Each week, Happy Eating highlights a different restaurant happy hour food menu. This week, it's dumplings and empanadas at Lumi.
Where: Lumi, 3407 McKinney Ave. When: Monday-Thursday, 4-7 p.m., and reverse happy hour from 9-11 p.m. The Scene: Happy hour is available throughout the whole restaurant. It's quiet until the dinner crowd starts picking up around 7, but you've already beaten the hungry bunch. Stay for a drink or a green tea crème brulee. The Deal: $4 dumplings, empandas and egg rolls. The Steals: For $4, an order of dumplings, alone, is a plentiful meal. The Con: Parking on McKinney still sucks, and it can be a damper on happy hour plans. Valet is available over in front of Breadwinners/The Quarter.
Eat: The classic pork and chive dumplings are tasty and seasoned well, but the Thai curry dipping sauce for the chicken dumplings is drink-worthy, it's so yummy. Decisions. Skip: The egg rolls. Fill up on the spinach portabella empanadas or dumplings instead. Lushworthy: Lumi has delightful specialty cocktails, and there's a list of those that are available for $5 during happy hour. The bottom line: It's a cute place to meet up with friends and enjoy good drinks and food, as long as you don't mind the parking situation. Once spring and summer roll around, the patio seating situation should be lovely. Also, if you've survived Valentine's Day, there's something about Lumi's happy hour atmosphere and location that strikes us as being a good place to meet a blind/first date.
