LOL Kitchen & Grill in Centereach adds dim sum to menu

LOL Kitchen & Grill has added dim sum and lunch specials, a move that expands its menu beyond Northern Chinese fare.

New dishes include shrimp dumplings ($5.50), egg custard buns ($3.95), roast pork buns ($3.95), pork pancakes ($5.50) and soup dumplings ($6.50). If you’re getting buns, order snacks to start. It takes fifteen minutes to make the buns, and you can watch through a window into the kitchen.

A rotating list of lunch specials for $8.95 and $9.95 — such as mapo tofu and cumin lamb — are available from noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Yang Liu opened this hidden Centereach spot in March, with a menu of boldly seasoned vegetables, cumin-laced meats, hot pots and skewered foods cooked on the grill.

The recent Stony Brook grad said he wanted to open a restaurant close enough to the university to attract students without it being prohibitively expensive. The name is a reference to the LOL acronym “laughing out loud,’’ the online game League of Legends and “a Chinese reference to eating food on skewers.”

2545 Middle Country Rd., Centereach; 631-615-6313