Luci Restaurant

Luci luci restaurant …
I pick this restaurant out of the blue. I have to said I did great !!! It was my husband birthday he enjoy everything !! The food was great. …the atmosphere great the wine ha ha very good as well … the food I give it a 10÷10… the waiter «Georgie“he was very good to us … he told us the menu … he’s a great waiter… overall we would go back

We celabrated our 25 th wedding anniversary with our friends at Luci.
It was the right choice!
Service, appetizers and foods were delicious .The ambience was perfect. We had a great time there.
Thank you

My husband and I dined here tonight for our anniversary. The ambience was romantic and the service was exquisite! Our servers were very attentive and offered wonderful service.
Now for the food… We had a Groupon for a 4 course meal for 2. I had the Cesar salad and my hubby had the wild mushroom soup. Both appetizers were great! I would’ve liked my salad to have a bit more garlic though. The maple bacon on the salad was to die for! My hubby enjoyed his soup. The calamari were fresh and cooked to perfection. Entrees: I had the T-​bone steak (very very yummy) and my hubby had linguine with seafood. We both enjoyed our entrees thoroughly. Dessert: I had Nutella bread pudding and hubby had crème brûlée. He loved his dessert, mine was alright… The bread pudding didn’t have a «Nutella» feel… It was more of an espresso bread pudding with cocoa sprinkled on top, but nonetheless it was still good.
All in all we had an amazing time and we’d definitely go again. Ps. The bread basket was great. They served it with a chickpea and roasted vegetable purée. Yum!

I came here tonight with the 4-​course groupon deal, with 6 people. The groupon was good for 4 soups/​salads, 2 antipasti, 4 entrees and 4 desserts. Just to put it out there, the service was no way compromised just because we came with a groupon — the waitress and waiter were extremely attentive, non-​disruptive and incredibly accommodating.
At first glance, the ambiance seemed warm and inviting; the banquettes were also super comfortable and plush (it felt a bit low, but I’m just short). To start, they gave us a bread basket (baguette and focaccia — both made in house) with a chickpea/​vegetable spread on the side. Delicious; if I didn’t have a full meal coming up, I would’ve inhaled the entire basket + dip and have left pretty satisfied.
To start, I had the caesar salad. Romaine was fresh, but the dressing wasn’t as cheesy or garlicky as I’d like. The rest of my family opted for the soup of the day, which happened to be stracciatella, an italian egg drop soup. Although I didn’t try it, it looked good and my family had good reviews for it.
Next, we had 2 antipasti; calamari done two ways (fried and grilled), and a crab, scallop and shrimp cake. The calamari was super tender, but a tad under seasoned for my liking. The CSS cake was much better; it was fork tender, had a crispy coating, and was served with a vinegary onion and tomato relish.
For my main, I ordered a whole sea bass; it came with a balsamic dressed arugula salad with mandarin slices, and some orzo with a basil pesto. The sea bass was GREAT; not overly fishy, moist, tender, with crispy skin ¹⁰⁄₁₀ recommend. I also had a taste of the lamb chops with a chimichurri sauce — also excellent; although I’m not a huge fan of lamb, I would definitely order it next time I come.
Dessert! I tried 4 items: a nutella bread pudding with banana ice cream, tiramisu, chocolate truffle cake and a cheesecake with berries. All amazing, with maybe the exception of the chocolate cake; it was a little dense and butterscotch-​y for my liking.
TLDR: ¹⁰⁄₁₀ would come again. Food. Was. Bomb.

Excellent service, delicious authentic food with a special flare that made stand out from many Italian restaurants. Will come back — very good value and has a friendly charm.

I love this restaurant!
It’s red carpet treatment from reservation to goodnights and a promise to return soon.
No one hosts like Fernando, and his care of guests is what he truly breathes. He was born to do this, and his team is über professional. I cannot imagine the feathers ever ruffling in such an homage to food and foodies alike. Great wine list, amazing ambience, and we floated on a pillow from arrival to departure.
The attention to detail does not go unappreciated, nor unrewarded. On the night we were there, an off night for most, there were 50 diners. Kudos, and more to do so successfully on The Queensway no less.
The meals we had not only looked great, but tasted even better. From appetizer to fresh fish, from salad to dessert it was an outstanding experience. Fern, we will see you soon.
John and Vanessa

Not sure about the mediocre reviews I have read, but our experience was great. The location isn’t great (sketchy strip plaza in etobicoke) but once inside the décor and ambience is fantastic and you are transported to a happy place. Like some other reviewers we discovered Luci with the 4-​course groupon deal. Service was exceptional from taking our coats on arrival until the end. It was Friday night and there was plenty of staff. Food came very quickly. Someone else mentioned that portions were small, not true unless your usual dinner out is a buffet! We left stuffed and would not have ordered all that food had we just come to eat without the groupon prix fix. Also very impressed that they did not exclude any of the higher priced menu items considering what we paid. Wine list was extensive with many reasonably priced options (under $ 60) and a handful of other special occasion options.
Salads were good; I had the arugula and my wife had Caesar. We did think it was odd that the Caesar came with extra dressing on the side — why not just make it perfect in the kitchen and serve? But it was good. Calamari was a treat served both grilled and fried. Seafood pasta and veal entrees were both delicious. Bread pudding was good, a little doughy in texture though. The cheese tray was incredible, especially at $ 12. They could easily charge a little more for this. The uncharged us $ 3 on the groupon for it (typical dessert price is $ 9) which we happily paid.
My gold standard for Italian is Via Allegro further west on the Queensway. It remains my favourite, but Luci is a close second.

Love this place, they treat you like family food is awesome must try burrata appetizer as as beef tenderloin so great. Any desert that you take will be awesome even for the most picky ones out there, it is not cheep but not too expensive when you compere it with any steakhouse in Toronto

Brought my wife here for our Anniversary and I have to say the food and service was outstanding (mind you we went on a Monday and we literally had the restaurants to ourselves) with the exception of one thing.
We had bought the Groupon deal for $ 60 and on top of the deal we decided to get a bottle of wine ~$ 28. When the bill arrived we had an outstanding owing of $ 48 instead of the $ 28 plus tax, when asked about it the waiter expressed that the taxes are added to the value of the meal not the actual price paid. I find that sneaky for a upscale restaurant to do. I decided not to fight it since we had a great time and did not wanted to spoil the moment, and I just paid the bill

What shocks me most about Luci is not that it gets generally high marks from various online sites but that the fairly tough Toronto Star gave it a *** review only a couple of years ago. Amy Pataki is a very solid restaurant critic and three stars from her usually means that the place is money. But in this case I have to fairly strongly disagree with her pretty much across the board. Also please note that although I’m only posting my Unilocal!review now, I actually ate there in February of 2012, the same time hers was published. So although it has been a couple of years, I really have no inclination to go back and give it a second chance.
The initial impressions walking in were quite positive, a décor that said upscale but not stuffy. My party was greeted warmly, promptly seated and offered water. Off to a good start. Sadly, the same level of service did not continue throughout the meal. While certainly polite, it would be a stretch to call our service attentive. Please note that it wasn’t especially busy, simply a typical Saturday night. We were asked if we wanted wine (which of course we did), though only once. Our glasses were refilled but we were never asked if we wanted a second bottle… I can’t remember the last time that’s happened to me, especially for a party of four. We certainly would have sprung for it had they asked but they didn’t bother so neither did we. Also there really was no «how is everything», other than perhaps once after our appetizers arrived and there certainly should have been considering how the food turned out.
Two of us ordered the Caesar Salad ($ 9.50) and it was an embarrassment. The salad itself was very small, which would have been fine had it not been so lacking in every way. The flavour was nonexistent, to the point where they actually included small bowls of extra salad dressing on the side for some reason, as if to say «we know this may be bland, so feel free to add more dressing». I’ve never come across that. Not to mention the fact that both plates had perhaps two croutons each and three very small strips of shaved parmesan. But the worst part? The salads were wet and it doesn’t seem as though they had bothered to dry the lettuce at all.
The Insalata di Rape Rose ($ 8.50) was much better flavour wise, but correct me if I’m wrong: doesn’t that translate into «Beet Salad»? Well, much like the parmesan on the Caesar, the amount of actual beets on the plate was miniscule. The crab cakes ($ 12.00) were good, but again a major problem: there was a fairly sizable shell found inside. Choking or chipping a tooth is not something one expects while eating crab cake.
As for the mains, the problems continued. The Spaghetti Dal Mare ($ 22.00) tasted a little like chow mein. A filet mignon ($ 28.00) which was ordered medium-​well was quite clearly well-​done. Not impressed. And the mashed potatoes that accompanied it were absolutely stone cold when they arrived. This was the one complaint we did actually voice at the time and at least they were replaced with ones that were actually hot, if somewhat pedestrian. Happily for me the dish I ordered, the Fettuccini di Nonna ($ 15.00), was delicious, a lovely blend of goat cheese, eggplant, tomato sauce and mint. It was the only real winner of the evening, so far as I was concerned.
The Crème Brulee ($ 9.00) was very tasty to be sure, but not for what you’re paying. For example North 44’s Crème Brulee is four dollars more but I’d have paid double. With it, you’re in desert paradise. Luci’s was just trip to Orlando by comparison.
Luci may not be a terrible place but it’s also not three out of four. Not even remotely close. There were positives but there was also A LOT wrong here. If I could describe Luci Restaurant in one word it would probably be «careless». Wet lettuce, indifferent service, cold potatoes, overcooked steak and a stray crab shell? Simply put, it’s not worth it. There’s no shortage of similar places in the area and unless I’m getting a free meal, I’m going to try one of them instead.

We came here tonight with a Groupon deal, and were very pleased with both the food and the service.
The Groupon deal includes 2 soup/​salad, 1 appetizer, 2 main courses and 2 desserts.
Soup/​salad: My boyfriend ordered the Cesar Salad and I ordered the Burrata as our server recommend. Both salads were very good!
Appetizer: We ordered the Calamari Due Modi which comes with a few fried calamari and a couple grilled calamari. My only complaint for this dish is the grilled calamari was a little burned and it tastes quite bitter.
Entrees: I ordered the Linguini Pescatore, and it was great. My boyfriend got the T-​bone and it was outstanding as well!
Desserts: Crème Brulee and the bread pudding were very tasty. We were both very full at this point but we still finished the desserts!
Service: The service was fantastic and our server was very nice. However, because I came here on a busy friday night, it seems to me that the servers can’t quite keep up with the flow. It’ll be great if they can add more people to the floor.
Overall, Luci is a fantastic restaurant and we’ll definitely come back and visit again!

We came here with a Groupon, and it was a very pleasant neighbourhood surprise.
First, the service: fantastic. You can tell they care because they have a lot of staff on hand, prepared to take care of their customers. They were all well groomed, ready to serve.
Food was also very good, surprisingly pleasant given how far from the core this place is. Besides Sushi Kaji, I’m not sure what other places in the area could offer high-​end quality food.
Wine list, pastas, pricing… all very fair. I would go back, if we have the budget to splurge as well as wanting to stay close to home.

Walked into the restaurant for an 830 reservation. It seemed like no one noticed us (two) for the first 5 minutes or so. We actually kept up with the timing of when they would see us. They were so busy there that all the waiters and waitresses had their hands full of plates and there were dirty glasses all over the counter that we first lay our eyes on. It just didn’t look too impressive, but as a Unilocaler who loves food, I’m still waiting for it.
We had a couple waiters come to us saying that the maître’d will come serve us. When he did, we got seated for approx 15 minutes before we got served water. By that time, we already figured out what we want to eat from the groupon coupon we had. (2 apps, 1 antipasiti, 2 entrees, 2 desserts) ($ 69)
We quickly ordered our food and noticed that the table next to us had the wrong entrée ordered and served to them. The waiter told them that it would be a 45 – 60 minute wait in order to change it. It must have been a jungle in there because there were so many people and many plates flying out and in the kitchen.
My boyfriend and I decided to take this date to come here because it was reviewed as the top 10 restaurants out of 6500 in Toronto so we thought it’d be nice to try.
We timed that our appetizer (mozzarella and tomatoes + arugula salad) came another 20 minutes after our ordering and our antipasti (beef carpaccio) came 10 minutes after we finished our apps. We waited almost an hour until our entrée came and by that time we wanted to pack it up and go because it was already 1045. So basically we spent 2.5 hours at the restaurant waiting for our entrée (rainbow trout + lamb chops) to come and we didn’t even get to eat it because we weren’t even hungry anymore because of the wait. I was really disappointed as I had read reviews that this place was amazing.
We just wanted our desserts by then and we ordered the crème brûlée and tiramisu. Both of which were amazing and to-​die-​for! It was so worth the wait!
The waiter was a young man and was super polite about it. He apologized a whole lot tonight about the wait times and how this hasn’t happened before and he hopes we would come back because food is actually really good. How do you only have 3 chefs on a Saturday night!!! But anyway I don’t know if I would come back. If I do it would definitely be for the desserts and that nice young man waiter!

Went here on a Groupon yesterday and as someone had mentioned earlier. Not sure that I would go without one.
I had the grilled vegetable + goat cheese salad to start (as someone else also mentioned, TINY portion), it was delicious though! In terms of antipasti, we had the Antipasti itself and the Basquetino. The Basquetino is delicious if you like mushrooms. For the main I had the Linguini Pescatore which was just OK. The tiramisu for dessert was probably the best dessert ordered at our table (group of 4) and my favourite course. We got here at about 7:15 and didn’t leave until almost 10:30, service is reallyyyy slow and food takes forever to come out even if you order all your courses at once.
Also they charge tax on the VALUE of the Groupon — which I’ve never seen before in any of the Groupons I’ve used, considering how can you tax money that you weren’t paid? I’ve always been taxed on what I actually paid for the Groupon.
I do however, have to mention that the people who worked there were exceptionally friendly and the owner does make a personal visit to all the tables. The ambiance is great and it feels like you’re dining downtown.

We bought a Groupon for this place and it was pretty good, but I wouldn’t pay full price.
Our Groupon included 2 aps, 1 antipesto, 2 mains and 2 deserts.
I thought we would be STUFFED but we were just full.
I ordered a glass of white wine ($ 6.50) not included in the groupon and my date ordered a beer they have ontap. The beer was $ 9 and it really was not great at all for $ 9.
I ordered the Grilled Vegetable and Goat Cheese appetizer, the crab/​seafood cake antipesto, filet minion main and lemon cheesecake desert.
My date ordered the house soup, the mint lamb chops and ice cream sandwhich.
Both aps were very good, but the salads are VERY small, actually all courses are very small. The filet and lamb were VERY good but the portions are tiny (esp the lamb). The steak was cooked to perfection though.
Also the ice cream sandwhich was not very good at all but the cheesecake wasnt bad (again i would never pay $ 9 for it) as it was about 3 bites and was okay. Nothing rave worthy.
The service was slow at first, took them 10 minutes to take our drink orders.
Also, make sure you make a reservation as it was pretty busy.
It was a good time and okay food, however I don’t think we would be back without a Groupon.
3 stars for the food, one taken off for tiny portions and another taken off for slow service.

To be fair, I came here for a Christmas party, so there was a large group of us.
My steak was cold (maybe because they had to serve a large party).
There was a waitress there that seemed always bothered when we asked for another drink.
The waitors we had that night were all polite though.
There was no vegetarian option on our set menu. When I asked the waitress if they had a vegetarian option for my vegetarian co-​worker, she pointed to the fish option. I had to explain to her that this is not a vegetarian option, as my friend does not eat any kind of animal.
Eventually she suggested a mushroom risotto, she brought out an asparagus risotto instead. sure, why not.
Anyways, I had heard good things about this place, so maybe, I might try it out another time, however, based on this experience alone, I wouldn’t bother, so many other places that I can try out.
There is a delicious cheese tray with dried fruits and jams that I would suggest though.
Also, they can accommodate larger, private parties… so something to keep in mind.

This was one of those local Queensway restos that I have to support. Plenty of competition from other establishments. You can’t tell from the website of their restaurant what their food is like.
The beginning didn’t start off too well. I had made a reservation using their online system. The email came back as invalid. Their twitter account was infrequently used and only pushed their product. Nevertheless, we took a chance in going in. Not that it mattered because there weren’t many tables filled.
We were greeted by a French waitress who seemed pretty friendly. The printed menu was off. Someone forgot to used left or centre-​justified.
Then between the time we got our drinks to the time to order, it was well over 15 minutes. From there it went uphill.
We ordered the Linguini Gamberi (shrimp) and Gnochetti Sardi (Chicken confit with sauce). The owner/​manager asked if I wanted to try the pepperoncini. Of course given my taste buds, I couldn’t resist. I was very spicy, yet tasty. It didn’t spoil at least my Gnochetti. Very flavourful dishes.
When the desserts came around, we were disappointed that the Nutella Bread pudding was off the menu. They must have redone the menu because the waiter cam back and we were in luck. Why would they have taken that off the menu if it’s absolutely delectable. I had the vanilla cheesecake, which was awesome as well.
Although we had many servers at our table, the overall experience was pretty good. I just think they should take the time to promote their business even more so with social media, an improved look on the menu and it will make their end product that much better. It would be a shame to waste such excellent talent and food if they don’t pay attention to detail.

I have only good things (mostly hah) to say about this restaurant! It is a small restaurant, that is very elegant in décor and ambiance. We had a large party (20 people) here for a birthday and were seating to the side in a private room. The service was really great, the fixed menu that the girl planned with the owner/​manager was fantastic — it was a 4 course meal (shared antipasto platter). The only thing is that many of us ordered the striploin steak and it wasn’t cooked to order for a few of us (too rare for medium steaks).
I would come back here if I was looking for a place to dine in this area. If you live around here, definitely give the restaurant a chance!