Skip to main contentDefiantly obscure, Lush presents a faceless faade to the world. It has no obvious sign, and from the noirish street its inky interior scarcely beckons. You have to know where you're going; otherwise you'll wander Northwest Couch lost as Odysseus. Once safely inside, famished, you'll think a blue martini or pink lady your sole nourishment and the only dab of color in the shadows. The very name of the establishment sets your expectations: This is lounge land, where the only light sparkles off inverted bar glasses or glows dully from a cluster of bubbling lava lamps; a handful of hipsters dressed to match the blackness ogle the stunning waitresses with bare midriffs who seem to float in the darkness; and a host built like a bouncer eyes you with cool scepticism.
The design echoes a Philippe Starck modern interior: The angled walls are deep gray edging on ebony; the bar stools are charcoal cloth ottomans turned on end; votive candles and pinpoint spots pierce the night; and deep booths with curtains rim the room, suggesting lickerish subterfuge. Only when your vision adjusts and you discern a kitchen at the far end of the room do you remember that you--unlike most of the crowd--have come to eat. Dining seems to be the last thing on the mind of those who run the place. Nonetheless, while Lush might seem like an odd place to dine (the big crowds head for the downstairs lounge with its comfortable seats, bouncing music and yet another bar), if you choose well you can have a delicious, nicely crafted, handsomely cooked meal.
The food is basically American contemporary, with a few accents from Latin America and the Mediterranean. In some respects, the menu is ambitious, and its occasional limitations seem a function of any spot that celebrates potations over edibles. If you're in an Italian mood, you might have the superb vegetable ravioli ($12) for a first plate. Perfectly prepared ravioli--stuffed with mozzarella, zucchini, and eggplant, and finished in browned butter--glisten with color and chips of garlic bathed in the sauce. They are piping hot, pretty on the plate and thoroughly enjoyable. Crab cakes ($12) have a bracing, briny taste, and the accompanying aioli is ideal. But beware of the gnocchi ($11), which sounds tempting but turns into a big mistake. Like so many of the plates at Lush, the gnocchi portions are ample and then some, but more of less is still less. Each of the dozens of golden nuggets is too doughy, the bubbly cheese and nutmeg topping unable to rescue them. In theory, dumplings filled with sweet potatoes and doused in a ginger-pumpkin cream with shallots sounds like a splendid idea, but unfortunately the execution can't live up to the promise. A salad with seared salmon ($9) is just plain dull: A slab of warm fish is placed on tired greens and just lies there, unexcitingly.
But several of the main courses are excellent. I'm enamored of the pork medallions ($19), grilled and glazed with molasses and speckled with pomegranate seeds. The luscious meat rests on a bed of creamy polenta and comes with a grilled pear and tender kale. Pomegranate seeds, scattered on a number of dishes, appear to be the house signature. Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate when she left the Underworld, so perhaps their omnipresence signals that you are out of the dark into the light of Lush. In Turkey a woman throws a pomegranate on the ground, and the number of seeds released from the fruit indicates how many children she'll bear, but that's another matter. Let it suffice to say the pomegranate is Nature's most labor-intensive fruit--so, good for Lush.
The lamb chops ($28) are large and succulent, and the meat has an attractive, gamy flavor. The best dish is the "duck saltimbocca" ($24): A large breast of the bird is cured in a maple leaf, wrapped in prosciutto, rubbed with sage and served on polenta that's been chunked with garlic sausage. Tenderly cooked baby carrots embrace the duck. It sounds almost over-the-top, but everything works together beautifully, the meat juicy and a tad pink, though not in the least undercooked. I'd return for this item alone. A dish of spicy prawns ($18) has an Indonesian feel, the sambal fiery but cooled by a huge mound of slippery and slurpy noodles that come with the firmly skewered seafood. The only entree that merits a warning is chicken mousseline ($19), as rubbery as what's characteristically served at a political dinner, with the accompanying risotto overcooked to mush.
Lush does have an inventive way with desserts. The most unusual is a trio of chocolates ($7). You get a healthy (or rather a richly unhealthy) troika of chocolate peanut-butter tart (think upgraded Reese's), luscious banana fritter coated in chocolate, and warm molten chocolate cake, plus a cooling-down scoop of ice cream so fluffy it seems like frozen whipped cream. This plate, shared, is a good conversation piece, bound to stir controversy over which of the three items is the best. Pear gingerbread ($6) is another winner, beautifully moist because a poached pear is baked through the honey-spice cake. I'm already a fan of the blood-orange and plum sorbet, speckled with those pomegranate seeds for crunchiness and little bursts of sweet, red juice. Most interestingly, the sorbet ($6) arrives with shortbread made from green tea and "coconut sushi," a sort of trompe l'oeil maki--the "rice" a compressed mound of coconut and the "seaweed" a ribbon of chocolate.
The moral is not to be dissuaded by the unlikely look of this restaurant--so long as you understand that this is not your usual humming, buzzing bistro, things will be fine. It's certainly a romantic spot, and in the deep, dark booths your privacy is assured. Select your dinner wisely, and you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you select badly, you'll wonder why you didn't just have a neon watermelon margarita.
610 NW Couch St., 223-5874 Open 6 pm- midnight Monday- Tuesday, 6 pm-1 am Wednesday, 6 pm-2 am Thursday- Saturday. Credit cards. Children never seen. Moderate- expensive. $$-$$$
Vegetable ravioli, duck saltimbocca, rack of lamb, pork medallions, chocolate trio
Very private booths with curtains
WWeek 2015