Lucky House

I agree with Kris that it might help to distinguish sit-​down restaurants from take-​out, but many are both so that could be hard. I made the mistake of stopping here while traveling and needed a place to sit. To compound matters, my hearing is poor and what’s left is in my right ear. Trying to place an order the TV was blaring inches from my good ear so I could not understand much of anything the guy said. I then ate as far as I could get from the TV (not far, the place is tiny) and it was still overpowering. Food was plentiful but mediocre. The guy was very friendly, helpful, and eager to please. I can’t compare this to other places that are primarily for take-​out. I usually go to utilitarian Chinese sit-​down restaurants and get the luncheon special. Those are usually as cheap as this place and available to go.
If you want to check it out yourself it is a little white house-​like building just north of 101A between NH122 and the Wal-​Mart.

I long debated with myself about giving this place a review– not because of any concerns I had about my experience there, but, rather, about the sometimes vague nature of Unilocal categories. When I give a place a full 5 stars, it really should reflect the best of a genre (depending on a combination of various factors). Casually tossing around reviews, on either extreme, quickly makes the whole system broken and useless. Having said that, I am drawing a distinction, in this review, between «fine dining» Chinese restaurants, and «no tip» sit-​in/​take out Chinese restaurants. Most assuredly, were I to lump the two together, I could not give Lucky House the 5 star review that I feel it deserves. My experience is as follows:
Food:
When is the last time you got take-​out Chinese food that had crunchy vegetables? Think about that one for a moment… While thoroughly cooked, the carrots had snap, the broccoli had form, and the zucchini was, obviously, freshly cut, in-​house. That is a rarity for take-​out Chinese, in my experience. Add that to the meat, which was on the very «low-​gristle» side of the spectrum, and the lack of MSG (this costs the meal a slight flavor loss, but less than you might expect, and is much healthier) and the resulting food quality and taste is superb, especially for the venue. As you might suspect from what I focused on, I am a bit of a texture snob. If my vegetables are mush, and I am fishing fat or gristle out of my mouth, it’s hard to enjoy the meal. I am happy to report that the pork fried rice that came with my lunch special was chock full of pork, and only had one fatty piece (and this was out of three servings of it (the joy of going out with people who can’t eat the carbs on their own plates). Looking into the kitchen, I could see that everything was made to order, and it was served piping hot.
Portions:
They were huge. The two lunch specials were, easily, fifty percent more food than I expected*. By the time I finished mine, I couldn’t eat for another nine hours. Take your standard Styrofoam container (one big section, and two small), the pork fried rice filled half, and was packed almost to the brim, with three chicken fingers on top, and the Hunan Beef filled the remaining two sections, also stuffed as full as the container would hold. The other lunch special (which we had to take home, in its entirety), was an appetizer combo (any three). I was very pleased to get reasonable portions of my three meat selections, and a full serving of pork fried rice– which wasn’t even mentioned on the menu. All this for very reasonable prices.
Staff:
Roger, the man who took our order, brought out our food, checked in on us, and gave us candy and tea on our way out, was as kind a person as you can find. He was smiling, friendly and more than willing to answer questions about the food (even repetitive ones).
Misc:
The place has only been open one week (and, if they nailed it so well on opening week, I can only imagine that they will get even better, once they find their groove), so one of the two sitting areas is unfinished. As it stands, there are only about six tables; however, it looks like there might soon be twice that. The place is also easy to miss, being right off of Amherst Street, rather than on it– so figure out where you’re going ahead of time. Finally, the pictures of the food, hanging on their walls, do not do the final product justice; I’m not sure why places go that route.
I hope that this restaurant does well, as I plan on going back, as often as I can rationalize fitting it in my diet. It’s a bit of a drive for us, but well worth it.
*More like what I remember from twenty years back