Hennie Fisher tucks into dim sum and noodles at The Good Luck Club, a casual eatery for the cool in Corlett Drive.

The food

Dim sum is available all day long and includes nicely folded butternut, spinach and mushroom tulip shapes or classic har gao pleated prawn bonnets. Soups include miso, sweetcorn and prawn or Thai chicken.

On the mains menu, you’ll find mostly one-bowl dishes with superb flavours and textures representing a number of Asian cuisines: ginger plum chicken, chilli orange pork stirfry, bok choy noodles with mixed garlic mushrooms, five-spice tofu stirfry, and salmon sarada (salad maki) served cold with udon noodles and a wasabi vinaigrette. No Asian menu would be complete without a good selection of curries, so try the green beef curry, yellow potato curry or a chicken and pineapple curry.

The drinks  

Beverages, beers and other hard tack are probably more popular here than wine, so choose a Woodford Reserve or Maker’s Mark bourbon or a cocktail such as a green melon margarita, pink mojito, Aero martini or a Ginger Rogers. The wine offering includes the Marklew merlot, Rupert & Rothschild Classique red blend, Mulderbosch chenin blanc and De Morgenzon Reserve chenin blanc, to name a few. They also offer a solid selection of teas, such as pineapple-ginger rooibos, Malawi green tea, and hand-rolled zamba pearls.

The interior of The Good Luck Club. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

The service

The service is generally friendly, albeit not always consistent. But perhaps in a place where you can sample some great modern Asian dishes and where the emphasis is on simplicity (food is served in bowls, steam baskets and on wooden platters), an eating-house-style of service is acceptable.

The ambience

The restaurant interior space is small, with the bar/cash register at one end and a large floor-to-ceiling window with the entrance on the opposite end. Outside shelter is provided by a large canvas canopy, with simple wood-topped metal frame tables and a collection of mismatched chairs. The décor is simple; some walls are painted a dark, battleship grey while others feature wallpaper adorned with The Good Luck Club logo. It is the quirky collection of big-eared ceramic bunnies and other animals that should speak to hipsters of all ages. If you hang around at the counter, you’re bound to catch some of the action taking place in the large communal kitchen shared with Wolves next door.

And…

Featuring numerous other eateries, this corner of Corlett Drive and Oxford Road has over the years established a reputation as a culinary haven, with places such as Wolves, Parea (a local Greek restaurant with a solid following), the newly opened Perron and The Griffin upstairs – all in the same stretch. At night there’s a hive of activity on the sidewalk, with youngsters greeting each other and hanging out.

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