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Lemon Grass Restaurant
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
9 reviews for Lemon Grass Restaurant
In A Nutshell:
*Went here with some friends on a Friday night. First time here for me, but not for them.
*We ordered escargot, the hot pot, some Vietnamese rib plates and some other salad style dishes.
*The food was tasty, but it didn't fill me up.
*Average service, small parking lot, but decent prices.
Overall, there were 7 of us and we only paid $105 (which includes gratuity). Not bad. I'd probably come here again.
I took my family here to try this new place. We had so much hope for this place because we've been waiting for a family dinner place.
We ordered the lobster hotpot and a few more dishes. The lobster in the lobster hot pot was still frozen and the quality was bad. The broth in the pot was seasoned with 1lb of salt! it was horrifying!
Everything else was unremarkable and the service was so slow!
Went here with the family for dinner. When we came in, there were some tables that were crawling with flies. Already not a good sign. Also, there were only 3 tables of people. We ordered the hot pot with seafood and my sister wanted the salmon.
The hot pot was okay. Nothing really special. The salmon was dry and overcooked and the sauce that came with it was gross. I don't know if they created the sauce themselves or what but I could have done without it. I guess they wanted to compensate for the dry salmon. The only good thing on her plate was the french fries. My sisters also ordered some smoothies and it was not good. Doesn't seem like they use real fruits at all.
The service was horrendous. I say that because they basically only had to serve our table. The other tables were already almost done with their food. We had to ask 5 times for some glasses of water and in the end we never got them. We asked 2 different people. All they did was bring out our food then they went back into the kitchen. Never saw them till they had to bring out our food and then our check.
If this is the way they run their business then I don't really see how they will be in business long. The food is not that great and their service sucked. Won't be coming back here again.
Odd. Service can be very poor or pretty okay. Dishes are a strange attempt to combine French with Viet. Sometimes it's good, often it seems a bit off. Open kind of late, which is nice.
Even though the menu was extensive the food was missing some focus. My eyes lit up as I came for lunch hoping to try one of the Vietnamese/French dishes however ended up having a Thai salad and the hot pot special. (Food was subpar.)
The restaurant was very open and decor was pleasant . Prices were reasonable with ample parking and service was lacking. Not to mention every bowl, plate and cup that was brought out was dirty with some mystery food attachment. (How can this be? I was the first customer of the morning!) For the last reason I've deducted a star. I probably will not recommend nor return to this establishment.
So, I grew up in LA, where haute cuisine may not have been a birthright, but multicultural fusion may well have been. When I was young, fusion just meant that you could count your Latino neighbor as your friend just as much as your Caucasian neighbor who lived on the other side of the block. Either way, when we went to each others' houses, we could eat their cuisine un-adulterated. Soon enough, you could assimilate the food as your own. After all, we were just family, weren't we?
Not surprisingly, the fruits of this intermingling have come full circle in cuisine, first moving from high-end, conceptual fusion, to something as humble as a roving roach-coach that serves Korean-influenced Mexican food from a lunch truck whilst micro-blogging on Twitter.
Anyway, this kind of food, this kind of culture, is what I love about LA, what I love about California. It's all about taking in the best of each other's cultures and trying to build upon that, one dish at a time.
Is Lemon Grass there? No, not yet. In a lot of ways, it tries too hard to be that fusion center, even calling itself Vietnamese-French when it's really Vietnamese-Thai in sensibility. However, in essence, it's just a really good Vietnamese restaurant that has added some international flare, in a culturally, schizophrenic way. Truth in advertising should come into play here.
Overall, the advice is to order a Hot Pot, probably the best dish here. The combination seafood is the best bet, and worth a couple of visits. The snails are good as well. Overall, I've had a good experience here.
But I'm still looking for the French here. May be it's just in the service attitude. Anyway, may be a little less French isn't a bad thing. Just be honest about it.
Great prices, nice setting, shabby service. . .
Had lunch with two friends here today. The restaurant is clean, well lit, and has a slightly trendy feel to it. Our party was seated quickly but the waitress was slow to come back and take orders on our drinks and entrees. Perhaps it was the busy lunch hour but it seemed like we wait for sometime. Or maybe it was the fact they appeared understaffed had only one waitress working during lunch. . .
We ordered pad thai, broken rice with steak, and seafood noodles. The front of the restaurant had a sign advertising it as "Vietnamese French" but I fail to see the French influence within the menu. We also had a difficult time locating our waitress whenever we needed her, whether it be for refills, additional rice, napkins etc.
Thankfully, the food was good, and the prices were great! Not one of our entrees were priced above $7.50 and the portions were quite filling.
Maybe I will just order take out from here next time and would not have to put up with the slow service. . .
Save your money....... Top Ramen taste better than this place!
How do I categorize this place . . .
Its name "Lemon Grass" would suggest Vietnamese/Thai, but it is advertised as Vietnamese/French.
Skimming through the menu, there was osso bucco which is Italian. To add to the cuisine confusion, the majority of the selections were SEAFOOD.
So what gives?! What is it?
After ordering several seafood dishes, I would say Lemon Grass should re-categorize itself as a Vietnamese Seafood Restaurant and nothing else.
We ordered the following the comments:
(1) Grilled squid (pepper)
Very chewy and not as soft as I would like it to be. Tasteless with a unpleasant accompanying sauce.
(2) Sea snails with garlic
Fresh, tasty, and went well with ginger sweet sauce
(3) Mussels with basil
Good-sized and very good with the basil
(4) Hot Pot with assorted seafood
My favorite dish of the night. The soup was delicious and the seafood (shrimp, fish, scallops) were fresh and flavorful. Great bargain for $12.95.
(5) Grilled prawns (pepper)
Overgrilled. Dry and not sweet.
(6) Green curry with seafood
Tasted good, but the runny texture of the sauce was not typical. The waitress explained it was made from avocados, which is somewhat strange for any green curry.
They charge $1 for every bowl of rice ordered.
After trying all of the above dishes, I would highly recommend their sea snails, mussels, hot pots, and smoothies.
Lemon Grass should stop with the French nonsense and stick to what works: Seafood.
We will return, since the food is very reasonably-priced and we know what we liked.
