Da Tang Unique, Miami

When business executive Shan-Jie Li first began developing sites in downtown Miami, he noted that it would be hard for the Chinese travelers and investors he hoped to attract to find an authentic, high-end taste of home nearby. He decided to solve the problem himself—and pique the interest of locals—by founding Da Tang Unique Restaurant in that neighborhood's ritzy Four Ambassadors complex.

"Every weekend, I [had] to drive over to Sunrise or Pembroke Pines to get a little piece of home," said the restaurant's manager in the Miami New-Times. "Now I'll be able to walk to get the same experience."

Da Tang operates under the culinary guidance of Chef Shaohua Xue, who was born in Guangdong Province and worked his way up to New York City's Phiippe Chow, the prototypical high-end Chinese restaurant. He's modernized 5,000-year-old recipes and refashioned old favorites for the menu, which features crispy whole duck, salt-and-pepper prawns, four types of fried rice, and comforting congee. Adventurers might order the four-course chef's tasting menu, whereas dim sum lovers can construct their own dumpling-and-bun extravaganza.