The Lucky Fig

All these are Italian foods using a twist. Not quite your typical food truck food, the menu is elevated – excellent for catering. My faves were the polenta chips, gnocchi with mushrooms, and paninis. Arancini/​rice balls were excellent, also, though would favor marinara sauce. Check out this MasterChef season 4 victor’s theory for yourself.

We bought one of everything on Easter Sunday, and boy can I tell you with certainty and experience that this food is some of the best food in Houston. It’s one of the fancier food trucks around, and is priced as such, but it’s well worth the extra cost. I recommend the ravioli.

Caught these guys at Karbach – not only are they really nice, but the food is really good! I got the vegetariano panino, very hearty and tasty. My only regret from the experience is that I didn’t have more room to try any more of their dishes – guess I’ll just have to track them down later!

Just got the ravioli and cauliflower from the food truck. I had NO idea ravioli could taste this good. Oh, my! The cauliflower is equally good… has a bite to it!
It’s not inexpensive but you get what you pay for — quality food from an authentic Italian chef… who by the way is a MasterChef winner! Now, he’s a food truck WINNER! :-)

If you are looking for good Italian food, just come here instead of going to those vulgarly over-​priced Italian restaurants in Midtown. After trying to figure out where to find the food truck for a while, we finally had something here (if you want to find it, you better go to the website, and not google). Luca was friendly and chatted with us about a few things. We had «My mother’s meatballs» which were very different from the usual meatballs, with a strange but wonderful yellow sauce on top and unexpected ingredients. Overall, it tasted great and we will probably be back to try more things on their menu. I would definitely like to try their gelato next time.

We watched Master Chef and clapped our hearts out for Lucca!!! His food is amazing: the polenta fries, people: INSANE! One of the most delicious fritters I’ve ever had! He was very friendly too. Sharing pictures of his boys and all. You should follow him on Twitter! the Lucky Fig rocks!

Tried out The Lucky Fig at a food truck festival. While it’s a new food truck, I have heard a lot about it due to the owner’s fame. The chef won Master Chef on Fox and has recently opened up this food truck before he opens up a brick and mortar restaurant down the road. The cuisine is Italian but like most food trucks, there’s a lot of creativity involved.
I had the polenta fries which was a first. The polenta is shaped and fried to resemble thick-​cut steak fries. For $ 7, you get 6 pieces which are drizzled with both a creamy sauce and a marinara sauce. Definitely a fun culinary experience! The chef is really friendly and was cracking jokes, singing, dancing while taking orders. He also has copies of his book for sale if you’re interested. The emphasis at his food truck is Italian using quality ingredients. The meatballs grabbed my attention so I’ll have to try those next time around!

Amazing food truck from Luca!!! Fresh pasta of the day better than any brick and mortar!!! Glad to see it here in Clear Lake Shores!!!

«From farm to the streets.» This is the slogan for the Lucky Fig food truck brought to Houston by Luca Manfè, the winner of MasterChef Season 4. They serve modern Italian cuisine using organic and local products, as well as homemade pasta. I had been meaning to try it since it opened late 2015, and I was finally lucky enough to come across it after 10 p.m. on Easter Sunday! They were parked outside of Axelrad Beer Gardens and serving dinner until late night. Luca and his team were working hard prepping meals when I arrived, but they took my order promptly.
They were offering a few different items from their Pasta of the Day menu. I ordered the Spinach Pappardelle with Braised Lamb, Fennel Purée, and Smoked Ricotta for $ 14, as well as the Homemade Gnocchi with Shiitake Mushrooms, Crispy Bacon, and Salted Ricotta for $ 14. If you are taking it ‘to-​go,’ make sure to tell them this when ordering as they serve it in an open paper tray. It took about 10 – 15 minutes to get ready, and I was on my way home.
The Spinach Pappardelle pasta was incredible. I don’t typically like lamb if it’s gamey-​tasting, but the meat here was amazing. As for the homemade Gnocchi, this too was a great entrée. The crispy bacon and the shiitake mushrooms mixed well with the pasta. I would never expect this type of quality Italian food from a food truck, but I have to say it’s the best in the city next to Luigi’s Cucina Italiana. Bravo, Luca! Finding great Italian food is very hard in Houston… I really hope Luca and his team open up a restaurant in this city soon.
To find where the food truck is located around the city for lunch or dinner, check their website at:

The lucky fig came to my workplace for lunch today. I had their pork belly, pâté, pickled cabbage panini ($ 12) It was delicious! Being a food truck the wait wasn’t too bad especially since there were a lot of ppl. I like how they have pretty unique items you most likely won’t be able to find anywhere else. Staff was pretty friendly as well.

I visited this truck a few weeks ago at an event in Katy. They only had 2 items left on the menu (they sold out of most things and weren’t prepared for the second day… words directly from Luca himself).
I tried the polenta fries and saffron balls. The polenta fries were nice but the sauce was overwhelming. The saffron balls were better. Neither were worth the $ 20+ dollars I spent considering taste and small portion size.

My wife and I have been here a couple of times now and both times have blown our minds. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite food trucks and one of the best spots to get affordable homemade Italian food.
Chef Luca is very personable and he remembered my wife and I from our previous visit. He took the time to come out of the truck to talk to us and teach us some Italian.
As for the food, it’s amazing. We got the Arancini stuffed with beet root, Meatballs, polenta fries and the vegetariano sandwich. Everything was amazing! Seriously it’s the best true Italian food in Houston!

You guys, you have to come to Lucky Fig soon, before word gets out that a Master Chef is in town! I can definitely foresee this truck booming very near in the future. For now though, our experience was intimate and personalized :).
Lemme give you a tip– if you don’t know what Luca looks like, look up a picture of him first. I walked up to the truck and a man standing in front of it said hi to me. I said back, «hi! Oh are you in line?» …derp. If you guys hadn’t guessed yet, that man was Luca himself. He was super nice and chatted with me and the bf for a while about his experience on master chef and recommendations from the menu. I loved his stories about where he sourced his ingredients from– bison from a farm in Katy where he was biking with his son, spicy sausage from a friend in Houston.
After grappling with the menu for an embarrassingly long time, we finally decided on the salsiccia arancini and the bisonte panini, which were some that Luca recommended to us.
Salsiccia arancini– 4 broccoli and spicy sausage risotto balls fried to crispy perfection and served with a butternut squash purée. They were pretty big, crispy on the outside but creamy and soft on the inside. I liked it with the butternut squash purée too, which made it even creamier but not heavy.
Bisonte– basically short rib barbecue in sandwich form! It has shredded bison short rib, pickles, slaw, and whole grain mustard in between two thin and crunchy pieces of bread. It was a little too strong in the sour and mustard flavor for me, but the bf enjoyed it! I’m just more adverse to sour and pickled things. It was a messy sandwich to eat so load up on the napkins!
Although it is a bit pricy, the portions are generous so it’s worth it. The truck is located in a parking lot across from agora, so you can park in the parking lot, but you may have to pay $ 3 (we didn’t, shhh). Otherwise, you would have to find street parking.
I’m excited to come back and try the polenta fries and the panchetta sandwich and the meatballs and the… well, pretty much everything. Thanks for humoring us with conversation and giving us a great experience, Luca!

I was excited to try Luca’s Italian food after seeing him cook on (and win) Master Chef! We were at a festival and saw the food truck and had to try it! As a pescaterian and sometimes vegetarian, I was really excited to see that he had some vegetarian options on the menu! We tried the arancini, which, I’m sad to say, was pretty bad. The texture of the arancini was really mushy, lump, soft — over cooked rice. And the taste? Totally bland! Needed salt, pepper, cheese, herbs or all of the above! Only by covering it in the sauce that came with it (best thing on the plate) was the arancini made edible. Maybe everything else on the menu is great or maybe it was just a bad batch, but I can’t give my food experience more than two stars.

Food is cooked to perfection. Luca is personable and takes care of his customers.
Tonight we tried the beets arancini, pancetta panini, and lamb sticks. The arancini may be labeled as starters, but they are definitely filling and not a bit greasy. The lamb was tender, and the mint sauce perfectly balanced the savory lamb flavor. The panini took a little bit longer to come out, but it was worth the wait. I love that the menu feels familiar, but every dish was special. The ingredient and flavors were intentional.

Another Lucky Fig visit.
Chef Luca from Italy is cooking up the eats! Located Tues-​Sat for Dinner across from Agora near the Corner of Westheimer/​Dunlavy. I’ve been told you can bring the food into Agora or the Antique shop next door.
On to the food, its as if you took an italian chef whose use to sourcing food from local farms and supplanted him in Texas. That’s right, he’s getting his Buffalo from that farm in Katy. Arancini with SMOKED sausage? What a great combo. Its like if Texas was in Italy in ancient times.
My favorite is the Buffalo Panino (Bisonte on the menu). Braised bison short ribs, pickled cucumbers, cole slaw, balsamic glaze. Its like a savory bite in your mouth, with the pickled cucumbers and DIJON mustard to cut the savoriness.
For desert I had the Panettone Bauli bread pudding, vanilla gelato, mulled wine sauce. Magic in your mouth, the South meets Italy at its best!
I highly suggest checking this food truck out, i dont think I had a miss with the whole menu we ordered. Bring lots of friends and some wine, make it a fun evening!

I love, love, LOVE Italian food! I also love food trucks, so when I found out that Luca was going to run a food truck with filled with Authentic Italian food, I was ecstatic! I’ve pretty much had all the items on the menu, so let me tell you about my favorites.
Small Plates
— Polenta Fries: no idea what polenta was (cornmeal) but when made into fries, and served with taleggio sauce, you’d want this over french fries!
— Luca’s Mother’s Meatballs: Funny thing is I actually met Luca’s mom the day I ordered this. I’ve had meatballs at several different restaurants, some on my own, but these had to be one of the best meatballs I’ve ever had!
— Arancini: Basically fried rice balls (3 different kind) I’ve had all three, and my favorite would be the red beets filled with Italian blue cheese and fresh herbs.
Paninis
— Pancetta: pork belly sandwich, interested combination of charred carrot sauce, pickled purple cabbage, apple chutney, housemade patè
— Bisonte: don’t get me started on this panini, sorry but it’s just the BEST i’ve had. I can eat it now, I can eat it later tonight, I can eat it for breakfast tomorrow morning. It has braised bison short ribs, pickled cucumbers, cole slaw and balsamic glaze, i dont know what it is about the sauce but it’s sweet and tangy and savory, makes me want more
I’ve already brought two different friends to Luca and they both loved the food, and one has already gone back for more (before me!) There’s a reason Luca won MasterChef, because he is THAT good!

I’ve tried the lunch and dinner menu and it’s all amazing. Such lovingly crafted meals. Nothing has disappointed. Luca and his team are so extremely friendly and welcoming. You will want to come back for more! It’s like a fresh home cooked meal if I could actually cook.

I got to try a bunch of dishes. My favorite was the polenta fries, bison Panini, and gnocchi.
Definitely hits the spot when I want some authentic Italian food.
Luca was especially very nice and explained everything in detail. Two thumbs up!

Was lucky enough to see this driving by! I was huge fan of Luca on Master Chef and was excited to try his food. It did not disappoint! Great options and good prices. Only suggestion I have is to maybe have a simple dessert available. You know women like something sweet every now and then :)
I tried the saffron rarancini filled with goat cheese. A red pepper sauce was served on the side. Oh it was delicious! Came with 4 moderately sized rice balls. Ended up being enough for lunch! There was a good looking eggplant dish that came out ahead of mine– that will be next on the list!
It was a bonus to meet Luca and I can’t wait to try the rest of the menu.