It’s not very often I flat out endorse a restaurant, but Lumi is one of the few I find worthy of it. This place gets points for originality (the menu is a Vietnamese and Brazilian fusion), quality and topnotch customer service.
I recently booked a large dinner part here. Because everything is served tapas-style, we ordered dozens of menu items. Standouts were the feijoada (a Brazilian black bean stew with tender shredded pork and collard greens), the duck and leek dumplings, the hoisin-honey pork ribs, and the ahi tuna nachos. Everything we sampled was varying degrees of good—there was not one dish we disliked—and our bill came out to about $12 per person. Not too shabby.
The cocktails here are also worth mentioning. Like the food, they are unusual, in a good way. I recommend the jalapeno-pineapple margarita. The service was also outstanding. The staff was gracious and attentive, and because this was a birthday party, they were nice enough to offer up a few free desserts for us to share.
Oh, and if you’re curious as to why the Brazilian-Vietnamese fusion, here’s the back-story: the owner is a Vietnamese man. He married a Brazilian woman. They later divorced, but he stayed close to his in-laws. Every morning, those Brazilian in-laws come to the restaurant and bake empanadas—he on the other hand, is in charge of the dumplings.
