds, for a total of 75 restaurants in the region with Michelin accolades.
“What began just a few years ago has grown into something truly remarkable,” said Gwendal Poullennec, the Michelin Guide’s international director. “Florida’s culinary landscape continues to evolve, which led our anonymous Inspectors on a journey from the Panhandle to Key West to uncover the best dining experiences and hidden gems to make up this year’s selection.”
The acclaimed dining guide first rolled into Miami, Orlando and Tampa in 2022 after the state’s tourism arm, Visit Florida, paid $1.5 million over three years to rate eateries in those regions. The Michelin Guide then expanded its reach to Greater Fort Lauderdale, the Palm Beaches and St. Pete/Clearwater in 2025 after their respective tourism groups chipped in an extra $90,000 each to be part of the guide, making eateries from Hallandale Beach to Jupiter eligible to be saluted.
The luxe, intimate 16-seat chef’s counter Emelina in West Palm Beach is chef-owners Osmel González and Camila Salazar’s mashup of traditional Cuban cuisine with global flourishes. Guide “inspectors” — Michelin’s moniker for diners who visit and critique each eatery anonymously — saluted its tasting menu and South Florida-sourced ingredients, shouting out its Redland cherry tomatoes with Cuban oregano chimichurri and 45-day, dry-aged Florida beef with green mango mojo and black bean sauces.
González and Salazar are hardly Michelin first-timers: EntreNos, their Miami Shores pop-up inside the coffee shop Tinta y Café, also earned a Michelin star before it closed last July.
“The menu is what Cuban cuisine would have been today if Cuban chefs had been able to travel to other countries and find new global techniques and bring them back to the island,” he told the the South Florida Sun Sentinel Thursday, as fellow chefs rejoiced in the background. “We wanted to use those ingredients we knew and loved, and respect the traditions and flavors, but also expand them in an ambitious way.”
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Emelina, which opened in February, happens to occupy the same space vacated by Konro, a 10-seat chef counter owned by chef Jacob Bickelhaupt and partner Nadia Bickelhaupt, which closed in June 2025 after police arrested the chef on domestic-violence charges that were later upgraded to attempted second-degree murder. Konro had earned Palm Beach County’s first star until the Michelin Guide stripped it away last August.
Upon first touring the West Palm Beach site in December, González says he and Salazar were inspired by its custom-designed chef counter to craft a 10-course menu dedicated to the life and cuisine of his late abuelita, Emelina.
“We wanted to recreate the golden era of Havana, the refined elegance of 1940s pre-Revolution Cuba,” he adds. “I know my grandmother would have loved it.”
Ela Curry & Cocktails, a small-plates eatery in Palm Beach Gardens specializing in Indian street food, picked up Palm Beach County’s only new Recommended distinction, Michelin lingo for eateries “serving high-quality, well-prepared food with fresh ingredients.” Chef Pushkar Marathe earned a Recommended nod in 2025 for his other restaurant, Stage Kitchen & Bar, also in Palm Beach Gardens.
No other Broward or Palm Beach county restaurants were awarded Bib Gourmands (“great food at a great value”) or Recommended nods, with the majority of new awards heading to Miami-Dade.
In North Miami, Mutra, chef Raz Shabtai’s boutique Israeli kitchen, also earned one Michelin star.
Below, find the full lineup of South Florida’s 2026 Michelin winners broken down by county,
Palm Beach County
Michelin stars: Emelina, West Palm Beach, 1 star
Recommended: Ela Curry & Cocktails, Palm Beach Gardens
Miami-Dade County
Michelin stars: Mutra, North Miami, 1 star
Bib Gourmand
- Barra Callao, North Miami Beach
- Cotoa, North Miami
- Double Luck, Miami
- To Be Determined, Miami
Recommended
- Bistro Ocho, Miami
- Elyu Omakase, Coral Gables
- Mano Libera, South Miami
For the full list of Michelin winners statewide, go to MichelinMedia.com.
Sun Sentinel writer Phillip Valys can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter/X @philvalys.
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