I went to Lua Viet Kitchen recently with some friends (read: geezers like me). One of my friends lives nearby and wanted to try it. He’s not very much into Vietnamese food and a couple of others in the group were even less enthusiastic, but neither one of them can cook so they were kind of stuck.
It’s in a brand new development that follows the very trendy style of putting the business up front, right on the street, with parking in the back. You can park right outside the back entrance of the business (if you get there at the right time, of course). The interior is Concrete Chic, mostlly glass and concrete. There are a couple of what seemed to me to be oddly placed murals on the walls, leading me to speculate the interior decor is not complete yet. The staff is all very young and were all very friendly; I believe it was either the chef or owner who shook hands with me and welcomed me.
I had the beef pho, a huge bowl, very full, with 44 Farms beef tenderloin. Everything was already in the bowl when served except for a couple of wedges of lime on the side. There was a very generous amount of beef, perhaps as much as twice what has been included with similar bowls elsewhere. All the herbs were minced; the bean sprouts were mostly chopped into spoon sized pieces. The broth was very subtly flavored and very interesting at first but I found myself adding soy and sriracha sooner than I usually do, as it got a little boring (being able to add fresh herbs from time to time would also have kept it more interesting, to me anyway). I would up taking about a 3rd of it home, which included 2.5 ozs of the beef and mostly small scraps of the other ingredients. But I got to have Pho for breakfast the next day. The rice noodles were broader than what is used at most Pho joints I’ve gone to.
It was okay. I’ll probably be back but maybe only because my friend wants to go. I’m more interested now in checking out Les Noo’dle on Montrose and the new Viet/Cajun place that’s on the horizon.
One member of the party ate only spring rolls, which meant that I didn’t get one of the shrimp spring rolls that we ordered for the table. The pork spring roll was however the best I’ve ever had - juicy pork and very fresh ingredients otherwise with a more generous dipping bowl than you get at most places.
One member of our group had a lot of complaining to do before he got around to ordering; I was halfway through with what I was having before he ordered. He got the Vietnamese Dumpling Soup, about half the size of my entry and half as much; we were all shocked that he really liked it 
.
The menu seems to be still in flux; the menu boards on the wall included Bo Luc Lac, Shaking Beef, plus Shaking Chicken and Shaking Tofu. I had seen them in the Yelp gallery but couldn’t find them on the pictures of the menu. I had assumed they were perhaps an occasional daily special.
ETA: There are complaints on Yelp about the portion size; we did not agree; we all felt the portions were generous. Prices are a bit higher than what I’d expect at Pho joints out near me, probably due in part to the price of real estate in Montrose vs. where I live.
