Tanka Offers Contemporary Chinese Cuisine in Miami’s Edgewater Neighborhood

If you’re eager for a contemporary Chinese restaurant that has neither the inconsistency of takeout nor the extravagance of Hakkasan, a brand new restaurant coming to the Doubletree Grand resort in Edgewater plans to strike the stability between genuine, inexpensive, and enjoyable.

When South Florida chef Taek “Taka” Lee set his sights on a Miami location, he wasn’t aspiring to focus solely on Chinese delicacies.

It wasn’t till Lee introduced on govt chef Davide D’Agostino — who previously led the culinary staff at Etaru in Hallandale and Miami’s Zuma, in addition to Roka and Buddha-Bar in London, England — that he took inspiration from D’Agostino’s experience in Chinese fusion.

Lee, who started his profession in Seoul, Korea, is greatest recognized for his tackle Japanese fusion. In 1998, the chef left Korea for Japan, intent on honing his expertise. Several years later, he relocated to the U.S., cooking in cities like Philadelphia and New York earlier than coming to Miami the place he helmed the kitchens at Zuma and Michael Schulson’s now-shuttered Monkitail.

When Lee opened his Korean-Japanese restaurant, Takato, on the Conrad Fort Lauderdale in 2020, it grew to become well-known for providing the 2 Asian cuisines he is most aware of.

With Tanka, nevertheless, the concept is to marry the cooks’ respective strengths for a extra impressed menu. Over the previous a number of weeks, Lee and D’Agostino spent numerous hours growing the fusion menu, utilizing their mixed experiences to current acquainted Chinese dishes given their very own signature contact.

D’Agostino tells New Times his aim is to supply an approachable menu with recognizable dishes.

“Not your typical American-Chinese menu, and never the high-level type of dishes you’d see at upscale Chinese eating places, however someplace in between,” says D’Agostino. “We need individuals to take a look at the menu and discover meals they’ll acknowledge, however ready with a recent strategy.”

Tanka’s intimate setting will supply diners a brand new gastronomic expertise, one which goals to seize that very same izakaya-fueled vitality of a Japanese gastropub paired with new twists on Cantonese, Shanghai, and Szechuan-style Chinese fusion.

Everything about Tanka, from the open-concept eating room and 30-person lounge to our menu, has been rigorously curated to create a uniquely social eating expertise, provides Lee.

Set within the historic Grand Condominium advanced, Tanka will open its doorways on January 25, simply in time to acknowledge the Chinese New Year with dishes that vary from fried rice and dim sum to seafood dishes and riffs on handheld objects.

Diners can have a good time with D’Agostino’s favourite dishes, ones that he says marry varied cooking strategies and new flavors to boost the depth of every dish.

Take the duck and watermelon salad, the place citrus and spice offset the candy notes from the watermelon and hoisin dressing whereas cool, crisp greens pair completely with heat slivers of tender confit duck leg.

Moving on, delicate spring rolls are full of blue crab. Fried rice begins with a day-long preparation course of that dries the rice sufficient to crisp and maintain the flavors of a scorching wok, and is topped with marinated and braised quick rib or flavored with savory garlic miso butter. And though the salt-and-pepper calamari is ready in a standard method, it surprises with a sambal-spiced dipping sauce.

For extra conventional Chinese fare, the kitchen will churn out half and entire Peking duck with a tableside presentation. There can also be an entree-sized plate of barbecue-slathered spare ribs, whereas a devoted dim sum chef hand types Wagyu-stuffed dumplings, siu mai, and spicy wontons full of minced mushroom, pork, and shrimp.

It would not be an izakaya, in fact, with out a cease on the 30-person lounge, the place company can sip on retro-style drinks given an Asian twist. They embrace the “Kung Pao Paloma” sweetened with Szechuan honey,  the “Panda Colada” crafted with Chinese 5 spice, and the “Hong Kong Sangria” accented with lychee and candy vermouth.

“With Tanka representing my second culinary idea in South Florida, I’m trying ahead to taking the plunge into Miami’s thriving eating scene,” sums up Lee.

Tanka. 1717 N. Bayshore Dr., Miami; 305-374-8888; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day; tankamiami.com. Opens January 25.