Buca di Sant'Antonio — Restaurant in Lucca

Great location in the city center of Lucca. Pleasant first impression of the dinning room as it is tightly decorated with copper pots and other well worn kitchen wares.

Service was fine throughout the meal.

The food, specializing in traditional Tuscan cuisine, had the unfortunate feel of 1980’s French fine dining, and quite frankly, missed the mark on either account. We were greeted with complimentary fried polenta and meatball bites. Honestly the meal would be better off served without. Though they were thankfully salted, they were also devoid of any other flavor, while the polenta had a sub par texture in addition. We ordered a Porcini mushroom and ricotta cheese pie with chick pea cream to start. It was nice of them to split the dish for us, however considering the sloppy plating, it would have been better off left whole to share. Though the pie crust was flakey, there were no other redeeming qualities. The only reason I could taste the small amount of porcini in the dish was because it lacked any flavor. The chick pea cream was simply not good. The pastas were the best things we had at the meal. They were fine. Classic house made egg noodle with rabbit sugo, and tortellini in brodo. We finished with vitello tonnato, my favorite! The veal was cooked nicely, and the tonnato was ok. Decent flavor but the texture could have been smoother. The sub par Russian salad served with the dish is where it fell apart. The aioli in the salad was once again devoid of flavor, though had a nice texture. Once you mixed with the tannato, it fixed the tonnato’s texture problem while unfortunately taking away the tuna flavor. Poorly executed. Unfortunately dessert wasn’t worth staying for. Though they did serve a complimentary petit four, which was so dry I needed the rest of the water at the...

If you can remember the TV series Red Dwarf, then you can probably remember the incredibly polite and softly spoken android butler called Kryten. If you can, then that's what the waiters are like at Bucca. Beautifully suited, Incredibly nice and incredibly helpful - I have seldom experienced better service.

The problem is that the food just doesn't match up to the standard of the waiters. Admittedly, what I ordered (chicken liver pate starter and salt cod main) might not be considered as genuine 'Tuscan', but it is on the menu, so it should be able to be done to a reasonable standard. It wasn't. The toast for the pate actually had black stripes on it that tasted exactly what they were - burnt! Remember that horrible taste of burnt black toast when you got it wrong in the toaster when you were a kid? That's what the toast tasted of. And the pate? Well, it was like dark brown sludge - the worst I have ever tasted. My partner had bean soup for starter and said it was good, but the follow up main course of goat was the smallest piece of meat (actually mostly gristle) that we have ever been presented with - there would have been more meat on a roasted sparrow. As for my salt cod, it was completely bland and both dishes were served on stone cold plates, so they lost their heat amazingly quickly.

So you have a restaurant that dresses its waiters immaculately and trains them superbly, but seemingly can't master the basics of toasting a piece of bread. That can't be the case, so I suspect that we caught them on a bad night. However, judging by some of the other reviews below we are not alone and I would have thought that one of the hallmarks of a truly good restaurant should be consistency,...

Tricky review to write, this one. On the one hand, there were a lot of things I loved about Buca di Sant'Antonio. The service is good (friendly and attentive, but not hovering). The location is great with a good atmosphere. However, I found the food a tad inconsistent - which was a surprise.

Ordered a primi and a secondi - but given a nice amuse bouche with a complimentary glass of wine, which was a very nice touch. It was the Primi for both my partner and I that let us down a bit. The truffle pasta didn't have the complexity of flavor I normally get from a good truffle (it tasted more single note) and the texture of the pasta itself wasn't quite right. Similarly, my partner's ravioli were okay, but not great, lacking flavor. Neither is a dish we would order again.

The bread was a high point - fantastic... and the Secondi very good indeed. The guinea fowl was tender and enjoyable; the pork perfectly cooked and seasoned. A shared dessert of Chocolate Mousse was a good end to an enjoyable meal.

At some level, it's about price and expectations. I had very high expectations of Buca di Sant'Antonio (and it is priced accordingly) and these were met or exceeded on every course except the Primi, which simply lacked sparkle and finesse. It just didn't fit in the meal. Everything else was 5 stars all the way. Oh, and the Franciacorta we ordered was FABULOUS...

Would I go again? Probably. But I left ever so slightly disappointed. Should you go? Also probably, if you're looking for a nice higher-end evening out, especially on a date. It's more formal than most places in Lucca, and it does feel...