AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Coconut Grove’s waterfront venu Regatta Grove already had the booze, the breeze, and the boat parking. What it didn’t have, until now, was Vietnamese dumplings and bao from one of Miami’s most beloved loud-and-proud kitchens. That changes with the arrival of Phuc Yea, opening a second location as a concession-style outpost at Regatta Grove.
If you know the MiMo original, you know the drill: chef Cesar Zapata and restaurateur Ani Meinhold built Phuc Yea from a 2011 pop-up into a Michelin Bib Gourmand–recognized fixture. It combines Vietnamese comfort food with Latin and street-food influences. The Grove version shrinks the footprint but not the attitude, dropping a tight menu into Regatta’s open-air party on the bay.
The new stall is designed for how people actually use Regatta Grove: grazing between bars, live music, and that dangerously pleasant sunset hour when you promise yourself “just one more” and absolutely do not mean it. Snacks lean fresh and herbaceous, like edamame hummus with lemongrass chili oil, shrimp summer rolls with sweet chili peanut sauce, smashed cucumber salad with Szechwan peppercorn, and a watermelon salad hit with Viet ponzu.
Cesar Zapata
Skewers of beef, chicken, or vegetables arrive with sauces that sound like a playlist—hoisin black pepper, sweet chili peanut, salsa verde. Dumplings (shrimp, pork, or Wagyu beef) get showered with chives and crispy shallots, while pillowy pork or mushroom bao handle the soft-and-indulgent side of things.
Ani Meinhold
Smashed cucumber salad
Because this is Phuc Yea, dessert still comes with a caffeine jolt. The Vietnamese affogato marries toasted coconut ice cream with inky, condensed-milk-rich coffee, the kind of finish that convinces you to stay for another round and maybe a second skewer.
Chicken satay
For Zapata and Meinhold, the Grove move is the latest chapter in a growing mini-empire that includes Pho Sho at The Citadel and LCKY CHKN at Hard Rock Stadium, each one tweaking the same bold, funny, deeply personal point of view. At Regatta, they join a lineup that already features concepts from Jeremy Ford, Jose Mendin, Kenny Gilbert, and Jeff McInnis, turning the waterfront venue into something closer to a chef-powered food court with boat slips.
Watermelon salad
The new Phuc Yea outpost is open now at Regatta Grove, the open-air Biscayne Bay venue that first debuted in 2023 at 3415 Pan American Drive. If the original is any indication, expect lines, loud music, and a lot of people suddenly realizing that dumplings and bay breezes are a pretty solid way to spend a night in Miami.
