The other day my sister and I were looking up places to eat near Hofstra because we were not up to having the bland food prepared on campus. I searched for nearby restaurants and came across Grand Lux Cafe. I have a huge sweet tooth so I usually pick a restaurant based on a good dessert menu that captures my attention. At first glance, I thought that this was just a typical cafe, but here’s what I found out.
Atmosphere
My first thought as soon as I walked in to Grand Lux Cafe was that it looked exactly like The Cheesecake Factory. The architecture and colors were nearly the exact same and it looked very exquisite for a cafe. I found out that it was owned by The Cheesecake Factory, and it made sense. The hostess was very friendly and I was seated immediately on a Friday night, which I was pleasantly surprised by.
She walked us over to our table that was a booth to the side and it was nice and comfortable. If you come to this restaurant with hopes of having normal conversation, then you might want to pick a quieter location because it is very chaotic with the sounds of conversations and plates being put on the tables.
Entrees
The menu was exactly like The Cheesecake Factory’s one, with different meals ranging from salads and burgers to pasta and other foods of the world. I was in the mood for something a bit out of the ordinary so I decided to go with the Mercado Chicken Enchiladas, which was one of the worldly dishes.
According to the menu, these enchiladas are served on warm corn tortillas filled with chicken and melted cheese covered with tomatillo and mole sauces, salsa and cilantro. The enchiladas were delicious and the cheese was gooey and could be found in every bite. The Spanish rice and black beans were served on the side and were an excellent addition to the dish.
My sister tried the Spicy Flat Bread Chicken Sandwich and she thought it was really good. The only thing she didn’t like was that she could taste how fattening it was from the moment she took her first bite, but at the same time, she doesn’t regularly eat mayo and avocado.
According to the menu, the sandwich comes with grilled chicken breast topped with avocado, pepper-jack cheese, corn, lettuce, tomato and black bean-mayo on our grilled flatbread. I think next time I visit this restaurant I am going to try this because I had a bite of hers and it was pretty good.
Dessert
This is my favorite part of any meal, and Grand Lux Cafe did not disappoint me on this one. When I glanced over the dessert menu, my mouth watered over all of the different options they had to choose from. The dessert menu consists of baked to order items and other dishes which you can order. The baked to order dishes take about 30 minutes to prepare and need to be ordered in advance.
The desserts served include molten chocolate cake, a super doughnut sundae, New Orleans beignets, warm rustic apple pie, homemade chocolate pecan cookies, butter cake, and more. I decided to go with the molten chocolate cake which I ordered with my entree in the beginning so it could be prepared while I was eating my main course.
This chocolate cake was very good and as soon as you put the spoon into it, chocolate rushed out and it was amazing. It reminded me exactly of the chocolate cake they serve at Coral Reef in Epcot at Walt Disney World. The cake came with a side of vanilla ice cream which paired nicely and the fact that it was served warm made it 10 times better.
Overall Thoughts
I would definitely recommend Grand Lux Cafe to anyone looking for a place to have a great meal that is not too expensive. My entree and dessert was $27 dollars and it was excellent considering how large the portions were. I am definitely going to be making a trip back to this establishment in the near future and I would encourage you to do so too!