Luciano Bar & Bistro Restaurant — Restaurant in England

I came here after lockdown with my friend. This was my second visit. My first visit was lovely, good service and good food, but my second visit was quite the opposite. With no clear entry sign, we walked in to have serving staff ignore us while they continued to serve customers. We were finally greeted when we said excuse me. We asked about the early bird menu which finished at 6.30pm according to their online website. The girl said it finished at 5pm offering no explanation to why it was different from the information online. They just said find a seat and didn't show us to any tables. We found a seat in the bar area. The booths were nice but there were quite a few tables left with dishes. We were sat for 20mins with no menu or anyone coming to serve us. We had to shout for a server who took our drinks order. We asked about the early bird menu and were given the menus but the prices and dishes didn't match those online. The prices in the menu were £2+ more. When we enquired the manager said that the early menu stopped at 5pm but offered us it anyway. When asked about the price increase, she just said due to lockdown they had to increase the prices but did not update their menus online (due to lockdown). We complained about the poor service and she said the staff are new - all young inexperienced staff by the looks of it. My friend ordered a meat pizza with what looked like a packet of rocket dumped on the top, and instead of being served spaghetti bolognese, I was given over cooked soggy linquine. The only reason I did not complain was because if I had, they would have taken another 15mins to cook it and my friend would have been finished his meal. I did bring it up at the end when we asked for the bill, but the server simpily said he would ask about it, only to come back to say the chef ran out of spaghetti. Well any professional establishment would have made the customer aware before cooking the dish - after all, I did order spaghetti bolognese, not linguine bolognese. The whole experience was disapointing and spoiled the evening. The staff didn't seem to care, seemed overwhelmed with serving a few tables and clearly were out of their depth. I wouldn't recommend going here at the moment until they improve their customer service skills. This restaurant has great potential but was let down by incompetent staff and out of date webiste information. Very disappointing to...

What an amazing place

My wife and myself have been loyal customers of Luciano’s in Sunderland since it opened, and have always had exceptional service and impeccable customer care, together with beautiful and good value food. We couldn’t wait to try Luciano,s latest venture, namely Luciano Bar and Bistro situated at Castle Eden.

We were not disappointed, in fact “the best just keeps getting better . On arrival the car park was well laid out and more than able to accommodate a large number of vehicles, including disabled parking.The pathway leading from the car parking area was nicely bordered by a nice selection of shrubs and flowers, complimented by security lighting. The first thing we noticed on entering the premises was the extremely high standard and quality of the decor, so new that the pleasant smell of new timber greeted us in the lobby area. My wife and myself opted for the Sunday roast beef and vegetables, followed by the Orange and Almond sponge. The food was outstanding, staff very friendly, providing a high class service. The restaurant had a very spacious and light, cosmopolitan decor and atmosphere. The centre piece of this amazing venue is its magnificent bar and lounge areas, adorned with the luxurious wooden tables, chairs and modern fireplace. The wine list is extensive which will provided a great selection for wine lovers. Definitely worth many more visits in the future. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit here. Well done to all...

Some members of staff didn’t have the knowledge to answer questions regarding the food and drinks menu, said they’d come back once they found out the answers - they didn’t come back. Matt was the only one that seemed to know what he was doing, 5* for Matt only, 1* for the staff service, 3* for the food. The restaurant wasn’t full, but it was busy, there was no excuse for the poor service. Most staff seemed overwhelmed and confused. Food was good but nothing out of this world. Was made aware of the 3 course special menu AFTER we paid our bill. We all got 3 courses and it cost us twice as much, would have got off the special menu if the staff told us about it. Wanted a cocktail tree, was told they couldn’t do them by the waitress despite 8 empty cocktail trees sitting on the bar for the entire duration of our meal. We then approached the bar to complain about this, we were told you had to book a cocktail tree itself despite having a table booked, if this is the case why are they on the menu? We tried to then book a cocktail tree online on their but their website but there was no means to do this. Clearly the staff made up a lie because they couldn’t be bothered to make a cocktail tree, refusing a £65 sale. Made us walk to the bar to pay the bill despite it being a contactless chordless card machine. Asked to speak to the manager to complain, the manager never...