Luce Restaurant

I had lunch today at Luce Restaurant.
Just the brunch/​lunch menu was available. I love chicken parm so I ordered a Pollo Parmigiana sandwich (without the grated parmigiano) with roasted potatoes. The roasted potatoes were good. I thought there was too much bun and I wasn’t crazy about the style of it so I took the chicken off the bun and ate it. The sauce was sweet and I liked it.

I am a big fan of Luce Restaurant since I love Italian food as well as red wine! The pizza size is perfect for one person. The atmosphere is warm and cozy! I will go back to enjoy the food.

Luce deserves a 5 star as it provided our group an experience like no other. From ambiance, to food, music and hospitality of its owner chefs, this restaurant is a must go.

My sister and I were very excited to try this restaurant as per the Unilocal reviews and also looking for a gluten free Italian meal.
Unfortunately, we had a terrible experience. The server started off by telling us that we would have to wait 25 minutes for our food once we ordered. We were ok with that but as time went on, we ended up waiting 20 minutes for the menu, water and utensils.
The male waiter could tell we were getting impatient and took our order and promised us ten minutes.
Both of our dishes came in ten minutes but my sister ordered the bolognese pasta, not the rapini. They took both of our pastas back to the kitchen without apologizing or really saying anything to us at all. When they brought them back out, they still said nothing! No apologies or explanation.
The two customers who came in after us were served immediately and well taken care of.
We went up to the bar to pay the bill, and once the bill was paid, they did not say a word. No thank you, no ‘Goodbye! Have a good night!’ And no apologies for any of the delay.
To conclude, the food would have been a lot better if the service was better.

The owner, Maria, hired my daughter, who happens to have a learning disability and even though she knew about the disability she yelled at her constantly because she wasn’t fast enough and belittled her about her disability. After she couldn’t take it anymore she quit. It has been over a week and this woman won’t pay her the money she owes her for the month’s work she did. Just know if you eat at this place the owners DO NOT treat those with a disabilities very well.

Upon googling restaurants on King St West this restaurant came, it had decent reviews and the price seems reasonable as well. The restaurant itself is small and cozy, I don’t think more than 50 max can fit. The walls are decorated with rustic photos and a few paintings. They have a small bar, and the kitchen has a slight open concept, so you are able to see the chefs prepare meals and they are also able to view customers dine.
For food my friends and I decided to get: 12inch spinach pizza, honey basil cream pasta (penne), bolognese tomato basil with beef pasta (penne), gorgonzola red pepper cream with chicken (fettuccine). The pizza was excellent, great flavour, seasoning was perfect, it was soft yet crispy, highly recommended if anyone decided to go to this place. Bolognese wasn’t so bad, a bit on the salty side. The gorgonzola was good, and a bit lacking in salt. The honey pasta the first time had excellent flavour in their sauce, it was a sweet basil alfredo sauce, but the pasta itself was a bit tough to chew, it wasn’t al dente and I explained that to our server but I was fine with it, whatever. But the server kept insisting that he would ask the kitchen to make a new batch, so they did, and the second time the pasta was good but the sauce tasted like milk, literarily milk and pasta. I even had my friends try it, and they said the exact same. The server asked if I was happy with it, I said I’m not but it’s okay I’ll eat it regardless. It’s not a big deal. However, the server altered the owner who came to our table, and seemed a bit upset. First, he accused me of ordering the wrong pasta type (penne) for that sauce, well if that was the case then the server could have easily made recommendations when I asked him, then the owner said that person who was our server is actually not a server but rather his «friend» helping him out for the evening? Well, I’m sorry I wasn’t aware that my server wasn’t someone who consistently works at your restaurant. Then the owner kept explaining how I «choose» the «wrong pasta» and I kept making him my point, he said he monitored the pasta the second time and there is no way he tasted like I claimed, I asked him to taste the dish himself and did not not. Then he said, I don’t have the palate for tasting the organic honey, even though I explained the first time the sauce was fine. Instead, he kept badgering me and defending his pasta, and I apologized to him and said, I’m only providing honest feedback and I didn’t mean to offend anyone. Anyways, this went on for a bit… it was very time consuming especially since we had a train to catch.
The service is slow, they take a bit of time to bring out your orders but the menu states — «Don’t rush the silicians» or something of that sort. Even with the bill, it took them a good 20 mins to figure out to divide a bill 3 ways, and the entire time the kitchen staff kept staring at us from their open kitchen, which was extremely uncomfortable. The owner did come and apologize towards the end, however the entire experience was uncomfortable, so I wouldn’t go back.
This place is promising and does have some decent dishes, although they lack in seasoning. The service is slow, and owner will get offended if you return your dish, and the staff will stare at you the whole time. Before coming here, if you are on King St. W, try Cibo wine bar for Italian cuisine, not only great food but better customer service.

I’m Italian and my girlfriend eats Gluten-​Free so Luce is a fantastic place for the both of us. The service is always friendly and top-​notch. The kitchen is not fast, but that gives you plenty of time to sit, chat, and enjoy their delicious cocktails. All the food we’ve tried from pizza to pasta to appetizers has been absolutely delicious. Very simple and authentic. Nothing hip. Nothing pretentious. Just good food, prepared with care and served with a smile.
Although I’m still not sure why an Italian restaurant is named after a Chihuahua. Hi Luce!

My boyfriend and I ordered a pizza and a caprese salad for takeout. The servers were very nice, and they rushed our order through since we were waiting there for it.
The caprese salad was 7 cherry tomatoes and 3 small dollops of mozzarella. That is unacceptable.

Had the tapas. Amazing food very good portions. I recommend the artichoke. If your into strong wine aroma in your food this is a place for you.

Luce is my favourite neighborhood restaurant. Nice to have a place you can get ethically raised and healthy food options for a reasonable price. Servers and owners are super friendly, it really does feel like a second home. There’s a lot of love that goes into the food.
Favorites are the arancini, Cesar salad, fried cauliflower, meatballs, bolognese, and their chicken parm.

Luce has a comfortable and quaint atmosphere. The food was fresh, tasty, and reasonably priced. The waiters were friendly and were attentive but non-​intrusive. We were also pleasantly surprised given by being a «cold weather discount» of 30% because it was –30 degrees outside. I will definitely be visiting Luce in the near future.

When the bill came we were surprised to see an additional 30% discount! They currently have a special where they take the temperature off the bill. Since it was –30 degrees out we saved 30%! That was just additional icing on the amazing lunch I had.

Luce has become our go-​to restaurant in the neighbourhood!
Quality product (organic hormone free meat and cheeses), great food and great prices.
5 stars because this place is unpretentious and the food is tasty and plentiful.
Menu item must haves: The pizza, the rice balls and the fried cauliflower. Oh and they make their own hot sauce!
Evenmore they carry local beers and the wines by the bottle are all great and affordable.

Best pizza I’ve ever had in this city. Great service and an amazing owner!

A great organic Sicilian restaurant. Me and my wife shared the salmon pizza and the Gorgonzola pasta. She ate until she couldn’t eat anymore, which I was happy because I finished the rest. Great food at a fair price all sustainably sourced. How could you go wrong.

Luce is an authentic Italian restaurant, and everything is fresh, organic and fair trade. Every time that I go there I almost cry having to choose between one of their amazing dishes. These are my favorites though: the chicken low carb, the prosciutto pizza, the parmegiana sandwich and the bruschetta. I also love their cola.
It’s a way better than other snob places (like terroni where you get to eat exactly 3 pieces of pasta, or any other one in this town.
If you speak Italian, you can even get to practice a little but with their staff.

High cuisine it is not. If you want to be wowed by elegance and a refined dining experience, instagramming all the while, you’re in the wrong place. However, if you’ve had a week of spiritual annihilation that only Toronto can provide and seek comfort in the form of simple, heaping piles of well made italian without any pretence, Luce delivers. Upbeat staff, casual (if a bit bright) décor and so… much…food.
Gains an extra point for it’s hangover friendly atmosphere on a Sunday night breakfast. Don’t judge me.

2.5 stars (extra point for portion size/​value)
I was looking forward to coming to Luce because my friend told me their portions were big and that their chicken parm was the best he’d ever had.
We arrived at around 2PM on a Saturday and ordered a drink. It then started going downhill. The server poured us some water, and spilled some on the table. Not a big deal, except for he never came back to wipe it up. It also took a bit of time for him to come back to take our order. My boyfriend ordered the chicken parm, and we were told they were OUT OF CHICKEN!!! From what I understand this is their signature dish appearing on lunch, dinner and their brunch menu. How are you out of chicken? We also ordered the arancini balls, and we were told they were OUT of it as well! I understand small restaurants running out of stuff, but at least give us a heads up before we mull over the menu for 15 minutes!
The portions are big. This is something I can agree with. I ordered the meatball pasta dish, and once I was full, it still looked like I didn’t eat anything! The taste was ok. To be honest, I feel like it’s something I could have made at home, but it was a comforting plate. Throughout the meal, no one came to check on us or ask my boyfriend for a refill. It was definitely a missed opportunity to sell more pints by them, and it made my boyfriend annoyed with the service.
I don’t think we’ll be back, just because the service was so slow.

Really nice, high quality home style Italian dishes at extremely reasonable prices. We had two appetizers, a huge dish of pasta, a pizza, a glass of wine, and one dessert for $ 65 including tip. And because we are not huge eaters, we took enough leftovers home for lunch the next day.
The details:
Appetizers were grilled veggies (very nice, fresh, with just enough oil but not too much, better and much less expensive than the similar dish at Cibo) and anchovies (wouldn’t recommend unless you really like anchovies — just anchovies in oil with a little interesting sauce I couldn’t quite identify).
Pasta was fresh homemade fusilli with four huge meatballs and a delicious simple tomato sauce, a very well made dish and a total steal at $ 11. More than enough to feed two people. I believe I heard the server tell someone that the meat is medication free, organic or something, but I may have heard wrong. In any case, the meat was super tasty and better than supermarket quality ground beef.
The Margherita pizza was almost indistinguishable in quality from pizza in Naples, so you know if you’re looking for Canadian/​American pizza you won’t get it here. They use the same tasty, simple tomato sauce as on the pasta, with very flavourful fiore di latte. The crust was perhaps a little tough on the edges but not greasy at all.
For dessert we had a huge slice of apple cake, nice and fresh. My only complaint there is that it took a really long time to get to us.
For drinks, they have quite a long list of wines by the glass (at least 5 whites and 7 reds) and the prices were between $ 6−9/glass. They also have a long list of local microbrew beer.
We live nearby and will be going again soon, so if my opinion changes I’ll change my review but at this point I say Luce is an incredible bargain and a nice family-​run neighbourhood joint well worth trying for simple, homemade food.

We popped in here for a quick lunch this week.
We will definitely be back!
We didn’t have a lot of time, so opted for the Chicken Schnitzel sandwich.
This was great — served on a fresh white ciabatta bun, with greens.
Came out with rosemary baked fries that were sooooo flavorful.
Service was fast, and the waitress kept topping up our water glasses.
We will be back to try out the pizzas which looked amazing at other tables.
Loved the atmosphere — with the familia photos on the wall.
This place should do great in this neighborhood.
We were eyeing the banana cake for dessert, but were so full from the sandwich will have to leave it for next time. Note — we were out in under an hour — which was excellent at noon-​time!