
With Lucky Star, a Sushi Star Reconnects with His Taiwanese Roots
Jason Liang has long been a star in Atlanta. The James Beard nominee’s Brush Sushi Izakaya in Decatur garnered a dedicated following (though it sadly shuttered in 2022), and even a change in direction for the new Buckhead Village iteration, Brush Sushi, dulled no one’s enthusiasm.
The pace further picked up as he launched the separate restaurant-within-a-restaurant omakase experience, O by Brush last August, where 20 courses of meticulously sourced and masterfully prepared dishes (showcasing techniques like dry-aging, hay-smoking, and cooking over binchotan coals) illustrated that Edomae sushi needn’t be limited to Tokyo traditions. Here, Taiwanese flavors from his and pastry chef ChingYao Wang(who also happens to be his wife)’s home country have come to the fore, earning O by Brush’s first Michelin star less than a year after launching.
And, as O by Brush earned increasing attention and rave reviews, the pair embarked on another star track — the path to Lucky Star.
For months, Lucky Star operated as a pop-up with a rooftop space in the Star Metals office building in West Midtown. As of late last year, it’s now a newly opened permanent space on the building’s main floor, this time paying proud, unapologetic homage to the Taiwanese cuisine of Liang’s heritage.
“I’ve always wanted to do Taiwanese food — I am Taiwanese American after all! Especially since it’s something my wife and John [Chen, Liang’s longtime business partner], and I grew up eating,” he shares.
This desire only increased as he learned how little others knew about the food of his culture. “When people think of Taiwan, most think of street food and night markets. Sometimes they’ll even confuse it with Thailand!” he says. Yet Taiwan is a melting pot, its cuisines heavily influenced by mainland China and Japan and distinct in the use of ingredients influenced by a subtropical climate and cultivated by indigenous communities.
With Lucky Star’s opening, he’s taking this opportunity to share modern takes on his own favorite dishes from Taiwan, with a small, curated menu that feels even more personal in its limited array than a wider selection. Here’s what to expect from West Midtown’s newest addition.


1. Getting there is a breeze.
One of the best things about development in the West Midtown area is that parking is clearly a consideration. Not only are there public paid parking lots across the street and within a one-block radius of Lucky Star, there’s also available garage parking off the Star Metals building.
An added benefit of parking in the paid deck is direct access to the main stairwell that opens right up to Lucky Star. Located directly across from a tasteful seating area and stunning mural of a deer on the main level of the office building lobby, steps from the elevator bank and security desk, is the shopping mall-style open storefront of the restaurant and the custom bar that anchors this exciting new entrant to Atlanta’s dining scene.
2. It’s a café by day, and a restaurant by night.
As an office building venue, all-day service begins with casual counter service for walk-ins only Monday through Friday. Espresso drinks are poured for those in need of a daytime buzz (in addition to aforementioned evening-appropriate tipples) but let a sense of adventure guide your ordering here — the café’s “creations” introduce unlikely combos such as espresso with Earl Grey caramel and orange cream to tease out the bergamot; cold brew with cantaloupe, lime, and Taiwanese alpine tea; and even matcha floats with yuzu, coconut water, and lime zest.
A selection of Wang’s pastries are also served daily, including rum raisin chocolate chip cookies, citrus chocolate croissants, and a new-age version of a deep-dish egg custard tart. Baked in a buttery, thick-layered crust and cooked slightly toasty in a mix of Portuguese and Hong Kong styles, it’s unmissable. Other treats will be added to the rotation and all baked goods will be available until sold out or by 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, the regular food menu is also available, but “for lunch service, guests will order at the front and have their food run out to them,” advises Jasmine Yates, the area manager for the restaurant group.


3. Expect Taiwanese comfort food all day, every day.
What about dinner, then? Glad you asked.
“Dinner service is upscale casual — more of a lounge feel,” Yates sums up. Small plates range in size from a pair of whole marinated tea eggs that offers a cheffy version of my retired Chinese chef dad’s take (don’t tell him!) with jammy yolks and whites infused with star anise-scented soy, to a sweet potato flour pancake with seared oysters, fried eggs, chopped shrimp, and shredded, barely wilted Taiwanese cabbage under a sea of tomato-tinged gravy. The duck fat scallion pancakes, the allium as painstakingly layered and folded as any of Wang’s patisserie selections, might feel familiar to fans of Brush, who will be happy to see them on the menu. For a quick snack, the “sausage in sausage” with rice sausage and Taiwanese pork sausage accompanied by garlic soy, is a great belly liner.
But as any restaurateur embarking on an endeavor as personal as Lucky Star will tell you, nailing the iconic dishes was priority number one.
4. They’ve nailed Taiwan’s iconic dishes.
“Sweet potato fries, three-cup chicken, lu rou fan, and beef noodle soup — these are the things I like to eat when I’m craving Taiwanese food,” Liang says.
The menu’s entrées include two noodle and two rice options, half of which showcase Liang’s take on classic lu rou. His is minced pork belly that’s first braised for six hours in a soy-based sauce before being poured on rice or eggy, bouncy gan mian (dry noodles), both served with a soft-boiled egg. three-cup chicken, another great Taiwanese tradition, forms the other rice choice.
The beef noodle soup recipe took me more than a decade to perfect.— Jason Liang
“Three-cup chicken is one of the recipes I learned and fell in love with almost 20 years ago when I was an intern at the Regent Hotel in Taipei,” he recalls. The name is as recipe-indicative as American pound cake, a reference to each cup of soy sauce, michu (Taiwanese rice wine), and sesame oil, and it’s a long-time go-to for his inner circle. “I’ve made it at home and as family meals in the restaurant, more than a dozen times,” he says, making it all the more special for those who dine at Lucky Star.
Meanwhile, Liang’s take on classic Taiwanese beef noodle soup with braised beef shank and pickled mustard greens rounds out the menu. “The beef noodle soup recipe took me more than a decade to perfect,” he shares, and his pro tip includes enjoying it in three stages: “First, taste the broth on its own, then enjoy it with some noodles and beef. Second, add the beef chile oil for a kick and added complexity. Finally, add the mustard greens to cut through the richness and add texture.”


5. The bar is the room’s focal point, with good reason.
At the restaurant, the central L-shaped custom bar provides the primary focal point and best seats in the house. Fully exposed, with refrigerated insets for drink components and built-in drip trays for glassware, the bar counter acts as a main stage, where all the action is centered. A comfortable, cozy invitation to watch the bartenders in action is also by design, the bar was specifically constructed to emulate the feel of a casual and intimate kitchen island counter for a subconscious feeling of welcome.
There, co-beverage directors Kirk Gibson of The Giving Kitchen (and the original Brush in Decatur) and Nik Soukavona of Little Trouble (whose sad closure caused fans no little trouble) conduct experiments in the science of craft cocktails, dabbling in unique flavors and techniques, creating technique-driven cocktails that are designed to be paired with the kitchen’s finely tuned culinary offerings.
Gibson is particularly excited about what Liang laughingly calls his “lab equipment,” which is being used to extract delicate flavors as well as concentrate aromas from plant-based ingredients.
“We’re distilling things at close to room temperature for precision boils in a vacuum and then redistilling them at lower temperatures to pull out these details,” Gibson explains. In this way, he’s bringing out stronger citrus notes from Sichuan peppercorn, top notes from local flowers like gardenia for a vesper that’s in development, and enhancing elusive, delicate flavors such as honeysuckle, his initial inspiration.
In the meantime, signature drinks like the Georgia Yuzu Old Fashioned; Bananas!, which features a brown butter rum, clarified banana, and chocolate bitters; and Harvest Moon with Gyokuro tea, saffron, lemon, and hibiscus offer flavors that surprise the first time and delight thereafter.
It’s not just about taste, though — you’ll also see plays in texture. The B-side introduces tequila and wormwood with bitter melon that appears on the back end with housemade seasonal fruit leather that’s rubbed inside the glass to dissolve slowly into the drink — if you can resist the urge to chew on it as a snack immediately.
Su-Jit Lin is a rehabilitated New Yorker, former New Orleanian, and current Atlantan, in addition to being a travel, food, and lifestyle writer. She has contributed to EatingWell, HuffPost, Epicurious, The Takeout, Eater, The Kitchn, VinePair, Thrillist, Food & Wine, Serious Eats, Southern Living, and more. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.