Before Golden Week, the wife and I decided to check out the nemophila flowers at Kaihin Koen in Hitachi Naka. We then saw the traffic going to Kaihin Koen and decided to go get some lunch instead. The wife pointed out that we were near a restaurant that her nephew loves and that we should stop there for lunch. So after a few minutes in traffic we finally got to a nice looking wooden house that is the restaurant LUCU.
LUCU
LUCU isn't too far away from Kaihin Koen in Hitachi Naka if you have a car. If you travel up the street from Katsuta station all the way to Kaihin Koen, you will have to turn right into one of the side streets and you should be able to find the place. Once you park your car in the parking area to the side of the restaurant and head to the entrance, you are greeted by what looks like Hawaiian statues. We were going to have Hawaiian cuisine for lunch that day, or so I thought.
Very Cozy
Walking into the restaurant, you first thing you see is wood, wood everywhere. Wood chairs, a wood floor and wood tables. It was nice. It felt very cozy, like I was in a log cabin restaurant kind of deal. There was also tropical things all around the restaurant so I felt like I was in a log cabin in Hawaii or Okinawa if that makes any sense.
That will keep Covid at bay
This picture is of post lunch so I apologize for that. I just wanted to show you the huge plastic divider at our table. If you have any concerns about corona, this divider may help ease those concerns. It did make it harder for the wife and I to share our meals.
The Menu
The menu comes in a small cute photo album. When you open the menu, you will see pictures of the dishes with a Japanese explanation on the bottom of the picture. Sorry, no English. The menu is as follows:
Lucu Special Dry Curry (cooked Haitian style)
Black Pork Curry (Sri Lankan style)
Taco Rice (Okinawan)
Soy Beans Karaage with Ponzu sauce (Japanese)
Nasi Goreng Special (Indonesian)
An Organic Course (You have to reserve this in advance)
Asian Course (this brings a little of everything and you have to reserve in advance)
Organic Special (limited supply, only 7 specials made a day)
Teriyaki Loco Moco (Hawaiian)
Garlic Hamburg (limited supply, only 5 made a day)
I thought this was a healthy Hawaiian place at first, but after checking out the menu I realized it was a healthy international place instead.
Nasi Goreng Special
The wife ordered the Nasi Goreng special. From the picture you can tell that this dish doesn't come with white rice but with brown rice, hence the healthy part. All rice dishes at this place come with brown rice. That is not to say that the rice was bad, far from it, it was really good. The presentation of the Nasi Goreng was really well done and everything looked delicious. The wife let me have a spoon full of rice with a piece of shrimp and a shrimp cracker. Everything was delicious. I do not really know anything about Nasi Goreng but this Nasi Goreng here was top notch. The rice with the shrimp had a bit of a sweet flavor to it but not too sweet, and it went really well with the shrimp and shrimp crackers. I really liked this dish and the wife enjoyed it as well.
Taco Rice
My order was the taco rice. This taco rice had my head spinning. I have had taco rice in Okinawa and it was fantastic. This taco rice at Lucu was...special. Again, amazing presentation but there were some other things about it that gave me a strange impression. First off, those chips are doritos. Secondly, the salad all around the taco rice wasn't bad but it just felt weird to me. Thirdly, there was no need for the eggs. They don't belong in taco rice so I wasn't too thrilled they were in there. Eating this taco rice felt strange and alien to me. That is not to say it was bad, I actually really enjoyed the taco meat and rice. The cheese sauce on top of the taco meat was a very nice touch as well. I guess the main reason it felt so strange to me was that it tasted so healthy. Whenever I eat tacos, I know I am going to put on a few kilos and feel extremely full and heavy afterwards. But after eating this taco rice, I was full but I felt light as a feather. It wasn't a bad feeling just...weird. Is this what eating healthy feels like?
Biwamin
The restaurant staff recommended we tried the Biwamin drink. I didn't know and still kind of don't know what this is. The wife told me that it was a really healthy drink and that it was good for the body. It supposedly helps with digestion, your liver, insomnia, with dieting and it has a lot of calcium. I wasn't and still am not sure about any of that but I decided to give it a shot.
If you order this drink, make sure to give it a good stir. The first time I sipped it through my straw, all I got was tasteless soda water. After stirring it for a bit, I took another sip through the straw and a strong sour flavor hit me which threw me off guard. But then the soda and the sour flavour mixed together and it was actually quite nice and refreshing. The wife and I did enjoy this drink with our lunch. I am not sure about all the health benefits but hey, everything here seems to be healthy so this drink must be healthy as well.
After we finished our meal, we thanked the staff and headed off to Kaihin Koen. We then saw that the traffic didn't die down at all and we headed back home. We gave up on our nemophila adventure. Even though we were disappointed we were not able to go to Kaihin Koen, we still had a very nice lunch. The wife and I enjoyed a nice homey style restaurant with healthy cuisine. We also didn't feel super full or heavy after eating there which was a nice feeling. I hope I can go back some time soon and give those limited supply dishes a chance.
So if you are in the Hitachi Naka area, are watching what you eat and want to eat something delicious, why not give LUCU a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, drinking the Biwamin and still wondering if I am getting any health benefits from it.
Enjoy!
For more information on LUCU, check out their website:
Just wanted to add one more thing before I end this post. A buddy of mine, who is an accomplished writer and blogger, has a blog about Japan and is writing about his top 100 places. It is a really interesting list. Some of the places I know and some I want to go check out after the pandemic is over. He is at 36 right now so soon we will find out his number one.
To check out his blog, click the link below:
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