Lucky House Take-Out — Restaurant in Ottawa

MISSION Two (2) of my humble brothers and I have undertaken the delicate mission to identify the best Egg Roll, Crispy Beef and, where available, house or chef specialty in Orleans.

METHODOLOGY For the purposes of this empirical study through taste, nine (9) Chinese establishments have been selected, all of which are located within Orleans and all of which are take-outs restaurants.

Each dish will be attentively evaluated by using the following marking criteria: Presentation; temperature; taste/balance; sauce; texture; recipe/menu accuracy; overall execution. Dishes will be graded according to the following scale: 1 (Very undesirable) to 5 (Off the Chart!)

Egg rolls will be tasted both with and without sauce to ensure better tasting accuracy.

WHY THIS STUDY First and foremost, for our love of Canadian Chinese food. Secondly, to our knowledge, such study has never been done. Lastly, it has long been said that the best egg roll in Ottawa lies west, at the Golden Palace. However, east is the true way of the Orient and so we hope to rightfully find a true contender to the GP egg roll within the eastern canton of Orleans.

This evaluation is number 1 of 9.

Lucky House Location: 1675 Tenth Line Rd. Fun Fact: This establishment dates back to 1975. It was originally located in Vanier. Visited: 2019 04 18

Order: Four (4) Open End Egg Roll, Crispy Beef, Kung Pao Shrimps and Singapore Vermicelli. Cost: $ 62.15

ITEM 1: OPEN END EGG ROLL PRESENTATION: 4 TEMPERATURE: 4 TASTE/BALANCE: 3 SAUCE: 3 TEXTURE: 3 RECIPE/MENU ACCURACY: 4 OVERALL RECIPE EXECUTION: 3 TOTAL SCORE: 3,4 Nota: The egg roll is perhaps slightly under average in size. The accompanying plum sauce is thick in consistency and slightly bitter to the taste. The tooth first finds a pleasant outer crispiness that then bores into the less than satisfying oil-soaked dough. The inner pork / cabbage mixture has hints of a 5 spice-blend but the overall flavor borders on the bland.

ITEM 2: CRISPY BEEF PRESENTATION: 4 TEMPERATURE: 5 TASTE/BALANCE: 5 SAUCE: 5 TEXTURE: 4 RECIPE/MENU ACCURACY: 3 OVERALL RECIPE EXECUTION: 4 TOTAL SCORE: 4,2 Nota: Good portion served with a scallion garnish. A fine balance of sweetness, bitterness and spiciness. The sauce has a nice mix of sweet tomato paste (not part of the traditional recipe) and orange flavors. The beef is tender, moist and lightly crispy as opposed to the traditional Crispy beef recipe which use molasses. Dried tangerine peel / or orange zest (american version) would be nice. All in all, this recipe evokes General Tao’s Chicken which is not bad but....is it still a Crispy beef? Funny enough, we loved this...

A busy day and no plan for dinner? Lucky House turned into my dinner savior in mid-December 2021 on my way back from a business trip. Called the order in ahead and it was hot and ready on time as promised. The pic doesn't show the open end egg rolls because they were snatched up quickly and disappeared however they were contenders to match a certain Carlingwood restaurant. The feature was chicken and broccoli with rice plus a vegetarian spring roll (the thing that looks like a small log on the plate) plus the anticipated fortune cookies. Staff at LH are polite, friendly and prompt. Despite the short drive home the food was still hot and delicious. The spring roll was a real mouthful of veg goodness deep fried. The chicken was tender and the broccoli was still slightly crisp. It was a great first experience of take out with LH and we've gone back several times...

As a long-time customer of Lucky House, I’ve always had a great experience. The food is delicious, the service is consistent, and the staff is polite and helpful. On the rare occasion there’s a small issue, they’ve always been willing to fix it.

I saw a recent review blaming the restaurant for not reading minds—someone didn’t clearly state their dietary needs, then expected the staff to magically know. When things didn’t go their way, they demanded a manager and names like it was a courtroom, not a takeout order.

If you communicate clearly and treat people with respect, Lucky House deserves 5 stars. If you expect psychic service and act entitled, no restaurant will ever be good enough for you.

Thanks, Lucky House, for years of great food and great service—I’ll definitely keep...