The ‘Luk Lak’ is a Vietnamese restaurant, situated in southeast of the Hoan Kiem Lake, and the location of the restaurant defines it belonging to the Hanoi’s French Quarter. The restaurant isabout 5-minute walk south from the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, and 2 minutes to the left from the Opera House.
Comparing to other Vietnamese restaurants in the city, Luk Lak is fairly new, but it’s been a good choice for local diners and travelers since 2017. After half day touring Hanoi last week, the five of us went to Luk Lak for lunch, as it’s near our clients’ hotel – the Metropole Hanoi.
The restaurant features 3 colonial-styled spacious floors, with a café on the first and dinning areas on the second and the third floor. On entering, the stairs led us to the second floor where the furniture was basic wood and metal without white table clothes, so it more of a mid range restaurant rather than an upscale. Some tables by the windows provide nice view over the Le Thanh Tong Street.
The menus had pictures and good descriptions of the dishes, as well as highlighting their recommended dishes. It offers a wide variety of mouth-watering Vietnamese dishes, from Hanoi’s famous dishes – like bun cha, to vegetable dishes harvested from the garden – like the chicken and banana flower, to fresh water fishes like snail and shrimp dishes from the countryside or the mountainous areas.
Dishes at Luk Lak are designed to be shared, which means as a group of five we could order different dishes to share. For example, the summer rolls came in a serve of five. We opted for the chef’s grilled garlic chicken, mulberry char-grilled duck, grilled pork cheek with lemon grassand steamed rice.
All portions were substantial and nicely presented. The charred taste of the pork in both dishes were excellent. However, we found the chicken had a nice flavor but it was rather dry. The sauce helped improve the dish so a bigger portion of it would have been better. My duck was quite chewy and the skin, to my mind, should have been crispy rather than soft and fatty.
Got a look at the wine list, the selection was a bit limited and pricy. We chose Hanoi beer to accompany it all.
Though the restaurant was quite busy when we came, the service was quick and the waiters were attentive. After all, we had a pleasant dining experience, so we recommend going to the Luk Lak Vietnamese restaurant for lunch or dinner.
- Luk Lak Vietnamese Restaurant
- 4A Le Thanh Tong Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi
- Hours: 7h00 – 23h00
- +84 94 314 3686
As per all of our blog posts, the writing was based on our own experience at the place as local foodie guides. We’re food tour provider, we do not receive any money from anyone to write a review. To truly explore Hanoi while sampling its food, book a personal street food tour with us.
