Lumi Empanada & Dumpling Kitchen

Too much fried food and a little bland IMO…
Patio and décor are updated and tvs outside are added bonus!
Staff seems really nice and helpful. Great location

Great food, reasonably priced. Highly recommend.
My one issue is that if you’re not careful it’s easy to get «over-​greased». Get a variety of foods to avoid this.

Went for lunch today. A mixed bag. Some things very very good and other things did not work. Had to return the Phở because it was too salty to eat. The dumplings (tried two varieties) were steamed and just decent. The empanada with chicken was very good. Best thing we ate. The Chinese Chicken Salad was average, but just what you would expect from this dish. Sauteed spinach side with garlic was good. Spicy warm edamame was ok as well.
Cool atmosphere but nothing bowled us over.

This is an amazing Asian fusion restaurant in Dallas. Every dish we ordered was superb and delicious. The restaurant décor is modern and the ambiance is great. The service was excellent and the waiter really went out of his way to accommodate all our requests. The prices are very reasonable… all tapa dishes are under $ 10.
Chinese Five Spice Duck & Leek Dumplings — $ 7.5
Ahi Tuna Nachos — $ 8
Chinese BBQ Ribs — $ 8
Garden Fresh Sautéed Spinach with Garlic — $ 6
Our favorites were the complimentary shrimp chips, surprisingly the simple spinach dish, and the excellent service this place provides! Definitely would like to come back again if we’re back in town!

I do love the food at Lumi! The Lotus root salad is great, the dumplings are great! The empanadas are really packed with happy goodness. Even the soups they have are great on a warm summer day. I love going for lunch and getting the combo’s with a couple of empanadas and salad. But unfortunately at Dinner two people don’t really get a chance to try a little bit of everything without ordering way way too much food. I’d like to see some combo choices at dinner as well. But if you’re with close friends and you do it family style, it works well for dinner too. The drinks taste good and there’s quite a large variety, but a bit on the pricey side.
Overall a great date place, and they have an awesome patio!

Amazing empanadas and dumplings here! The specialty drinks are all that and a bag of chips as well. It’s best to make reservations or get here early though because they do get busy.
I think I tried almost every specialty drink on the list, and the fave was the jalapeño margarita.
the ahi nachos were awesome, i think we ordered another round of those, the rack of lamb was great, and the crab fried rice also, however I just loved the different combinations of empanadas and dumplings the most.
It was my husband’s bday, so we ended up getting a free round of shots, and bday cake — we will be back for sure!

Great conversion from house-​to-​restaurant! What a nice place to lunch and if we had more time, to have some wine. Who would’ve thought of Vietnamese-​Brazilian cuisine?
Lunch combos are reasonably priced and satisfying. FEIJOADA soup hit the spot and truly enjoyed sharing the spicy BEEF & POTATO and SHRIMP & CRAB EMPANADAS.
Street parking can be a challenge on this busy street, but worth the visit.

Wow! This place was amazing! Vietnamese and Brazilian aren’t a mix that you typically find together, but they sure know how to make it work! As many reviews as this place had it wasn’t very busy at all. This suits me fine as there then wouldn’t be any obnoxious people to ruin the atmosphere. There was so much on the menu that I wanted to try, but I had to narrow things down or I’d go broke!
To start things off i had the lobster bisque. I can honestly say this was the best I’d had in a while, if not ever! It was topped with a generous portion of lobster chunks floating on the sea of goodness. Next were the empanadas. I had the spicy beef & yukon potatoes. These were fantastic! Spicy, hearty, beefy, and seasoned just right. This is what all empanadas should strive to be!
Then comes the dumplings. I got both the classic pork and chives and the chinese 5 spice duck and leek. Again I just have to say wow! They were melt in your mouth goodness wrapped in dumpling casing. Whatever sauce it was that came with them just further accentuated the flavors packed inside. Last was the desert. I’ve had crème brûlée before, but green tea flavored? Though stuffed, I just had to try it. It was sooo incredibly good. The subtle green tea flavor, not too sweet, just perfect. Great end to a wonderful meal! I’ll definitely come again next time I come to town.

3^rd time is not the charm. I have been here 3 times and the first 2 times I didn’t have a bad experience. Unlike my 3^rd time here. I had the worst service ever.
On Cinco De Mayo, my friend and I decided we want to go to uptown area for appetizers and drinks.
Urban Taco was slammed, so we decided to go to Lumi for pre– drinks and appetizers.
First of all when we got there it took the waitress approx. 5 – 8 mins to acknowledge us and seat us. Also keep in mind that Lumi had about 10 table filled in the entire restaurant.
We ordered our food and drinks and waited… as we were waiting, I looked around all the surrounding tables and saw that they all had shrimp chips. So when the waitress finally came back with waters, I asked for the shrimp chips and she quickly stated that the kitchen is too busy to cook other food and so there are no more shrimp chips for me. ok. I left her slide with that one.
20 minutes go by and we finally get our Tuna Nachos, which was pretty decent, nothing to complain there. Then another 10 minutes our Ba Ngoai egg rolls arrive. The egg rolls were part of the HH special for $ 4, which isn’t bad for it’s price. The size was pretty small though.
So the last appetizer that we were waiting for were the Duck pan seared dumplings. I don’t know how long we waited for the dumplings, but it seemed more than 15 mins. before I had to ask the waitress and she again said that the kitchen was busy so it should come out soon. So we waited another 10 mins. and waved down the waitress and she said she will have to go check on it. Later when she came out she said that the kitchen must have lost our ticket and she will put in a new order in for me.
I instructed her to cancel the order and just give me my bill, so we can just leave.
The bill comes… what happens? The Dumplings are still on my bill, I tell her about the mistake and she takes the bill away to recalculate it and brought it back and left. I look on the bill again, the damn dumplings are still on the bill. at the point I’m thinking what the heck is wrong now? So I had to get up and walk inside and wait at the hostess table and patiently wait for her to talk to some other diners, and tell here AGAIN about the bill issue. Her excuse? Oh I thought you said you had the beef dumplings come out to you. WTF?

Such a cute place to meet with your pals or for a romantic date. I loved how you can share everything. This is perfect for a greedy person like myself! This is cool if you just want a bite to eat, but you’re not extremely famished. The portions are small and date friendly. I had the shrimp Empanada and my mom had the beef and potato. The shrimp Empanada was sooo good and the sauces were too. I highly recommend that one.
Later we tried the mango martini (amazing!) and the jalapeño and pineapple drink. The latter was OK, i wouldn’t order it again. Overall, a good experience with great customer service.

This place has a ton of reviews… mine probably won’t matter… I’m just going to further confirm that this place is worth checking out.
I wanted dumpling, well, actually I wanted steamed pork buns, but decided this would be good enough instead. The place was pretty empty after 2pm. Service was down to earth and helpful and we went with 2 different empanadas, 2 different dumplings and the ahi tuna nachos.
I LIKED the empanadas, but I didn’t love them. I’m just not used to that sort of breading on empanadas, Different, not bad, just not what I was expecting. We had the mushroom and spinach one, which wasn’t my choice and I wouldn’t order it again. We also had the crab and shrimp one, which was better. The dumplings were really good. I went with the curry chicken and my fiancée picked the shrimp, cilantro and jicama. The shrimp was tasty, but we both preferred the chicken. The coconut curry dipping sauce is fantastic. The highlight for us really was the ahi tuna nachos. Very good and a generous size. They have both black and jasmine iced tea, the jasmine is great.
We really enjoyed our experience here. Everything was good, even if it wasn’t what I was expecting and even if I wouldn’t necessarily order something in particular again, it was all fresh and tasty and nicely presented and was glad to have tried it. I’m more into traditional empanadas, but these definitely have a spot in the world. They’re just a bit too much for me personally, my fiancée really liked them. We’ll be back for sure! The interior is great, clean and bright.

Almost 200 reviews. So imma leave you with a limerick.
********************
Lumi Empanada & Dumpling Kitchen
A Brazil and Vietnam mix that’s totally bitchin.
Ordered a lumi Lychee to drink
I won’t tell my shrink.
My body starts twitchin!
Order four dishes from the go
Small sharing portions and I’m a total ho.
Started with nachos, ahi tuna
They were muy buena.
Next up, more food ya know?
Chinese duck and leek dumpling
I definitely should wear more bling.
It should be a crime
To serve this all the time.
I’m stressed by this whole thing.
Blue Crab & Cream Cheese Wonton
This allows me to rock on.
Cilantro & Jalapeño Shrimp Roll
I am now entering a black hole.
What are you looking at swan?
The place is so fresh and so clean
Trust this is your kind of scene.
The food made me see the light
If you take it away, we will fight.
You may die from this cuisine.

I first heard about Lumi from the Unilocal event a few years ago… I’ve been wanting to stop by ever since but haven’t had a chance to till I saw the livingsocial deal for spend $ 25 and pay $ 12. So HECK YES!!!
I finally cashed in my livingsocial deal today after a few months. I wanted to wait for the other 500 livingsocial people to go and spend their’s first so that I can have the restaurant all to myself :) jk. I wasnt aware that the portion were small coming here. I read through the menu and I guess my woman intuition kicked in. I assumed that it was a small plate restaurant by their menu (6 dumplings were a dead give away… normal restaurants would have that under their appetizers). Well, whatever, I didn’t care because I had $ 25 to spend. yay!!!
My lunch consisted of:
1. lobster and crab bisque
2. portobella fries
3. Thai panang dumplings with coconut and some spicy dipping sauce
4. and crab wontons
and I had the strawberry lemonade to drink. it was so refreshing and goood! lucky for them, it wasnt refillable or else I would have drank the whole restaurant dry!!!
can you say fat ass? because I sure can! *chomps chomps* I finished everything except two dumplings
the lobster and crab bisque was the best I’ve ever had! it tasted kinda like gumbo but without all the left over stuff that people normally just throw in there. This had GOOD lobster and crab meat! notice when I caps lock something, it’s not because I’m yelling at you but I’m trying to emphasize how good it is. and if the letters are bigger then that’s how good it is… lol
portobella fries were slices of portobella mushroom dipped in tempura and fried. I’ve never had anything like it before! it completes me!!! The dumplings were good but I dont really care much for dumplings so wouldnt order that again. and as for the crab wontons, OoO it was so colorful and delicious! They have colorful shells, which made my lunch a little brighter. lol

Cool minimal décor. Feeling that. It has really crappy parking so that’s a negative. The staff was friendly and aiming to please. The venue is fairly small but it has a nice charm to it.
So Brazilian meets Vietnamese huh? We had to try this and see for ourselves as I love both of the foods offered from these countries.
My Qualitative/​Competence Scale
One of a Kind] Great ] Good] Average] Pathetic] Not fit for a Dog
Sal Pico Tower was good.
Classic Pork &Chive Dumpling was great
Chinese 5-​spice Duck & Leek Dumpling was good
Chicken Empanada was good
Beef &Yukon Empanada was great
Thai Blue Crab Fried Rice — One of a Kind
Ahi Tuna Nachos — GREAT
White Chocolate Crème Brule — GREAT
I love white chocolate and I love crème brule so to bring these two together was a guaranteed hit. I thought it would have been one of a kind but it felt like something was missing… hence it was great. As you notice we ordered alot because well everything was served in very SMALL portions. It’s like everything was tapas. The fried rice was a good amount and I’d be back. Only thing I didn’t like about the fried rice was that from time to time I would have to get the crab shell out of my mouth. Not good but since the rice tasted great with all the flavors and the aroma and not to mention since its pretty novel in Dallas I gave it the highest rating.
Enjoy and don’t forget to pour on the Sriracha! Love it!

Rating: 3.5 stars
with Elite Unilocaler: Tiffany D.
We are the type of couple that loves to try many different dishes and ended up ordering the Chinese 5 Spiced Duck & Leek Dumpling ($ 7.5), Chinese BBQ Ribs ($ 8) which was recommended by the server) and Spinach, Mozzarella & Portabello Empanadas ($ 6.5).
— Dumplings: The five spice made the dumpling wonderful by itself. The spicy plum sauce made it taste funny.
— Ribs: too salty. The server told us 6 pieces and only got 4.5.
— Empanadas: served with ancho sauce and cilantro cream sauce. I recommend the cilantro cream sauce.
Overall the empanadas was my favorite.
The washroom was spacious, clean and modern. The dining area was lovely, simple and clean. I would come here again to try their other tapas, dumplings and empanadas.

After Jazz under the Stars at the DMA, Paul H. and I decided Lumi’s would be a lovely place to have dinner.
Word of advice: be sure to order an appropriate amount of food for your party. :D We ordered 3 items: Duck dumplings, Spinach Empanadas, and Short ribs. Since we are generally lighter eaters– this was the perfect amount of food for us. If you have a heftier appetite — order more than you think you will eat. :)
The Mango short ribs came with 4 ribs pieces. The waitress said there would be 6 ribs but I guess they should be called diet ribs because we were missing two and the piece I had barely had any meat on it. They were a little on the salty side for my liking but it was quite tasty. I really enjoyed the crispy bits. Yum.
The Spinach Empanadas were really tasty. So tasty, that they really didn’t need the sauces that accompanied it. The cilantro serrano sauce was nice with it though.
The duck dumplings were quite heavily spiced with Chinese 5 spice which is fine with me because I like it but if you don’t enjoy it. avoid it. I could definitely have lived without the spicy plum sauce that went with it. It was just a weird combination with the dumplings. Blecchh. Dip into it with caution. :)
Overall, this place was really nice. Lovely ambiance, location, and food. It can get a bit loud, so don’t come here for a quiet dinner. The rear exit by the bathroom is very handy for a quick getaway after dessert. ;)
I’ll come back here if I’m in the area but I wouldn’t come out of my way for it.

We were running errands in Plano, and knowing I would not be able to take advantage of the upcoming Unilocal Drinks! in Dallas, we decided to hit Lumi for the sole purpose of trying a «Jalapeño Pineapple Rita» ($ 8, catch it March 1 – 7, 2010 for $ 4 — see
for details).
I gotta say, at first sip, this is pretty odd drink. But after a few more sips, it started to grow on me. It had a lot more bite to it than I was expecting, and I suspect I will be trying to recreate this drink on my own. It really was quite good (Note: My wife, who does not drink, thought it was «horrible»).
As we munched on the shrimp crackers, looking over the menu, we decided on something from each section:
From the DUMPLINGS section it was the Chinese 5 Spice Duck & Leek Dumplings ($ 7.5).
From the EMPANADS [sic] section it was the Fiesta Shrimp & Crab Empanadas ($ 8.5).
From the TAPAS section it was the Ahi Tuna Nachos ($ 8).
Of the 3 dishes, we enjoyed the nachos the most, though a bit more tuna would have been appreciated. The empanadas were more substantial, though it was difficult to taste the shrimp or the crab. The dumplings were small and I suspect the duck was boiled. There is something about boiled duck that turns me off. Roast duck, now that’s an animal worth eating, but boiled… Well it just does not work for me.
The prices seemed a bit high, but I have not dined in this area in a very long time. Maybe that’s just the price of a trendy nosh on McKinney Ave.

I really wanted to like this place, but after trying it, I don’t get the hype. Sure, the food’s decent, but is it worth paying $ 8 for, say, three tiny empanadas? If I go back, I’m only going during happy hour.
The blue crab and cream cheese wontons tasted like cream cheese flavored with a hint of crab. Would have preferred it the other way around. The Chinese BBQ ribs were a joke. They didn’t taste anything like Chinese BBQ, were fatty and skimpy on the meat, and overcooked. The mango dumped on top of them was just superfluous — you couldn’t eat a rib without all the stuff falling off it. The duck dumplings tasted just… off. Not a good flavor combination there. And the spinach/​mozarella/​portabello empanadas? Decent, and definitely our favorite dish of all of them simply for the sake of being decent. However, the sauces the empanadas were served with didn’t go well with their flavor. I think that’s the dead giveaway that this place is helmed by a chef trying to be fancy who really doesn’t know what the hell he/​she is doing. That and all the other dishes.
I ordered a glass of pinot noir that was decent but overpriced for its lack of complexity. At this point, I’d have to say that my favorite part of the meal was the shrimp chips they served as we were looking over the menus. Yeah… those chips you can get for 50 cents at an Asian market.
Lumi seems to have pulled the wool over the eyes of Uptown with «exotic» offerings (with flavors that don’t work) and a minimalist chic décor. Don’t be a sheep.

Although Lumi is listed as an Asian fusion restaurant, but is a blend of Vietnamese and Brazilian; you would think it is a complete stretch, but it works! We started with the beef empanada was completely surprising and very flavorful. Followed by the tuna nocho… its a complete reconstruction of what you would think a nacho would be, it’s sweet and savory, the freshness of the tuna sends it over the top.
The blue crab fried rice was awesome with chucks of blue crabs and huge favors. The rack of lamb was nicely flavored, not overly season; I hate it when most places over seasoned their lamb and just kills the natural taste. The Thai Panang curry chicken dumpling was another surprise, packed with flavor. Lastly the Chinese BBQ ribs was tender falling off the bone incredibly yummy.
I had to try the Lychee Mojito was good, but a little on the sweet side for me. The service was excellent and extremely friendly.

If I could rate a restaurant based on just one dish alone, Lumi would earn a rock solid 5 star for their kick ass siracha hot wings.
Last night, my eagerly awaiting lips tasted «wing-​fection» — the perfect wing. The flats and drums were seriously ginormous, but the meat was hot and juicy on the inside with just a hint of crispiness on the outside. The siracha sauce is coated on every square inch of these glorious wings and provide a tear jerking spiciness without the vinegary flavor of buffalo sauce. As if that wasn’t enough, Lumi provides a siracha ranch dipping sauce that starts off coyingly cool and then lights up your mouth like a raging vixen. Lumi’s wings just displaced Virgil’s BBQ wings in NYC from its long standing perch as best wings in my book. And at $ 7 for these 5 large, luscious wings, I’m going to get two or three orders and have me a wing feast bonanza!
Oops. I forgot to talk about all the other stuff. Overall, small plate dishes were good. We thought the Chinese BBQ wings and crab/​shrimp empanadas were lip smackingly good. Dumplings were just ok. Green tea crème brûlée was very very good. Service started off a bit slow, but they made up ground fast. When our order of wings were taken to another table and we were forced to wait, they graciously comped our order of wings. Very nice touch. Interior is simple and modern with a patio to boot.
Lumi earns a very high 4 star rating in my book and a 5 star for their wings alone. This would be a great date place or dinner with friends sort of destination. For me, it’s now my new wing fix destination. Just look for the guy in the corner gleefully gnawing away at the siracha wings.