Lucia Melbourne — Restaurant in Melbourne

I have recently dined at Lucia for my birthday dinner, while the food was good, the service was far below what I would expect—especially for a special occasion.

From the moment we were seated, service felt inattentive. No one offered water until we had to request it ourselves—after our drinks had already arrived. I have dined at many restaurants of a similar calibre where each table is assigned a waiter and service is consistently attentive. At Lucia, staff seemed rushed and distracted, making it difficult to get assistance.

When we were given the menus, the waiter said he would return to explain the specials. He never returned, and we had to call him over ourselves. His explanation was unclear, difficult to hear, and missing key details—such as the weight and pricing of the steaks.

The order was not repeated back to us, which led to two mistakes:

We ordered 4 oysters but were served (and charged for) 6.

We requested our steak medium, but it was served medium-rare.

When the oysters arrived, no cutlery was provided, and we had to ask for it ourselves.

Most disappointing of all was the complete lack of acknowledgment of my birthday. A friend had recommended Lucia to me after receiving a celebratory dessert for her own birthday, and I also saw other diners receive a macaron with “Happy Birthday” written on the plate. I received nothing—not even a simple “Happy Birthday” from the staff.

When I asked the waiter about birthday offerings, he said you “just write happy birthday on the plate” and that cakes must be pre-ordered—an answer that surprised me.

My boyfriend had in fact handed a cake to the waitress at the door upon our arrival, yet she still asked whether it was for a birthday. This makes me question why your booking system asks whether a visit is for a special occasion if no effort is made to acknowledge it.

Overall, the lack of attention, poor communication, and absence of any gesture to mark my birthday left me feeling disappointed and unvalued as a customer. Based on this experience, I cannot recommend Lucia to others, and I believe your staff would benefit from further training in both service standards and...

A friend and I dined here the other night, it was a last minute booking and we had never heard of the restaurant before, and were so pleased we did. As people who dine out at fine dining establishments in Melbourne multiple times a week we were absolutely shocked at the quality and attention to detail throughout the whole experience. When we were greeted we were shown to our table, our coats removed for us, and introduced to our waiter for the evening, who was incredibly knowledgeable about the menu from the food to the drinks list. Immediately he asked about our palate so he could recommend us a cocktail to start the night. We each started with a cocktail I had the margherita which had a gorgeous sweetness to it and a bubble which released a gorgeous aroma, we also started with a glass of their champagne which was stunning. We looked over the wine list and were excited to see some beautiful international high quality wines offered by the glass. We ordered the Market Fish (usually i skip this, however the new zealand flounder topped with caviar was absolutely phenomenal and the star of the show), a dozen oysters, the butchers cut which came with salad and fries, waghu tartare, the eggplant/zuchinni, bread basket, green beans and the lobster taco. Everything was exceptional, the two gentlemen attending to us had perfect service and great knowledge of the wines, providing us with many tastes until we found the right matches for our meal. We finished on the pistachio meringue, and the yuzu cheesecake which unsurprisingly were also exceptional.

Over all the entire experience felt perfectly curated which great attention to detail from the food and service to the space (space behind the booths for waiters to attend to those in the harder to reach places).

Only notes were that some of the peices of the bread were a bit too hard, and the chips werent as fresh as we like.

I Would recommend this to everyone I could, if only I didnt want to keep it a...

Lucia is a great venue. My wife and I have lived and worked in the Albert Park and South Melbourne area for many years and could write a book on all the different restaurants. And so it was exciting to try a new restaurant called Lucia in South Melbourne. We would describe it as a high-quality restaurant where you feel genuinely welcomed by staff when you arrive. The premises are impeccably clean, and the kitchen is first class. The food menu is excellent as are the wines. We could not fault it. What makes it unique in our area is that it’s so modern. Most restaurants in this area including some of the better pubs are mostly located in older buildings, as you would expect in a heritage area, so it’s kind of nice to eat somewhere that is brand new and very modern. Because Lucia is an upscale restaurant and the prices are upscale, I would recommend it for the right types of patrons. Included would be business lunches and dinners, occasions where you want an exemplary meal, and for those who are fastidious about the quality of the food they eat and are happy to pay a bit more for a premium product. Lucia is an excellent addition to the South Melbourne area as there is not comparable restaurant of this size and quality. I do have a couple of suggestions for Lucia and patrons. Suggestion One. I think the mains course could benefit from the addition of a lighter protein such as a chicken dish, or an interesting vegetation dish made with minimum carbs. Possibly Lucia could add them as a ‘’Daily Special’’ made with seasonal produce. Suggestion Two. We made our booking rather late and so we had to book our table in the bar area rather than the restaurant area. The bar area tables are smaller, and we found our food dishes and glasses were rather cramped on the table. If next time we simply want a light meal, then the bar tables will be fine. But if it’s a full course dinner, we will ensure we book the...