New Owners
New Menu
New Look
Full Lounge• Lots of Parking
Lunch 11-2 Tue-Sat
Dinner 5-10 Tue-Sat
Happy Hour 5-6:30
Bonus Happy Hour Every Day
one hour before closing
closed sundays and mondays
2101 Bailey Hill Road, Suite L
541-684-8888
www.kohobistro.net
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FRESH.
FAST.
TASTY.
3336 GATEWAY ST. ~ 541.747.2000
TSO MUCH
AMERICAN BEEF
D
Lok Yaun has steak on Lok-down
BY ANDY VALENTINE
amn, steak is good. I know a lot of people take offense to it, and I’m not
particularly partial to the methods by which these slabs of cooked flesh arrive
before our famished eyes either, but when that first bite goes down it’s pretty
much bliss — at least until the check comes. “What the — ? Twenty-nine
bucks for a piece of bloody carcass and a white, carrot-looking thing that kinda tasted like
it was grown in Treebeard’s stomach acid?”
There are the seemingly simple solutions to crises such as these — Shari’s, Denny’s, all
that crap — but at the end of the day you’ll still end up with a chewy, gristly steak that’s
worth about a quarter of the $12-$14 price you pay.
Out West 11th, past Chambers and Garfield, lies a popular Chinese food restaurant that
most diners probably wouldn’t consider frequenting for the steak. That’s right, Lok Yaun
Restaurant has steak — after all, the sign does advertise American food. So if your
husband or friend or roommate or whoever has a hankering for Chinese food, but you feel
like slipping a big old piece of American raised, slaughtered and prepared beef down your
gullet, you have options.
At only $8.25 for a fairly large steak that’s actually cooked to order (not just medium no
matter what you ask for) you can’t really complain, and neither can your wallet. The whole
package sports either salad, French bread, baked potato, French fries or pork fried rice.
I probably wouldn’t order a side of rice stuffed with yet more meat, but hey, if you’re
feeling particularly carnivorous, then why not?
If saving money is your bag then you’re not really going to have any problems at Lok
Yaun. Indeed, the entire menu is chock-full of meals priced below $10 or in the low double-
digit range, and this includes the “American favorites” (sirloin steak, chicken-fried steak,
breaded veal, fish and chips, shrimp and chips, and chicken strips and chips). Sadly there
don’t seem to be many fries on the menu — just good old English chips — but with each
and every one of these staples of our culinary culture costing $8.25, you hardly have
grounds to get your knickers in a twist.
All kidding aside, the food is actually tasty, and the fact that Lok Yaun provides options for
stubborn ethnocentrists is cool. There’s also a gluten-free menu and a kids’ menu where the
most expensive dish (which happens to be another “American favorite”) only costs $5.50. That
means it keeps your offspring and your pocket full, which definitely isn’t a bad trade-off.
Fairly un-customarily, Lok Yaun does not deliver. Unfortunately that means you can’t
get a steak straight to your house, which would be pretty much bananas. On the plus side
it has food to go, so you can drive around town eating a breaded veal cutlet, ride the bus
while eating a top sirloin or maybe even walk your dog while chomping on a chicken-
fried steak.
Lok Yaun has been a candidate in the Top 100 Chinese Restaurant awards held annually
in Santa Clara, Calif. Beyond that being really impressive, it’s another factor that makes it
surprising to find that it hasn’t given into greed during the recession: The economics of Lok
Yaun’s business model (which totally includes steak) remain steadfast — dirt cheap and
cost-effective. ■
Lok Yaun is located at 2630 W. 11th Ave., for more information visit www.lokyaunrestaurant.com or call 345-7448.
FREAKY FAST DELIVERY!
©2011 JIMMY JOHN’S FRANCHISE, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
6 CHOW! Spring 2012
chow.eugeneweekly.com