Double Luck is already a party at 5:30pm on a Wednesday, the very start of dinner service. They come from as near as El Portal and as far as South Miami to bask in the red glow of the fun Chinese restaurant Miami has been collectively manifesting. That glowing dining room feels sexy for the couple celebrating an anniversary, exciting for the kids who were promised pyrotechnics with their orange chicken, and familiar to those who have a deep affection for their neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Since Double Luck is from the same team behind Tâm Tâm, fun is like the free space in a bingo card—a given. You’ll bounce to the Cantopop playlist and spend a socially unacceptable amount of time browsing around the bathroom like it’s a PAMM exhibit. But please do come back to the table because the food is even more impressive. Ordering too much means you’re doing it right. The white tablecloth should be splattered with chili oil from the mapo tofu, sweet and sour sauce from the crab leg rangoons, and grains that managed to escape your fourth serving of crab fried rice. You won’t finish it all. You’ll leave with several brown paper bags of leftovers, looking like an international family after a three-hour shopping spree at Sawgrass Mills. Miami already had great restaurants serving regional Chinese dishes long before Double Luck came to the scene. But this restaurant’s unique fingerprint is undeniable. Here—and only here—you’re getting a tingly mapo tofu next to flaming Hennessey orange chicken while a Cantonese rendition of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” plays in the background. You’re just as excited to come back as you are about reheating your leftovers the next day.
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