Lucky Ginger Is a Tasty, Versatile Option for Asian Food

Lucky Ginger. Photo by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

You will discover several varieties of pho and other Asian dishes when you peruse the menu at Lucky Ginger. This is a restaurant I have passed on North Water Street in the Historic Third Ward multiple times while heading somewhere else and had never thought to stop. Recently I did and after two lunches, I can report that Lucky Ginger was a happy surprise. Owner Souk Sayavongsa has been serving his family recipes for 10 years as he continues to maintain the quality of the many diverse choices on the menu.

Our server Maribel, led my companions and me first to the many pho choices that included meat, chicken, veggies, meatballs, seafood, shrimp, and tofu. I tried the special pho, served with lime, fresh basil, jalapenos, and bean sprouts, in a bowl that overflowed with tender rice noodles, beef slices, brisket, and Vietnamese meatballs. If you like your pho with plenty of meat, this one is for you.

From several salad selections, I chose the ginger noodle bowl, a plentiful mix of grilled pork, carrots, rice noodles, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, and arugula, topped with a tiny pork egg roll. The noodles were thick and very chewy. The spicy dressing should have come with a warning. It did not, which was odd because every other salad, and there were four, house, salmon poke, steak, and seafood, had a little red pepper next to it on the menu that suggested “spicy.”

There are five entrees: ginger marinated strip steak, Korean short ribs, lemongrass pork chops, BBQ salmon, and BBQ salmon with curry fried rice. Instead of an entrée, my companion and I ordered duck red curry and two starters, chicken satay, and dumplings.

The duck curry, a mild bowl of red curry soup, came with a cup of rice and tasted similar to massaman curry, also on the menu. Both started with coconut milk while bamboo shoots and peppers in the red curry differed from the potatoes and carrots in the massaman curry. The red came from mild red curry paste and the addition of a sliced boneless duck breast added more flavor to this creamy soup that was a perfect, warming antidote to a chilly March afternoon.

The chicken satay, four skewers of grilled white meat, held the flavors of the marinade that favored peanut and curry. A mild mayonnaise-based dipping sauce was nice, but unnecessary. Our second starter, dumplings, a shareable, were filled with little pork sausages before they were steamed and then pan fried. They resembled large fat potstickers, a familiar dish with a different name. They came with a soy-based dipping sauce that complemented the hearty dumplings.

When you enter the restaurant, you will know immediately that Lucky Ginger is located inside a building that has been on Water Street for a long time.  To get to the dining room, first you pass the bar. Then, you walk down a long hallway where you will see three video games, and finally, you come to the dining room. A high ceiling, exposed rafters, and Milwaukee Cream City brick walls, speak to that old Milwaukee ambiance.

Lucky Ginger is a classic Milwaukee restaurant with a contemporary mix of Chinese, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese, and Thai cuisine. If you are looking for good Asian food and you want multiple choices, this is the right place for you.

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• Location: 221 N. Water St.
• Phone: 414-269-8699
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mon-Sat, 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Neighborhood: Historic Third Ward
• Website: https://eatluckygingermke.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/luckygingermke
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuckyGingerMke/

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