The Grand Lux Cafe is the sister restaurant to the Cheesecake Factory. It's decorated in the Art Deco style of the 1940's. I went for lunch with my mom, my daughter and my cousin. The menu is very extensive and eclectic. It ranged from tapas (small plates), to American dishes with some Italian and Mexican food mixed in. They have a special lunch menu that includes soups and salad or half a sandwich all the way to their daily "Bento Box special". Prices on the average for lunch is about $8.95 to about $12.95. However, their appetizers tend to be more on the expensive side and a little lopsided. The Duck Potstickers were $9.50 for 5, but a pile of their "Grand Calamari" appetizer that included, calamari AND rock shrimp AND vegetables, with (2) dipping sauces was only $10.95. This appetizer makes a great lunch with a salad.
As appetizers, we ordered (2) orders of the Duck potstickers, (1) order of the Grand Calamari that the four of us shared. If you like pot stickers on a normal basis, this will be a treat. The dumpling noodle is light and not doughy the way that some Chinese restaurants/take out places prepare them. The duck meat is rich and flavored with garlic and ginger. You would not have known that this was not pork. The potstickers are served with a citrusy, garlicky, soy sauce that I could take a bath in. Because there were only 5 on the plate and we didn't want to fight over them, mom suggested we order two servings to share. The "Grand Calamari", came out piled high in a large pasta bowl. It was a wonderful mix of tender calamari, rock shrimp and zucchini. The coating was light and flaky not heavy and greasy at all. The two sauces were a lightly spiced chipolte aoli and a homemade tarter. We all enjoyed the aoli so much, we requested more.
We then ordered from the sandwich and lunch section of the menu for our main entree. My cousin ordered the Cuban sandwich special with fries. It included a jalapeno relish. She said it wasn't spicy. My daughter ordered the huge Chophouse burger also with fries, which was prepared exactly the way she ordered and came out juicy and loaded to the hilt with cheese, onions and mushrooms. Later she informed me that as great as the burger was, she should have ordered something different. She felt that the menu is too expansive and confusing, which is why she ended up ordering the burger. Both orders of fries came with the same Chipolte Aoli as our appetizer.
My mom ordered the lunch four cheese pizza with the salad. The pizza is a little smaller than the standard personal pizza but the sauce is tasty and fresh. The pizza came with a small green "mini lux salad". The greens were fresh and not overly saturated with dressing. It was just the right size for my mom because she was able to finish the entire meal with no difficulty.
I ordered the lunch enchiladas. The enchiladas were made with chicken which was well seasoned. There were two enchiladas that were topped with two sauces and sour cream. One of the sauces was a tangy-spicy ranchero sauce on one side and a citrusy tomatillo salsa verde on the other side. The enchilada's were accompanied by highly seasoned black beans and Mexican rice. The beans were a bit on the spicy side, whereas, the rice was lacking flavor. However, if I were looking for Mexican flavors at lunch, I would order this again. It was just the right size, not too filling and yet not too small where I would want to order something else. I also ordered a "mini lux salad" with my meal, it came with a too large side of their house balsamic vinaigrette.
When you begin to order, your wait person will tell you that most of their desserts are made to order and take upwards of 30 minutes. They recommend that you order them at the same time you give them the rest of your order. The problem with this is the obvious, you don't know if your going to want dessert. If you wait to order dessert, you can then order their pre-made items they have in their bakery case. Not the worst thing that can happen, believe me! My cousin and daughter chose to order the molten lava cake that needed the 30 minutes and I ordered the pre-made Key Lime Pie. The lava cake came out as decadent and rich as one could possibly imagine. It was served with vanilla ice cream. Well the clean plate is a great testimony to how much they enjoyed it. My Key Lime Pie was literally a quarter of a whole pie; of which I could only eat half and brought the other half home for save for another day.
Our server was extremely attentive. Never flinched at anything that was requested. She came to check on us a number of times but not to the point of annoyance. She always seemed that she showed up at just the right time for us to request, more water, ice tea, aoli, food to be packed or dessert and coffee to be ordered. She was professional and sweet. I was more than happy to leave a slightly higher than 20% tip.
All in all, we had (3) appetizers, (4) lunch meals, (2) desserts, (1) soda (free refills), (2) ice teas (free refills), (2) hot chocolates, a regular coffee and a Honey-Vanilla Latte, the bill came out to $136. Considering the amount of food, it was the appetizers that made up most of the bill. Almost $40 worth. If one were to go and just order the lunch with a special coffee as their desert, you would get away with a bill of $25, not including tip. Still a little pricey. Make it a special time or occasion and you won't feel as guilty that your enjoying it and spending the money.
Loving the food and service but not the cost, I would give this restaurant 3 out of 5 spoons.
