Contemporary Northern Chinese restaurant Hutong opens in Brickell.

Comfortably Numb cocktail, a blend of vodka, litchi water, honey, lime garnished with a Thai chile and ground Sichuan peppercorn

The great Chinese food renaissance that’s been blooming around town for the past few years has reached its pinnacle with the opening of Hutong. The extravagantly decorated, palatial restaurant describes itself as “northern Chinese,” so naturally the house specialty is roasted Peking duck. Here, it is carved tableside and truly spectacular. Other standouts are the classic Sichuan dishes (fiery sanchen spiced chicken) and festively colored dim sum platter. Not to be missed are the dan dan noodles, which are flavored with plenty of sesame and spice and served like soup in small blue-and-white-patterned bowls. Hutong also specializes in high-concept cocktails like the litchi-and-vanilla-vodka- based Comfortably Numb, which pairs beautifully with the lip-tingling spices.