Lukshon is a medium sized restaurant with very modern motif. For days of good weather they also have a patio for eating but not much people watching as they are located off the busy street on a pedestrian pass-through. The service was efficient and helpful but not overly friendly, but in the server’s defense she had a lot of tables to look after. It was DineLA week and so in addition to their usual a la carte menu they had a special menu and the server was right to steer us to it as it contained a couple items not usually on the menu. It our usual over-ordering way we also threw in one a la carte item and ordered the optional add-on for the DineLA menu. But let me say that I’m glad we did cause then we got to try so many things. This place is an amazing value for the flavor they deliver! I would definitely put this on my options for dinner on my next visit or at least come back for lunch. Everything was delicious but some were truly outstanding.
The menu was to choose 2 of 5 offerings, however the portions are generous enough to easily split to we got to try most of the items. First was the watermelon and perfectly cooked shrimp salad which was quite good. The shrimp and some of the vegetables had only mild flavor but the assorted leaves and sweet watermelon really gave it an accent. The visuals of the dish alone were enough to make it a winner. The colors were stunning.
The menu supplement was a soft shell crab bao and it was incredible. The crab was crunchy and juicy and perfectly accented with nice greens and spicy sauce. It was a real treat.
The chicken rendang was wonderful. The chicken was tender and moist and it came in a sauce you wanted to eat plain with a spoon. It was served with crispy rice cakes which were fun by themselves, but we did wonder if the dish would have been better served with plain rice to soak up the great flavors.
However the rendang sauce was also good on the noodles in the cold noodle salad. It was nice but mildly flavored compared to the other dishes but that made it a perfect mixer.
The eggplant was ordered off the regular menu and it was filled with different tastes. It was nicely spicy and thick. Very tasty.
Then the larb sliders arrived and wow! The meat alone was just okay but when mixed with the nicely toasted bun, sauce and garnish it turned into spectacular.
Everything had been so tasty I had to see what they could do with dessert and so we tried the Vietnamese coffee cake. When I inquired if the server recommended it, she told me it’s great if you like coffee cake, which I do, but this was not like any coffee cake I’ve had. It was chunks of chocolate cake with pudding inside each chunk served with really smooth ice cream – all on top of coffee flavored crumbles. Such fun, the crumbles added a great crunch and a small swipe of caramel on the plate just pushed it to the next level of lovely sweet endings.
