Hutong

Hutong is an impressive spot at first glance. The Brickell Chinese restaurant has ceilings high enough for Alex Honnold to free-solo and an interesting video wall, which makes it look like the restaurant is constantly changing shape. But unfortunately, that’s about as interesting as this place gets. The pretty expensive menu has more misses than hits. If you stick to the dim sum section, you'll find some good things like seared ginger lobster bao and wagyu beef millefeuille, a delicate and layered pastry with a really delicious wagyu filling. But everything else we've tried here has been various degrees of disappointing. The skin on the Peking duck is about as crispy as wet paper and dishes like the Red Lantern - fried soft shell crab served on a pile of dried whole chilies - are just oddly bland, flavorless, and disappointingly not spicy. And even the good dim sum just isn't enough to make us want to come back to this pricey, upscale spot.