To Be Determined – Coral Way's ever-changing Bib Gourmand

To Be Determined keeps its ambitions quiet. Tucked behind a modest facade just off Coral Way and 27th Avenue, the wine bar and seasonal kitchen is run by two Venezuelan-born chefs, longtime collaborators with parallel and distinct paths who sharpened their knives in some of Miami's most respected kitchens and carved out followings of their own before finally joining forces under one roof. The name is the whole premise: since opening in late March 2025, the kitchen has rewritten its own menu every couple of weeks rather than settling into a fixed repertoire, chasing whatever is at its best that week. The dining room holds only ten or so tables, and it is this compactness, allied to real technique, that earned the restaurant a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand, one of four new Bib Gourmands Miami added this year — a distinction reserved for cooking that is genuinely good and genuinely fairly priced, not for spectacle.

01The room and the setting

The front of the house is a cozy bar and lounge, while the back room seats around two dozen guests; the space was refreshed on a modest budget with cement floors painted a glossy grey, grey sponge-painted walls, and simple wooden tables and chairs that give it a laid-back, inviting feel. It is deliberately unshowy from the street, which is part of the charm along this stretch of Coral Way.

Regulars tend to gravitate to the bar rather than the back room. From the host to the barbacks, the server, and even the chefs themselves coming out to deliver dishes, the hospitality at the counter runs just as warm as at any table.

02The chefs

Richard Ortega and Jhonny Delgado are longtime collaborators with parallel and distinct paths, who sharpened their knives in some of Miami's most respected kitchens and carved out unique followings through their individual ventures. Between them they carry experience from some of the city's most noted kitchens, most notably Los Félix and B Bistro, with Delgado working his way up from line cook to executive chef.

Insider tip

Dinner only, Wednesday–Sunday; book ahead, the room is small.

Ortega is known around Miami for The Maiz Project, his Venezuelan street-food venture built around heirloom corn, and Delgado for Sandoches, his Japanese-Latin fusion sandwich pop-up. The two had cooked together for years before opening a permanent room of their own on Coral Way.

03The cooking

The concise seasonal menu changes every few weeks to keep things interesting, and true to the restaurant's name it turns over roughly every two weeks depending on what's fresh and available, with the chefs favouring technique that enhances a seasonal ingredient rather than overworking it.

Crudo, a dry-aged steak and a crab pasta tend to appear in some form on any given visit, while a truffle cavatelli and a creamy flan are among the dishes that keep reappearing, dressed differently each time. Recent iterations have included a grilled ribeye with a classic au poivre sauce and a miso butter corn served in a braided corn husk.

04What to order

Start with the scallop crudo, delicate, clean and artfully plated, perfectly cooked and boldly seasoned, and let the crab cavatelli pasta carry you through the middle of the meal. The grilled ribeye with au poivre sauce is the dish to share, cooked over charcoal in the style both chefs grew up with in Venezuela.

Finish, without exception, with the creamy flan, a quesillo-style custard that has become the restaurant's quiet signature.

05Wine and drinks

TBD positions itself as a wine bar first, so there's plenty of interesting sips, but the dishes definitely don't play second fiddle. The list of reds, whites and orange wines turns over alongside the food, chosen without pretence rather than built around trophy bottles. Wednesdays bring a dedicated by-the-glass wine night, paired with small plates designed for grazing rather than a full tasting menu.

06When to go and the neighbourhood

To Be Determined serves dinner Wednesday through Sunday, from 6pm to 10.30pm, with a business-casual dress code and no dedicated parking, so plan on the street or a short walk from Coral Way. It has quietly become one of the better new rooms in Miami, bringing an unexpected dose of creativity and intimacy to this stretch of Coral Way, a corridor better known for everyday errands than destination dining — which is exactly why a two-week menu and a ten-table room feel like such a find here.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.