Now that our eldest has moved into a house in the Tower Grove South neighborhood, we will be visiting more restaurants in the city. This week we ventured off to Lona's Lil Eats on California near Fox Park. They do not have any dine-in seating but they have several tables outside, and on a cloudy but not too cool day we were more than willing to sit outside and enjoy their "Asian inspired" fares.
During the pandemic you order online and tell them you are outside, and once the food is ready they bring it out and you can enjoy the food right there on one of their tables. You must clean up your own table and dispose of the garbage, but it was not that big of a deal. We all ordered and sat down and enjoyed the day in the not very busy residential city neighborhood. There was plenty of street parking nearby and they have reserved a number of spots for curbside pickup.
We did not have to wait long before our food was delivered from inside. I had ordered a "Create Ur Own" wrap consisting of rice paper, grilled chicken, stir fried glass noodles and Lona-Q sauce. First off, the wrap was enormous and covered in a couple large sheets of Saran Wrap. After opening it up none of us were sure we could fit the things in our mouths. I also ordered a side order of their stir-fried rice which I soon realized was a mistake. It was not bad but lacked much flavor without any sauce. It is better used as a filling within their wraps.
One of our group also ordered some dumplings and luckily they were much easier to eat! I tried both a steak and a mushroom version and they were both fantastic with a doughy fried flavorful skin, and stuffing with a variety of different ingredients. With the hot dumpling sauce they were definitely a good selection.
Once I was able to eat my wrap (I ended up using my fork for much of it) it was very good as well. The rice paper gave a nice texture and the rice noodles in the Lona-Q sauce gave it plenty of flavor along with the grilled chicken which were good cuts of meat with their own flavoring in the grilling sauce. I did end up with a bit of a mess on my hands, but it was worth it. My wife selected a less flavorful wrap with the smoked chicken and vinaigrette sauce and thought hers was pretty bland. I believe it is crucial to pick a good sauce for a good flavorful wrap. You definitely receive a lot of food for your money and they have several vegetarian or gluten-free options for people who prefer those.
Overall we enjoyed our lunch at Lona's and I definitely recommend the dumplings and picking a good flavorful sauce for your selection.
Food quality (esp. dumplings) & value
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