LUCKY is a great restaurant just down the street from my apartment.

It looks like an old Japanese house from the 1950's -- old posters on the wall and 1950's music playing on an old radio. The front on the place has a counter looking into the kitchen, some tables and stools, and in the back and upstairs there are several tatami rooms. My favorite room is in the back upstairs: the kid's room. There's old posters of cool old toys and stuff on the shelves and it's just great.

The staff are really friendly, and Miwako and Master always have a smile ready.

As for the food, Lucky has two real specialties: fried chicken and rice bowl curry.

The fried chicken is not greasy at all; the skin is crisp and the meat is juicy and just fabulous. It's served with salt and curry powder so just grab it with your fingers, dip it to flavour, and dig in.

The rice bowl curry is an eggplant curry served ontop of a chawan (bowl) full of rice. It's good as it is, but to really make it fantastic, I ask Miwako-chan for some fried garlic. Rip open a whole fried garlic, pull out the squishy cloves, drop them on the curry, mix, and eat. It's unbeatable!

They've also got a great selection of grills and nabe (pots) depending on what's in season, and a daily seasonal grilled and steamed fish as well as sashimi and tons of over traditional/home-cooking dishes. Some of my other favorites include grilled miso (yaki-miso) and tuna sashimi.