Lucky Red

David Chang started the style of open face pork belly buns with hoisin sauce 10+ years ago at Momofuku in NYC. This is a better version. The bao is fluffier and the cut of pork belly was very large and flavourful.
The fried chicken and fried chicken bao were also good, but the pork belly bun is the real winner. If you ever in NYC, try Baohaus, that’s the best pork belly bun I’ve ever had.

Was kinda underwhelmed sadly. The food was not as in point as the pics make it look. The ham bao ger was pretty salty. Blog TO referred to it as Big Mac like… This was a lie. The special of tea day was a pulled pork taco. The pickled onions were alright but the pork was not as juicy as it could have been. Lacked a distinct/​good sauce/​seasoning that makes a good pulled pork. Wasn’t hard hitting enough. The KPC much like the burger was a bit on the salty side. Best this about the place was the atmosphere, though it looks like it’s shit down from the outside/​store front… Charming? I would recommend this place just to get a drink.

On Tuesday together with a friend, I was finally able to try out their much-​favored fried chicken together with an order of the Fried Chicken Bao. I’ll say that the flavors for the chicken seem to be presents only in the coating while I tasted more of a chicken flavor in the meat, but it still came to our table hot out of the fryer. I definitely liked the chicken bao where the flavors of the fried chicken blended well with the steamed bun. Even my friend mentioned more about the chicken bao :-)
However, Lucky Red would still be a good go-​to place in the Spadina area if I wanted to get some non-​frozen fried chicken for a tv night and I could pair it off with some home-​made seasoned rice.

Fantastic food, a unique ambiance, and friendly service. Lucky Red is one of my favorite Asian fusion and bao restaurant.
From the moment you bite into their tenderlicious and mouthwatering pork steamed bao, you WILL definitely want more. You’ll also definitely want to order their fried chicken and kimchi fries on the side. As for drinks, have their signature Lucky Red cocktail. It tastes like a cranberry mojito.
Lucky Red has a unique casual, Asian themed, and even potentially romantic (if at night) ambience. There’s even a wall-​sized «Lucky» neon light fixture that’s worth a picture.
If you’re looking for a unique, casual dining experience, you may get «lucky» at Lucky Red

Food is really good here. Came here on a Friday, so limited seating, and sluggish service. We go fried chicken (order as soon as you sit down, it’s 20 mins wait), papaya salad (yum!), Pork Belly Bao (juicy, saucy, with great pickled onions), and tried a bite of KPC (Kongpao chicken done with Korean gochujang). Again, the food is good here, definitely recommend, maybe on a less busy night.

First time visitor after friends had very positive comments. Food, in brief, is interesting and good. Tried the pork belly bao and the KPC (crispy chicken). Bao is thumbs up. KPC is very flavorful but needs an offset like rice or other. The biggest disappointment is the poor and slow service. Waited about an hour for my dishes to arrive. My wait was more than 3x that of for the fried chicken (noted as 18 minutes on the menu). This is completely unacceptable! The place has forgetful wait staff who do not write down your order and then completely forget it! Had to go over to utensils table to get more forks and napkins myself, not offered water/​had to ask for more, dishes not cleared by staff in a timely manner. More staff need to be hired! While food is interesting, I definately won’t come back.

Lucky Red is a spinoff of BMB restaurant but nonetheless does not detract in any way from its predecessor in terms of quality and novel tasting fare. Lucky Red picks up where Banh Mi Boys left off by offering food enthusiasts a unique Asian-​fusion dining experience. A notable difference Lucky Red has over BMB is that it has more of a bar and restaurant vibe to it whereas BMB is more of a fast food lunch place.
The food items that stood out for me would be the Ham Bao Ger, Lucky Red Fried Chicken, and Nacho Koreano. The Ham Bao Ger is what you would expect from what the name would imply, the Asian-​fusion version of the classic hamburger. To be more exact, Lucky Red’s version of McDonald’s Big Mac sandwich. The Ham Bao Ger taste strikingly similar to the Big Mac but without all the added calories. Lucky Red’s Fried Chicken Wings were delicious to say the least. The fried chicken has a familiar but unique taste to it as it has a salty but sweet seasoning unlike any fried chicken I’ve ever tasted before. My favourite dish would have to be the Nacho Koreano as it takes Asian-​fusion cuisine to another level. I would describe the Nacho Koreano as being a cross between a fried pork dumpling and a nacho platter that you would commonly find at any bar. What stood out about the Nacho Koreano is that Lucky Red blends the comforting familiarity of bar nachos with the novel taste of fried dumplings to create a delectable new dish.

Come here for reasonably priced asian tapas comfort food. We were here around 8:30 pm on a weekday and it wasn’t very busy. The place it brightly lit and very casual.
Our favourite was the Ham Bao Ger which was basically a big mac in a bao bun. We had the fried chicken bao which was OK. We liked the Korean nachos. The beef tartare was good but I didn’t think it went well with the shrimp crackers. Also had the five spice bourbon sour which was tasty and well-​made.
The dishes came out really quick and service was friendly. We’ll definitely be back here again to try a few more plates.

From the fine folks that brought popular hipsterized fusion Vietnamese sandwiches to this fine city, comes, uh, hipsterized Chinese street food I guess, served in a 90s/​early 2000s hip-​hop music deafly-​ghetto-​blasting, dimly lit and renovated-​to-​suit sorta-​out-​of-​place place in the heart of Toronto’s Chinatown. Chinatown seems to be a favourite and much fetishized part of town lately amongst the wanna-​feel-​cultured hipsters and restaurant grinders who love the late night cheap ass hangover cures and the «authentic» gritty atmosphere, so already we’re hitting a few points on my in-​development hipsta scorecard.
I dunno what was up with the first incarnation of Lucky Red, but the second iteration takes much of the successful concepts of Banh Mi Boys and apply it to a new resto concept that involves a) full sit-​down service, b) alcohol, and c) variations of the Chinese steamed baos.
Bao is what they do here, and likewise wih the BMB sandwiches, in ideas you don’t traditionally think of. It’s like there’s an idea contest of what we can do with or what else to stuff inside these damned baos. Quite conservatively creative ideas, if you ask me. There’s the $ 8 «hambaoger,» which are a pair of fresh sliders with the steamed baos as buns, with simple ingredients and sauces that reproduces the Big Mac taste (it’s been more than a decade since I actually ate a Big Mac, yet still know what it taste like oddly enough). Fun to look at, quick to wolf down, certainly would go for more if it didn’t kill me first.
There’s also the smores bao, that uses Nutella instead of chocolate sauce, graham cracker crumbs and a deep fried bao to sandwich the goodness of a traditional s’more together. It was alright tite, but was kinda weird biting into a crispy bun you don’t normally think of as crispy.
Service was great, likely owing to that there were only about five diners in an otherwise hot summer night. However as interesting the food experience is, eating at Lucky Red seems for me something mainly for a one-​off novelty factor, of trying such food in a culturally gentrified setting and realizing you just spent all your grocery money, you’ve gone nearly deaf reminiscing over Missy Elliot tracks, but hey, you got to eat beef tartare with chopsticks.
{TTC: 505 or 510 streetcars to the epicentre of Chinatown}

Good Asian fusion right in the heart of Chinatown. I came here with a friend on a Tuesday night. We decided to try a few of the following menu items:
— Pork belly steamed bao: Decent pork belly bao. It reminded me of the Banhi boys one, which makes sense as the restaurants share owners.
— Hambaoger: Presented like a hamburger, this is a mini Big Mac only with the buns replaced with fluffy steamed white baos. Personally I thought there was a lot of excess oil was dripping from the burger while I was eating it, but overall it was quite tasty.
— Korean popcorn chicken: A plate of small balls of deep fried chicken, this dish was quite heavy with nothing to balance it out. We regretted not ordering a bowl of steamed rice to balance out all these intense flavours. It felt like having a traditional Chinese dinner without your own bowl of rice!
— Side of eggplant: This was shockingly spicy, which further supported why we needed to a side of rice for balance.
— Tuna tostata: Very small tuna tostadas — the tostada was crispy and oily but I liked the tuna on top. For $ 3, it was not a lot of food, just a very small tapa.
Overall great food and service. If you are looking for more of a «sit down» atmosphere compared to Banh Mi Boys, this is the perfect place as Lucky Red is an extension of the Asian fusion trend there.

Came here finally after wanting to try them for a while.
Got the smores bao and tuna tartare
Smores bao was very oily which is to be expected since it’s deep fried. I was glad I tried it but don’t think it’d try it again.
Tuna tartare was really nice but a bit pricey for the three pieces you get.
Next time I’ll try the hambaoger!

Banh Mi Boys and Lucky Red shared the same owners, and they are actually the sons of the ladies at Banh Mi Nguyen Huong. .
A few months ago Lucky Red revamped their menu and I have to say, I pretty much prefer this over Banh Mi Boys. I felt BMB was overhyped and I couldn’t justify paying $ 10 for a sandwich when their mom’s shop sell for $ 2.75 :((Yes I remember the exact price: p).
–Hambaogur — $ 8: Dat pun doe. For $ 8 the hambaogur came with 2 baos, a pretty decent price with the appropriate portion imo.
The hambaogur tasted exactly like a McDonald Big Mac, well, a juicier and better big mac of course. I’m not sure what was the «secret sauce» here, but the overall hambaogur was delicious (and you know you are getting FRESH patty ok), I would totally come back just for these.
–Fried chicken steamed bao -$ 8: God damn this was insanely delicious as well. The bao was soft and pillowy, chicken was not greasy and had a crispy exterior with juicy and tender meat. Don’t get me wrong, I love heat but I just felt the bao was a bit too spicy for me, and the fried chicken can be a bit too salty for some people as well.
Be careful of the hot sauce that is provided with the bao though, it’s really really spicy and my tongue went numb because of it :(.
–Ice cream bao — $ 3.5: I was deciding between the ice cream bao and the S’Mores, but decided to go with this as I think I would feel less guilty with the ice cream bao LOL.
My only complain of the ice cream bao is how thick the ice cream layer was. I think it would have been better if there was less ice cream or maybe bigger baos :). The Oreo ice cream was not too sweet with bits of ores, but the highlight is definitely the deep fried baos here. I’m not sure how to describe the taste… The baos reminded me of the deep fried mantou (white buns), rolled in sugar and served with sweet condense milk. These baos had a crispy crust while remained soft on the inside… It’s so good.

With the re-​opening of Lucky Red, and since I come around pretty frequently, decided to make a pit stop. Have they improved from the last time? Yes. Is it a place where I would be dying to come back? Not… really.
Now don’t get me wrong, the place is fine. I see that the layout has changed more into a restaurant and a lot less of what Banh Mi Boys is. They’ve focused more on the dining in part which I thought was a nice change.
As for the food, since I was pressed for time, I did take-​out and got a Fried Chicken bao. For 2 for $ 8 (and maybe it’s me, but they’re a bit… tiny?), it’s a bit pricier than I thought and it seems like these Bao Orders now come in orders of two, as opposed to be able to order 1 of something. A slight miss there, but I like fried chicken.
The bao is good, goes the Korean route with Kimchi, Scallions and a slight spicy mayo/​sauce that’s put into a bao with fried chicken and cucumber. Overall product is good, but it’s still oversauced (not as bad as before). The chicken was fried nicely (not overly salty). However, I wasn’t completely blown away by it.
All in all, it’s definitely impoved but I don’t know if I’ll make a return visit.

Came here late on a Friday night with some buddies and it was a good choice to unwind. Firstly, excellent service. Second, good food and drinks. Had the panko tofu bao and a sakura (love the street fighter named drinks) Both were well done. Also had some shots. Will be back for more

Came to this place during their Lucky Hour. Had some great food and drink specials which my friends and I definitely took advantage of. Food was also great. Since they were on special and we were sharing between friends we pretty much ordered everything that was on the special menu. Items we tried were:
Hambaoger– It is as good as it sounds
Soi Mung Rice balls– imagine takoyaki. but rice ball
nacho koreano– super goood but wish it came in a larger size. Would even pay a few dollars more for the size increase. It was legit 6 nachos when we ordered.
chicken wings– pretty standard
pork belly bao– again pretty standard
I took a quick look at their website and it seems there is more to their menu now. Since I visited when they first revamped the place (when they only offered dinner service) things may be different now. Will revisit to confirm.

My super tasty Lucky Hour (5 – 7 PM) treats were enjoyed not on a planned visit, but as a spontaneous stop in between other weekend plans. I think that this contributed to my great experience!
The Unilocal community seems a bit tough on this brand; perhaps Banh Mi Boys was a bit overhyped back in the day, and then the first version of Lucky Red didn’t meet expectations. I cannot comment on the original Lucky Red, but 2.0 is fine by me. I designate myself as a fan at this point because the service was stellar and I truly enjoyed the bites — good drinking food!
A Lucky Buddha beer and Nacho Koreano came to $ 11. Pretty well-​priced and those nachos are not only creative, but DAMN GOOD. They are satisfying bites of crispy wontons with pork and topped with kimchi, scallions, gochujang sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese.
I want to try the 11-​Spice Chicken during another lucky hour (how does it compare to Bar Fancy’s 5 – 7 pm $ 2 a piece chicken for example?), as well as the Durian Tart.

Heard that this place reopened but I wasn’t sure why they closed in the first place. Anywhoo, I went ahead and tried this place out anyway.
I thought there would be a line up to get in and it would be busy but nope! There were empty seats everywhere. I liked the décor and ambience of this place… very chill and laid back. We came in during happy hour and they have items from their menu for a cheaper price. We were a party of three and we knew the portion size were small so we ordered a bunch of stuff like: lucky wings, soi mung rice balls, Nacho Koreano, fried chicken, pork belly bao, and the infamous Hambaoger.
The lucky wings were juicy, sweet and sticky. Not crispy though which I was expecting. The soi mung rice balls were like little risotto balls with pork deep fried and topped with a bunch of stuff. Not bad at all, I enjoyed it. The nacho was a great concept! Crispy dumplings toped with spicy mayo and kimchi. I expected this dumpling to be light and crispy but it wasn’t light just crispy but very tasty! The five spice fried chicken was my least favorite. I didn’t get a Wow factor from this at all. It wasn’t the crispy I was hoping for, the flavor was ok and it came in 2 pieces for 6 bucks which was a rip off! But I must say that the chicken was cooked perfectly just not my cup of tea. Now onto my fave… pork belly bao! The bao was soft! The pork was cooked perfectly and it was very tender and everything just went well together. The Hambaoger was spot on and tasted like a Big Mac but better since their patty is made out of Kalbi beef.
The service was fast and friendly! This place is great to order lots of food and just share with a bunch of friends.

Very attentive, lovely service and cool atmosphere.
I had the fried chicken bao which had great texture and presentation but was a little bit bland. I doused it in hot sauce to compensate.
Also. Points off for blaring rap music with really vulgar lyrics. I don’t mind music like that– but not during dinner at 6pm. That reeks of trying too hard. (And is a bit of an appetite suppressant)

I really regret paying for the food here. Would give 0.5 stars if I could.
$ 3.49 — $ 4.99 is not that expensive for a steamed bao. So I think it says something when I feel like I wouldn’t even pay that for the food here.
While we were there, the place smelled like burnt plastic. That did not help with my appetite.
We got the crispy fish bao ($ 3.99) and fried oyster bao ($ 4.99). They were nice enough to cut it in half like I requested so we could share. The crispy fish bao was oily and was basically a fish and chip type piece inside the bao. The fried oyster tasted very meh. The steamed baos were good, however. It was really the insides that ruined it.
They also offer banh mis here, which I was surprised to see (it wasn’t in the menu pics on Unilocal). If they’re as good as the ones at Banh Mi Boys, I guess it is safe to get them. But I won’t be coming back. Super disappointed with this place!

It’s opening day for Lucky!
Tough when the machines are down so cash is all for today.
Busy for a new place. If you are familiar with banh mi boys the space and many are familiar. Pork belly, crispy fish, BBQ pork, cheese steak, fried oyster and spam.
All served on a a baked or steamed bao
I’ve been waiting forever how’s 30 minutes so far for a steamed bao fried chicken? Ridiculous.
People that order after me already received their food.
Customer service would go far here but the question is does it matter to them?
They have some kinks to work out. l