TLDR:
- ✨ Be prepared to carb overload- mostly cheese and bread with a sprinkle of gremolata for greens
- 🏆 Must-Order: The Spinach Arancini (the cheese fondata is liquid gold) and the Bolognese Lasagna
- 🍕 The “Instagram” Dish: The Stella Pizza looks stunning with its star-shaped crust, but be warned, it’s a messy eat with a middle that struggles to hold its weight
- ✌️ Vibe is 9/10: Perfect for groups and patio sipping
There’s a lot of expensive Italian in Miami that looks impressive and eats forgettable. Everything comes with a fine dining price tag, but not the experience. We were on a mission to avoid this for our last holiday dinner out and landed at Italica in Midtown. Here’s what we ordered, what genuinely hit, and the couple of dishes that missed hard.
Italica is technically a chain, with 2 locations in Miami and a third in Buenos Aires, of all places. Known for their extensive Spritz menu, it’s an easy-going place where you can sit and sip on the patio, or go all out for a feast. We chose the latter:
To start, let’s rank the appetizers in order: Spinach Arnichini, Roasted Artichokes, and Crispy Polenta.
Unfortunately, the crispy polenta was the least favorite of the orders, to the point that half of the dish wasn’t eaten. It sounded like a sure thing: crunchy edges, earthy mushrooms, cool stracciatella, and a bright gremolata to wake it all up. Too breaded, not strong enough on the mushrooms, and stracciatella that felt like it didn’t belong anywhere on the plate. Online reviews seem to be more positive, so take this one with a grain of salt.
At $16, to say that 3 pieces of roasted artichokes were a disappointment is an understatement. This one was criminal. Did they taste delicious? Yes, absolutely. The artichokes themselves were well-prepared: caramelized, with those crisped edges that taste a little nutty and a little sweet. I love having them with pine nuts, a combination that just makes sense. Then, the gremolata (an Italian topping) adds a sharp, herby lift that cuts through the richness without making the whole thing too lemony.
The savior is the lime aioli. Bright, creamy, and slightly unexpected, it gives the artichokes this clean, zippy finish. It makes a whole new flavor profile for artichokes that makes you feel like you discovered something. It was really delicious, but it was just too much to feel like a fair appetizer.
And ending with the star of the show- the spinach arancini. Parmigiano, parsley, and cheese fondata served bubbling:
First, these are massive (a welcome difference to the artichokes). The second thing you notice, they are swimming in the fondata. I immediately knew I’d be saving it to soak up with the rest of the meal too.
Arancini are fried rice balls, stuffed, breaded, and then fried. So you get this beautiful, crispy outside that gives way to a creamy, oozing inside. Italica does them perfectly. Rich and luscious risotto and spinach make the most delicious filling. It’s warm, gooey, and appropriately heavy. As it should be.
But the real reason you order it again is the cheese fondata. It’s warm, glossy, and ridiculously comforting, like a grown-up queso that somehow still feels Italian. Coat each bite in it. And when you catch a little parsley in the mix, it adds just enough freshness to keep the whole thing balanced. As I mentioned, save it for any other place you can find for it with the rest of your dishes.
Then came the main event: the carb heavyweights.
Starting with the recommended Stella Pizza. “Our famous star pizza stuffed with ricotta, tomato sauce, burrata, prosciutto di Parma, arugula, and EVOO.”
It hits the table looking like a celebration, a star wood-fired pizza with a bright ball of burrata right on top. If you want a “classic” pie, this isn’t that. The Stella is more like pizza meets calzone, but lighter than you’d expect and way more fun to share. The taste? There are hits and misses in how this all comes together.
The good: that ricotta stuffed crust! You get the wood-fired base, blistered and snappy at the edges, then that soft, mild ricotta tucked into the points like a built-in reward. (PS, this is perfect for dipping in that leftover fondata if you’re lucky enough to be able to handle so much cheese).
The bad: in practice, it eats messy and a little unconsidered. The prosciutto feels tossed on at the end like an afterthought, not integrated into the pizza, so instead of melting into the heat or balancing the richness, it just sits there. And the structure is where things really fall apart. The thin crust can’t handle the weight of the toppings, especially the burrata. Between the heavy cheese and the sauce, the top layer slides around, and you end up chasing tomato sauce and cheese that want to fall off the slice instead of staying put.
If the rest of the pizza were built with the same intention as that crust, it would be a signature dish. As it is, it’s a fun shape with a standout edge, but the middle eats like a beautiful mess.
To round out the meal, the lasagna. A homemade traditional Bolognese lasagna with béchamel sauce and parmigiano. Say less.
This is a true Bolognese-style lasagna, which means it’s not built around a punchy tomato-forward marinara and big stretches of ricotta. Instead, the star is the ragu: slow-cooked and deeply savory. There is a slow, savory depth from the meat that tastes browned and simmered into something almost silky. The carrots and celery bring a subtle sweetness that rounds out the richness, and the onions add that soft, jammy backbone that makes the whole filling taste warmer and more complete. It’s all so perfect.
The béchamel makes it feel special. In lasagna, béchamel makes the layers silky and rich and helps everything bind together, instead of relying on ricotta or lots of tomato sauce. You also feel the difference in the structure. The layers are thinner and more intentional, so it slices clean and eats like a composed dish, not a casserole. The Parmigiano is the final finish, adding that salty, nutty edge that keeps the richness in check.
Italica’s lasagna tastes like someone made it the way they actually make it at home, not the oversized, sloppy square you get at a lot of places. It’s ridiculously satisfying without putting you in a food coma.
Which, if you’re not in one by the end of the meal, dessert is a must.
We ordered the Pistachio Lovers: pistachio lava cake served with pistachio gelato and a pistachio praline. This was phenomenal.
Perhaps it’s the Dubai Chocolate craze, or maybe my love for pralines and hatred for my teeth, but this was one of the better restaurant-desserts I’ve had in a long time! A soft center breaks open and turns silky on the plate, loaded with pistachio flavor. It’s nutty, toasty, and a little buttery.
The gelato is the perfect counterweight: cold, creamy, and clean enough to keep the whole thing from feeling heavy, especially as it melts into the warm cake. And then the pistachio praline does the final bit of magic, adding a crisp, caramelized crunch that keeps every spoonful interesting.
And we were lucky enough to be gifted the Caprese Tart. A flourless chocolate almond tart, with candied orange, served along a cappuccino gelato. While the Pistachio cake was preferred, I won’t complain about a free dessert. The flourless chocolate-almond base is dense and rich, with a nutty depth that makes the chocolate taste darker and more layered. The candied orange comes in and changes the whole mood with a bright citrus pop. And the cappuccino gelato, while not my flavor of choice, makes so much sense with the chocolate and orange.
If Pistachio Lovers is the showstopper, this is the one you order when you want something a little more refined, still indulgent, but with balance and personality.
And if you’re not in a food coma by now, bravo. While the apps didn’t all start off on a positive note, the first meal of 2026 gets a great rating! It’s always fun to eat out and enjoy with friends. Italica provides the exact atmosphere to enjoy, no matter what. It does help that the dishes (or at least elements of them) are quite good themselves!
