Stella Polare — Restaurant in Lucca

Very nice food and service.

I had a very pleasant evening with my friends at the Stella Polare restaurant. the choice of dishes is very interesting, the waiters are friendly, patient, they suggest dishes that are specially made that day by the chef. The dishes we ate were the best we ate in those days in Italy, and we went through 4 cities and ate in restaurants that were rated better than this one. Cod with salad, pasta with pistachio and burrata cheese, pasta with pecorino cheese and chili, bruschetta with pecorino cheese with honey and figs (this is amazing), beef carpaccio (the best we have eaten these days - great raw material - melts in your mouth - no should be cut with a knife). The decoration of dishes and desserts is beautiful, the quantity is sufficient, moderate, everything is extra. REMARK! - the prices of the main dishes and appetizers are really acceptable considering this kind of imagination, quality, politeness of the staff, all the best, BUT, table setting 7.5 euros and green salad 10 euros? Don't do that. A wonderful evening, everything wonderful and then at the end you make donkeys out of the guests. Raise the euro price of some dishes, but you can't charge 17.5 euros for "nothing"....

What a wonderful surprise. We arrived earlier that day and after moving two large suitcases up 97 steps were both exhausted, cranky and hungry. We walked by a number of restaurants open at 2200 and settled on Stella Polare more out of just wanting to sit then knowing about the restaurant. Then the magic started. Three bothers came out one at a time to take the food order, another to suggest wine and another to help with service. Being tired I thought it was someone Pranking me as all three brothers looked extremely similar and my mind played tricks on me. But the food was excellent, the wine superb and the service unparalleled in our trek through Tuscany. We found out the restaurant was old and well established but that it was recently bought and managed by this new team from Monte Carlo (italy). Their passion to establish themselves as a premier restaurant in Lucca was evident. Talking to each of them made it even more clear of their commitment to excellence. Would I go...

Passed this several times and was always full, looked to have regional dishes and had reasonable selection of food. Had the pork neck in tomato sauce. Pork was tender but barely warm. Had clearly been pre prepared and then warmed up, not very appetising. Waiter just shrugged when I pointed out. Ordered roast potatoes to go with it which were fine but arrived 5mins after the main dish had arrived. My wife had the salad with salmon (avocado lettuce etc) which was nicely done but had no dressing on the salad. When I came to pay in cash was told they didn't have any change so had to pay by card. Large young Italian family next to us equally unimpressed, they quickly moved on to pizza restaurants over the square....