(Originally Published on: Aug 8, 2009 @ 22:51)
Editor’s Note: Updating this posting due to more reviews coming in.
“Lucy’s” is located at 1050 Riverside Drive (the former location of Rax) in Danville. We went there knowing absolutely nothing about the restaurant.
We walked in and you’d never know that it was a former fast-food restaurant. Tables and booths with nice tablecloths, tasteful decorations, and a good color scheme. Time for the first big surprise. Lucy’s is an Asian-themed restaurant. I would have never guessed that from any of the decor. The sign out front and a wipe-off menu board advertised a seafood buffet for $9.99. More about that later…
The restaurant has about 25 tables and 5 of them are occupied when we walk in. That’s not surprising because I haven’t seen any advertising that they’re even open for business. We’re asked to sit wherever we want and we choose a table. I’m heading to see what’s on this seafood buffet (consisting of 3 steam tables) and um.. that ain’t no seafood buffet, folks. We’re ordering from the menu tonight.
I get the General Tso’s Chicken and my dinner companion orders the pepper steak. Our orders come back in very good time and were delicious.
Let’s go to the report card…
Service: For a restaurant that was just opening, it was acceptable. Drink refills were a bit slow (especially knowing that I had ordered spicy food) and the waiter had a slight non-familiarity with the menu. Overall though, there was nothing bad about his service. Our orders came out of the kitchen very fast (even faster than I expected with the few people in the restaurant). Grade: 85 (B)
Food: Everything that I expected and a lot more. My chicken was stir-fried to a crisp and the sauce was clearly made in the restaurant. The dish was served with dried red peppers which added a good fire to the taste. The plates were garnished nicely with greens and a carrot flower. My companion’s pepper steak consisted of thin sliced steak, giant sauteed peppers and onions and was garnished the same way as my dish. We both got adequate portions of food for the pricing. Grade: 95 (A)
Atmosphere: Tastefully done. Nothing gaudy, nothing eye-popping. Grade: 88 (B)
Intangibles: Good hospitality. Very clean. No visibility of the kitchen area. For a new restaurant, I’d have expected the owner (?) to invite comments at the register. Good value for the money ($22 for two meals). Grade: 87 (B)
Overall: There’s been no advertising that I’ve seen so far. That was OK for us, but probably not for most people. Will the SouthsideCentral area support another sit-down moderately priced Asian restaurant? I’d put Lucy’s on the same level as Long River, but I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve been to Long River. There’s no way that I could ever come close to recommending the buffet there, but then I detest buffets when I’m dining out. Lucy’s is a place I’ll visit again. I won’t have any interest in the buffet, but I’ll be looking for another jackpot from the menu. I’m giving the place a high “B” grade which is very good. SouthsideCentral recommends Lucy’s Restaurant for a delicious Asian-themed meal. Overall Grade: 87 (B)
Thanks for the review of Lucy’s. My wife and I will check the place out since our favorite Danville Chinese restaurant (Shanghai something – across the road from Wal-Mart) closed months ago.
As for Long River Chinese… it has gotten unacceptably filthy, and a dirty Chinese restaurant is never a good thing. That place has been so dirty for so long that until they completely renovate the interior of the restaurant we will not be going back.
8/12/09
Well, we checked out Lucy’s yesterday. The owners are the same ones that had the Chinese place across from WalMart near Weight Watchers so I was expecting excellent cuisine but it fell far short.
The place was very clean and I spoke with Lucy, the owner, and she said that they had advertised in the local throwaway paper but not in the Bee. There was a “Grand Opening” banner out front and some flag streamers but nothing to say what kind of restaurant it was. We ordered fried dumplings as an appetizer and they took about 20 minutes to be brought out, even though there were no other customers in the place. I think the chef was busy making the buffet foods which I’m sure my DH will tell you about, along with his main course failure. The dumplings tasted like spam and the contents were dry and mealy. I thought they might have been made with ham moistened with some soy sauce, and they were not properly sealed so they fell apart, plus they were barely browned and swimming in grease.
My main dish was tofu with pork (it was supposed to be Ma Po Bean curd but I guess they were avoiding Chinese names because they are trying out a very eclectic, American based menu) and when it finally arrived, I noticed that there was no pork in the dish. Well, having worked in the restaurant industry myself for many years, there was no way I was sending it back to the kitchen so I told the waitress about the missing ingredient and asked for a small dish of fried pork to be brought out. I also told her the dumplings were strange but not inedible, after you let the grease drain off. Well, after she spoke with the owner for about 10 minutes, she came back and told me that there was indeed ham in the dumplings and the reason for the missing pork was because the kitchen had run out of pork. What?! How can you let a customer order something from the menu that isn’t available? No one apparently told the poor waitress of the problem so she was very embarrassed. Meanwhile, all through our meal, the owners just sat or frittered around the place, no one ran out to buy any supplies.
They have been open for 3 weeks and I guess are not getting the clientèle they expected so money must be short. I don’t see this restaurant lasting very long if the owners can’t afford to run out and purchase a basic Chinese ingredient such as pork. I will give it a month or two and if they are still in business, may try it again.
As my wife posted, above, when we found out that the owners of Lucy’s restaurant were the same folks who had operated Shanghai Gardens in a small storefront operation opposite Wal-Mart, I was excited and expecting really, really good Chinese food… a rarity in this area.
Our visit didn’t start well… we waited a long, long time to get our appetizer, fried dumplings, and it came out tasting vaguely of SPAM. Note: fried dumplings are not supposed to taste anything remotely like SPAM.
As Terri has mentioned, her “Tofu with Pork” (aka: Ma Po Bean Curd to the rest of the world)was prepared sans pork. Un-friggin-believable! I ordered Spicy Chicken with Peanut (aka: Kung Pao Chicken to the rest of the world) and it came out tasting vaguely like a Chung King (canned Chinese food) version of the dish… and as I type this I just realized they didn’t put any peanut(s) in the dish. It was edible, but nothing to write home about.
When we were about half way done with the meal our very polite and very embarrassed waitress let us know that the reason that our appetizer tasted off and the Tofu with Pork dish had no pork in it was that there was no pork in the kitchen. The chef had substituted ham for the pork in the fried dumplings… which explains the SPAM-like flavor in that dish, and completely left out half of the ingredients in my wife’s dish! Meanwhile, as the chef was making do with the ingredients at hand, the two owners sat on their behinds and another instead of driving to a local food market to purchase pork for the kitchen!
The final kick-in-the-butt from Lucy’s was that when the check came to the table there was no reduction in price for the improperly prepared food. Not being folks who create scenes in restaurants, we generously tipped our waitress, paid our bill, and left Lucy’s never to return.
I hate to blast any new business, but Lucy’s is certainly not going to last very long if they continue to deceive their customers.
Wow.
I’m holding with my 87 score for now but will check them out again this week and adjust that score based on your reviews and whatever happens with our meal.
I enjoyed my lunch from there today. I too didn’t know what type of restaurant it was so I didn’t allot much time and we got our food to go. My wife’s burger was great, my turkey sandwich fell a bit short of my expectations. I thought the buffet looked great and I’m planning to order it upon my next visit when I have time and I’m good and hungry.
..in other news, reports of missing cats and dogs is on the rise in the Sherwood Forest community…