This hidden Argentine restaurant in Miami was named one of the best in the U.S. Is it?

Walking from the bright Miami sunshine into the welcoming darkness of Bunbury, you need a moment to let your eyes adjust. Allow a moment to let your equilibrium adjust, too.

Take in the gleaming bar, lined with corks from bottles of wine served over intimate dinners and loud, boisterous gatherings. Framed displays of the foil wrappings from those bottles hang on the walls. Newspaper comics line the windows from the beloved Argentine artist Quino and seal out the busy street outside.

There’s a small, dark nook next to the bar, lined with books and a few elderly typewriters. And when the host slides open a hidden door to reveal the restaurant you will discover more delights. A wall of glowing green sangria bottles. A corner filled with mementos from beloved grandmothers. And an easy, warm hospitality that goes beyond great food and drink.

Named after an imaginary Oscar Wilde character from “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Bunbury sits just around the corner from the Adrienne Arsht Center in downtown Miami serving lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. The restaurant and wine bar was recently named one of the best restaurants in the country by Yelp, along with Crust and Jaguar Sun, and it may well be the best restaurant you haven’t been to yet.

Hospitality manager Alina Patalino thinks of the restaurant as a bit like “Alice in Wonderland,” a space rendered almost sacred with contributions from everyone from the staff (they put the cork bar together) to the customers (who brought the books to the original Bunbury location in exchange for a free glass of wine).

“Every little corner has a little story,” she says. “Everything is meant to be there. There is thought and time behind it.”

The driving force behind Bunbury is Paula Costa, owner, chef, sommelier, designer. An Argentine disciple of hotelier and developer Alan Faena, she and her business partner and wife Geraldine Quintero, the general manager, have created something comfortable, delectable and unforgettable.

“Most restaurants are about people watching each other,” Costa says. “Here, there’s privacy. It’s a spot where people can be in a house with friends without all the pretensions other neighborhoods have. “

Bunbury has been in its cozy-yet-quirky space for almost four years (the anniversary is coming in May). The restaurant began its life in a former tire shop in what Costa calls “the middle of nowhere” in downtown Miami (“we had to call the police many times a week,” she says). The kitchen was in the office, and there was no gas to cook on.

Still, word spread quickly about the food, in particular the grilled prime vacio, a flap steak that’s still on the menu, served with truffle mashed potatoes and mixed greens. Fridays and Saturdays were packed (and still are), with die-hards waiting up to two hours for a table and dozens of people lined up for drinks. The restaurant didn’t even have a liquor license: Costa was reduced to mixing drinks made from wine. One, the Malbec Basil Julep, is still on the menu, because Bunbury values history and tradition.

Costa doesn’t think of herself as a chef first; after working as a server as a teenager, she turned to wine, becoming the one-time youngest sommelier in Argentina and eventually working as head sommelier at Faena Buenos Aires. She eventually became a chef. But it was cooking as a child with her grandmother that instilled in her a love of hospitality and a fierce attention to detail.

“My grandma used to cook steak every day,” she says. “We’d buy the cheapest cut. She’d marinate the steak to make it tender, because the cheapest is not tender. What we do here is buy prime steak and marinate it with the same things she used to use with the cheap steak.”

The menu is steak-forward, of course, but there are plenty of other choices, including a duck confit that can make believers out of the ambivalent and a variety of pasta dishes, including a rich butternut squash ravioli in a creamy sage sauce and shrimp balls (instead of meatballs) with pasta, which are so good you wouldn’t even miss the pasta, and we do not say that lightly.

Because Bunbury is also a wine bar, the wine list is extensive, featuring bottles, by-the-glass and even a list of Paula’s Favorites (we recommend trying anything she recommends). There’s a page of the menu devoted to small plates like empanadas (lamb was our favorite, but if they’re offering the duck as the daily special, don’t hesitate), charcuterie and starters like warm brie breaded with almonds and served with fig vinaigrette and zucchini envoltini, baked zucchini rolls stuffed with spinach, goat cheese, pistachios and the house tomato sauce. Your cardiologist may not be happy, but you will be.

At Bunbury, Costa says she hired many different chefs but realized no one took care of the products as diligently as she did so she remembered her grandmother and took over the cooking.

“When I cook, she’s alive inside of me,” she says.

When Costa became pregnant with the couple’s son, who is now 4, Quintero took over kitchen duties — even though she hated to cook.

“I was in the kitchen for five years,” Quintero says, laughing. “The first time I was in the kitchen I didn’t know medium or medium well. I had one older lady next to me touching the steak to let me know the right temperature. ‘This is medium?’ ‘No, a little bit more.’ We cooked together until I learned.”

It’s that passion for perfection that sets Bunbury apart on all fronts, from its unique design right down to its cocktails. Costa’s favorite is the Wilde’s Mode, with Tito’s vodka, grapefruit juice, lime, cardamom and a spritz of absinthe. This preference is fitting, as her restaurant takes its cues from the great Irish writer.

“We love Oscar Wilde,” she says. “He had a quote that a grapefruit is just a lemon that had a chance. That’s what we are here. There’s a story behind everything. I think people can feel that. Maybe they never know it, but they can feel when there’s love and passion in a place.”

Bunbury Miami

Where: 55 NE 14th St., Miami

Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday; 11 a.m-11:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 10:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Saturday; 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday

Parking: Valet at Square Station Apartments at 1425 NE Miami Place $10 with validation or street parking

More information: www.bunburymiami.com or 305-333-6929