lucy liu kitchen and bar

food here was delicious, seafood was fresh and eachdisheshad its unique texture and flavours. 💯👍
my most favourite dish was the kingfish and tuna sashimi!! sad to say, the barramundi and scampi wonton was a miss for me because it was too tangy for my liking. otherwise, i really enjoyed my dining experience here at lucy liu and highly recommend you visiting this asian restaurant. ✨

we ordered:
🦪 oysters
🐟 kingfish sashimi
🐠 yellow fin tuna sashimi with sesame cracker
🎣 smoked trout nam khao tod
🍤 barramundi and scampi wonton
🦆 sichuan duck

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seven of us went to lucy liu for dinner tonight. we decided to go ahead with 5dishesbanquet and provided our dietary requirements. one person in the group could not eat pork and one person could not eat beef. they acknowledged that and explained that non-pork and non-beefdisheswill be served to the members of our group who had the dietary requirements. unfortunately one of the fishdisheshad pork in it and everyone already ate it and we had to ask to confirm if there was pork in it as it was not obvious. we are not sure how can a fancy venue make such a mistake. one could almost think that it was deliberate. naturally the night is ruined. long story short, avoid this place if you have any dietary requirements as they will not respect that. otherwise, you’ll probably be fine and have a good time.

high hopes for this place and was excited to try the express lunch where you get fourdishesthat is decided by the chef on the day. overall a disappointment! appeared to be a good way to try a fewdisheson a lazy weekend day. unfortunately only snack sized dishes, guailan was very ordinary and we left hungry. i can only hope the a la carte menu is a better option.

upon walking in, you see the classic red neon sign which was a vibe. the whole interior was sultry and a good place for drinks.

had a lot of hype around this place so we decided to go here on a date night. menu was small and sounded really exotic so we were excited to try quite a bit. we aimed to have a small dinner and started off with the wontons which simply tasted like traditional wontons with spring onion dazzled on top. we got a duck dish with rice for mains expecting to be blown away. if you’ve ever had cantonese roast duck, it was simply that served on a fancy plate. the cocktails were nice but we decided not to order anymore food as it just didn’t taste anything unique. did not have any asian fusion mix within the food besides making it look presentable. we decided to leave after 3 smalldisheswhich already costed $90. would not be coming back.

despite having a reservation for four people tonight, we were led into a table that had 3 place seatings, little did we know this would be a precursor for the rest of the night.
this wouldn’t have been much of a concern if one of your waitresses by the name of ‘caitlyn’ (blond hair tied up in a bun and wearing glasses) hadn’t been so rude the entire service.
not only did she rudely interject mid order because ‘we were speaking into our menus’ and apparently not loudly or clearly enough for her liking as she had not so kindly informed us by reenacting how we were ordering.
we also did not receive the dumplings that we had ordered (that she in fact recommended to us). when we mentioned this upon seeing it on the bill she then proceeded to rudely tell us that even though she didn’t see what we had on the table ‘we definitely received it but she’ll take it off the bill ‘just this once’ after checking with the kitchen (despite having a minimum of 3 staff bring outdishesand drinks to us throughout the night).
only after asking for her name did she then apologize and carry on about how much she didn’t mean for it to come out like that.
great cocktails, decent food, shitty service making everything else incredibly overrated.

their sidedishesare delicious, we ordered sashimi, dumpling and the bun with fried chicken. unfortunately we hate the seating arrangement, the table is so close with each other. i feel like they should give more space between the tables.

tl;dr $88pp luxe is not great value, the largerdishesare the letdowns with flat flavour profiles, however the earlier entreedisheslike chicken bao and wontons are very juicy - would go back for just these!

service = 5/5: great banter and timing of serving the courses.

food = 3/5: i’ll list out what we had for the most expensive let lucy choose...

kingfish and tuna sashimi - this was fresh and excellent. very unique, light wasabi was a nice change

pork neck salad with herbs - apple and mint provide freshness, but not a wow factor...

soft shell crab rice paper roll - excellent spice and creaminess. very strong shellfish flavour though, so be careful if you aren’t generally a fan of that.

chicken wonton with shiitake mushroom - strong mushroom taste, but very juicy meat on the inside. also, good peanut additions for an added crunch element.

korean chicken bao - extremely warm fluffy bun, gochujang and cheese complement well.

tempura roll - good crunch, but very salty and the accompanying sauce fails to add much depth

mains
salmon orange miso - crisp skin and well flaked. however the orange miso is very minimal, but super necessary to bring any life to this dish. otherwise, it is extremely bland.

wagyu porterhouse - quite tough meat unfortunately, and the kick of the sauce is only salvaged by having adequate rice and the side coleslaw.

tucked away in an unpresuming location awaits lucy liu. serving simple yet elegant asian infused dishes. the menu and all itsdishesare designed to be shared.

on this occasion we ordered two smallerdishes(tuna sashimi and turmeric fried chicken), two bao buns, 1 plate of wontons, one larger dish (rendang curry), one side (roti bread) and 4 drinks cost a total of $195.

the tuna sashimi was a personal favourite, along with the fried chicken and wontons. the bao buns were a little disappointing. the rendang curry was the perfect dish to finish with. the roti, like the bao buns, was also disappointing - tasted like a sheet of puff pastry.

there is no denying that this red neon labelled restaurant is iconic.

i loved the atmosphere, the food and the service - everything was fantastic! we enjoyed all of ourdishesand even though the restaurant was really busy and loud, you could still actually hear your group talk in the table, so a great kidd of atmosphere but still hearing each other! yum yum yum!

this venue is awesome. so typical melbourne. walk down a dark alleyway towards a neon sign. the entry is very groovy and then you walk into a really well designed, funky, misery space. the decor is fabulously appropriate for a cool asian fusion style restaurant. the kingfish was amazing. so we're the soft shell crab pancake rolls. both outstanding. our waiter told us to order both and dip the pancake roll into the kingfish marinade. mind blown! absolute taste sensation. the tuna tataki was also very good. the dumplings were a little disappointing. very doughy which was a shame because the flavour of the filling was nice. if you're going to this place there are so many great things to eat, i'd suggest you can give the dumplings a miss. the other thing you should know is the tables are close together. very close. so if you're going to have a break up conversation or something that requires a level of privacy, this isn't the place! we chatted to our neighbours about our differentdishesso it was fine for us but it's not an intimate dining experience. the service is excellent. the waiters have tasted the food and are keen to recommend things. our waiter chose well. everything we loved he had recommended. this place should be on everyone's list if the dining experience sounds like your style.

nice subtle asian fusion flavours. ordered the followingdishes- all recommend to try as must haves!!
- chicken ribs: the coating is light and crunchy, good seasoning and not oily
- soft shell crab pancake: great flavour and plenty of crab!
- tuna tataki: the seared edges are the highlight
- betel leaf
- oysters
enjoyed the coconut mojito but a bit too sweet for my liking
staff are friendly and attentive, decor has a great atmosphere especially the cute animal themed menus!

i’m a vegetarian and the waitress, a vegetarian herself, took extra care to ensure thedishesi ordered didn’t contain any oyster sauce, fish sauce, eggs or dried shrimp. the green papaya salad arrived first. what a way to start my meal; bursting with delicate levels of flavour. thinking about the salad as i type, all i can say is that i’m immediately taken back to the sensation of flavours dancing in my mouth! the pan fried spinach and water chestnut dumplings arrived next. they were a little on the salty side for me, but full of flavour nonetheless. dessert was the ginger creme brûlée - a delicious and generous portion that went down well! i’ll definitely be going back again to try some of the other vegetarian options on the menu. the green papaya salad was a sure winner; bet your bottom dollar that’s the first thing i’ll be ordering on my next visit!

had a great dining experience at lucy liu! delicious asian fusiondishes- recommend the turmeric cauliflower and the barramundi & scampi dumplings! the papaya salad was also good but not that refreshing as it is extremely hot! go for a side of smashed cucumber instead if you are not a fan of hot chilli. the service was excellent and staff very friendly. sat at the bar as they were really busy (went on a saturday night) but the ambience was still great.

service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
taste: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
ambiance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
value: ⭐️⭐️

the service was exemplary. we ordered the five plates menu which was chef’s pick. i particularly enjoyed the pan roasted barramundi. the chargrilled beef was slightly overcooked and chewy. the otherdisheswere satisfactory - nothing special. a great place for a special lunch catchup.

lucy liu delivered overall very pleasant experience today. most of thedishesare tasty, with a hint of spice, the strong taste of all starters opened our appetite.
our favorite dish being soft shell crab jianbing pancake roll, very tasty! while the least favorite dish is peking duck dumpling, neither the texture of the dumpling or the taste was right...

also very good service and vibe! will come back again for other dishes..