Lucky Cafe — Restaurant in Contiguous United States

April 12, 2023, Lucky Cafe My first visit to this establishment. Casual atmosphere.

I visited about 11:30 am. Quite a few people in the restaurant waiting for their order. Most were to-go orders.

Eggroll $1.39 each Beef broccoli $8.99 Chicken broccoli $8.79 Chicken lo mein $8.99

I ordered 4 eggrolls, chicken & broccoli, beef & broccoli, and a chicken lo mein noodles.

I'd like to point out the menu states with the chicken/beef broccoli it comes with fried rice. If you want lo mein noodles instead of fried rice there is a $2.99 upcharge.

I absolutely didn't expect to pay for an order of chicken lomein and receive a half order, with the other half fried rice. I ordered lo mein, not lomein and fried rice. I've never been in a restaurant ever where I ordered lo mein and they added fried rice for 1/2 the order. You are upcharging people $2.99 on the other meal for lo mein substitute. But charging full price for lo mein order $8.99 and downgrading it with half of it being fried rice. Either give a full order of lo mein, or reduce the price by $2.99. In my opinion, I feel they are cheating customers and should stop immediately on this specific menu item. If I order lo mein, I want 100% lo mein.

The chicken lo mein didn't have much taste at all. The only saving grace was the pieces of chicken which is why I am giving a 4 out of 10.

When is the last time you changed your frying oil? The eggrolls had an underlying burnt taste, and that very old oil flavor. The inside flavor was very bland. Eggrolls 2 out of 10

Beef broccoli, the beef flavor was fabulous. The broccoli was cut into manageable bite size pieces. The sauce very good. I would have given this a 10 out of 10 but the beef needed velveting longer or tenderized more, and I found some gristle in a piece. The beef flavor in this dish is one of the best I've had in a beef broccoli. Beef broccoli 8 out of 10

Chicken broccoli, the taste of the chicken was excellent, sauce excellent, the broccoli in manageable bite size pieces. The chicken flavor one of the best 8ve had for chicken broccoli. 8.5 out of 10.

The fried rice was ok. Calling it a fried rice is a bit of a stretch though. No vegetables, no egg at all. It looks and tasted like they threw in some soy sauce and maybe some teriyaki sauce, stirred it and called it a day. 3 out of 10

The person taking my order was cheerful and efficient. I do wish they would let you know how long the wait time for pickup would be is all. There were several regulars while I waited for my order. The cook greeted quite a few people entering by name, and had a decent 1 minute conversation with a few. Asking about friends, family etc. The restaurant was clean. Condiments (duck sauce, spicy mustard, soy, etc) were at the counter for customers to take what they needed.

I won't be back though. I am an eggroll (not spring roll) lover. I have to have an eggroll when I eat Chinese food. Since their eggrolls tasted like very old oil and burnt, this kills this restaurant as an option in the...

In short, good food but unnecessarily long wait time. I was 4th in line and it took 30 minutes to order and have my food to go. I ordered the chicken hibachi only.

The odd thing was that they were handing out people’s orders in random order. Some people that ordered before me didn’t get there food by the time I did, while lots of people who ordered after us got their food before us.

The food was good, nothing special, but good. A nice option in an area filled with mostly fast food places. Expect to pay about $9 for a meal without any add-ons or drinks. Though many people get drinks next door at the gas station.

The location is attached to a gas station and feels like a hole in the wall diner.

Would I eat here again? Probably if I lived around here. But the wait time felt a bit silly for fried rice, chicken, and...

Whoever keeps giving awards and good ratings for the Philly here either got something different than what I did or they CLEARLY do NOT know what a good Philly is. This thing is decent at BEST. It has a slightly old grease flavor to it with a tiny scoop of processed meat stuffed in it. Absolutely disappointing. The wings and fries were a bit better, but didn’t justify the $11 price. I waited a while to see what the rave with the Philly was all about and mostly learned not to trust restaurants that like to show off ill-earned awards. That’ll be the last dime I...