Phuc Yea can be fun, but the food’s forgettable - Review - Miami - The Infatuation

"While Phuc Yea’s love of puns has only intensified over the years, it’s veered away from the original Viet-Cajun concept that gave it a cult following in the 2010s, when it was just a pop-up. Today, the MiMo restaurant calls its food Vietnamese-Latin, but its bland flavors don’t satisfy either category. Their green papaya salad is watered-down mush, there’s an alarmingly small amount of chicken in the fried chicken, and a duck breast resting on alleged szechuan peppercorn sauce arrives soggy and unspiced. In a neighborhood full of casual options, at least Phuc Yea has personality. It’s dark, energetic, and a burlesque dancer might appear out of thin air to start shimmying next to your table on a Saturday night. If you’re walking around the neighborhood after 9pm and looking for a bar to grab a drink and people watch, it works. But like the gratuitous millennial hip-hop references scattered all over the menu and emblazoned on neon signs, Phuc Yea feels dated. We can tell you why this place used to be important, but the aimless food makes it harder to tell you why you should still care about it. RESERVE A TABLE WITH RESERVE A TABLE CARDMEMBER BENEFITS FOR Get access to exclusive reservations at this spot with Chase Sapphire Reserve. New cardmembers get $300 in annual dining statement credits. SEE EXCLUSIVE TIMESAPPLY NOW Food Rundown Green Papaya Salad There are a lot of different ways to make a papaya salad. None of those ways should result in a pile of bland, mushy strands. Phuc Yea’s version doesn’t bring any of the tangy, sour, or spicy flavors we love about this dish. It tastes as if it was briefly tossed in salted tap water. PlayMute video credit: Ryan Pfeffer Tuna Crudo You can add this to Miami’s neverending pile of fine yet forgettable crudos. Fried Chicken We are of the radical belief that fried chicken should contain chicken. But this is mostly just fried dredge. We had to peel it apart to find the paper-thin layer of chicken. This should just be called “fried.” PlayMute video credit: Ryan Pfeffer Duck Breast Here’s yet another dish with advertised ingredients that forgot to show up on the plate—particularly the imperceptible szechuan peppercorn sauce. The slightly overcooked breast with soggy skin is pretty sad, too. PlayMute video credit: Ryan Pfeffer" - Ryan Pfeffer