Latest news with #AdrianOchoa
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
We Just Updated Our List of the Best Restaurants in Miami
The sun can shine too brightly on a place like Miami. Not so long ago, transplants from New York City to San Francisco were flocking to South Florida to enjoy lax Covid rules, cheaper real estate and to build multimillion-dollar 200-seat restaurants. Those days are over. Miami has seen a rash of restaurant closings, such that five wonderful places we highlighted last summer on our list of Miami's 25 Best Restaurants are now gone. Recently, I wrote about how skyrocketing rents, soaring food prices, quadrupling insurance rates and a plunging number of international visitors all played a part. Yet as a Miami native, I never tire of watching inventive, tenacious local restaurant owners fight. They keep giving us new, cozy dining rooms with simple, creative menus that reflect our city. This made it easy to fill those five open spots on our updated list of the best places to eat in Miami right now and have many left over. Let me tell you about three of them: Remember fun? The folks behind Double Luck do. The restaurant's chef-owner, Adrian Ochoa, grew up in Miami, the son of Cuban and Guatemalan immigrants, and understands that when people go out to eat in Miami, they need to have a good time. That's why they play catchy Cantopop in the vibey, red-glowing dining room, and old kung fu movies on a vintage cathode ray tube television set in the bathrooms. It's a trick he learned from his business partner, Tam Pham, whom he helped start another fun spot on our list, Tâm Tâm, a hot spot for Vietnamese drinking food. So what's a Cuban-Guatemalan guy doing cooking Chinese American? He said he had grown up tagging along with a Chinese best friend to his dad's power lunches with his drinking buddies, staring at menus he couldn't read. That's how he fell in love with Cantonese restaurants and the accompanying camaraderie. Want to get a taste of that experience? Hit my favorite place, Kon Chau, where you'll find made-to-order dim sum any day of the week. 1085 Northeast 79th Street, MiMo District Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Axios
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Review: Double Luck Chinese is worth the hype
I'm a late-night diner, just like the rest of us Miamians. Anything before 8pm feels a bit aggressive. But when a 6:30pm reservation at the sought-after Double Luck Chinese, which popped up at the former The New Schnitzel House a few weeks ago, became available, I took it. Similar to other hot spots, like Boia de or Sunny's, you have to sometimes make a random reservation weeks in advance and hope you can make it when the time comes. Between the lines: Double Luck is from the team behind Tâm Tâm, downtown Miami's popular Vietnamese spot, and chef Adrian Ochoa. The vibe: The dining room's dark walls, red interior and dim lighting make for an intimate (sexy, even?) environment that doesn't feel overly fussy or extravagant. The single tables against the mirrored wall are close enough to ask your neighbors what delicious-looking dish is on their table (guilty!), but a bit too far to eavesdrop (sigh). What we ordered: We started with the aromatic duck salad, which was super herby (the jalapenos gave it a nice crunch) and incredibly refreshing, complete with an infused oil that's combined with the duck's juices. The spicy Sichuan noodles: The meat was tender and the noodles were glossy, which is my way of describing a perfectly sauce-coated nood. The sliced cucumber and heap of herbs added a nice texture. The double-cooked pork belly: Admittedly, I failed to record my thoughts while eating this dish. I was distracted by how delicious it was. Order it. State of plate: The dishes had a nice kick to them, but I didn't find them overly spicy, though the waitress warned some people did. The food came out quickly — before our beers had hit the table. But it made for a casual dining experience that encouraged rotating from dish to dish for each bite.
