LUCK (Local Urban Craft Kitchen) — Restaurant in Dallas

Why is there a ZAGAT sticker on their door? Did they bribe someone for that? Granted it was dated from 2016. But anyways.

You walk in and it smells odd. Like Goat! Funny part? There is no goat on the menu lol That was a red flag but we chose to dine outside in the patio area. Their patio area is nice. It is dog-friendly. I saw several people with their dogs taking advantage of that. Good vibes.

Their food menu is...okay. I ordered the pan-seared salmon. Everything sounded good, yes. Everything looked good, everything was plated well...but it tasted BLAND. I swear salt was not used at all. The chickpea stew was spicy but no salt. The jazmine rice was flavorless, and the pan-seared salmon had a nice crisp to it, but again, no salt, no spice, no flavor. And that was priced at $20!

Someone from my party ordered the meatloaf and she had complained that it tasted frozen. I read someone else's review that their food tasted frozen as well. We can vouch for that. It seems they're re-heating frozen food and doing it poorly. There was a weird aftertaste to it and it was stringy. The meat was stringy, yall. It had threads in it. Threads of what? Idk! Lol. As soon as it came out, the flies SWARMED. If that wasn't a tell tale... Frozen meatloaf. Priced at $20.

Even the drinks were served sub-par. They offer Oakcliff Beverage Works Sodas. I had a lemon-lime spritz (Sprite equivalent). When it came out, I thought it was lemon water. Nope. It was just incredibly flat soda. $2.50 for 10 oz. of that soda.

Its important to point out that the prices are ABSURD! The food is most definitely (without a doubt) not worth the price of $20/plate. A person in my party ordered a non-alcoholic watermelon lemonade. It was delicious (probably the most delicious thing we had there) I kid you not, she was charged $10 for that drink. That drink was served in a cocktail glass, it couldn't have been more than 6 oz. $10!!!

We were ready to get out of there after that farce of a meal. Lo and behold though, our waiter could not be found. He disappeared for a good 30-40 minutes and we couldn't see him anywhere. We checked inside, we looked around outside, he was gone lol. This place is small so you can't miss him. 10 minutes after asking the hostess about our check, he emerges from God knows where and finally delivers our check. We bee-lined the heck out of the there and didn't look back.

We took a chance when we dined here since Beto and Son's had a 40 minute wait. Big mistake. Don't be a fool like me. Do yourself a favor and wait the 40 minute to eat some real food that's been cooked with flavor and not frozen for...

Luck is a type of place that Dallas needs SO many more of! What a great spot. The place was packed tonight - tons of young people, middle-agers, and everyone else just hanging out and enjoying a nice weather evening. My mom and I got in right away and the atmosphere of the place is very welcoming. It has a totally relaxed vibe with a ton of local beers written on the wall, a really good/local menu, and very attentive service. We had roasted brussels sprouts with a bacon citrus vinaigrette for a starter and they were awesome. Next was a good, fresh salad and some smoked spicy bbq wings. The wings are huge,sweet and spicy, and taste like they've been smoking in a good bbq smoker for hours, and were awesome. My mom had the shrimp and grits and they were honestly the best I've ever had. I've been to Charleston, Atlanta, and other Southern cities and had good shrimp and grits but whatever they do them here was fantastic.

Overall Luck is a really great spot and something Dallas needs WAY more of. Luck doesn't "try so hard" like other Dallas restaurants, and it doesn't need to. It's just...

We chose Luck after checking out the other restaurants at the Trinity Groves, and I'm glad we did, because we got a fine meal. Started with the calabacitas, which I'll admit I've never had before so have nothing for comparison, but it was delicious: fresh juicy squash and corn and nicely distributed jalapenos.

For entrees we had the grilled romaine with grilled chicken, and the smoked 1/2 chicken. Both were excellent, with the chicken being surprising plump and juicy by comparison with what ends up on the plate at a lot of other places. The smoked chicken was thoroughly smoked with a nice slightly peppery dry rub - but not dried out. It came with a side of watermelon salad which was perfect for a hot night, and an ear of broiled corn which was sweet but maybe a little tired at the end of a long day.

Service was excellent. (Thursday evening and the place was about 3/4 full.)

Lots of people around us looking happy with the meatloaf.

We're not drinkers so the tab was...