Your All-Season Guide to Cheering On the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park

From the best bites to hotels near loanDepot Park, this guide hits it out of the park.

In case you missed it, the Miami Marlins biggest new offseason addition wasn’t a power-hitting center fielder or a lights-out closer. It was the news that bongos, trumpets, and colorful waving flags will now be allowed inside the stadium for every game. Hoping to harness some of the excitement from Serie del Caribe, the Fish are gearing up for an electrifying year at the ballpark.

From opening day on March 28 through to when the Marlins (hopefully) secure a World Series title, loanDepot Park in the heart of Little Havana will be the place to be. MLB action is obviously the main draw, but the stadium is also home to interesting tours and pieces of baseball history, plus more than a few exciting new food and drink options including a gourmet smashburger and local brews coming to the ballpark for the first time. To carry you through all nine innings and beyond, here’s everything you need to know about cheering on the Miami Marlins (with vuvuzelas in hand) at loanDepot Park this baseball season.

pork belly bao buns
Pork belly bao buns from Intentional Wok | Photo by Maya Gottleib

Best Food and Drink at loanDepot Park

Sliderz

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The Marlins get in on the smashburger craze with this new offering between home plate and third base. Like most smashburgers, this one’s got a crispy exterior, giving way to a juicy blend of dry-aged chuck, short rib, and brisket topped with cheese and a secret sauce. The cheese is your basic baseball cheese, but helps create a messy, delicious, experience that seriously ups the ante for stadium burgers.

Oppo Taco

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The stadium’s new Mexican concept, Oppo Taco, sits near first base, where they’ll be dishing up restaurant-quality tortilla chips and four different types of tacos. The chicken al pastor is a refreshing blend of grilled chicken and pineapple bringing a surprising burst of tropical flavors to a concession stand taco. The mojo Cuban roast pork taco gives the shop a little local flavor, and while it’s not exactly straight off the caja china, it's an impressive creation for a ballpark. Finally, the brisket taco takes it home with smoky, beefy filling that’s the most savory of the bunch. And it’s conveniently located next to a Herradura Tequila bar right next door.

Heavy Hitters

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Heavy Hitters is loanDepot Park’s new Florida-centric stand, where you can taste the sunshine state’s greatest flavors. No, they don’t have Pub Subs, and Stone Crab claw season doesn’t quite line up with baseball. But it does offer a spicy gator chili, a slightly leaner take on the beefy classic. It comes atop a standard hot dog with onions and cheese, or drizzled across a plate of nachos. Both give you the chance to leave the ballgame saying, “yeah, I’ve eaten alligator,” without even having to sniff the Everglades.

Billy’s Bites

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In case the gator dog wasn’t enough, get even more local flavor with the Marlins’ new tequeños. If you’re among the six people in Miami who’ve never had tequeños, they’re a Venezuelan staple that taste like a mozzarella stick was baked inside a Pillsbury crescent roll. The Marlins jack the tradition up a notch, topping their tequeños with creamy salsa verde that brings a little extra kick.

Intentional Wok

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Hands down the best new concession stand name in all of baseball is Loan Depot’s “Intentional Wok.” The Asian food stand leads off its lineup with chili-glazed dumplings filled with veggies and chicken—a satisfying bite you may not expect to find at the ballpark. The stand also offers pork belly bao buns topped with sriracha mayo and sweet green onions. They’re a satisfyingly indulgent order of two, ideal to split with your baseball buddy as a between-inning snack.

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Cuba’s oldest brewery is a natural fit at a baseball game, and if you haven’t made it out to Wynwood to try La Tropical, they’ll be set up near First Base. The Marlins’ official Latin beer partner will offer the classic La Original citrusy lager, along with the 88-calorie Tropi Flaca if you’re watching your figure at the ballpark. Those who don’t count beer calories will delight in the Nativo Key tropical IPA, a 6.1% ABV IPA that tastes more fruity than hoppy.

West Plaza
While we’ve all gotten to know and love the Biscayne Brewing Beer Hall during games that drag on, this season the craft brewery is taking the show outside offering a boisterous beer garden in the West Plaza. Even if the Marlins never open their roof, you can enjoy the ballpark experience under the Florida sunshine, sipping the special Marlins Lager and other craft creations before, during, and after the game.

Miami Marlins loandepot park
Photo courtesy of Miami Marlins

Other Things to Do at loanDepot Park

Baseball is, of course, the main attraction at Loan Depot Park, but if you’re not up for nine innings of the nuances of the four-seam fastball, the ballpark has a bunch of cool other stuff to check out.

First is the Marlins Museum in left field, where you can peruse artifacts from the team’s history including its two World Series trophies. You can also watch clips from the Marlins’ glory days on vintage TVs, and learn the history of baseball in Miami.

More history awaits in left field with tributes to the Orange Bowl, which once stood on the same hallowed grounds. Outside, you’ll find giant letters from the legendary stadium scattered throughout the plaza. Those lead into Recess Sports Lounge, which is essentially a sports bar just over the left field fence where the party runs all game, and after.

The ballpark’s main plaza has a cool new shipping container tower art installation called Folklore Tower, a colorful depiction of life in Little Havana and baseball’s place in the neighborhood’s culture. You’ll also find the notorious psychedelic home run feature that once stood in center field, now outside the stadium near the northeast entrance.

If you’re just looking to hang out with friends and have a ballgame going on in the background, the left field Budweiser Bar is your place to post up. Enjoy a full array of beers and cocktails with the Miami skyline spreading out behind you, and the game playing on below.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays when the Fish aren’t in action, you can come to the ballpark for an extensive stadium tour. Tours run at 10 am, noon, and 2 pm, and cost $15 for adults and $10 for children 14 and under.

Hotel Near loanDepot Park

Little Havana is a vibrant neighborhood and a fitting home for baseball in Miami. That said, it doesn’t offer much in the way of hotels. If you’d like to stay in the neighborhood and want something nice, check out the Life House, Little Havana. The chic boutique has one of Miami’s best rooftop bars at Terras, where cocktails are crafted from herbs grown in the adjacent garden.

Otherwise, your closest options are Downtown or in Brickell, where you can easily jump on the Metrorail, dropping you a 10-minute walk from the ballpark. In Brickell, the aka puts you in the center of the financial district action, with panoramic views of the city and Biscayne Bay. Downtown, the Citizen M Miami Worldcenter throws nighttime parties at its rooftop pool that could serve as a solid pregame for the game, and offers small, efficient rooms.

If baseball is simply one part of your Miami vacation, the city is chock full of fantastic hotels, so check out our suggestions for the best hotels in Miami.

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Matt Meltzer is a Miami-based writer who’s been covering food, events, and travel in Miami for over a dozen years. An award-winning writer, he’s also a professor of writing for digital media at University of Miami and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Follow his adventures on Instagram @meltrez1.