LUCALI by Andiamo — Restaurant in Scotland

This restaurant came highly rated on FB but looks more like an ice-cream parlour and was almost empty when we arrived compared to the next door restaurant/pub which was really busy. My friend ordered the chicken with rosemary accompanied by chips..it arrived and looked like it had just been dumped on the plate..it had been butterflied and beaten so thin then grilled..the salad, what there was of it, a couple of rocket leaves and a piece of onion, not a piece of tomato to cheer the plate up...plus a huge piece of lemon (?).. The plate of food was not visually attractive at all. I had ordered the salmon..there was one "small" piece of salmon hiding underneath a sprinkling of crispy onions..the saving grace was the grilled veg on a skewer and prawns on a skewer, admittedly they did taste good. I've never eaten "polenta chips" before so I enquired as to what they were..the waitress told me they were cheesy covered chips..so when they arrived I did try them, wasn't impressed with them as they were tasteless and spongy.. so requested a "small" amount of chips to replace the polenta ones still on my plate so that I might enjoy the rest of my meal...the waitress came back with a "full" plate from which I only took a few. We ate quickly and only ordered cooldrinks as we were driving...I didn't finish my cooldrink as I couldn't wait to pay the bill and leave. The bill arrived and they had charged me for the full plate of chips for which I refused to pay. I will not be returning to this restaurant and I certainly hope that in future they make sure the food that gets served is top quality as the prices demand. Unfortunately I did not take photos..sadly....

I am editing my review as I do not see an option to respond to your comments.Thank you for coming back to me. I would just like to highlight that there was no apology from the manager and nothing was taken off the bill when we first asked for it. I had to go up to the bar and speak to the manager to remind him of the below. I would also like to highlight that as much as we appreciate one of the meals being taken from the bill, it's not about the money, it was the fact I had to approach and remind the manager myself before there was an apology that was most disappointing. Unfortunately if I could give this a 0 star I would. I visited Lucali for the first time this evening and can confirm I will not be back.

It’s very clear to see that the waiter serving us didn’t want to be there which I find disrespectful when you’re spending your money in their restaurant.

Our drinks order was forgotten, one of our starters forgotten and then one of our mains forgotten. The worst part was the waiter still had time to stand and laugh and joke with the chef whilst we sat for a substantial amount of time still waiting for the last meal.

Half of our table was clearer after our starters and we had to ask for the other half to be cleared.

The manager was aware and didn’t...

Greeted by sour faced owner, which set the tone. Clean, but cramped and noisy. Constant sound of pans being dropped in kitchen.

Waiting staff polite and efficient, but badly understaffed, even when not full. Drinks came quickly, but took a full half hour to take the order, 20 minutes to deliver starters and another 20 for mains.

Started with tolerable calamari in insipid, tasteless batter, with a token salad.

Kids ordered pizzas. Apologetically informed that pepperoni is American, but salami could be provided. Nasty, greasy, cheap rubbery salami, on nasty, greasy, cheap rubbery cheese. Chips were undercooked and soggy.

Spaghetti carbonara was totally inedible - pasta cooked OK, but cheap, stringy bacon and absolutely stiff with salt, drowning any other flavour. Sure sign of a bad cook with no confidence in his ingredients. If you can't make a decent carbonara, you've no business advertising yourself as an Italian restaurant.

Sent it back, paid for what we'd choked down, and vowed to never, ever return. Avoid like the plague - you might as well microwave a supermarket ready meal, which will taste nicer and will be ready in 5 minutes...