Lucha Tigre

I love this place. I have literally never had bad food or service here, both dining in and when ordering takeout. This is one of my favorite places in the Chapelboro area. Great food (good portions, too) and an upscale atmosphere but still casual. My family live out of town and always request to go here when visiting!!

We discovered Lucha Tigre thanks to Yelp. We enjoyed our meal here. I give this place 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. Good food, for the most part, and great service. I'd come back.This is a casual, fun, Asian-Latin fusion restaurant and bar. Inside, the space is divided into two sides: bar and dining room. A big "LUCHA TIGRE" covers one of the bar walls and pop art decorates the main dining room wall. They also have a somewhat spacious, partially-covered patio. Overall, it's got a neat vibe.I booked our reservations on Lucha Tigre's website at https://luchatigre.com/ The reservation process was unconventional because instead of getting booked immediately, I had to wait for an email confirmation. On a Sunday, I got a "Pending Reservation Request" email at 2:16pm followed by a confirmation email at 2:52pm, so a 36-minute turnaround time. I got us a same-day reservation at 5pm, not a peak time as evidenced by the lack of customers upon our arrival. However, business had picked up by the time we left around 6:30.The menu had an interesting selection of food and drink. A few good examples of the Asian-Latin fusion served here include General Tso's Chicken Empanadas ($5 each), Pozole Ramen ($15.99), and Pad Thai Al Pastor ($16.99). They also serve straight-up Asian and Latin dishes like pho ($14.99) and tacos ($2 and $4 each). Drink-wise, they had a full bar with a decent selection that included tequila, mezcal, and sake cocktails. They even had a cocktail made with Japanese Suntory Whisky Toki.Here's what my wife and I had:Bebidas Especiales (cocktails)* El Conquistador ($14) - Tequila Herradura Silver, freshly-squeezed citrus, CointreauTapas* Tuna Tiradito ($16.99) - sashimi tuna with aji amarillo pepper, onions, cilantro, roasted corn nuts, and fresh citrus; Nikkei cuisine* Bulgogi Nachos ($15.99) - giant-size nachos with Korean BBQ beef, pico, kimchi, cheese, crema, jalapenos, black beansEntrees* Salmon Poke ($18.99) - raw salmon with sesame, onion, and tamari with seaweed salad, rice, and avocado* Pollo Saltado ($16.99) - stir-fried chicken, tomato, cilantro, onion; served over fries with rice and saladIn general, we were happy or content with everything. Some dishes were better than others. Beautiful presentation all around.The El Conquistador was a margarita that was more tart and less sweet. It was refreshing.I liked the Tuna Tiradito more than my wife. Tiradito is like Peruvian sashimi. I thought this dish was fine. I could see why my wife didn't like it as much because the texture of the tuna wasn't as fresh and appetizing as the tuna sashimi we're accustomed to. This tuna was a bit more "pasty" in texture. Also, the roasted corn nuts, which we think were the same as hominy, didn't add much.The standout dish was the Bulgogi Nachos. I saw pictures of it on Yelp and knew we had to order it. The portion size was huge and the Korean beef bulgogi was sweet and savory. We devoured the nachos. They were incredibly delicious and addictive. A lot of textures and flavors, and they all blended and worked well together.The Salmon Poke was solid. I recommend it if you like poke. Admittedly, it was better than we both expected because we haven't encountered a lot of great poke in the Chapel Hill-Durham area. Decent portions and fresh salmon, seaweed salad, and other ingredients. I will say the rice tasted plain and not seasoned with rice vinegar. The poke came with two sauces on the side, tamari (a type of Japanese soy sauce) and what I think was a type of curry sauce. The salmon was already nicely marinated and tasty so the sauces weren't needed.The Pollo Saltado was OK. It wasn't among the best I've had, but it was "authentic." The problems with this dish were the chicken was too dry and tough and the fries were underseasoned (not salty enough). Unfortunately, the salad was the best part of this dish.Our server Taryn was great. She was attentive and efficient. Everything we ordered came out fairly quickly. One detail I really liked and appreciated was Taryn neatly packed our leftovers and labeled and dated the boxes. That's an extra level of service you don't get at most other sit-down restaurants.Lucha Tigre opened in December 2012. It replaced the Chapel Hill location of The Original Flying Burrito: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-original-flying-burrito-chapel-hill You can find it in the Midtown Market shopping plaza, north of UNC's campus. There's plenty of free dedicated parking.I didn't have a good cell signal here and used their guest Wi-Fi. Password was Beefbulgogi1.

We stopped in for dessert and it was delicious! The staff was so friendly and welcoming. Loved the funky Asian/latin fusion decor The Tres Leches cake was so moist 8/10 and the stuffed churros were chocolate sauce were 9/10Can't wait to come back and try more of the menu!!

Well, pretty disappointed in the El Pastor pad Thai. The restaurant was closing early so it might've been that they were like oh my God we got an order to get out better just do it. The pieces of pork were gigantic, but few and very dry. There was no cilantro. Basically extremely underwhelmed. Not sure if I will go to Lucha tigre again maybe to get the poke but not much else. Sigh - do people just not care anymore what they serve their customers?

I'm visiting Chapel Hill to see my friend here and we went here for dinner last night. The ambiance was so cute! I loved the artwork on the walls and the decorations inside. I also love the idea of mixing Asian and Mexican cuisine together, it's a mix I don't usually see and was unique. The heat seeker shrimp we got as an appetizer was delicious! The flavors were good and I liked the sauce they used. My main entree was the al pastor pad thai. I was a little disappointed because the texture of the pork wasn't the best and a little too chewy for my taste. I also felt like the noodles were a bit overcooked and the sauce overall was too liquid-y. The staff was super friendly and I wanna come back to try their cocktails! They looked super yummy.

The restaurant had a nice ambiance - I was greeted by colorful lights and unique asian decor. I came on a Monday at 6:00pm and it was the perfect time to come - right before the dinner crowd. The appetizers I ordered (steamed chili edamame and friend vegetable dumplings) were very average,but I ordered the General Tso's Tofu Bowl and it surprised me! Typically, tofu is under-seasoned, but Lucha Tigre worked wonders on it! They also split 1 entree between me and my partner and gave us generous portions - we were but very satisfied with how full we were by the end. Overall, this place is worth a visit!

Ate here as a group of 4 friends-from-childhood now in our 60's. Good menu, lots of delicious healthy choices. We got chicken cheese quesadillas, spicy tofu bowl (Heat Seeker Tofu), and great local beers. Good service. We ate at 8 pm on a Thursday and they were out of several items we wanted to order. Fun and delicious, i would return.

Great variety of flavorful dishes. Sometimes too much food. I love the tofu, both entrees. The salad with salmon on top is huge and everyone's favorite.

Bulgogi nachos were delicious and very large portion. Fast take out service at dinner

Ambiance - 4It has a nice little trendy, funky, feel to the restaurant. Eccletic art, and a mixture of new and old school items. Service - 4 good service. Waiter was attentive. Food came out at a good pace Food - 2 I really wanted to like my meal. I got the al pastor pad Thai. The flavor combination was better than expected. I liked the concept and the Asian - Latin fusion shows great potential for this dish. Unfortunately execution was not on par. The pad Thai part of the meal was probably the worst pad Thai I've ever had. Noodles didn't feel stir fried and they sat in a very liquidity soup/sauce. It didn't didn't stick to the noodles at all and the whole pad Thai was just awful. It felt like they boiled noodles and dump watery sauce on top. I like or wok charred bok choy but was very expensive given the portion size, preparation, and that it was bok choy.