Restaurant: Lucky Red
Location: 318 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON M5T 2E7
Price Range: $$
[wp-review]
Being a hip-looking restaurant, it was unexpected to see Lucky Red to be located in the middle of Chinatown, right next to Banh Mi Nguyen Huong! If you didn’t know, Banh Mi Boys and Lucky Red shared the same owners, and they are actually the sons of the ladies at Banh Mi Nguyen Huong. To be honest, the original menu at Lucky Red wasn’t quite good as they shared the same menu with Banh Mi Boys, and it was quite odd of them to sell a $8 banh mi where their mothers (next door) sell them for $2.75.
A few months ago Lucky Red revamped their menu and I have to say, I pretty much prefer this over Banh Mi Boys. The restaurant is now more of a dine-in and have more varieties of steamed baos and unique cocktails than their fast-food counterpart.
From the outside Lucky Red stood out with their nice old vintage looking red Chinese doors, yet when you step inside, the restaurant transformed itself with its modern and hip decors.
Although I didn’t try it, I would definitely pick the lucky buddha beer on my next visit as from the pictures on Yelp, the bottle shaped like a buddha!
Dat pun doe. For $8 the hambaogur came with 2 baos, a pretty decent price with the appropriate portion imo.
The hambaogur tasted exactly like a McDonald Big Mac, well, a juicier and better big mac of course. I’m not sure what was the “secret sauce” here, but the overall hambaogur was delicious (and you know you are getting FRESH patty ok), I would totally come back just for these.
God damn this was insanely delicious as well. The bao was soft and pillowy, chicken was not greasy and had a crispy exterior with juicy and tender meat. Don’t get me wrong, I love spicy but I just felt the bao was a bit too much for me, and the fried chicken can be a bit too salty for some people as well.
The server gave me the hot sauce for the fried chicken bao and seriously, taste this FIRST before putting some on your bao. Half way through eating my bao, I decided to put some hot sauce and my tongue was burning lol. I still finished and licked my plate clean, but the heat from the hot sauce was really intense.
I was deciding between the ice cream bao and the S’Mores, but decided to go with this as I think I would feel less guilty with the ice cream bao LOL.
My only complain of the ice cream bao is how thick the ice cream layer was. I think it would have been better if there was less ice cream or maybe bigger baos :). The Oreo ice cream was not too sweet with bits of ores, but the highlight is definitely the deep fried baos here. I’m not sure how to describe the taste…. The baos reminded me of the deep fried mantou (white buns), rolled in sugar and served with sweet condense milk. These baos had a crispy crust while remained soft on the inside… It’s so good drool over my keyboards
The bill comes in red pockets, how fitting and cute :D!! Overall I definitely recommend Lucky Red over banh mi boys anyday. I felt Banh Mi Boys have become overrated, and it’s hard to justify paying $8 for a banh mi when Nguyen Huong sell them for $3 lol. The menu at Lucky Red is more unique with a modern and fusion twist, fairly priced and perfect for late night meals with a few drinks :).