Lunch at Luka Cross Street Exchange – Casual Japanese-Italian Resto-Bar

Luka Cross Street Exchange is a contemporary bar and restaurant for affordable Japanese-Italian cuisine. It has a great value set lunch on weekdays.

Luka Cross Street Exchange

Ristorante Luka helmed by Chef Takashi Okuno opened in Tanjong Pagar in 2017. It soon became popular with its offer of good wine and affordable food featuring fresh ingredients, innovative cooking techniques and a clever blend of Japanese elements into traditional Italian dishes. A new outlet was opened in 2020 in China Square Central, now known as Cross Street Exchange.

Luka Cross Street Exchange occupies one of the restored shop-houses facing China Street. It has an al fresco dining area, which is good for after office drinks and bar bites. The interior has the modern industrial aesthetic. The dining area is compact with a casual and relaxed mood.

It has an open-concept kitchen with a prominent brick oven for wood fired pizza. Diners can sit at a wood counter top and watch the chefs in action.

Luka Set Lunch Menu

Luka’s menu look like a typical Italian restaurant menu – with Appertivo such as Burrata and Carpaccio; Arrosto; Pasta; Pizza; and Dolce like Tiramisu. On closer examination you will see the use of Japanese ingredients in many of the dishes. So you will get Hamachi Carpaccio, Uni Wagyu Beef Tartare, Mentaiko & Ikura Pasta and Chicken Teriyaki Pizza.

Currently, Luka Cross Street Exchange has a weekday set lunch menu – which is a good affordable way to try some of their interesting dishes. You get a starter and a choice of pasta, pizza, meat or fish. The basic price is $23.99, with add-ons for certain dishes. You can add a dessert for $6 and a coffee or tea for $3.

Lunch at Luka Cross Street Exchange

The set lunch menu offered 2 starters – salad and soup of the day. We opted for one of each. The soup of the day was Cream of Mushroom. We choose the Marinara Tonno Pizza and the Bay Scallop & Shirasu Aglio E Olio Pasta for our mains.

The salad was a colourful mix of bell peppers ribbons, onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and a variety of crisp leaves. It was served with a house made vinaigrette.

The Cream of Mushroom Soup was very good. It was deliciously creamy and had deep earthy flavours.

Marinara Tonno is traditional pizza topped with tomato sauce, tuna, capers, garlic and onions and sprinkled with oregano. Luka’s version looked great. It was colourful with a leopard spotted thick fluffy cornicione. Baked in a wood-fired oven, the pizza base was thin in the middle and puffed up at the edges. It was a hearty pizza with well balanced flavours.

The Bay Scallop & Shirasu Aglio E Olio Pasta was the star of the day. It was a wonderful showcase of Luka’s Italian dish with Japanese ingredients. The traditional Italian pasta dish of garlic, olive oil, parsley and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese was elevated by adding shirasu (Japanese white bait usually used as garnish). The spagehtti was perfectly al dente, scallops were succulent and sweet, and the sauce was light but full of flavours. It was a delicious pasta dish that we really enjoyed.

We rounded off our satisfying lunch with coffee, which was good too.

Dishes intrigue and excite

There is nothing pretentious about Ristorante Luka’s interior decorations or its menu. They offer good Italian-Japanese dishes in a relaxed setting. The chefs don’t try to make the dishes look like art pieces but the clever injection of Japanese ingredients into Italian classics make the dishes artistic compositions that intrigue and excite. When you want a good affordable lunch in a nice restaurant but don’t want the run-of-the-mill set lunch, the Luka Set Lunch will not disappoint.

Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 4
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs 

Luka
20 Cross Street Exchange, #01-36
Singapore 048422

Tel: +65 6970 5943

Opening Hours
Lunch
Monday to Sunday – 12 noon to 2.30 pm

Dinner
Monday to Saturday – 5.30 pm to 12 am
Sunday – 5.30 pm to 10.30 pm

Website

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The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog