September 6, 2026
Best Chinese Restaurants in Miami: Dim Sum, Cantonese BBQ, and Sichuan Heat
Let's get the complaint out of the way first, because every transplant from New York, San Francisco, or Toronto makes it within a month of arriving: Miami is not a great Chinese food town. There's no Chinatown, no Flushing, no San Gabriel Valley. The Chinese-American population here is small compared to other major metros, and for decades that meant the scene topped out at takeout counters and hotel-lobby glamour spots.
But "thin" is not the same as "bad," and the gap between Miami's reputation for Chinese food and what's actually available has never been wider than it is right now. There are Cantonese barbecue houses with lacquered ducks hanging in the window, dim sum rooms that have been rolling carts since before Wynwood had murals, a new wave of Sichuan and northern kitchens that don't pull punches on the heat, and a Cuban-Chinese lineage that exists almost nowhere else in America. You just have to know where to drive — and in Miami, the answer is usually Westchester, Kendall, Doral, or a strip mall in North Miami Beach.
Here's the tour, organized by style, because "Chinese food" is really four or five different cuisines wearing one name.
Cantonese Barbecue
This is the genre Miami quietly does best. Cantonese barbecue — roast duck, char siu pork, crispy pork belly, soy chicken — rewards specialists, and the handful of shops that do it here do almost nothing else. Look for the ducks in the window; that's the sign you're in the right place. Order by the pound over rice, ask for extra sauce, and don't skip the crackling skin.
Cantonese BBQ to try in Miami:
King Palace Chinese BBQ 
King Duck Chinese BBQ
King Palace in North Miami Beach is the standard-bearer — a full Cantonese menu, but the roast meats counter is the reason to go. King Duck on West Flagler plays the same hits for the western side of the county, and its roast duck over rice is one of the better cheap lunches in Miami, full stop. If that's your category, our guide to Miami's best cheap eats has plenty more in that price range.
Dim Sum
Dim sum is where Miami's Chinese scene has the most history and the most momentum at once. The old guard lives on Bird Road in Westchester, where carts have been circling dining rooms for decades. The new guard is in Doral and Little Havana, where younger Cantonese cooks are plating har gow and siu mai to order, made when you ask for them instead of riding a steam cart all morning.
Dim sum to try in Miami:
Sampan Eatery by Salon Canton 
Tin Tin 
Serious Sanji 
Kon Chau Chinese Restaurant 
Tropical Chinese
Sampan Eatery is the one locals whisper about — a modern dim sum room in Doral from the family behind Salon Canton, and the ratings back up the hype. Tin Tin does the improbable trick of serving proper Cantonese dim sum on Calle Ocho in Little Havana. Serious Sanji, sibling to North Miami's Serious Dumplings, folds dumplings and bubble tea into one bright Flagler storefront. And then there's the Westchester old guard: Kon Chau, where the dim sum is famously cheap and famously good, and Tropical Chinese, the Bird Road institution that introduced a generation of Miamians to the weekend cart ritual.
Sichuan and Northern Chinese
For most of Miami's history, "spicy Chinese" meant a squeeze bottle of sriracha next to the soy sauce. That's changed. A small cluster of kitchens now cooks genuinely fiery Sichuan food — mapo tofu that numbs, whole fish under a red blanket of chiles — alongside northern staples like hand-folded dumplings and wheat noodles.
Sichuan and northern Chinese to try in Miami:
Sichuan Fish 
Dumpling King 
Beijing Cafe 
Serious Dumplings
Sichuan Fish in North Miami is the real deal — go for the namesake boiled fish in chile oil and ask for it as spicy as you can handle honestly. Dumpling King on Miami Beach hand-pleats its dumplings in view of the dining room. Beijing Cafe, tucked onto Collins Avenue in North Beach, keeps a menu of northern dishes that rewards adventurous ordering, and Serious Dumplings in North Miami does exactly what the name promises.
The Glamour Rooms
Miami being Miami, some of the city's most ambitious Chinese cooking happens in rooms with a doorman. These are the see-and-be-seen spots — Peking duck carved tableside, cocktail programs, design budgets that could fund a small dim sum parlor for a decade. Purists roll their eyes, but the kitchens at the top of this category are serious, and if you want Chinese food as a night out rather than a takeout bag, this is your lane. It's the same energy that powers the city's high-end Japanese counters — a world we've mapped in our Miami omakase guide.
Upscale Chinese to try in Miami:
XINO (Modern Chinese) 
Hakkasan 
MIMI Chinese 
Hutong
XINO in Aventura is the sleeper here — modern Chinese with real technique and the best ratings in the category. Hakkasan brings the London original's polished Cantonese playbook to Miami Beach. MIMI Chinese, another import with serious pedigree, works through regional Chinese styles with a tasting-menu level of care, and Hutong anchors Brickell with northern Chinese cooking in one of the neighborhood's most dramatic rooms.
Neighborhood Classics and Cuban-Chinese
Every Miamian has one: the Chinese restaurant their family has ordered from for twenty years, where the menu hasn't changed and nobody wants it to. Some of these are straight American-Chinese takeout counters that have simply earned their longevity. Others belong to a genuinely Miami category — Cuban-Chinese restaurants, descended from the Chinese community of Havana, where fried rice shares the table with plátanos maduros. It's a lineage you can trace through the Miami-born chains that define the 305 — this city has always been good at hybrids.
Neighborhood classics to try in Miami:
Gar Sing Chinese Restaurant 
Salon Canton Restaurant 
Double Luck 
Silver Palace Restaurant 
Chungwah Golden Star
Gar Sing in West Kendall has a cult following for its fried chicken wings — order them or regret it. Salon Canton in Doral carries the Cuban-Chinese torch with a menu that moves easily between wonton soup and Latin comfort. Double Luck brings a chef-driven spin on Chinese-American classics to the Upper East Side. Silver Palace is Kendall's dependable Cantonese standby, and Chungwah Golden Star in Miami Shores is the definition of a neighborhood institution — the kind of place regulars defend like family.
How to Order Well
A few habits will improve almost any Chinese meal in Miami. First, order the specialty. These kitchens are at their best on the dishes they're known for — the roast duck at a barbecue house, the boiled fish at a Sichuan spot — and weakest on the crowd-pleasers they keep around out of obligation. Second, ask if there's a Chinese-language menu or a specials board; at several of the places above, the most interesting cooking isn't on the laminated English menu. Third, go at peak hours for dim sum — carts and steam tables are freshest when the room is full, so a busy Sunday at 11am beats a quiet Tuesday at 3pm every time.
Miami may never be a Chinese food capital, and that's fine. What it has instead is a small, scattered, genuinely interesting scene — one where a decades-old cart ritual on Bird Road, a Cuban-Chinese lunch counter in Doral, and a numbing Sichuan fish in North Miami can all be part of the same week of eating. The drive is part of the deal. The food, at the places above, holds up its end.