Luciano’s

This place is the worst restaurant in Sioux City. I have ate here multiple times and the food is always disgusting. The best part of my meal is that I didn’t get food poisoning.
They have a really nice parking area in the back.

Arrived early on a Saturday night. Great ambience and atmosphere. Had the cherry martini and espresso martini. Very good, and strong. Food was delicious, service was great. A wonderful evening, will definitely return and recommend to friends

The best thing about this restaurant is the décor. My experience here started out nice. I ordered a glass of moscato di Asti, which I really enjoyed. My boyfriend tried to order a Perrier, but they were out. It was our server’s first day and she didn’t know what anything was. When we asked about the appetizers, she had no idea, which is fine, but she also didn’t offer to ask the kitchen to find the answer to our question. So we took a chance and ordered the mozzarella focaccia. It took a long time to come out, but it was very good. The salads were delicious. One of the best I’ve ever had. The server waited until we were finished with salad to even put in our main orders (she told us this), so we ended up having to wait another long stretch of time for our entrees to come out.
I ordered the roasted Tuscan ravioli, which is described as «Roasted peppers, mushrooms, garlic & onion ravioli in a garlic & white wine cream sauce» it came out covered in undercooked, crispy pieces of carrot and green bell pepper. These vegetables did not compliment the dish at all, and I can’t imagine raw carrots and green peppers complimenting any pasta dish at all, for that matter. The ravioli themselves and the sauce they came in were also not very good. Very, very disappointed with that dish.
My boyfriend ordered the manicotti, which is hard to mess up, but it seems they managed. The cheese filling was gritty and flavorless. The marinara sauce tasted horrible.
I would come back to this place just to enjoy the environment and order a salad, appetizer and wine. But I don’t think I want to risk trying another entrée. With the long drawn out waits between courses, it took us over two hours just to get out of there, and we are not slow eaters. There were only a few other tables, but it seems they don’t train their new servers properly on when to put in/​bring out the food.

One of the worst places in Sioux city. Sad because it has pretty good décor and would be a cool place to hang out. I stood at the bar waiting to order drinks for awhile without ever being acknowledged and it wasn’t even busy. After waiting back at the table our group left. I’m writing this review from Pearls on Pearl street where we were greeted appropriately and served amazing drinks!

I thought I could have a nice dinner planned out for my girlfriend’s birthday and then go to a show afterward so I made reservations for 6:45pm. We got right in and when our waitress came over I told her the bottle of wine we wanted. After that we didn’t see her for about a half hour. Finally, we decided to go somewhere else and as we were leaving we told her and she asked. Do you still want your bottle of wine… She had totally forgotten about us sitting there I think… Given the place was packed and there were only 2 servers, I don’t blame her. On first impression I probably wouldn’t return. Atmosphere seemed nice but I’m glad we didn’t spend $ 50 on that Napa wine…

Lasagna was dry, $ 14 for a dish. Also asked for marinara sauce since it was dry charged 2.00 extra for that. Waited 45 minutes for a small portion of lasagna and they weren’t even busy. Also the décor was very cheap and dark inside, not a good place to take someone for a date.

A nice enjoyable meal. Nothing special, just good basic food
The bread bowl is very creative (a wired spiral basket) and creates a great expectation, but I found the bread to be a bit ‘powdery’ without much taste. Too bad
The salad was fine and the blue cheese dressing, thinly applied, was good. Not sure what the intent of the mass of bread crumbs was on top a there was more of that it seemed than lettuce or dressing
The pollo Rivera was okay. The chicken breast was a generous size and thoroughly cooked, just on the edge of being dry though. The sauce, while tasty, it found a bit heavy. The flavour was okay and the pasta was cooked a bit beyond al dente
A good basic meal with a solid three stars

Food was fairly bland. I got the fettuccine with shrimp, mostly tasteless and soaked in vegetable or olive oil. It was poor italian food for what should have been some of the simplest options available on the menu.
Service was fair enough, though my water was regularly empty. I’d not come back.

Went once, many years ago. The lasagna I ordered was just slightly bigger than an espresso cup. Embarrassing. Poor value for my money. Haven’t been back since.

Meh. The décor was not that great, dirty curtains that were supposed to give an intimate feel to a large room. Weird backs to booths… Like king and queen thrones? No one offered to seat us for about 5 minutes. The bartender was really nice and attentive after that. They served bread and butter that felt like a cafeteria… Cold bread, butter in individually wrapped cups and the bread was cheap store bought stuff. No homemade feel to anything. Upscale Olive Garden at best. I will say though that I had the lobster ravioli and it was pretty good. It was my dinner night’s only saving grace. Oh and our wine glasses were filthy and had lip stick on the rim. Will not be going back.

Very nice décor and service.
I stopped in on a Friday evening and was surprised it was not packed. They had an extensive drink menu and I had a couple of great drinks.
Cosmo 3.5
Flirtini 3.0
Cherry Limeade 4.0
Lemon Drop 2.0
Apps were not bad either.
Itailian Meatball tapas 3.5
Blue Cheese Shrimp 3.0
I was probably expecting a bit more from the Blue Cheese shrimp for the price. It was just crumbles of blue cheese on lightly grilled plump shrimp. The odd thing with it was the bread. It honestly seemed like slivers of wonder bread that they served with the shrimp.
I guess I was hoping for more with the décor and the initial warmth and kindness of the server.

Staff was helpful and very friendly. The lobster ravioli was perfect! Ask for table 11 when calling for reservations. It’s in the back away from the crowd.

VERY slow service. Waitress was slow to get to us initially. Food came slowly and with an excuse. Temperature was luke warm and flavor was so so. Garlic smelled good from outside. Had the penne pasta with pesto cream sauce. Good wine selection. Price was fairly reasonable for 1 dish and 2 drinks.

Penne russo special was the lone highlight of the evening. Service was slow and varied from rolling eyes to the death look when I asked for a to go box for leftovers. This place wouldn’t last long in a competitive market like Dallas, Omaha or San Francisco. I will be going to Olive Garden next time I’m in town.

If you want real family style Italian, try the real thing, Trattoria Fresco on 29^th street, couple miles away in South Sioux City. seven days a week, Chicago style with a little south of the Boarder twist! Luciano’s is ok for a drink and maybe some bar food.

Excellent atmosphere, friendly staff. Started with a happy orchard martini then the angel hair pasta with russo sauce, peppers, onions and portabella mushrooms. Excellent! Finished with toasted almond bread pudding, unbelievably good.

Adorable, dark and romantic… or a quaint window seat, regardless… a wonderful dining experience.
The Chunky Tomato Soup was broth based instead of cream and a great flavor with it’s semi crunchy veggies. Mixed greens salad had a wonderful tasting homemade Ranch dressing. The bread dense and delicous.
My Ravioli with Spicy Sausage was chunky tomato sauce heaven. Hard to decide who’s dish was better, the Special Russo Penne or mine! The Russo had a lucious vodka sauce, I would have been happy swimming around with those chunks of chicken, sausage and shrimp had the bowl been big enough!
Tiramisu dessert was perfectly executed, the marscapone/​cream layer was a bit heavier than most, but quite good.

Wanting to carb load the night before a local race, my friend and I chose to get carry out pasta from Luciano’s. I always try to support and recommend locally owned businesses, especially since there are so few of them in Sioux City. Attempting to place my order, I was told by owner, Ray Hoffmann, in an extremely condescending tone, that I didn’t have a reservation and therefore could not order anything to go. Had the restaurant appeared at all busy, I might have understood. Instead I was turned away feeling rather dejected. How dare I ask for carry out without a reservation? Obviously Ray didn’t want or need my business. I’ll be sure to remember that in the future and recommend Olive Garden when someone needs a suggestion for Italian. How sad.

After driving through snow, sleet, ice and monster wind to get here, the most important question that must be answered is «How can I reward my tummy?»
After getting some ideas from 2 cute little girls working the front desk @ the garden inn, we decided to head out to Luciano’s.
I’m not sure if «better and cheaper than Olive Garden» is the best description to entice us into going there (especially coming from New Jersey), but we were starving. It was either that for the Milwaukee Wiener House (tempted…but they are supposedly for lunch)
Anyway, after skidding and sliding across town to Luciano’s, we found a nice parking spot next to the restaurant. Now, why is that important? Well, –8 degrees and –31 with wind chill for one was a good reason. There was also plenty of snow on the ground, so the closer the better. It’s not that the streets weren’t plowed. They were constantly plowing. But with temperature being this low, and the wind going sideways, snow drift will pile up anywhere.
Upon entering the restaurant, my first impression was «Is Luciano’s an Indian restaurant or Italian restaurant?» It smelled like an Indian restaurant. I have no idea why, but it just did. Perhaps, it was an Indian restaurant before it was Luciano’s?
That’s not important, of course. It’s all about the food. I went for the simple stuff. I created a bowl of linguine with russa sauce, then I topped it off with a garlic whiskey steak. First of all, the russa sauce was awesome. This was a great mix of alfredo and marinara. Yes, mixing 2 sauces isn’t hard, but making the right mix is key:-)
Then there is the garlic whiskey steak. It was delicious. The waiter actually discouraged me from ordering anything with steak… just like the waiters in Omaha. They seem to think that steaks are overrated. Well, I had a couple of hours to think about that one. It’s my first time in this part of the country in a long time, and these guys are just tired of the steaks, so I’m going to try anyway. Good thing I did, the tiny piece of steak was done to perfection (medium rare to rare… just how I like it) with a hint of garlic. I’m not sure where the whiskey part come from, but I have a feeling it’s that sweet after taste I get.
It’s not often that I would have italian outside of NY and NJ area, but this was definitely not a mistake. The food was excellent.
The cute little girls were right, the food was pretty light on the pocket.

I had dinner here this evening by myself while on a business trip. Everything was very good. Great service, though I possibly was the first customer tonite, as I arrived approx 5pm. I had a peach dessert, first course, and it was quite good. Fresh peaches too. I had a blue cheese/​shrimp appetizer and it was very good, though the bread on the plate… very average. I had a small taste and was not to my liking at all. My main course was a rosemary chicken pizza. Crust was ok and pretty good overall. Coffee and Coke for drinks. Not sure if I would go back however. Ambiance was better than the food.