Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop - Overland Park, Kansas Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop opened in downtown Overland Park, Kansas in May 2023. Lulu's first opened in Lawrence, Kansas in 1997, but moved to Kansas City, Missouri three years later. They have two locations in KCMO and one in Westwood, Kansas. Reviews of this location have not been as high as I would expect for this restaurant and I think that the atmosphere has hurt them a little. It gets very noisy, but more to the point, a wall of shelving filled with canned and dry goods blocks the view of most of the restaurant from the small tables where they like to seat small parties. On my third visit, I finally insisted on sitting on the other side of the storage wall and enjoyed the nicer view shown in the photo immediately below.
But I think the atmosphere needs to be taken for what it is. This isn't the place to go for a romantic dinner or a business lunch. They do get cool points for the robot which occasionally helps deliver dishes to tables with larger parties. Lulu's offers 5 spice levels: No spice, mild, medium, hot and blazing. They recommend ordering medium or higher and have at least one dish which cannot be ordered less spicy than medium. I eat lots of hot sauces, but know that Thai restaurants can make things hotter than I can eat, so I ordered my food just hot on my first visit. It was a nice level of heat, not pushing at all near my limits so I ordered my later dishes blazing, which didn't seem any hotter than the hot, except that it made my nose run slightly. I am quite happy with the heat level at Lulu's. The Chicken Pad Thai (Scallions, bean sprouts, egg, peanuts, tofu, rice noodles and their own special sauce) has a great flavor and lots of chicken. It has been my favorite dish so far. The recipe comes from Lulu's father and is made with nampla, which is strong and salty Thai fish sauce. It is not available as a lunch special and is a bit pricey at lunch for $17 with no sides. They also offer a dish they call Khun Ma Pad Thai which they describe as the variation found most often in US Thai restaurants. It includes bean sprouts and peanuts. Spicy Beef Jantaboon (Steak, bean sprouts, peanuts, scallions, cilantro & thin rice noodles) is available as an entree, but I ordered it as one of the $11 lunch specials. The lunch Jantaboon was pretty good and not a dish I am familiar with. The special included a tiny crab Rangoon, which didn't do a lot for me. It is a smaller serving and I didn't have leftovers like I did with the Pad Thai entree. Most recently I had Thai Cashew Chicken (Chicken, scallions, onions, green beans & cashews with jasmine rice). I ordered it blazing and the server signaled approval of it being ordered that way. Although it was spicy, it wasn't pushing the limits at all. It tasted good and I liked the plentiful cashews, but is probably not a dish I will order again. In particular, there was much less meat than the two other dishes. I upgraded the crab Rangoon which came with the lunch special to a spring roll for $1.35. The spring roll seemed to be almost all rice. It came with a mild curry dipping sauce. I would rather have a sweet dipping sauce, perhaps peanut. Lulu's is a nice counterpoint to the more conventional Thai restaurants in Johnson County.
copyright 2023 by Keith Stokes |
