Expect the unexpected at Phuc Yea, an exuberant Vietnamese-ish restaurant in Miami's MiMo District.
Phuc Yea has a fun, funky vibe, a festive, friendly bar scene, and bold Vietnamese-ish food with a Cajun twist. Oh, and recognition from the Michelin guide too!
What happens when two immigrants, one from German/Vietnamese/Puerto Rican descent and the other from Columbia, merge their lives and their cuisines?
You get Phuc Yea, where you can expect the unexpected. I mean, if you’ve got the “whatever” to call yourself Phuc Yea, you have to be aiming for a bit of an “out there” experience.
Phuc, by the way, is pronounced “fook” in Vietnamese and means blessings. So yea, the chef, Cezar Zapata and his wife/business partner, Aniece Meinhold have a shared and slightly off beat sense of humor.
A night of the unexpected
Phuc Yea doesn’t look like a Vietnamese restaurant. It’s housed in a former “MiMo on Bibo” 1950s hotel. MiMo on BiBo is short for Miami Modern (an architectural style) on Biscayne Boulevard (Miami’s main street). The place is a little bit Mediterranean, a little bit Asian, a little bit street-art, and a little bit Vietnam. In other words, it’s eclectic and funky and filled with unexpected delights.
As part of my night at Phuc Yea, my friends and I unexpectedly ran into another friend, a happy regular, who recommended we start our meal with a margarita style drink called “Bringing Home the Boys.” Talk about fusion! Tequila is the recommended drink at a Vietnamese/Cajun restaurant? And the drink is called Bringing Home the Boys, a seeming reference to the not-great ending to the not-great war, which most people in the bar/restaurant aren’t old enough to remember anyway. Or at least that’s how I interpreted the whole thing.
But put all that aside, the charming (and cute!) bartender sets the tone here and he’s all about a good time!
I always order a cocktail with a lot of hope – I hope that it’s not too sweet, not too citrusy, not too acidic. Generally I’m disappointed. But I gotta’ say, “Bringing home the Boys” didn’t disappoint. Balanced in terms of flavor, more refreshing than alcohol’y, it features Cuervo blanco tequila, carpano bianco (a winey-tasting vermouth), cucumber, cilantro and lemongrass. It’s one of those drinks that is so refreshing it is a little too easy to drink. I could have gulped it like juice and ordered another. But I restrained myself.
Ok, but what kind of restaurant is Phuc Yea really?
The restaurant is allegedly a Vietnamese restaurant. But. It promotes itself as “100% conceptual”.
What does that mean? Well, Vietnamese food is the backbone of the menu.
You’ll find food with layers of flavor, sweet mixed with sour, salty, spicey. There’s one pho on the menu, as well as one noodle dish. And, of course, the marvelously light, vaguely sweet and always delicious bao buns are a mainstay, as is nuoc cham - that’s the ubiquitous sweet/sour/slightly spicy dipping sauce you find in Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. You know the one - it’s a light lemon color and can have bits of red pepper and/or jalapeno floating delicately on the surface.
What’s unexpected is the Latin/Cajun/Vietnamese fusion thing. That mash-up produces more robust food and flavors than you might expect in a Vietnamese restaurant. In fact, we left feeling unexpectedly stuffed — sadly too stuffed to attempt dessert.
What is Vietnames/Latin/Cajun fusion food like?
Our friend, the neighborhood regular, told us to start with the caramely/saucy chicken wings and homemade pickles, but we ignored his advice in favor of the Broccoli Bao.
We were looking for a little “good for you” veggie in our meal. What unexpectedly arrived was a big crispy fried broccoli branch, that looked more like a good sized meatball stuffed into that itty bitty bao bun.
The broccoli meatball is “dressed” with pineapple sweet’n’sour sauce, sriracha aioli, pickles, jalapeno and herbs. The whole thing has a meaty taste and texture. The sauces, which are, at once, sweet and spicy and earthy, fill the mouth with complex flavors. It’s great. And filling. I could have started and ended my meal with that one broccoli bao and left satisfied and full.
We also ordered the crispy imperial rolls – known in Vietnam as cha gio. These particular ones are filled with ground shrimp, pork, mushrooms, carrots and jicama, wrapped in rice paper and lightly fried. They are served with lettuce. Wrap the little bundles of goodness in the lettuce, dip them into the Nuoc Cham sauce and enjoy.
Next came two hearty, meat-y main courses: the smoked short rib and the crispy “Masistas de Puerco”.
The short rib is hickory smoked with a carmel-y fish sauce, sesame and herbage. Herbage refers to the larger, leafy, edible parts of plants – like carrot tops or kale and other lettuces. It was amazingly moist and smokey flavored (I love a good smokey flavor!) and easy to pick or fork into edible pieces.
If you are questioning the Latin influence at Phuc Yea (hard to do after the margarita, but still, it’s allegedly a Vietnamese restaurant), it smacks you in the face when you see Masistas de Puerco on the menu. Masistas de Puerto is a traditional Cuban dish that is essentially marinated pork chunks fried in pork fat. This version is served with 5 spice onion, tomato, lemongrass and more herbage. Like the beef, it was moist but a tad less flavorful than I would have expected.
Why go back to Phuc Yea?
Phuc Yea offers an off-the-beaten-track restaurant that speaks to the chef’s unique point of view. A sense of joy winds around the restaurant’s rabbit warren of rooms and eclectic menu. The neighborhood is full of 1950s motels built to be reminiscent of cars with tail fins, sleek military jets and Hollywood sets. A fun, funky vibe, a great bar, and oddly-satisfying fusion food. It has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand for the past three years, meaning it is a high quality restaurant and good value for the area it is in.
Bottom line, I’m going back to try the green papaya salad, the sweet soy glazed oyster mushrooms, and the signature house noodles served with oyster sauce, garlic butter and parmesan cheese. Let me know if you want to come with me!
Plates and Prices
$290.58. That’s $96.86 per person, including tax and tip.
3 Bring Home the Boys
3 glasses of wine
1 Crispy Imperial Roll
2 Broccoli Bao
1 extra order Bao Buns
1 Smoked Short Rib
1 Crispy Masitas de Puerco
Phuc Yea
7100 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami FL 33138
305-602-3710
reservations through Open Table