Lucciano’s Cafe

First time there and there was nothing good to say. The Hostess was pretty terrible, never even acknowledged us, stood there waiting and waiting. Finally got sat and the waitress was so slow and not good. Food was ok, pasta a little undercooked and everything was swimming in chunky tomatoes. Nothing special, wouldn’t say worth it.

Father in law took us out for an early dinner. Food was great, large helpings. Would go back or take friends anytime. Service was very good, food came out in perfect time.

Short wait but very friendly service and very good bread. The pesto Ravioli was homemade and very good. The Greek pasta dish (with olives, feta, spinach etc.) was good, not great. The spinach was not fresh and the dish just could have been better. Good place for a nice dinner date.

Service is friendly and the restaurant is very cute which is why I’m giving 3 stars. The food is uninspired and pretty bland. Too much sauce on everything and I swear they don’t know how to use salt or garlic. Please, do some work in the kitchen.

Oh hell no!
Brought my bride here on January 14^th after a friend recommended it.
We found it interesting that they still had the place decked out in Christmas décor– even «Little Christmas» (Feast of the Epiphany) was more a week past.
We ordered Calamari as a starter.
While we were waiting, they server brought us three pieces of bread and some dipping oil. The bread was ok, but the oil was thin and unimpressive.
Calamari arrived– absolutely inedible. Could not even chew it. Tasted like freezer-​burned, dried-​out cardboard. Truly awful– sent it back.
Salads: we ordered a Greek and a Caesar salad– very generous with feta and olives on the Greek and the Caesar was drenched in dressing but ok.
For mains, Maureen had Cappelini Carbonara and I had the Mushroom Ravioli.
Maureen’s Carbonara was a large portion and heavily covered with an extremely thick sauce, heavy with the saltiest prosciutto I’ve ever tasted.
The ravioli was a big disappointment. Although the tomato cream sauce was tasty, the dish was served lukewarm and crew mushrooms in the ravioli were actually cold– not even room temp, but COLD!
Oh, but it gets worse…
On the way out, I used the men’s restroom, and was horrified to see that the restroom’s soap dispenser was absolutely BONE DRY, and clearly had not been filled in a very long time. There was no dispenser bottle on the counter, absolutely no soap or evidence that there had been any on there in a long time– SO HOW ARE THE COOKS AND FOOD PREP STAFF WASHING WITH NO SOAP?
EWWW…
If any readers are still contemplating a visit to Lucciano’s, I can only wish you good luck– I prefer my food without a side order of whatever might be on a cook’s hands after a trip to the toilet.
Oh hell no…

Excellent food and an even better value. It’s one of the best kept secrets for lunch in this area. The portions are large and their lunch sandwiches are excellent. It tends to get busy during typical dinner times (particularly on the weekend). However, it’s well worth the wait if there is one.

This was my first experience at Lucciano’s. It will be my last. I went here with my family for lunch for around 11:30 (they open at 11). I had my 4 month old daughter and my 2 ½ year old niece with me. There was only one other couple in the place and they received their food right after we got there. We ordered our food and my mom and aunt both got the cheeseburger panini so they could cut off some small pieces to give to my niece. After ordering the waitress told us they only had enough to make one panini (really it’s Saturday and you have no more ground beef?) So my mom ordered a different panini instead. 5 minutes later the waitress comes back and says that the cook is going to make it work and has miraculously found more ground beef and will make her a cheeseburger panini. (So I’m assuming the cook decided to defrost some frozen ground beef, mhmm sounds tasty…) When the meal comes the cheeseburger «panini» is actually just a cheeseburger… and cannot easily be cut up into bite size pieces for my niece… great. My meal wasn’t much better. I ordered the vodka penne which was not fresh pasta and had sauce that I could of made better myself. The kicker though? The shredded mozzarella was not fresh and tasted like processed cheese you buy at the super market… very authentic Italian. The two stars were for my sisters butternut squash ravioli. They were decent.
The waitress, while very nice, was the only one there so as people started trickling in we waited… and waited… and waited… for our food, for our check for a box for my leftovers. Having two young kids, waiting is tough to do and the two of them were EXTREMELY good. I think we waited 30 minutes for her for the check, with us and two other tables the girl needed to wait on. I mean come on lady. I would no go here again. Trattoria Amalfi’s in Salem has amazing food and is decently priced. I’d rather pay a little more for their amazing food than the subpar food at Lucciano’s.

Some recommendations for the owner that came to our table and the other that cooks:
1. Don’t serve chicken that is burnt on one side face down so the customer can’t see it. Customers will still taste the burnt taste and it just makes you look bad for trying to hide it. Also don’t say it’s «blackened chicken». It’s burnt, own up to it.
2. When your customer who has long blond hair, says she found a shorter blond hair mixed in with her food, don’t say «no one in our kitchen has that color hair, you can come look if you want». Considering 3 of your waitresses have blond hair as well as your hostess and they continually go into your kitchen, you would have been better off to just say sorry and not try to put the blame on my daughter or put us on the spot to come inspect your kitchen.
Taking her meal off the bill was the right move, but in both cases, trying to deflect blame left us disinterested in returning.
At least your servers and hostess seem nice. Unfortunately we’ll only see them again if they move on to another restaurant.

I have been a customer since 2005 and keep coming! I love the homey clean atmosphere. The food is GREAT! I personally like the Vodka Penne and their Tiramisu is to die for! I also like their Salmon Power Salad with their fresh baked bread. Thank you for great food Lu!!!

Very good food and service… Cute little place.

A seriously poor decision to try a place that we drive by all the time and never go in. The parking lot always has cars init! What are you doing people? The positive: hostess and serving staff (Ian) were very nice. Negative: the food was atrocious. Chicken parm was thick, the sauce had no taste, and was doused in shredded cheese. Chicken saltenboca (sp) was served cool and the cheese was as hard as a rock and was smothered in a tasteless white cheese sauce that had the consistency of mucus. There’s only one wine brand served and the chianti was horrible. Better Italian fare can be found at the 99 just up the street.

Starts off great, my cocktail was good, bread good, meal was great! Then it was 8:15 and they started to clean the tables, change the table clothes around us with even snapping the cloth towards us, and chit chatting with each other, so we boxed up our meals and left. BTW this is Saturday night! Food was great but that’s all…

Pasta bolonaise is just wonderful, Chefs sales, unbelievable for a small, you couldn’t finish a large. We have eaten there many times and I must say good thing we don’t live in the area. I would never cook again!
Jason is awesome and a great waiter and very funny.
i am surprised Phantom hasn’t been there yet!

Last time we were here was 9 years ago, now I remember why…
Went sat night at 6:15, waited 5 min to sit, then 15 min for drinks (no bartender?). Dinner took so long we asked for to go boxes with our check as soon as we were served.
Speaking of service, our server was very nice and mildly apologetic.
As for the food, chicken parm was very good although sauce was watery and very sweet. Salad with steak was not great. Salad part was fine but steak was cold and didn’t taste fresh cooked which one would expect for $ 18.
Bread was not good, like fresh white bread — 1 pc each. I asked to swap pasta for veg and found we got $ 4 up charge. I told the server that she should have told me, and she said it was the chefs decision. Seing the veggies were awful (think canned tomato and frozen broccoli), I told them to take them off the check.
Overall a disappointment.

I’m always in search for good quality food and exceptional service and I must say this place was both. the portions are large enough for two people to share. We started off with the calamari, it was fresh and tender not chewy like some other places. Main course was chicken parm and eggplant served with penne, real chicken not chicken patties it was very good just like I’ve had in the north end, dessert was cannoli delicious and made in house. our waiter Ian had a great personality wish more waiters and waitresses were like him. The only negative thing that I can say about this place is that the décor could prob use some sprucing up, and the Floors are very slippery if it’s wet out side because they are tile, besides this I would deff go back and recommend to family and friends.

The place isn’t the Olive Garden and thank God for that!
It’s rare but occasionally you stumble across a winner. Definitely an old world atmosphere, it reminds me the way the Italian restaurants used to be when I was a kid (in the 60’s– 70’s). The hostess greets you with a smile & the accordion player adds a bit of frivolity. Our waitress was an absolute charmer.
The bread is hot & fresh, the dipping oil is delicious. I had the Chicken Marsala with Penne and they did an excellent job. The portion size is huge.
Do yourself a favor and order the Tiramisu for dessert. I think they make it in house and it is by far the best I have ever had… and I’ve had a lot of it!
A good experience from beginning to end!

I had some of the best Italian food in recent memory at Lucciano’s. My husband and I first went for dinner a couple of weeks ago. The décor leaves a lot to be desired and could use some help, but all of the employees were incredibly attentive and friendly. We had Katie as our server, and she was awesome!
The complimentary bread and olive oil/​spices that we had to start was very flavorful and came out nice and warm. My husband had a side salad to start as well. The portion size was generous and it had a nice selection of veggies and croutons. I had the veal parm for dinner and my husband had the penne vodka with sausage. Both were amazing! The veal was cooked perfectly and the sauce/​cheese was excellent. The portion size was huge and I wound up taking half home with me. The penne vodka was the best I have ever had.
I would have given Lucciano’s 5 stars if we hadn’t ordered take out pizza last week. The meat lovers pizza really just wasn’t very good. It should also be noted that the menu prices online are not up to date.
All in all, Lucciano’s has fantastic food and I will definitely be back!

I’ve been driving by Luciano’s for years and have been saying I was going to try it…
Well, I finally made good on giving it a whirl and was completely disappointed…
Where to begin ???
The menu has your standard, Italian fair and is far from overwhelming…
The portions are fine but I found the food average, at best, if not slightly below…
Not sure what’s up with the wine selection but you can only get the «house» wines.
That wouldn’t be bad if the wines were better but they are not very good at all…
I asked for a Cappuccino, was told no problem then got an espresso, which honestly I believe to have been nothing more than weak coffee in a tiny cup…
Stay on the beaten path and eat at Sabatino’s in Derry…

Luccianos is still the heavyweight champion of New Hampshire Italian food :)
We took the whole New England family there for a get together and a celebration of birthdays. My grandmother Yolan goes way back with this place, and it was excellent as always. Great drinks, great service, great food, amazing portions… and then they brought us out a cake… but one of our members whose birthday it was, was away in the bathroom… so they ran back into the kitchen and then came out again when they knew we were all back!
This place is excellent. Get the Vodka Penne, rally some awesome bread, and enjoy yourself.

I love Luciano’s!!! I started going there when i moved to the area. It is by far the best Italian food I have ever had. Lou the owner cooks every meal himself.
Every meal comes with fresh home made bread that is made fresh every day. It comes with home made olive oil sauce that has spices in it. I never have liked olive oil until trying this place.
The staff is extremely friendly especially the male waiter Jason. Ask for him as he is extremely attentive and has made all my visits unforgettable.