Luca — Restaurant in Liverpool

Before coming to Allerton 109 I had read the reviews, which were oddly skewed to either 1* or 5*. Nevertheless, we thought we would give it a try - 5 adults and a two year old, reserved a table at 11.30am on a Sunday. Regrettably:

Pros: Food tastes reasonable. Coffee was nice. They have toddler cutlery Nice ambiance

Cons: Fifteen minutes from ordering drinks our full drinks order arrived - they did not arrive together Only after our drinks order arrived in full was our food order taken. Forty minutes into waiting for our food, the two tables in our area were apologised to as their food was late / incomplete and they were offered a discount - or to take their food to go. We were ignored until we asked what was happening with our order. We were told it would be another ten minutes. Our food started arriving after another 15 minutes. The food orders also did not arrive together, and were spaced out by a further ten minutes. The pancakes tasted strange. Not sure if it was old oil, but it tasted chemically (I can only compare it to squashed insects) The soap dispensers in the toilet were empty. Overcharged for pancakes - £3.95 on menu £4.25 on the bill. We would usually get post-food desserts, but decided not to as we had waited long enough already.

The staff did try to make amends including a ten percent discount (initially), and free coffees (after I complained it was not appropriate to have a hungry toddler wait an hour for their food to arrive - this had not happened anywhere else), and taking the pancakes off the final bill (after I complained they had incorrectly billed us).

I was offered to leave my telephone number for a phone back from the manager. I declined this as, from other reviews (see trip advisor) we can tell our experience was NOT a one off and appears to be a chronic problem with this establishment.

We finally left at 13.30, and I had to drive home with a screaming toddler in the car. Whatever changes were promised in the replied to review from November, these have either not been made or been effective. Do not be fooled - this place is not busy because it is popular, but rather their inability to turn over tables at busy times (our visit was 2 hours for a brunch meal, that would have taken 50 min - 70 mins elsewhere). I am not sure what the solution is to their problem, but I would suggest to avoid in...

Our waiter for the evening, a man wearing a red beanie in a £30+ per head restaurant, was rude from the start of the night. From blunt conversations, taking drinks without asking if they were finished and rudely asking if we we had 'made our minds up' just over a minute after being initially rushed to pick from the food menu all within a couple minutes of arriving.

When ordering, the waiter aimed to overpronounce every order we asked for, even adding words to the dish title with the aim of 'correcting' us after us having a go at pronouncing the italian.

Even down to asking where the toilets where, all I got was a sarcastic point to the obvious generally direction. No help at all

Finally the bill then was thrown onto the table with a added service charge which we were not asked if we wanted - or thought after the service was acceptable. Customers leave tips when they are happy with the service, it shouldnt be pushed upon them with the awkward interaction of asking to remove it. Which we avoided to not further spoil our evening.

As for the food:

The sea bass and pasta we had were faultless so hats off to thr chef for them and the milanese chicken was okay though fairly basic. We hoped for more foccacia with the cheese sharer for 2, since a mere 15cm x 15cm piece is hardly enough to use with the dish for 2 or justify the £12 price. Food portions themselves were generally on the small side (even for small plates)

As for the wine, the house Merlot wasnt great, very cheap tasting despite the near £7 price tag

Overall, without the rude service we would have been satisfied enough with our experience (but wouldn't be eager to return), despite the overpriced nature of the dishes for what they were. The food itself was nice but for £30 there are plenty of equally, if not better, restaurants in the heart of Liverpool as opposed to the outskirts. The only real driver for the negative review was the awful service which shocked me and my partner several times.

5 small plates, 2 deserts and 2 glasses of wine was over £80. For this, good service, agreeable food portions and good food should...

This was a really difficult review, mainly because the food was fabulous and our waitress was wonderful, friendly and gave great recommendations. However the vibe was ruined by the hostess as soon as we walked in. I called the night before to see if we could add two more people to my booking. The man the answered was really helpful and said yes that wouldn’t be a problem. Turned up after raving to my family how good Luca is, who had come to from down South. However the hostess said to us that we had only booked for two people not four and informed us we would have to sit on the high table with stools. I did go to tell her that I’d called up yesterday but before I had a chance to finish my sentence she abruptly interrupted me and said “yeah well I wasn’t in last night”. I was really shocked at the way I was spoken to and to be honest a little bit embarrassed I was spoken like this in front of my family after singing Luca praises. Later on that night a couple went to come in (Luca were still serving) and the girl in the couple changed her mind and they walked back out. The same hostess turned around and said to another member of staff “it’s like they can tell isn’t it” more or less saying she didn’t want their custom. For me being made to feel welcome somewhere is just as important as the food and the hostess just really made me feel very unwelcome with her attitude from the moment we walked in. I did email Luca about this just to make them aware however I never heard back.

Such a shame as the food and waitress was amazing but I don’t think I’ll...