Luce Osteria Contemporanea — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Came here with my family on a Saturday night for dinner, we made reservations three days prior yet we were asked to wait as there was no tables available (defeats the purpose of reserving in the first place), we ordered based on waitress's recommendation and the food she recommended was tasteless, one of the pizza we ordered based on what she proposed to us was so salty and we had to tell the foreign waiter to take it off from our table. Its a cosy environment but the Indian music from next door that was blasting so loud like a discotheque ruined the entire experience for us, we could barely hear each other, we had to scream just to talk. Appalling. The table that we were assigned to was at the patio since they claimed they had no available tables eventhough there was a reservation made! We were charged more than RM850 for that night, so pricey and for the dining experience / service / food quality we had received that night, it is definitely not worth the amount we had paid. I am not sure why many are raving about this place, but the only single good thing that I think I can say about this place is the cosy setting, that's all. When we had highlighted about how tasteless some recommended dishes were and how salty some recommended dishes were, the 'Chef' was arrogant and not even hospitable. He is an Italian and it looks like his ego has gotten control over him unfortunately. I am a Malaysian and I am an ardent cook & have travelled across all the continents before, these Italian dishes served were by far the worst I have ever tasted. A word of advice, please be more focused on the service you provide, improve on the quality of your food if you want to charge people exorbitantly and tone-down on the arrogance, you'll definitely attract more patrons if you take these highlighted matters into consideration. Listen and accept constructive criticism & feedbacks. Unfortunately, I will not visit this place again nor would I recommend this place to...

On my birthday eve (it was last week by the way), the missus decided to bring me and the kids for a sumptuous Italian dinner at Luce Osteria Contemporanea - seriously, I think that the name is too long to pronounce.

This was not my first time coming to this Italian restaurant famous for its pizza - you’ll find no less than 20 options of classic as well as their special creations in the menu, apart from other dishes. Our first time was actually a date night many years ago, when they first opened doors to the public. I remember that we enjoyed the pizza so much.

The restaurant has 2 floors - ground and first floor - which all tables were taken up by the weekend crowd, a testimony of how popular Luce Osteria is. Part of the Zenzero group, I like this restaurant because they serve pork - a true blue Italian once told me, it’s not Italian if there’s no pork!

▪️Amatriciana Pizza RM46 - you’d get a huge piece of pizza topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, bacon, red onion & shaved grana padano. ▪️Cozze alla Tarantina RM36 - a bowl of Italian black mussels doused in light tomato sauce, garlic, chilli and served with toasted bread ▪️Tagliatelle Al Ragu di Funghi RM56 - basically tagliatelle pasta with mushroom ragu, speck ham, cream and grana padano cheese ▪️Saltimbocca alla Romana RM72 - pork fillet topped with sage & Parma ham ‘Romana Style’, served with mashed potato. ▪️House wines start from RM35-38

With the changing colours of KL Tower view from where we were seated, the dinner was nothing less than fabulous and satisfying.

Do take note that the price is on the high side, and the prevailing service tax & SST are not factored in yet. However, you’ll get above average food in return for the good food, service...

This restaurant isn't authentic, it may have been once - but it's very questionable nowadays.

A review from an Italian here, really don't like to leave bad reviews but the experience and the food was really not up to scratch.

You cannot list items on the menu that dish simply does not include. The Gnocchi ai Quattro Formaggi does not contain four cheeses, it was simply cream and one really terrible cheese.

There is certainly no gorgonzola in the dish, can you please inform customers if cheeses are not available? Please don't pull wool over people's eyes with a dish that isn't up to scratch. It was simply inedible - too much cream/butter and simply not cheese. If you can't justify the price, charge more - but please don't call it that.

I've spent years eating gorgonzola of which there is gorgonzola and gorgonzola piccante - neanche questo lo era. My Italian partner was truly surprised at the state of this dish.

I didn't complain to management as I was with family and they had been travelling all day, but really disappointed with this. The dish went uneaten, half of it was on my plate uneaten and the rest in the bowl, truly awful.

The pizza was a little bit sub-par and below the standards that you can get in Kuala Lumpur at the likes of Bottega and co.

Pull up your socks Luce Osteria, you can do better than this, start investing in proper produce. For an upmarket restaurant that claims authenticity, we expect better.

Happy to chat this through and rectify this as I hate giving anything below 5* - welcome to reach out.

*Let me add, the waiters...