Sarasota, rejoice: We don't have to drive to Tampa to eat Michelin Guide-recommended food anymore. 

Lucky 8 Restaurant, Focaccia Sandwich + Bakery and Tralia all received recognition in the just-released 2026 Michelin Guide, the annual ranking of the best restaurants in the world. Restaurants are awarded one, two or three stars for culinary excellence, but can also receive a Bib Gourmand award (recognition for quality food at great value) or be labeled "Michelin recommended"—that is, vetted by anonymous Michelin reviewers, or "inspectors," and lauded for high-quality food, but not yet starred or selected for a Bib Gourmand award.

Lucky 8, a New Orleans-inspired eatery on Osprey Avenue in Southside Village, received a Bib Gourmand award this year for its modern Southern food, which includes Cajun staples like po' boys, red beans and rice, gumbo, crawfish bread pudding and étouffée. (Our recommendation: the buttermilk salad with a fried chicken thigh, one of the best pieces of fried chicken we've ever had.) "The spirit of New Orleans is alive and well in Sarasota’s Southside Village," write the guide's inspectors. 

Focaccia Sandwich + Bakery and Tralia, meanwhile, are now "Michelin recommended." Nick Sammelman, who owns Focaccia with his wife Danielle, whips up batches of pillowy, dimpled focaccia dough every day, which then undergo a 48-hour rise before being used for the restaurant's signature sandwiches, which Michelin inspectors call "satisfying, hulking [and] finely constructed." Our favorite? The prime rib with red-wine-braised onions, white cheddar and smoked horseradish cream. While you're there, grab a loaf of rosemary-scented "classic" focaccia to take home, too.

Tralia started life as a pandemic pop-up before moving into its Gulf Gate home in 2023, where it serves sourdough and Detroit-style pizza alongside red-sauce-joint favorites like wings, meatballs, pasta Bolognese, fried calamari and cacio e pepe French fries. Chef and owner Anthony Petralia grew up in Rochester, New York, "washing dishes in restaurants at age 13 and working my way up in the business. I worked with a chef at [the now-shuttered] Luma on Park in Orlando for four years, who made me into the chef I wanted to be.” Michelin inspectors recognized his efforts, calling Tralia's pies "one of the city’s best pizzas."

This is the first year the Michelin Guide has covered the entire state of Florida; inspectors previously only visited restaurants in the greater Miami, Orlando and Tampa areas before adding greater Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and St. Pete-Clearwater in 2025. For more information about this year's inductees, click here.