Ask For Luigi Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

Verdict: Absolutely amazing!

Advance booking: I planned to eat here like a week ago, booked a table (they take a deposit to book the table which is refunded once you show up). Must book in advance. They have a nice cozy setting with maybe 7-8 tables and for the duration I was there (about 1.5 hours) not a single table was unoccupied. I couldn't book sunday dinner because it was sold out, hence, book in advance.

Ambiance and Experience: Once you have booked and arrived, what you will get is one of the best italian dining experiences. Yes the seating is a bit cramped and its a bit noisy but it doesn't spoil the experience in anyway, infact, if you are so inclined, it adds to it. Our server was well informed and explained in detail everything on offer. He provided suggestions on the order based on portion size and dish popularity. While the whole place is in a constant state of haphazardness and you would expect it to mess with your order but there is a method to the chaos and everything arrived at our table quickly and at the correct time. There was no conflict and the drinks were always full.

Food: Being an italian restraunt, below is our experience for each course -

Antipasti: Luigi's Meatballs This was so good that I wish they had a main course version of this as well. The sauce, the bread, the meatball.. everything was just perfect. I love meatballs and I have had those at every italian place I have been to and these were the best.

Pasta: Campenelle and Wild Boar Ragu This is the first time I had wild boar Ragu so truthfully, I don’t have a frame of reference but if I compare it all other dishes from different cuisines that I have had over the years, this places quite close to the top.

Pappardelle, Ragu Del Giorno (like this) There was a new dish on the menu which I do not remember, but the pasta was Pappardelle and it was Rabbit Ragu with a lot of other things. Again, no frame of reference unfortunately but this was just amazing. Frankly, it was so good that I ended up over stuffing myself.

Desserts: Tiramisu (Their version of Tiramisu) It was pretty good. Not as good as some of other places I have had it (case in point, Landour Bakehouse, India) and I am no expert but I think this was a take on the Tiramisu, not exactly the Dessert Tiramisu (I might be wrong, if so, I am sorry). All in all, it tasted good and at the end of the day, thats what's important.

Panna Cotta They nailed it. The presentation, the taste, the consistency... just amazing!

Drinks: The Spritz On thier website they have covered this very nicely and I must agree. It was so good that I got a bottle to go.

Chinotto For the tea-totallers and people who prefer non alcoholic beverages. It was just amazing. A smooth Dr. Pepper maybe? I absolutely loved it.

They had a great collection of wines as well which we will try on our next visit.

Takeout: We also got the Radiatore Verde and mushroom Trifolati (Vegeterian) as take out and I didn't eat it, I just tasted it, and it was lukewarm (at home), it still tasted great. A good options for vegeterians (they have quite a few).

Cost: a bit on the expensive side but absolutely worth it.

Note: Their website is pretty good and it offers a great deal of information when researching the menu.

Thanks for a...

We had very high expectations for this place, especially since it was my mom’s 50th birthday. However, my family and I genuinely had one of the worst dining experiences here. Not only were the servers incredibly rude and disrespectful, but they also seemed to be quite racist. I usually do not write reviews, but due to how poor my family and I’s dining experience was, I feel obligated to.

We decided to do a walk-in and put our names down. They said they would text us when a table was ready, but they never did. We decided to go back about 2-3 hours later and check in with them, where they then told us they just “forgot” to send us a message saying our table is ready. When we sat down, the waitress was extremely rude and barely attended to us. However, she was attentive to all of her other tables and treated them very kindly.

We decided to order a dish to start just to see how the flavours, portions, etc. are and immediately, our server somehow became even more dismissive. Perhaps she thought we weren’t going to tip her much or order much, so she immediately told us that there was a very strict 2 hour limit, so if we wanted to order more, we would need to hurry up. She didn’t mention this limit to any of the other tables around us and for context, we were the only people of colour she was serving at this time.

We ended up liking the dish and wanted to order more, but there were about 30-45 minutes in the between the time she came back to serve us after we received our first dish. She was obviously trying to kill time so she could kick us out as soon as our 2 hours were up. Eventually, she came back asking us if we needed anything and we then told her we’d like to order more. All of a sudden, her tone got much lighter, she asked us the occasion of the event, etc, and it was blatantly clear to us that now she thought we had money to spend, she decided it was time to treat us somewhat like the other costumers. Now since we were ordering quite a few items, she no longer cared about the 2 hour limit - considering we spent about 3 hours there, nor did she remind us of it.

The rest of the night she still barely came by to refill us water, ask us how the dishes were, or to do anything that she did for the other customers/tables. The other servers, who were also all white, did the same. Although they would all still circle around and ask the other tables how they were doing regardless of whether or not if they serving them, we were the only ones not receiving this treatment and it’s looking like it was purely because of our race and stereotypes they associated with it.

We will definitely not be dining here again. The food wasn’t terrible, but our experience absolutely was. The staff at Ask for Luigi are definitely not as welcoming to people of...

I took my wife to this restaurant to celebrate her birthday. It was both our first time trying this restaurant, and we were really excited. We read some of the google reviews and the hype to dine here, so we made sure to make reservations in advance.

Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by the host and seated quickly by our server. Please note that the restaurant can get pretty loud, and this made it very difficult to follow along with what our server was saying as he was describing the numerous dishes on the menu.

I ordered a glass of red wine. However, I found it kind of strange how it arrived in a whisky short glass, considering the glass of wine was like $15-18. But what really did not sit well for me was that the glass of wine tasted like it was watered down. I notified the server, and he happily exchanged it for a beer of my choice.

A while later, the food arrived. We ordered the truffle pasta and the seafood pasta. My wife immediately noticed the plate that the pasta was served on was not hot. The pasta itself was also luke warm. Again, it was a strange experience because not only was this a $40 plate of pasta with relatively small portions, but the kitchen was literally right beside us. However, the texture and flavor were really good. We had no complaints there, but we were also hungry at that point. And to be frank, I already made a complaint about my wine. So I did not want to complain about the food not being "hot" but rather luke warm. It was acceptable. But definitely not how I'm used to being served pasta.

At this point, we were feeling a little disappointed and unsatisfied. We finished dinner and was thinking about dessert. But I have to be honest. It was not to my surprise when my wife brought up how the server/management never even offered us a complimentary slice of cake, or even a scoop of ice cream, or even a peice of chocolate to commemorate her birthday. (On the reservation page online, it asked us specifically to tell them if we are celebrating a special day or event) We booked months in advance so it bothered my wife how with that information, no body in the restaurant stepped up to make her feel special at all. And no, I am not asking everyone to clap and sing her happy birthday. But I am confident that any restaurant (not going to start naming restaurants) charging those prices for a plate of pasta would have treated us so differently.

To conclude this review. It is fair to say it was not the most memorable birthday dinner for my wife. There are a lot of italian restaurants in this city that can offer you better ambiance, service, and more value for the dollar. This visit was our first and unfortunately the last visit. We will not return. There are just so many better...