LUCIANO Cucina Italiana - Roma — Restaurant in Rome

EAT HERE

Highlights: guanciale, amatriciana sauce, staff suggestions

Overall: perfectly executed Roman pasta with respectful and effective deviations from tradition with fantastic wine pairings

Rambling about how much I loved it: I came to Roma to find the best pasta, and ate pasta twice a day or more for three days. This was by far the best. I am confused, and honestly a little irritated by the other reviews complaining about the staff. I found the staff to be efficient, focused, and incredibly knowledgeable regarding the menu. I ordered three pastas with no antipasti or secondi because I am a freak and wanted to try the classics. I ordered amatriciana, carbonara, and cacio pepe - my waiter laughed and suggested I start with the cacio pepe, then have the amatriciana and finish with the carbonara. He brought a red to try and I found it to be my favorite wine of the trip. It paired excellently with the cacio pepe, which I thought was absolutely perfect. The expression of the pecorino and pepper was a step above, the pasta was cooked absolutely perfectly, and the quality of the ingredients was undeniable. I could tell that an immense amount of consideration had gone into the selection of the technique, the balance of the ingredients, and even the specific dish used for serving. Almost as soon as I had finished scraping sauce from the bottom of my plate, a piping hot amatriciana was delivered to my table with a kind smile, and I took the first bite of the single best pasta dish I have ever eaten. This amatriciana is otherworldly. I said as much to my waiter who informed me that his mother is a chef and for most of his life he had considered her amatriciana the best in the world - until he tasted this one. The sauce is not exactly a traditional amatriciana but the decisions that went into the departure from tradition are, in my opinion, genius. I had an emotional experience eating this dish. It is the closest that food alone has ever come to bringing me to tears. The guiancale was perfectly crispy while still retaining some chew, and sat beautifully in the bright sauce that left a delightful amount of heat on the back end. I hate how pretentious my jargon is in this review but I legitimately thought this was the perfect pasta dish. Pasta as a whole may now be ruined for me forever. They gave me a break to collect my thoughts and then I finished with the carbonara, which is the only carbonara I have ever had that wasnt an oversalted mess or a watery pile of bland wheat. I realized during this meal that I did not previously understand what carbonara was. The sauce was velvety and rich with a perfect viscosity that coated the thick al dente spaghetti and left a unique richness on my palate. I am not the biggest carbonara fan, I prefer cacio pepe and amatriciana, but I knew I had to try the signature preparation and it was absolutely worth the extra bloating and calories. All three dishes felt like a masterclass in Italian cooking, my perspectives are forever changed and pasta will never be the same. Somehow, I found the will to have dessert and I do not regret doing so at all. The other dolci all looked incredible but the waiter's smile upon suggesting the tiramisu swayed me and I was treated to my favorite incarnation of the famed dessert I've ever consumed. My issue with tiramisu is usually that the lady fingers become a soggy mess when soaked with the coffee, or they retain some structure but the coffee is not present enough. The chef's solution to this is, in my opinion, genius - but I won't spoil the surprise for you. Just know that it's a lot of fun, and the sweet wine pairing is a must. I was treated to an incredibly sophisticated dessert wine with grapes from sardinia and a bit of lore regarding the vintner. This is all to say that the staff are obviously lovers of good food and wine, and for my humble palate I found their suggestions exquisite - I was happy to have their guidance and will absolutely be dining here any time I am remotely...

Sigh, what a loss. I’ve found this restaurant through the very popular ‘Aden Films’ on YouTube. Aden Films is 95% correct and almost only promotes great- to perfect restaurants. In his video he showed Luciano’s taking care of the dishes, the ‘famous’ Carbonara and talks about the experience he wants to create for the guests. My birthday was today and me and my partner were in Rome so I insisted to make a reservation about three weeks ago. Reservations can only be made by sharing credit card details so the restaurant can charge you if you’re a no-show which in my opinion, is not a bad thing.

But if you enforce that rule you set an expectation to your customers. That you’ll be in for a fantastic service, great food in a city which is filled to the brim with architecture and atmosphere. All these expectations were shot down like a bird in the sky during hunting season.

At 14:00 we were firmly helped by a chaotic staff. We were seated outside, in a plastic foil wrapped bubble. No sight on the architecture or the movements of people in the city. After five minutes we finally received our menus and after 15 minutes we finally were able to order. I asked for sparkling water and received still.

My partner and I shared the beef tartar starter, which was honestly the best of the bunch. Absolutely fantastic dish. Then the server forget our drink order (two coke zero’s, who forgets this?) so we had to re-order it. He didn’t seem very happy that we were there and complained to another table that he was tired. After we were done with the beef tartare we waited another 15 minutes for the servers to gather our plates. This did not happen. We did receive our pasta Carbonara’s while our table was still filled with plates from our starter. Table management was obviously not on point this afternoon.

The actual carbonara was, very mediocre. Yes, there were shards of greatness in the carbonara when you had a majestic bite of guanciale, together with enough cheese and pasta but nothing to be blown away by. It was soupy, too much egg with not enough cheese and they absolutely skimped out on the guanciale. The best part of the dish was the spaghetti itself.

After finishing our plates, we waited for another 15 minutes for someone to offer us coffee, or the cheque. Here we were met with (obviously) the head server, who was a shimmering light in an afternoon of disappointment. I got a double espresso, my partner an Americano.

We went on with our day, disappointed in the whole ordeal. If I have to put my finger on the most obvious pain points then it would definitely be the inattention and chaos of the servers, the complete destruction of atmosphere by the plastic bubble you’re eating in and the passionless carbonara. Combine that with a ridiculous €4.50 for a litre water, €1.50 for bread and (I think) €2 service charge, a €20 x 2 carbonara and an €18...

Terrible service, good carbonara.

I booked in advance and stated in the booking two of my party were vegans. When the waiter came to take our order he became visibly annoyed that two of my companions would not order anything (despite nothing on the menu being vegan) and kept pressuring them into ordering dishes that contained fish or dairy, worryingly not seeming to understand what constitutes a vegan diet, despite me explaining multiple times. After he left we all felt very uncomfortable and unwelcome.

He passed by us a while later and threw a bag of bread on the table with no explanation. I was confused as to whether this was a consolation for there being nothing on the menu two of my party could eat, or whether this was a normal thing to do; disappointingly there was no butter/oil/vinegar accompaniment, the bread was flavourless, and this was a normal thing.

The beef tartare did not taste of truffle as described, but the occasional mouthful did taste of raw fat.

The carbonara was the only positive part of the experience, being in a league of its own with a custard like consistency to the sauce that captured the flavour of browned cheek meat. I was hesitant to mop up the remaining sauce from my plate with the bread as I thought this might upset the waiter further, but decided to anyway as I didn't think the situation could get any worse.

I asked for the bill and had to wait 20 minutes before going to the till myself. The waiter then put on a show of "not seeing me", getting my bill from the till, walking halfway to my table, seeing I wasn't there, then coming back to me saying "you read my mind!" utterly unconvincingly. The waiter got distracted by the shelf behind the till whilst printing my receipt and accidently tore it in half.

It turned out I was charged for the bread, and two cover charges for the vegans even though they couldn't eat there.

Utterly disappointed; I left the restaurant in a noticeably worse mood than when having entered, and had expected this to be a highlight of the trip.

If you must go, I would expect terrible (if not the worst possible service) and order only the carbonara.

In response to the restaurants reply:

The mistake is Luciano's it was in fact datated as vegan in both Italian and English.

To be clear, my issue was not with the lack of vegan options, but with the service. There are similar reviews...