A Santa Lucia — Restaurant in Milan

By far, the worst service and quality of food I've experienced in my two weeks of visiting Italy. I would not recommend anyone to visit this restaurant. Although I was not expecting jaw-dropping, amazing quality food and simply wished to have a basic dinner, I was very disappointed. The waiters had an unprofessional and ridiculously rude attitude and did not care which language our menu came in (since we are Asian and we spoke to them in English, they gave us only 1 English menu with 3 Italian menus, even though we only had 3 people in total). When we asked for an English menu, our waiter simply and rather angrily handed us 3 English menus. We had ordered a dish that included spaghetti and anchovies as a starter, however they gave us another anchovy dish. When we asked for them to serve us the dish we had ordered, the waiters again, looking rather annoyed, took our dish away. Instead of having our anchovies/spaghetti dish as a starter, they served us all three of our main courses first instead. Without caring which one of us ordered what dish, they simply slammed the dish onto the middle of the table. We had ordered octopus with potatoes, veal, and rigatoni with tomato sauce/butter/basil. Our food, in most basic terms, did not meet the expectations and the price range of those specific dishes, it was rather unpleasant to the eye as you can see from the photos. The rigatoni's tomato sauce was surprisingly sour and the rigatoni itself was undercooked, which meant that it was hard to chew. The octopus/potatoes were completely tasteless and over cooked. Finally the veal was especially unpleasantly presented to us as it looked more like a piece of dry fried pork. To make it worse, our waiter only shoved us a plate of rather ugly cut lemons, as one of us had to take one lemon from the plate as our waiter stalked off. The cheese for the pasta was not sprinkled on for the guests professionally, but the entire bowl of it was just dumped onto the table away from the person actually eating the plate of rigatoni. Finally, after all three of our main courses arrived, the STARTER of spaghetti/anchovies came, as the waiter (who looked especially pissed and impatient) waited for us to move all the plates around for him to put it down. As we were eating, we witnessed one of the waiters grabbing an entire ball of mozzarella from a plastic container with his bare hands, and dumping it in the bowl of mozzarella filled water in the salad counter. Unlike all the restaurants I had visited in Italy in my two weeks here, our waiter did not ask if we had finished our food (as we had plenty of leftover food on our plates) and simply grabbed the plates and walked off. Overall, the quality of the food did not meet its rather not-so-cheap price range, was unpleasant to the eye and most essentially, tasted bad. For the service, it was ridiculously terrible. When we were not being unpleasantly and rudely treated, we were having our plates of food and our menus slammed onto the table or shoved at us. In the end, we did not finish any of the food we had ordered and had to eat something else afterwards to fill our stomachs. I would not, in any case, recommend this...

As a tourist visiting the area, I’d hoped to enjoy a warm, authentic Italian meal here. Unfortunately, my experience was marred by inconsistent service and glaring oversights that left me feeling unwelcome compared to local patrons.

While the staff appeared cheerful and attentive to nearby tables (greeting regulars by name and engaging in friendly banter), our table was treated with indifference from the start. For instance, other diners were promptly served bread with olive oil and vinegar, but despite requesting it twice, ours never arrived—a frustrating contrast.

The food issues compounded the disappointment. I ordered the beef fillet medium rare, but it arrived overcooked, dry, and flavorless. When I politely pointed this out, the server dismissed my concern, insisting it was prepared correctly. After pressing further, the kitchen re-fired the dish to medium rare, but this "fix" came at a cost: the mixed salad I’d ordered at the beginning of the meal was completely forgotten.

What stung most was the lack of accountability. The staff never apologized for the overcooked steak or missing salad, nor did they acknowledge the disparity in service. As a visitor, it felt disheartening to watch locals receive gracious, personalized attention while our table struggled to get basic requests fulfilled.

While the corrected beef fillet was decent, the cumulative effect of dismissive service, uneven treatment, and unresolved errors overshadowed any redeeming qualities. For a restaurant that prides itself on Italian hospitality, this experience fell tragically short.

I urge management to train staff on consistency and inclusivity—tourists and locals alike deserve respect and attention. Until then, I cannot recommend this restaurant to...

Entering this restaurant is like going back in time. In a good way. Waiters (all male of course 😉) in white jackets and ties, white tablecloths and napkins, crockery bearing the Santa Lucia logo, walls adorned with autographed photos of bygone and current stars (apparently this was Frank Sinatra’s go-to in Milano.)

We walked in a 7pm with no reservation and they were able to accommodate us as dinner in Italy is usually a later affair. The restaurant was steadily filling up throughout our meal, including with a local regular who knew everyone by name and vice versa. She was a very chic woman so good people watching also :)

Excellent vitello milanese and perfect Aperol spritz (generous pour and not too sweet). We didn’t get to try the Neapolitan dishes which is what they’re known for and we’re looking forward to having pizza here. Fair prices. Waiters are busy and helpful. Our waiter called us a taxi as our kids were jet lagged and fast asleep at the table — oops. And he sent us off with a generously filled bag of cookies for the kiddos. I wish I could remember his name.. Here’s a photo of him in action. Grazie mille!

Cover charge is €4,50 per person (this is normal in Italy) and they only charged for the 2 adults.

By the way, our taxi driver Alberto was such a lovely gentleman and was gracious about my daughter throwing up in his cab (remember the bag of cookies? We never got to taste them as that was the first bag I could grab…) Please do call him for your excursions outside Milano or any other driving you need… he deserves the good karma and clientele. Will add his...