Lovely Luce

I get why Luce got the nod from the French, earning one Michelin star for food that's not only really pretty, but super tasty too. Cousin MC2 and I hit the incredibly large eatery (you had to walk the length of 1/2 a football field to get to the bathroom for crying out loud) housed in the Hotel Intercontinental last week while Dine About Town was still on. Here's what went down:


A really toothsome assortment of baby beets accompanied by microgreens, a dehydrated crumble of truffles, and big gobs of blue cheese.


Super fresh slivers of Kona kampachi crudo with globules of yuzu. MC2 liked it well enough, but was jonesing for more of a citrusy tang to add some sparkle to the dish.


It was Luce's bouillabaisse comprising a couple o' hunks of branzino, amazingly tender rings of squid, baby octopus and shrimp doused in a pool of lobster broth that was our hands-down fave. MC2 kept saying she'd love a stein of the frothy broth plopped in front of her—"just give me a straw and I'll be happy," and she meant it. Oh yeah, and the crispety-crunchety pork belly and fork-tender pork cheeks with gigante beans and fennel shavings was pretty damn good too.


We loved the moist hazelnut cake with nutella “kiss,” hazelnut “cloud,” vanilla pudding and tangerine sorbet. The chocolate mousse with white chocolate shavings was more run-of-the-mill—no stand-out dessert was this; what we should've done was order Luce's third DAT entree (a beef tenderloin) instead. Oh well, there's always next time.