New Orleans Part 2 of 10 (Lüke)

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Many who are familiar with celebrity chefs will recognize the name: John Besh. A Southern boy, Besh is a well-known chef throughout the city, owning several restaurants. We decided on Lüke for our first dinner. According to the website, it is Besh' "homage to the grand old Franco-German brasseries that once reigned in New Orleans."

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We made reservations for 5:30 and we're greeted and seated promptly upon arrival. Our waiter was Lee, who had been on vacation for a little while. It showed. More on that later. I decided to order the nightly 3-course pri-fixe special. My wife decided to choose her own. First off for me was seafood gumbo á la Creole. The gumbo itself had good flavor, but some of the rice was burnt and one of the oysters had a lot of grit.

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My wife ordered the Shrimp Bisque. It was very flavorful and enjoyable. With a velvety consistency.

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For my entree I had the navarin d'agneau braised lamb with gnocchi and Covey Rise vegetables. I had never had braised lamb before. It was okay, but needed more seasonings. Unfortunately, the stars of the dish were the supporting cast: the gnocchi and vegetables.

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My wife had the shrimp farci (with blood orange hollandaise, crabmeat and shrimp). It was very enjoyable with the hollandaise really elevating the dish.










Again, my meal came with 3 courses. We were both quite satiated at this point, but dessert came with the meal. The original bread pudding that came out had a hair on it. Immediately it was sent back to the kitchen. The manager apologized, and brought out two new desserts! TWO! We could only pick at each of them. The first was a “gateau basque” vanilla cake with blackberries and crème fraiche. We were split on this one; I enjoyed it, while my wife thought it was kind of boring for a dessert. The second dessert we were brought was a chocolate pot de creme. It was very enjoyable with some chocolate pieces on top adding to the texture play.

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View inside the kitchen
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As I mentioned earlier, we would come back to our waiter. Lee, though nice, would come by every 2 minutes to make sure everything was okay. The service was thus suffocating at best. We kept getting interrupted in the middle of our conversations due to him "checking up" on us. 

The food at Lüke was decent, nothing that made me say WOW! But it seems like a good restaurant. Perhaps the service problems we had was related to Lee only, but it put a bad taste in our mouth for the restaurant. Maybe next time we're in NOLA, we'll give John Besh another chance. (We hear that Restaurant August is AMAZING!)

-bLONG