ottawa foodies

I live right down the street from the Lucky Key... it will be missed, more so now because it's being replaced with a parking lot. I'll miss the colorful clientele who lunched there on their day pass from the Royal Ottawa, the meaty spareribs, and the insane Big Trouble in Little Chinatown atmosphere.

In today's citizen it says that Lucky Key has closed and will soon be demolished to make way for a parking lot. I agree that the food was not great, but this place, with its iconic kitschy architecture and ancient waitstaff held a lot of nostalgia for me, and it's sad that the $3.99 lunch specials are now officially a thing of the past. And I will miss being able to mitigate the taste of the eggrolls with liberal doses of plum sauce from the huge plastic squeeze bottles.

When I was a kid in the 70s, when I came into Ottawa with my parents from where we lived about an hour away, if we were here at dinner time we often went to the Lucky Key for dinner. It was our favourite Chinese restaurant, so much better than the ones close to home.

It still might be better than the Chinese restaurants close to where my parents live, but like the other poster, I think I would have to go there on a dare to find out.

Went here as a dare. This place is trapped in 1974! Old, falling apart, they just don't make polyester seating like the used too. Food is your average take out Chinese food, salty and greasy. They even have that red glowing sweat and sour sauce, ah the memories!
The one I think I will say was service was good, the waiters are dressed up in bow ties. Clientele were mostly old folks. I was quick to leave before I became trapped in the time vortex.