The bubble tea was ‘refreshing, milky and fruity’
Lucky Cat in Story Street, Hull, with its cute waving cartoon mascot(Image: Sofie Jackson – staff)
If you have passed down Albion Street in Hull city centre recently, perhaps to visit the library or Wilberforce Health Centre, you cannot fail to have noticed a frankly adorable restaurant that popped up in late 2024.
Lucky Cat, on the corner of Story Street, offers both takeaway and dining-in options. As I took in the building on its neat corner plot and its little blushing lucky cat mascot, my first impression was ‘cute’.
The menu in the window mostly lists sushi and bubble tea, but I knew from checking it out online there were many, many more options on offer. Inside is even more homely.
There is an entire wall dedicated to post-it notes left by customers, covered with unique cartoons, sketches, and messages. It added a colouful, personal touch and felt very welcoming.
You can order on a touch kiosk, which was simple enough and had the bonus of letting you see photographs of the dishes. There is also the option to order at the counter and pay in cash.
My guest and I ended up getting quite a hefty lunch order in: an extra large lychee bubble tea, pumpkin katsu curry, beef gyo don, vegetable gyoza dumplings, wakame seaweed salad, and six cucumber maki sushi. Yes, I felt like a glutton, but I wanted to try everything.
There were many people waiting for takeaways before we placed our order, so we realised we were probably in for a wait. However, the ambience was lovely so the 20 minutes or so that passed before we received our food passed by very pleasantly.
First up was the bubble tea. This is best described as refreshing, milky and fruity. Each little pearl of tapioca released a pleasant burst of flavour.
On the food front, I gladly plunged straight into the katsu curry. I love katsu, and make my own version at home, so I feel I can say with some authority that this was a wonderful dish.
It was steaming hot and the rice was light, delicately flavoured and the perfect texture between fluffy and sticky. The katsu sauce had a robust curry flavour and was quite light, which made it ideal for mixing into the rice.
The pumpkin croquettes were the perfect topping. Sweet, nutty, and with an irresistibly crunchy panko-breadcrumb coating, every mouthful was a joy.
The cucumber maki rolls were also really good. I love the flavour of nori seaweed and lightly seasoned sushi rice.
My colleague got the beef gyo don. He praised the sauce highly, which he said was rich, sweet and savoury, and the perfect accompaniment to meat.
We both highly rated the vegetable gyoza. In the past, I’ve always had these dumplings steamed, so I was surprised when they appeared to have been deep-fried – but what an incredible effect it has on the flavour!
But, by far the highlight for me, was the wakame salad. The seaweed was an appealing, vibrant green and had a gorgeous, almost velvety texture.
It was enhanced with a delicate scattering of sesame seeds a subtly sweet dressing that gave me hints of mirin. I couldn’t get enough of it. As a seaweed-lover, it was simply beautiful.
I will definitely return – for more katsu and about a tonne of wakame.