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photo credit: Karli Evans
Tropical Chinese Restaurant
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Good dim sum spots in Miami are like albino alligators. They exist, but if you find one, it’s a rare enough occurrence to justify calling all your friends, taking at least three dozen photos, and making return trips to spot it again. Tropical Chinese has been Miami’s best albino alligator since 1984. This Bird Road restaurant has a huge menu of Chinese classics, but the reason we make sure to come here as often as possible is for the dim sum.
This fantastic buffet on wheels consists of over 50 dishes, so you want to pace yourself. It’s better to have a slightly more leisurely meal here anyway, one where you can try a few more things and really figure out what you like—even though the answer is almost certainly the roast pork buns, which we generally inhale at least three of any time we come here.
photo credit: Karli Evans
The dim sum plates range from chicken feet to egg custard tarts and all kinds of dumplings and buns that we don’t have the space or patience to name here. But there are a few stand outs, like the plump pork-and-shrimp siu mai. The shrimp rice roll is excellent and slippery and we point and order it every time we see it roll by. And those baked roast pork buns are perfectly round and smooth balls of sweet dough with a center of delicious roast pork. It’s satisfying to look at, touch, and eat—a trifecta not seen since we were six and eating Play-Doh sounded like a wonderful idea.
Dim sum is served daily from 11am-3pm, and you can always expect a full house on the weekends. Tropical Chinese does have a regular dinner menu as well, but planning a trip here outside of dim sum hours is like visiting the zoo on the one day when the albino alligator is inside getting its teeth cleaned.