12 Best Late-Night Restaurants in Broward County

There's a saying that goes: "Nothing good happens after 2 a.m." 

But the way we see it, the only real problem with being out past midnight is the dearth of good dining options. Sure, you could satisfy your late-night cravings with some boring diner grub, a few bags of Taco Bell, or a run through the McDonald's drive-through, but just because you're out late doesn't mean you can't indulge your gourmand side too.

This list is your map to the best late-night eats in Broward County; it includes a variety of establishments that cover a considerable number of cuisine types, with places that can be deemed palatable even during the day. From Chinese and sushi gems to grilled cheese and dessert, we present you with the 12 best late-night spots from Fort Lauderdale to Hollywood.

12. Smokey Bones
809 S. University Drive, Plantation. Call 954-474-3833, or visit SmokeyBones.com.
Smokey Bones specializes in four things: strong drinks, ice-cold beer, a great atmosphere, and food available well into the night. We mean late-night eats served until 2 a.m. There are about 70 locations of this Orlando-based chain, a place where you can have a few drinks, watch the game, and — most of all — eat meat. With the culture of barbecue being competitive and finicky, diners either love Smokey Bones or hate it. Menu standouts include sweet-potato stix, hand-pulled pork, and baby back ribs. It's clear the bar is a big part of this business model too, so feel free to wash it all down with a Guinness and a few Jägermeister shots, or go for more creative concoctions like the Long Island Light Fluid (with four kinds of liquor blended into one drink) or the Smojito (a mojito made with Sprite). 

11. Georgie's Alibi
2266 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors. Call 954-565-2526, or visit alibiwiltonmanors.com.
A longtime favorite for the Wilton Manors crowd, Georgie’s Alibi can be considered the lighthearted hub of gay life in Broward County. If it's more than sausage you're after, this is the place to be after hours. The spacious bar and red-lit lounge goes from a long and generous happy hour to an even better late-night scene, where you can order pub grub from a special menu offering choices like fried pickles, chicken wings, burgers, cheese fries, or a Baja chicken sandwich well past midnight (the kitchen is open until 2 a.m. during the week and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday). When you're done gorging yourself, dance it all away. The music is often a torrent of danceable beats that will have you sweating off your last meal (or working up an appetite for another) in no time.

10. The Field Irish Pub & Eatery
3281 Griffin Road, Dania Beach. Call 954-964-5979, or visit thefieldfl.com.
There's nothing like a hot platter of fish and chips to satisfy your late-night cravings. Of course, if you can't make it to Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips for its 24/7 fast-food service, there's always the Field Irish Pub in Dania Beach, where you can get the same English delicacy served in the comfort of a charming cottage-like dining room. Walk into this authentic Irish Pub and you will be instantly transported to a small farm town in the countryside, complete with everything from a properly poured Guinness and a shot of Jameson to an order of blood pudding or a piping-hot bowl of hearty Irish lamb stew. The menu is available until midnight, so you can be sure there's a seat (and a beer and some food) waiting for you here 'til late.

9. Kisses From Italy
3146 NE Ninth St., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-451-3129, or visit kissesfromitaly.com.
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Kisses From Italy is your one-stop shop for all things Italian in South Florida. That means you can order stuff like a mozzarella, tomato, and basil panini or fries topped with a hearty bolognese sauce to a sliced rib-eye sandwich or grilled chicken salad — all well into the early-morning hours. Looking for an after-hours dessert spot? This could be your new go-to place. The menu offers a number of sweet treats including Italian biscotti, cannoli, tiramisu, or ricotta cheesecake, tuxedo bomb chocolate cake, or apple pie. Don't want to leave your living room? There's also delivery from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily.

8. Grady's Bar
905 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-761-9416.
If your favorite type of late night usually ends at a dive bar, than look no further than Grady's in Fort Lauderdale. This old-school bar looks more like your friend's basement or back-room bar, which means it fits the dive-bar bill perfectly, complete with friendly staff, on-premises smoking inside, and plenty of cheap drinks and beer. Of course, you're also looking for food (not something you'd typically associate with a dive, we know), and this spot has one of the largest bar food menus around. The standard menu is served until the kitchen closes at 1:30 a.m. and includes burgers, grilled cheese, hot dogs, chili, and chicken wings priced $4 to $8 an order. There's also a blackboard listing of daily specials, items like black-bean burgers, liverwurst sandwiches, and spaghetti. Sure, it's not the best food in South Florida, but it's certainly one of the best meals you get from a South Florida dive bar at past midnight.

7. Hott Leggz
2471 E. Commercial Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-771-5151, or visit wannabiz.biz/hottleggz.
With two locations — one in Fort Lauderdale and a second in Lighthouse Point — Hott Leggz is the ultimate spot for all your sports bar and seafood-craving late-night needs. The restaurant serves its full menu until 2 a.m. during the week (and 3 a.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). That means if you want a three-pound bucket of king crab legs, snow crab legs, or dungeness crab at 1 a.m., you can get that — plus a number of other seafood-style eats including crab cakes, fried shrimp, or fried oyster poor boy sandwiches.



6. Dragon City
6706-6708 Stirling Road, Hollywood. Call 954-894-8393.
This Hollywood Hong Kong-style Chinese restaurant is located just minutes west of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, serving Hong Kong-style eats that merit a return trip — at any hour. Craving Kung Pow shrimp at 2 a.m.? No problem. The kitchen stays open until 3 a.m. Choose to dine in or take out. The simple dining room offers quite a view with a number of fish tanks filled with creatures ready to be cooked. And what it may lack in refinement, it makes up for with a lengthy menu that doesn't shy away from oddities and assertive flavors. Forget McDonald's. This is some of the best hangover-curing fare around.

5. Primanti Brothers
901 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-565-0605, or visit primantibros.com.
When it comes to the beach, some places are open late. And then there's Primanti Brothers, which is open 24/7. This Pittsburgh-based chain has multiple locations across Broward County, but it's the original 24-hour spot off Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard that has a special place in our hearts. It serves breakfast and all sorts of great gut-busting grub to jump-start your morning — or finish you off at the end of a long night. You can get massive portions of subs, pizza, burgers, and hot dogs that are hearty enough to satiate the largest steelworker appetite. While it's all worthy of the impending food hangover, the small counter shop is best-known for its "Almost Famous" sandwiches, including the restaurant's second-most-popular menu item, the Pitts-burger sandwich. What you'll get: a beef patty, sweet and sour coleslaw, tomato, Provolone cheese, and fries all nestled together under two big hunks of sliced Italian bread.

4. Fishtales Restaurant & Nightclub
3355 NE 33rd St., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-689-2344, or visit fishtaleson33rd.com.
Here is one of South Florida's best-kept secrets for great food, drinks, and live music at time of day or night. Fishtales Restaurant & Nightclub is a restaurant-bar and nightclub all rolled into one, located just north of Oakland Park Boulevard off A1A. Open seven days a week, the restaurant serves a complete menu of seafood specialties and grilled sandwiches for lunch, dinner, and late-night noshing until 2 a.m., priced reasonably for those who like it affordable ($11 for the Thai curry mussels pictured here) and those who want to shell out for more gourmet eats (think $25 for a grilled New York strip). 

3. New York Grilled Cheese Co.
2207 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors. Call 954-564-6887, or visit newyorkgrilledcheese.com.
The three things most needed after a long night out are grease, carbs, and comfort. This place serves all three in one scrumptious handheld bite. Open until 11 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 3 a.m. Thursday and Sunday, and 4 a.m. on weekend nights, this Wilton Manors shop makes grilled-cheese sandwiches that will blow your inner-child's mind. Options like the Soho Sweet Cheeses! with Brie, caramelized onions, crunchy bacon, and berry marmalade on toasted oatmeal wheat bread; Manhattan Grilled Mac 'n' Cheese, American cheddar cheese and homemade mac 'n' cheese on toasted country loaf; and the Wall Street Grindr Award with American cheddar cheese, French fries, bacon, caramelized onion, garlic butter, and fried egg on country loaf are all served with a dipper of creamy tomato bisque.

2. New River Grill & Pizza
701 S. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-618-7000, or visit newriverpizzaonline.com.
OK, so it's past midnight and you're hungry, but you don't want to go out in public. We understand. That's why there's delivery. But not just any delivery: delivery that's available until 4 a.m. It's no secret that this 12-year-old pizza takeout and delivery joint has one of the best late-night menus around, and although it's been a familiar standby for more than a decade, in the past few years a new management team has given the establishment a new focus with amped-up cuisine. Although the dining room closes at 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday, you can still get anything off the menu delivered to your house way past then. That means you can order a variety of Italian-influenced, new American cuisine well into the wee hours of the morning — everything from a creative panini that combines turkey, cranberry, and Brie to pizza with gourmet toppings like fig, prosciutto, and blue cheese. Salads are dinner-sized and ingredient-driven, with simple combinations like the lemon, Parmesan, and arugula or more fancy takes like mango shrimp salad with pan-seared or blackened rock shrimp tossed with mixed greens, mango salsa, and a charred lime wedge. See? There doesn't have to be any settling when you're hungry past midnight.

1. Sushi Song
3414 N. Ocean Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-563-7664, or visit sushi-song.com.
When you like to eat at odd hours of the night and you hate that the only thing available is pizza, burgers, or fast food, at least you've got an option with Sushi Song. You have to love that they're slicing up sushi to order until the wee hours of the morning. With locations in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, and downtown Fort Lauderdale, these cozy sushi joints offer a taste of big-city late-night scenes to laid-back Broward County. The atmosphere is dim and cozy with candles and brick walls. The sushi is fresh and creative, with options ranging from straightforward nigiri to over-the-top signature rolls such as Japan Red Hot, shrimp tempura, cucumber, and jalapeño topped with tuna, black tobiko, and house special sauce and the A1A, with Maine lobster, avocado, cilantro, and spicy mayo topped with seared wild salmon and special sauce. This place proves eating late at night doesn't have to mean you're stuck at a dive.

Nicole Danna is a food writer covering Broward and Palm Beach counties. To get the latest in food and drink news in South Florida, follow her @SoFloNicole or find her latest food pics on the BPB New Times Food & Drink Instagram.