Birthday at Luma

My birthday was 2 weeks ago and I'm just now finding the time to blog about it. Luckily, it was so awesome I have no problem remembering all the details. P and I and some friends went to Winterpark to have dinner at Luma on Park and afterwards relaxing and digesting at the Wine Room next door.

P got there first and ordered a nice Cab to sip on while he waited. He had a pretty bouquet of flowers put in a champagne bucket waiting for me as well, so everyone in the place knew it was my birthday. Thankfully there was no singing.

This was my second time at Luma. The first experience was very memorable and I'd recommend it to anyone coming to the Orlando area and looking for a really great meal outside of the kitsch Disney environment. Chef Brandon Mcglamery has a pretty impressive resume working at Chez Panisse, The French Laundry, Guy Savoy, Gordon Ramsey London, and more. The place looks amazing, right down to the futuristic bathrooms. In both of my experiences the staff is incredible, and can make some really fabulous wine recommendations. The menu changes all the time, but can have similar dishes from week to week just with different twists depending on what's available.


We started with some appetizers. Yes, I broke down and brought my camera. This food is too good and too pretty not to take a picture. Would you believe that no one in the whole restaurant even noticed? This is a similar ceviche that I had on my first visit. Imagine kona kampachi, watermelon, cilantro, avacado, jicama, and scotch sorbet all intermingling in one bite. This ceviche was just as good as the kampachi, jicama, blood orange, thai basil, avacado, and spicy citrus sorbet from my last visit. Luma knows ceviche! We also tasted a gnocci appetizer but I think I was too absorbed with my ceviche to pay attention.

P had the arctic char with a corn sauce and chard. P loved it -- a perfect balance of flavors. Corn is his favorite.

I had the maple duck with black rice and peach slaw. I'd like to know where the chef found such ripe peaches. What a slaw!

We also ordered the diver scallops with grits and pole beans. Tasting this dish reminded me of how wonderful grits can be. I'm going to try to make some at home soon.

At this point we had to get dessert. P and I shared the peach tart with giant fresh berries and thai basil ice cream. Since the peach slaw was so good, I knew this would be incredible too. I have always thought that basil ice cream would taste strange and strong but this was refreshing and mild.

Our friends shared the chocolate truffle cake with salted popcorn ice cream and caramel. I sneaked a bite and concluded that popcorn ice cream tastes NOTHING like those awful buttered popcorn jellybeans.

Comfortably full, we walked next door to the Wine Room for some dessert wines and conversation. I have to say that my 2 Luma visits have been some of the most memorable food experiences in my short foodie life. It's a pretty good drive for dinner but I'm sure we'll come back again soon. They offer a fixed price tasting menu on a couple days of the week that we might check out next. Luma is great. They even gave us one free dessert since it was my birthday.