ll Pastaiolo - Best Italian Restaurant South Beach, Miami Florida — Restaurant in Miami Beach

Thursday night is steadily becoming our date night and what a better place to visit than a nice romantic Italian restaurant? This beautiful authentic Italian restaurant is found on Collins avenue between 11th and 12th Street, very close to the beach and all the action of South Beach. The wait staff greets you and welcomes you to "Italy" and truly gives you that feeling of authenticity. You hear the Italian language being spoken throughout the night and the music station is also all in Italian. The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated with lots of Italian cooking gadgets, paintings, cans, baskets, etc. Very pretty. There are plenty of tables both out in the sidewalk, terrace, and inside.

Our server, Andrea was very attentive. He was always around often checking up on us without being too invasive. He was a great communicator too and we had some good small chit chat.

They say not to drink the water from South Beach, so we always order a delicious bottle of Acqua Panna, which in our opinion is the best and smoothest tasting water there is. We also order a couple of Peroni, because you know, when in Rome...

We promptly put in an order of their Bruschetta and an order of their fried calamari and shrimp appetizers. The Bruschetta was made of toasted bread, organic tomato sauce, basil, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil which came together charmingly. It was a beautiful little appetizer. Excellent! The fried calamari and shrimp were made of house made crispy fried calamari, shrimp, and zucchini with a touch of black peppers served with a delectable aioli sauce. This appetizer is really a must order!

For our main courses, I ordered the Linguini Lobster, and my wife had the Gnocchi Bolognese. My dish was absolutely spectacular, and I knew I loved it on the first bite, even before I tried the lobster. There was already so much good flavor on the linguini that they can easily be sold alone. The lobster was sweet and tender and really went well with the linguini sauce. The menu description of the dish is a slow cooked half lobster with a touch of cherry tomatoes, garlic white wine in a lobster reduction. My wife's dish, the Gnocchi Bolognese, was described as home-made gnocchi tossed in a fresh Bolognese sauce finished with parmigiano Reggiano. The dish was very good and a change of pace of just regular pasta.

Lastly, our dessert was the Cannoli. Described as an imported Sicilian lightly sweetened ricotta cream dipped in cannoli shell with a rim covered of dark chocolate and shaved pistachios. Honestly speaking, the best Cannoli we have ever tried. There were three of them, about three bites each in size, and they were just perfect. Nice and crunch shell with those pistachios and chocolate on the outside, but the real treasure is that charming, delicate sweet ricotta cream filling that was just heavenly. A+ kind of dessert! This dessert basically added the exclamation point to a truly formidable experience from beginning to end in this nice and beautiful restaurant. 100%...

Il Pastaiolo in Miami Beach is an absolute visit for lovers of Italian cuisine!

5 million views so far. Il Pastaiola review moves foodie reviews to way over 5 million. The dishes here are cosmic along with the ethereal attentive service.

The manager and my server are from Napoli. I lived in Napoli for many months and the deliciousness of the dishes mirrors the perfect Napolinese cuisine and service. My server was Mirko from Napoli. The manager from Napoli was perfect, He had me feel like I was a guest at his family home in Napoli.

When I was in Napoli years ago, I met the reincarnation of my aunt Sophie who took care of me as a child. Her name in this life is also Sophie. In her current life she was born in Bolzano, Italia.

From the moment I stepped onto their charming outdoor terrace, I was transported to Italy with the cozy ambiance, soft Italian music, and very warm homey hospitality.

My dish, linguine scoglio was an aroma that came from heaven. I was drunk on the flavour before I put a bite in my mouth. Absolutely amazing!

Beyond 5 star deliciousness here! Major compliments to the chef! Culinary Genius! The lobster and sea food was of best I have enjoyed in over 70 countries of travel.

The handmade pasta in the dish I enjoyed is the star of the show—perfectly al dente and bursting with authentic Italian flavour. The fresh ingredients, like San Marzano tomatoes and creamy burrata, elevated every dish.

Our server, Mirko from Milano was perfect, friendly, and offered spot-on recommendations, making the experience even more special.

Highly recommend for a romantic dinner or a fun night out with friends. We'll be back soon with my cast and crew for thELight I ((tm) film! You see Keanu Reeves here mid-September. Top secret

All the Great people who shared their culinary talents and great servjce have comp tickets to our thELight film I (tm) in Cannes 2026. Such perfect Spirits!...

I had a lovely time at Il Pastaoilo! My boyfriend and I were in Miami as tourists for a weekend to celebrate our anniversary, and went here for dinner one night.

We splurged and got the special Cacio e Pepe. Here’s everything we loved, and a few things we didn’t love:

Things we loved:

The Caesar salad was very good. It’s hard to go wrong with a Caesar salad, but this one was a good one! The ambiance was fun - we sat outside and everyone around was in a good mood, dancing to the music that was playing. Service was great - bread and water came out right way. Our waitress was attentive and friendly. Our waters were always filled and we felt comfortable and taken care of. BONUS: When we looked up the restaurant on Google, we noticed they were offering a promotion for 1 free glass of prosecco - an anniversary win!

Things that could have been improved:

The pasta wasn’t hot or even warm. For a $52 meal this was especially disappointing Execution was poor — typically when making Cacio e Pepe, the wheel of cheese has a bit of alcohol in it that’s lit on fire, and that heat melts the cheese which is then scraped and mixed with the pasta so that it becomes a creamy sauce. This felt like cold pasta in a wheel of cheese, purely for show. Wasn’t fresh truffle on it — the pictures made it look like there was fresh truffle shavings on top but in reality, it was primarily truffle oil and a few canned truffle pieces for looks.

At the end our waitress gave us a little card with a QR code and asked for a review. The card also had coupons for other restaurants nearby likely owned by the same group. Il Pastaiolo, and all these other restaurants, all seem to have 4.8+ stars. I’m sure they’re great, but I’d also bet that this tactic drives up the ratings (and you can see that most of the reviews reference the waiter/waitresses name, which is nice,...