Alyssa
Last month, Lüke featured Chef Phil Mariano from Domenica in New Orleans and served up some French-German cuisine in San Antonio. This month, Lüke continued its Visiting Chef Series with Chef Miles Landrem from Johnny Sánchez located in New Orleans and transformed Lüke into an authentic Mexican restaurant for a night. Five courses, not including four different appetizers, and accompanying drinks for $100. Lüke, we love your chef series!
Cocktails, laughing and the scent of savory goodness met us at the second floor of Lüke while the appetizers for the night were being placed down at the tables, each with a variety of flavors in one serving. First up, shrimp ceviche spoons with habanero and coconut (my personal favorite). Other appetizers included gulf oysters on half shells and yellowfin tuna tostadas with ghost-pepper caviar and yuzu.
Once the appetizers disappeared from the plates and the mingling cocktails were dry, the first course arrived – grilled beet and stone fruit salad with whipped goat cheese and cilantro-jalapeno pesto. The whipped goat cheese, spicy pesto, and sweet fruit created a magnificent dish. This salad, this entree, was unbelievably good and every bite was as tasty as the last.
After the fruit came the masa fried oysters followed by roasted corn sopes topped with jumbo LA crab, buratta and guajillo-crab fat butter. The serving size for each dish was ideal for a five-course meal; just enough food to indulge in without getting ridiculously full after a couple dishes.
The largest meal of the night was the adobo rubbed lamb loin served alongside black bean and squash picadillo and pomegranate seeds. The sweetness from the pomegranate paired perfectly with the medium rare lamb. This was the only dish I didn’t lick clean.
Two hours into the meal, it was time for dessert! Coconut flan with dulce de leche and pieces of angel food cake. Personally, I’m not a fan of flan, but luckily that didn’t keep me from digging in.
After dinner, Chef John Russ made an announcement about Lüke dedicating the whole restaurant for the next Visiting Chef Series on November 20th. The whole restaurant will be transformed into a New Orleans getaway complete with a featured pastry chef, cocktail stations, oysters, live music and more!