Over the last few years one of my go-to choices for lunch has been Lúa, which serves delicious, varied, healthy dishes at a good price. Whether rice dishes, noodle dishes, soups, appetizers, or fried chicken wings, Lúa has whatever you could want. I’m using this post to highlight some of my favorite meals there over the years. I tend to get one dish and an appetizer and it is always the perfect meal

My most recent meal there last month was the Stir-Fried Steak Bite Noodles + Grilled Beef Betel Leaf Wrap. I think this is a new addition to their menu because I don’t remember seeing it before. Seared marinated NY strip steak bites stir-fried with garlic & pepper noodle and a side of fish sauce vinaigrette salad. This was so yummy! The garlic & pepper noodles are different in this dish than they offer in their other dishes and they were perfect. The steak was cooked perfectly and was super tasty. I always love their salads which are fresh and the fish sauce vinaigrette is perfect. Top it off with a salad roll and this was a perfect meal. All their salad rolls are good, but this one with grilled beef and betel leaf is my favorite. The beef is perfect and the betel leaf adds a unique flavor. Comes with peanut sauce (not pictured), this is my most ordered appetizer.

From the previous visit, also in December I ordered the Chicken Pho + Shrimp & Pork Wontons in Dumpling Sauce. This was so good! A really clean, delicious pho broth with a nice accoutrement of herbs, greens, bean sprouts and jalapeños, which added a nice kick of heat on the back end. The wontons pictured below were perfect. You can get them in either a chili oil sauce or a dumpling sauce. Both are good but I think the dumpling sauce works best. I could eat like ten orders of these.

From an earlier visit in 2024, this is the Bún Xá Xíu, a Char Siu Noodle Bowl. Served with their thin rice noodles, herbs, salad and the fish sauce vinaigrette which they serve with all the rice and noodle bowls. This was so good. Really the perfect lunch in bowl form. They change up their menu fairly often, and I’m not sure if it’s seasonal or follows some other whim, but this item is no longer on the menu. In fact right now their menu seems to be all about soups and I don’t see the standard rice or noodle bowl option.

Fried Chicken Wings in fish sauce. These were so amazing. It took me too long to order their wings and now I’m obsessed. These were some of the best fish sauce wings I’ve had since Pok Pok closed years ago. You can currently order the wings in one of six flavors: Fish Sauce, Tamarind Sauce, Garlic Pepper, Honey Lemon Pepper, Jalapeño Honey Butter, and Cilantro Sweet Sour Chili. The two that I’ve had are the fish sauce and the cilantro sweet sour chili. Both are to die for. Also, price wise at $9 for 4 large wings, this is a killer deal. Good for sharing or keeping to yourself! They were perfectly crunchy on the outside, sticky with the sauce and fried to perfection.

Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Rice Bowl & Grilled Beef Betel Leaf Wrap from a few months ago. This is probably the dish I’ve ordered the most and is the best representation of their lunch bowl. The grilled lemongrass chicken is always delicious and on point, you have your option of rice or noodles, you can see how fresh the salad ingredients are, and it comes with pickled carrot and daikon as well. Pour the fish sauce vinaigrette over everything and it really comes together as a single cohesive dish. And of course I got the grilled beef betel leaf wrap as well. Here you can see the peanut sauce which they top with chili oil, which is a nice touch and gives it a deeper flavor profile.

Here is a similar lunch but with egg noodles instead of the standard rice noodles or rice. This is on the menu sometimes and sometimes not. Currently not. The egg noodles were good, more substantial, chewy and flavorful than the rice noodles. This one came with Bok Choy which I love, can never get enough of that vegetable. The one (and only) thing I don’t like on their menu are the egg rolls (pictured here). I kept forgetting that I didn’t like them and ordering them. The flavor is bland, which is such a stark contrast to all their other dishes and appetizers that have such bold flavors. Go for the salad rolls not the egg rolls. I highly recommend Lua if you like Vietnamese food, fresh ingredients, delicious bold flavors, and healthy meals. Happy Eating!