September 22, 2023 39.756212,-84.211944
"This was a really, really good idea."
- Me, a couple hours ago
It's been a week, and the weekend is way scheduled out. As the night progressed, dinner plans fell by the wayside, and nothing in the fridge was speaking up. Friday night take-out in a college town can be a tricky proposition, so we went with a spot just a couple neighborhoods over. Lots of places around the country have good Thai, Chinese, and Japanese options, and they make easy, reliable choices pretty much wherever you go. I'm eager for the day when the same is true for Filipino flavors, but it'll take some serious work for any of them to dethrone the Lumpia Queen.
Back when they were exclusively available via food truck, I'd had the chance to stand in line a time or two for a couple of their crisp, savory spring rolls. They were the highlight of whatever event brought them around, and now that they have a restaurant space at West Social Tap & Table, it's an amazing feast I can practically dial up on-demand: Dayton privilege on display. Today, I ordered a couple of combos to cover a wide swath of the menu. The BBQ chicken skewer and adobo wings are complex in flavor and a little too easy to devour. The pancit, a thin noodle dish with a zing of lime, is an ideal companion to the fried lumpia and marinated chicken. This is a rare restaurant where one could just ask for five things, any five things, and it would be a best-of-week meal.
All told, it was about a half hour between order and delivery, and then maybe another fifteen minutes before packing up our empty dishes and going back for the last couple bites of noodles.
Whether street-side at your next favorite outdoor event, patio-side at West Social Tap, or on the couch, courtesy of DoorDash, the Lumpia Queen deserves your fealty.
