This new Chinese restaurant in Miami is a little hard to find. Trust us, it's worth it

Miami Herald

15-04-2025

Walking into Double Luck, one of Miami's most intriguing new restaurants, seems like a happy contradiction. Enter the small, dark and moodily lit space and you take in the lanterns, the mirror and the long bar that invites you to sit and order a sake. Listen to the bright Asian pop piped through the speakers. You'll feel like you're in a speakeasy far from sunny South Florida and at the same time sense that you've entered the sort of place where you'll run into someone you know.
Such is the appeal of the new Chinese restaurant on 79th Street Causeway, a stylish but comfortable spot hidden within a modest property, with a startling culinary pedigree and a menu that may challenge your idea of what a neighborhood Chinese restaurant should be.
The restaurant has taken over the former space of the New Schnitzel House; in fact, the New Schnitzel House's sign is still out front, so if you see it, you're in the right place.
The team behind the project reflects an embarrassment of riches. Partners include Tam Pham and Harrison Ramhofer, owners of Tam Tam, the popular Vietnamese spot that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation last year, and Brian Griffiths, owner of the bar-and-brunch spot Over Under in downtown Miami.
Also on board as partners are chef Adrian Ochoa, who has worked with South Florida culinary stars as Giorgio Rapicavoli (Eating House), Niven Patel (Ghee Indian Kitchen) and Nando Chang (Itamae Ao), and Callie Pumo, the pastry chef and front of house manager.
'We just have a lot of incredibly talented kind of overkill,' Ochoa jokes.
That overkill is part of why Double Luck feels like it's been here longer than it has. The other reason is that the concept first popped up on Sundays at Tam Tam, building a loyal following among the restaurant's devoted fans.
How did the son of a Cuban father and Guatemalan mother fall in love with Asian cooking? Ochoa, whose first food industry job was as an Eating House bus boy, went on to work for Niven Patel at Ghee Indian Kitchen. Fascinated by how Patel deftly used spices he hadn't heard of, he couldn't get enough of Asian cooking. And he loved Ghee.
'I helped paint the restaurant. I helped put up the shelves and the spices. His mother-in-law is the one that trained me how to cook,' Ochoa says now. 'It was this really beautiful, really incredible experience.'
Eventually Ochoa took a job at China Moon on Miami Beach with the idea of updating and innovating its menu. Its customers, however, rebelled.
'We started trying to change it up, trying to create this really unique thing. And the locals kind of said no,' he says. 'They just wanted fried rice and the usual things. I had been brought on basically to change it. So I was just like, all right, well, I don't think that I'm the right fit.'
He was a better fit for the pop up at Tam Tam, where the menu is more daring. Now, at Double Luck, the menu focuses on traditional Sichuan Chinese dishes, some of which will be unfamiliar to the casual diner. Others are twists on old favorites like the crab rangoon, which is served in the crab leg.
'We're using the classic Chinese American things on the menu as a way to help people walk into this difference,' Ochoa explains. 'They're not used to a crispy mushroom salad that's cold or even the aromatic duck, the poached duck with cilantro salad. And so we're leading them by the hand in through the crab rangoon.'
There's also his version of the crispy Hennessy orange chicken, a dish more complicated than it seems, requiring a lot of prep and perfect timing on the part of the server, who sets the crispy bites afire.
There are other standouts on the menu, including the fried eggplant with fish sauce and red pepper and the long beans with sweet bean miso and green Sichuan powder. One of the real highlights is the tea-smoked duck, by far the most expensive item on the menu at $65. The dish is meant to be shared, like most of the options at Double Luck, which generally cost between $10 and $28 (Hunan steamed fish is $48)
'I'm obsessed with duck, because it's one of the first things I learned how to butcher,' Ochoa says. 'And I still retain that love for it.'
At the moment, Double Luck is still technically a pop-up. It will be open through through May while the team evaluates its future.
'If the response is positive enough, I think everybody's on board with this, with us staying here,' Ochoa says. 'But we're really trying to take advantage of this three-month period and lock it in and really tighten up everything.'
Griffiths, who's also known for his work at Broken Shaker, said that while there's a wait-and-see attitude to a certain extent, the team is already considering possible improvements if they stay. They want to re-open the back patio and its separate bar with a full liquor license (right now, Double Luck serves wine, sake and beer) and improve the parking situation because the lot is fairly small. The restaurant could eventually offer takeout and stay open beyond the current Thursday through Sunday hours.
'There are a lot of things for us to still grow into,' Griffiths says. 'We see the demand, but we're just making sure that it feels sustainable businesswise. All of the partners are the kind of people that work in the business. We don't have investors right now. So sustainability financially is kind of an important part.'
Double Luck
Where: 1085 NE 79th St., Miami
Open: Thursday-Sunday
Reservations: Resy
More information: @doubleluckchinese