Ristorante Mecenate — Restaurant in Lucca

I HAD dinner here unfortunately let me tell you …I’ve been in other different restaurants in town and I had a Wonderful dining experience but unfortunately I have to say in this Restaurant I had definitely the Worst dining experience ever…. They were probably good????( that could explain previous positive reviews but that was in the past for sure)…when they first opened 25 years ago but I can tell time has passed and didn’t do any good to this place!!!!!!….Horrible Food/service ..shame on them..I did some research looking for the restaurant previous reviews before to show up and I got to say what good reviews they had …they are all fake or lying about their experience…This place is just a tourist trap…from the food to the “NO SERVICE “…I’m not going to mention everything but to give you an idea…..I was just being seated at the table and handed the menus with my party and I ….not even a minute had passed and the waitress was already back rushing us….at the table already asking what we wanted to eat????……I literally didn’t even have time to open the menu yet… and excuse us but….What about some drinks to start the meal first??? I didn’t want to say anything yet I just wanted to try to have a nice meal but unfortunately they made it impossible……Starting like that I knew already that our experience there was not going to end up well and unfortunately the food quality matched the service quality…….no one time the front of the house greeted us way in or out , no one smile or for instance…..how was everything so far?….. kind of question… the waitress clearly had seen that we barely touched the food in the plates .. totally disgusting…..she didn’t say a word barely looked at us and took the plates away…..THIS RESTAURANT IS just a tourist trap…save your money don’t go here …traditional food from LUCCA …I don’t think so….this place DOES NOT represent Lucca’s food at all and for that matter nor Tuscany neither Italy….we went in many other restaurants in town during our stay there and this place is definitely to Avoid from you dinner plans……the only reason probably they are still in business as I said they leave out of tourism business….disgusting is my last word on this place…..IL MANGIARE FA SCHIFO E IL SERVIZIO DI SALA E’ ANCHE...

After eating out at this restaurant (we've booked based on excellent reviews) I am totally astonished as to why people rate this place so high! We've been travelling around Italy for nearly two weeks so far, and I can honestly say it's been the worst dining experience in Italy this year. I'll start with the service which was truly shocking. From the moment we've been seated, we had to wait for around 30 minutes for someone to take our order. Likewise, after finishing our dinner we have been waiting for 45 minutes without anyone offering a dessert or a coffee. I understand it was Sunday, but the place was not that busy, and one could clearly see the staff could not care less (neighbouring tables had the same issues). Food wise - apart from the starters (salumi artigianali and zuppetta di moscardini) which were good, the main dishes we ordered were very disappointing. Fiore di zucca ripieno (non-existent in the UK, so was really looking forward to it) was so over deep fried that you could not really taste anything. Similarly, my partner had filetto di maiale in crosta which might as well could be made of carrara marble - both equally inedible. One star for great setting with nice views of Piazza S. Francesco and and another for great selection of wines. To sum it up - we...

I'd have to agree, food is poor (even on the tordelli which is the signature dish here in Lucca). Svce is even worse -- you get an entire entourage of 3-4 people showing you to the table but once there you'd be waiting for any attention at all, or, in my case, just getting a glass of wine. But let's go back to the food -- its salty, pasta is not even al dente but taste like it was taken out of the freezer & cooked. Money definitely cd have spent elsewhere and I would not want others to make the same mistake (esp. given you'd have to walk along the canal and there's plenty of restos in central Lucca you could have already picked to get here...You can also spot the other diners feeling the same frustration & very few were cheery and enjoying their food... was truly a sad and angry affair toward the end as all I wanted to do was to go home and forget about this horrible...