Luce

Luce
635 Corydon Avenue
(204) 4523037

Luce is now closed.

I took Colleen and Aaron to Luce on Sunday night for their Christmas present. We partook in an extended Dine Out $25 menu--lovely for the pocket book!

We all had the housemade ricotta and grilled eggplant tournedo to start. This appetizer is Luce's vegetarian take on sirloin tournedos. The eggplant is wrapped around the ricotta like bacon. Paired with a pesto sauce and a fresh tomato sauce, I found the two tournedos to be more on the bland side alone, though the ricotta was very nice.

Aaron and I both had the beef trio, which consisted of petit filet mignon with gorgonzola sauce, six pepper tenderloin kebab, and braised shank steak with chipotle and raspberry, accompanied by roasted garlic smashed potato and Asian greens. This plate was nicely presented but seemed rather scant, especially in comparison with Colleen's shrimp trio. However, the kebab and shank steak were both very tasty. The kebab was tender. I very much enjoyed the shank steak. Its texture and heat reminded me of Indian dishes. The gorgonzola sauce was lovely, but I was disappointd with the filet mignon. The piece of meat itself was fairly miniscule and, probably due to its size, the meat was tougher than filet mignon should be. The smashed potatoes were rather bland without a generous sprinkling of fresh ground pepper but were nice and hot.

Colleen had the shrimp trio: shrimp phyllo satchetti with blue brie and chestnut butter, grilled shrimp with smoked salmon veloute, and shrimp cake with chili lime sauce, accompanied by cactus pear rice pilaf. Her favourite part was the satchetti which she deemed tasty and surprisingly filling. The shrimp cakes surprised her with their tangy flavour. A great talker, though, by the time Colleen had finished the shrimp, the rice pilaf was cold, and she only had a few bites before tossing in the napkin.

We finished with Colleen and I having the cheesecake trio. The lemon ginger cheesecake was surprisingly good! The candied ginger lends a distinctive and sweet taste, but I avoided the whole ginger pieces. The mocha cheesecake was also nice, with a nice crunch from toffee. However, the chocolate-covered cheesecake didn't quite work, the chocolate being too hard and the cheesecake too soft for you to eat them together. Aaron had the cheese and fruit platter, which was rather skimpy, I think. He had two thin slices of gorgonzola and a few small squares of aged provolone and parmesan paired with two thin slices of pear, one of apple, a couple slices of more exotic fruit, and a spartan sprig of grapes.

Colleen and I both had Blackberry Lemonade, a cocktail with lemonade, creme de cassis, and Sprite. It was fun, light, tasty, and dare I say, girly! $5 for a glass that we sipped on throughout the meal. Aaron stuck to re-fillable iced tea for $2. Colleen and I had tea and coffee afterwards for $2.

I found Luce's food to be different and exciting, but I think that I would choose carefully if I were to return. Like any type of fusion food, especially presentation sometimes appears to take precedence, I think shock value or uniqueness sometimes nudges aside good old common sense for what tastes good!