Welcome to the first post in an ongoing series I intend to write. I recently realized that although I've been living in the Boise area for over a decade, there are still lots of appealing restaurants I've never tried. There's no good reason I haven't eaten at these places, it's simply the fact that I either crave someplace I already know is good or I don't know/remember that these places exist. So I decided this year to start visiting more restaurants I've never tried and then report my experiences. That's what this blog is for. And it won't be limited to local restaurants. Any new place I try out with the intention of blogging about it later will be featured here! But for my first new dining experience, I chose a place relatively close to home: Lucky Fins Seafood Grill on Eagle Road in Meridian, Idaho.
To start, let's touch on some basic information about Lucky Fins. According to their website, the "Fins Concepts" restaurants are all locally owned and operated with the location I visited in Meridian being the very first Fins restaurant. Although the company now has restaurants in multiple US states under two different brand names, it all started right here at home. That's cool for me to know; I only chose this Lucky Fins because of its close proximity to The Village at Meridian. It feels kinda...lucky...that I chose the original Lucky-brand restaurant without realizing it.
Click here to open the Google Maps page for this Lucky Fins location. It has their address, phone number, and hours in case you'd like to try them out, too. For reference throughout the remainder of this post, my visit to Lucky Fins was on Wednesday the 21st of February at around 18:00. I found it to be an ideal time to stop in at this location for dinner.
It's a little ironic that I had never tried Lucky Fins before, especially the Meridian location, because I've seen the restaurant while eating at other, nearby restaurants on multiple occasions. The Meridian Lucky Fins is near Red Robin, Applebee's, Krispy Kreme, Denny's, Arby's, etc.--all places I've eaten at many times before. But since I always visited the area with my dining destination already in mind, Lucky Fins was the place I looked at and thought, "I should eat there sometime," while I waited for my burger and fries at X Restaurant to be ready. I think because seafood is not my favorite thing, Lucky Fins never would have had the power to draw me away when I had already decided on one of the other eateries around it. Even though it looked like a cool and well-maintained restaurant, the advertised fare wasn't attractive enough to my palate.
Not to spoil the end of my review but I'm glad I finally gave them a shot :3
Something I want to establish right away about my restaurant blog is that I'm not trying to be a food critic. I'm not going to these places and ordering one of everything so that I can give the restaurant an overall score. These entries are going to be much more personal in comparison, more like a journal of my gastronomic journey as opposed to a series of critical reviews. As such, what I order and what I therefore review will be very limited and subject to the circumstances of the day. So for instance, I ordered nothing to drink at Lucky Fins except an ice water. I'm currently on a restricted kilocalorie (KC) diet so ordering liquid calories was definitely out of the question. I usually don't order anything aside from water to drink anyway--unless there's something REALLY good-looking--to save money and avoid things like caffeine, but my non-beverage choices were also affected by my current diet goals.
I'm happy to report that my ice water was perfectly acceptable. The cup was clean, the water tasted good, and the amount of ice was ideal :3 The waitstaff also frequently stopped by to offer more water, so I had plenty to drink, as well.
Now that I've established the fact that I went into this dining experience knowing I would have to watch my KC intake, I can explain my food choices. I only had a few hundred KC left to work with that day, which I knew because I track all of my food consumption religiously in MyFitnessPal (1,014 day streak as of this writing!). Unfortunately, Lucky Fins did not have nutrition information available, neither printed on the menu nor listed online. Because of that, I had to simply guess and search the MFP database for similar-sounding restaurant food. I therefore limited myself to choices that were simple and inexpensive--simple ingredient lists make it easier to choose potentially similar foods from the database and my experience over many years logging food has shown that cheaper prices often equate to lower calories.
Because I needed to look up foods and ingredients before placing my order, it took a little longer than it might have otherwise for me to make my decision. Happily, despite needing extra time to decide, our server didn't forget about us and came back after a reasonable period so we didn't have to wait. I chose to order a couple smaller items instead of full a dinner entrée. I ended up putting four separate foods into MyFitnessPal in order to approximate the two items I ordered. I didn't have KC to spare for dessert.
Now that my food order was placed, all I had to do was wait for it to be served. I was dining with two other people this evening, my husband and my brother. We were able to hold conversation easily with one another since there wasn't a huge number of customers (but the restaurant also wasn't dead--I'd call it a comfortable busyness) nor was there anything else distracting such as loud music or TV. I took some time admiring the interior design of the restaurant while I waited for my food. The atmosphere was cozy yet open: cozy thanks to brick and wood details, open because of the high ceiling and large windows. Everything appeared well-maintained and clean. I especially liked the unusual lighting on the ceiling--and I say this without sarcasm or disdain--it looked like big daddy longlegs with glowing feet XD
The first item I ordered was the House Salad. On the menu it is described as, "Mixed greens, shaved red onions, grape tomatoes, bleu cheese crumbles, and pepitas tossed in house citrus vinaigrette." I had to google what the heck pepitas are XD Turns out they're pumpkin seeds, so I was in! Even though the house citrus vinaigrette was specifically mentioned in the description, I was asked upon ordering what dressing I wanted. That was nice, in case I wasn't into the default option, but the citrus dressing sounded refreshing and interesting so I stuck with it.
My salad was delivered first, so I had time to enjoy it without worrying about my hot food getting cold. It was extremely good. I understood immediately why the citrus vinaigrette was the recommended dressing; it was DELICIOUS. Fresh and tart, it had a generous amount of citrus pulp (a fine mush, like that which I recover from my juicing machine). I'd never had a dressing like that before. It went perfectly with the rest of the salad, which was also really well prepared. The greens were fresh with no signs of wilting (I'm really picky about the freshness of my lettuce...), the red onions were nice and thin (hate thick ones because they give me horrible onion breath!), and the tomatoes were sliced in half (another salad thing about which I'm particular). The pepitas were tasty but they lent texture more than anything. The bleu cheese, unfortunately, was completely lost in the vinaigrette. If there had been more cheese or the crumbles were larger, it might have stood a better chance.
Overall, I would definitely order this salad again!
The hot food I ordered was the "Kickin' Shrimp". A couple days ago, I was amused to hear this exact dish highlighted in a radio commercial for Lucky Fins. I took it to mean I chose well during my visit! Since I had considered this an appetizer, I was surprised at how large a serving it was. The appetizer section of the menu is actually called "Crave & Share" so I suppose it's not actually that surprising. I didn't order it to share though! (I admit I couldn't finish and ended up giving the rest to my dinner companions, heh.)
The first thing that struck me, aside from the sizable portion, was the smell of the chipotle sauce. It was strong and appetizing! The menu's description of this dish was, "Lightly breaded crispy shrimp tossed in our sweet and spicy chipotle sauce served with ranch." I loved that it was garnished with a lime wedge, you can bet I squeezed the heck out of it all over my shrimp XD So, back to the sauce, not only was the aroma enticing, the flavor was great. It got spicier and spicier the more I ate but it never got so spicy that I lost sense of the overall flavor of the dish. The only problem with this dish also had to do with the sauce, however. There was too much of it. By the end, the shrimp at the bottom of the dish were just swimming in it (pun originally not intended but noted and retained!). At least my brother was hoping for a spicier dish than what he actually received, so I was able to unload some of the excess sauce onto his plate. He enjoyed the addition :3
Restaurant Appearance & Atmosphere: Excellent--warm architecture and decor, well-maintained, comfortable and easy to relax.
Staff & Service: Excellent--servers didn't keep us waiting, came around for water refills often, were friendly without being overbearing or interruptive.
Food & Beverage Options: Great--a varied menu without being overly long, something for everyone, but I wish it had nutrition information available (at least KC and macros).
Food & Beverage Quality: Great--a couple small complaints about ingredient proportion but flavor, temperature, freshness, and presentation were top notch. I was never thirsty :3
Finally, I want to answer this question: Based on this visit, do I want to eat at Lucky Fins again?
The short answer is yes! I was really impressed with this restaurant, especially since, as I mentioned earlier, seafood isn't anywhere near the top of my list when it comes to craveable food. I loved what I ordered this time, but so much else on Lucky Fins' menu also seemed appetizing that I want to return and try other dishes. It's impressive that so much on a seafood restaurant menu could be so tempting to someone like me! Combine that with the excellent atmosphere of the restaurant and the proximity to my home, there's no reason for me NOT to return.
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| Exterior View of the Entrance |
To start, let's touch on some basic information about Lucky Fins. According to their website, the "Fins Concepts" restaurants are all locally owned and operated with the location I visited in Meridian being the very first Fins restaurant. Although the company now has restaurants in multiple US states under two different brand names, it all started right here at home. That's cool for me to know; I only chose this Lucky Fins because of its close proximity to The Village at Meridian. It feels kinda...lucky...that I chose the original Lucky-brand restaurant without realizing it.
Click here to open the Google Maps page for this Lucky Fins location. It has their address, phone number, and hours in case you'd like to try them out, too. For reference throughout the remainder of this post, my visit to Lucky Fins was on Wednesday the 21st of February at around 18:00. I found it to be an ideal time to stop in at this location for dinner.
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| Menu and Napkin/Flatware Bundle |
It's a little ironic that I had never tried Lucky Fins before, especially the Meridian location, because I've seen the restaurant while eating at other, nearby restaurants on multiple occasions. The Meridian Lucky Fins is near Red Robin, Applebee's, Krispy Kreme, Denny's, Arby's, etc.--all places I've eaten at many times before. But since I always visited the area with my dining destination already in mind, Lucky Fins was the place I looked at and thought, "I should eat there sometime," while I waited for my burger and fries at X Restaurant to be ready. I think because seafood is not my favorite thing, Lucky Fins never would have had the power to draw me away when I had already decided on one of the other eateries around it. Even though it looked like a cool and well-maintained restaurant, the advertised fare wasn't attractive enough to my palate.
Not to spoil the end of my review but I'm glad I finally gave them a shot :3
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| Simple Ice Water to Drink |
Something I want to establish right away about my restaurant blog is that I'm not trying to be a food critic. I'm not going to these places and ordering one of everything so that I can give the restaurant an overall score. These entries are going to be much more personal in comparison, more like a journal of my gastronomic journey as opposed to a series of critical reviews. As such, what I order and what I therefore review will be very limited and subject to the circumstances of the day. So for instance, I ordered nothing to drink at Lucky Fins except an ice water. I'm currently on a restricted kilocalorie (KC) diet so ordering liquid calories was definitely out of the question. I usually don't order anything aside from water to drink anyway--unless there's something REALLY good-looking--to save money and avoid things like caffeine, but my non-beverage choices were also affected by my current diet goals.
I'm happy to report that my ice water was perfectly acceptable. The cup was clean, the water tasted good, and the amount of ice was ideal :3 The waitstaff also frequently stopped by to offer more water, so I had plenty to drink, as well.
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Now that I've established the fact that I went into this dining experience knowing I would have to watch my KC intake, I can explain my food choices. I only had a few hundred KC left to work with that day, which I knew because I track all of my food consumption religiously in MyFitnessPal (1,014 day streak as of this writing!). Unfortunately, Lucky Fins did not have nutrition information available, neither printed on the menu nor listed online. Because of that, I had to simply guess and search the MFP database for similar-sounding restaurant food. I therefore limited myself to choices that were simple and inexpensive--simple ingredient lists make it easier to choose potentially similar foods from the database and my experience over many years logging food has shown that cheaper prices often equate to lower calories.
Because I needed to look up foods and ingredients before placing my order, it took a little longer than it might have otherwise for me to make my decision. Happily, despite needing extra time to decide, our server didn't forget about us and came back after a reasonable period so we didn't have to wait. I chose to order a couple smaller items instead of full a dinner entrée. I ended up putting four separate foods into MyFitnessPal in order to approximate the two items I ordered. I didn't have KC to spare for dessert.
 |
| Interior View of the Ceiling |
Now that my food order was placed, all I had to do was wait for it to be served. I was dining with two other people this evening, my husband and my brother. We were able to hold conversation easily with one another since there wasn't a huge number of customers (but the restaurant also wasn't dead--I'd call it a comfortable busyness) nor was there anything else distracting such as loud music or TV. I took some time admiring the interior design of the restaurant while I waited for my food. The atmosphere was cozy yet open: cozy thanks to brick and wood details, open because of the high ceiling and large windows. Everything appeared well-maintained and clean. I especially liked the unusual lighting on the ceiling--and I say this without sarcasm or disdain--it looked like big daddy longlegs with glowing feet XD
 |
| The "House Salad" |
The first item I ordered was the House Salad. On the menu it is described as, "Mixed greens, shaved red onions, grape tomatoes, bleu cheese crumbles, and pepitas tossed in house citrus vinaigrette." I had to google what the heck pepitas are XD Turns out they're pumpkin seeds, so I was in! Even though the house citrus vinaigrette was specifically mentioned in the description, I was asked upon ordering what dressing I wanted. That was nice, in case I wasn't into the default option, but the citrus dressing sounded refreshing and interesting so I stuck with it.
My salad was delivered first, so I had time to enjoy it without worrying about my hot food getting cold. It was extremely good. I understood immediately why the citrus vinaigrette was the recommended dressing; it was DELICIOUS. Fresh and tart, it had a generous amount of citrus pulp (a fine mush, like that which I recover from my juicing machine). I'd never had a dressing like that before. It went perfectly with the rest of the salad, which was also really well prepared. The greens were fresh with no signs of wilting (I'm really picky about the freshness of my lettuce...), the red onions were nice and thin (hate thick ones because they give me horrible onion breath!), and the tomatoes were sliced in half (another salad thing about which I'm particular). The pepitas were tasty but they lent texture more than anything. The bleu cheese, unfortunately, was completely lost in the vinaigrette. If there had been more cheese or the crumbles were larger, it might have stood a better chance.
Overall, I would definitely order this salad again!
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| The "Kickin' Shrimp" |
The hot food I ordered was the "Kickin' Shrimp". A couple days ago, I was amused to hear this exact dish highlighted in a radio commercial for Lucky Fins. I took it to mean I chose well during my visit! Since I had considered this an appetizer, I was surprised at how large a serving it was. The appetizer section of the menu is actually called "Crave & Share" so I suppose it's not actually that surprising. I didn't order it to share though! (I admit I couldn't finish and ended up giving the rest to my dinner companions, heh.)
The first thing that struck me, aside from the sizable portion, was the smell of the chipotle sauce. It was strong and appetizing! The menu's description of this dish was, "Lightly breaded crispy shrimp tossed in our sweet and spicy chipotle sauce served with ranch." I loved that it was garnished with a lime wedge, you can bet I squeezed the heck out of it all over my shrimp XD So, back to the sauce, not only was the aroma enticing, the flavor was great. It got spicier and spicier the more I ate but it never got so spicy that I lost sense of the overall flavor of the dish. The only problem with this dish also had to do with the sauce, however. There was too much of it. By the end, the shrimp at the bottom of the dish were just swimming in it (pun originally not intended but noted and retained!). At least my brother was hoping for a spicier dish than what he actually received, so I was able to unload some of the excess sauce onto his plate. He enjoyed the addition :3
In conclusion...
...here's a breakdown of my experience by category in simple terms:Restaurant Appearance & Atmosphere: Excellent--warm architecture and decor, well-maintained, comfortable and easy to relax.
Staff & Service: Excellent--servers didn't keep us waiting, came around for water refills often, were friendly without being overbearing or interruptive.
Food & Beverage Options: Great--a varied menu without being overly long, something for everyone, but I wish it had nutrition information available (at least KC and macros).
Food & Beverage Quality: Great--a couple small complaints about ingredient proportion but flavor, temperature, freshness, and presentation were top notch. I was never thirsty :3
Finally, I want to answer this question: Based on this visit, do I want to eat at Lucky Fins again?
The short answer is yes! I was really impressed with this restaurant, especially since, as I mentioned earlier, seafood isn't anywhere near the top of my list when it comes to craveable food. I loved what I ordered this time, but so much else on Lucky Fins' menu also seemed appetizing that I want to return and try other dishes. It's impressive that so much on a seafood restaurant menu could be so tempting to someone like me! Combine that with the excellent atmosphere of the restaurant and the proximity to my home, there's no reason for me NOT to return.
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