Tropical Chinese Restaurant
Miami, FL 33155-6750
Phone: (305) 662-5883
- Price:
- $$$
- Hours:
- Sun-Thu 11:30am-10:30pm, Fri-Sat 11:30am-11pm
Editorial Review for Tropical Chinese Restaurant – by Victoria Pesce Elliott
In Short
Fans flock to this Southwest Dade restaurant for the dim sum, especially on weekends. They come for the incredible Cantonese/Mandarin jewels like siu mai, stuffed eggplant, shrimp dumpling and peppery prawns. The dim sum is cheap, but dinner can be steep. Exotic entrees like sliced abalone with sea cucumbers near $50. Others run the gamut from $9 for delicious Singapore noodles to $23 for endangered shark's fin soup.
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Insider Tips
Where to SitFor some action, try the bright main room in full view of the open kitchen. Otherwise, choose the darker room adjacent to the bar.
The ExtrasCarts whiz by pretty quickly. Servers don't have time to explain every ingredient in a dish. Be brave. Take chances. Order a few mystery dishes.
Know Before You GoFriends with sophisticated palates. This isn't a one from column A, one from column B kind of place.
User Reviews for Tropical Chinese Restaurant
06/17/2008 Posted by fmosquito
Sure it's not NY or San Francisco but for me the food at Tropical is the best in South Florida! I worked and ate in Chinatown in NYC for many years and I know many different kinds of Chinese food from Szechuan to Hong Kong and the food at Tropical is authentic and on the mark. Only place you can get a great selection Dim Sum every day. Don't miss Tropical's Sauteed String Beans, Chicken with Black Bean Sauce and Beef with Chinese Broccoli. The seafood is always fresh and I am getting hungry just writng this! Yum!
05/18/2008 Posted by mike555555555
have eaten at tropical many times. The dim sum is very authentic and fresh. I lived in Asia for ten years and my wife is Chinese. Tropical is by far the best in South Florida. But, for my wife's birthday I decided to try another spot (actually ended up at two) based on the previous recommendations and the fact that we live in Boca. First went to Grand Lake, The selection was average at best. Most items were not up to par. The lotus leaf w/sticky rice was flavorless. The fried turnip cakes were mushy. The stuffed tofu skins were small and the sauce was bland. worst of all were the egg tarts. They were actually made from pre-baked frozen tart shells that you get at a cheap buffet. never in my life has any other Chinese restaurant served these wonderful delights without making then fresh in the restaurant. And most disappointing of all, I asked if they had my favorite dim sum item (baked bbq pork buns). They server replpied that they had them but it would take a while. (no problem) Ten minutes after we had finished our other items, out came the "char sau shu". I couldn't believe my eyes. They have used the same nasty frozen pre-baked tart shells to make this normally amazing item. We left the restaurant and decided to try another suggestion from the previous review. The singing bamboo restaurant was better, more authentic but no where near the choice nor was the quality on par with tropical. An honest review from people that really know chinese food. It's worth the drive to tropical any time.
Pros: great selection, and quality
Cons: very busy but worth the wait
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