Lucca Restaurant — Restaurant in Boston

If it was possible for me to leave zero stars, I would. I have never in my life written a negative review about any business because it is not my personality to do so. I strongly believe in helping businesses thrive, especially in the post pandemic era, but what Lucca did last night was beyond disrespectful and shameful.

I walked in here with a friend of mine last night. We asked the hostess if we could grab a table on the bar side and while two bussers were cleaning a table, we asked them if it'd be okay for us to use that one to which they said "yes". Once our waiter approached us, I'd asked him if they had any seltzers to which he responded, "no", at which point I asked him for a drink menu. He dropped off a drink menu and then for about 10 minutes, we were ignored by every server walking by. After that, the manager comes up to us and leans against our table, and begins to state that they have no problem serving us food, but "cannot serve us any alcohol because it is a liability." He then states, "thank you for understanding." Prior to entering Lucca we had, had one drink at the bar next door and were recommended to try Lucca. Without any reason or explanation, we were told we could not be served???? I have never experienced such random and unprovoked discrimination. If you are to see all the reviews I have ever left on Google, I have only left businesses positive reviews. I am not sure what is going on here at Lucca but this type of behavior in today's world is honestly pathetic and sad. I completely understand the nature of work in a restaurant, and there are absolutely days where clients are a bit too intoxicated, but please have an actual reason for refusing service to people. We had one drink before entering your bar, we spoke respectfully to your hostess and waitstaff and were even given a menu.......and then we were refused service.......and not given a reason as to why, other than "we seem like liabilities." Apparently it's a liability to be young looking and trying to enjoy a night out. Whoever the manager at Lucca was last night, Saturday July 22nd should be checked by the ownership of this restaurant. His behavior is truly pathetic. Also, if ownership is reading this review, please take a look at your video cameras and let me know what took place last night, that implied we had to be refused service. I would sincerely love to know.

The hostess seemed like a nice girl, and when we decided to just leave and go across the street, I respectfully asked her if there had been some kind of problem going on in the restaurant and explained to her what the manager had just said to us. Even she seemed quite puzzled by his behavior. You guys are a very reputable restaurant, but I sincerely hope you can find a way to do better. This type of random and unprovoked discrimination is...

TLDR: It took an hour and 45 minutes to get our meals and some food was cold. They comped us $24 for our troubles but it still wasn't worth it.

My poor experience began before I even arrived at the restaurant. I made my reservation in November for New Year's Eve. Since it was NYE, I guessed that there might be a prix fixe menu but could not find any mention of it online and the hostess agreed that it was only found by searching the website for it explicitly. Although no notice was given about using a credit card to reserve a table that night, I received a call in late December asking for a credit card to reserve my table, which would be subject to a cancellation fee. In response to an email, I confirmed my reservation on OpenTable, however I also received a phone call from the restaurant the day before our reservation (why bother with an email if they're going to call anyway?). The hostess informed me that their would, in fact, be a prix fixe menu that evening which was a surprise to me. I asked if there would be sides to order a la carte, which I had to define for her, and she was unable to tell me, though she was nice enough to offer to call back with an answer.

We arrived a little early for our New Year's Eve reservation and we were seated shortly after. There were some balloons unceremoniously floating on the ceiling. From the second we sat down, everything seemed to take a lifetime. We ordered meatballs in addition to our appetizers but the sauce was cold. The meatballs were good and it was busy so we did not complain. We didn't see our waitress again after that.

By the time we received our dinners, it was 1 hour and 45 minutes after we had arrived and we had both finished two drinks (which we had really, really been milking). I ordered a third glass of wine to go with my dinner and dessert. We were barely hungry still because it had been so long since our appetizers but the lobster gnocchi was good but worth the price tag. Same goes for the tiramisu.

Overall, the food wasn't worth the price and the service was terrible. I know it was NYE but the reason for a prix fixe menu is to make sure the kitchen times are manageable. Bricco was much better, go...

My co-workers and I recently took a trip to Boston. Lucca off Hanover Street was highly recommended so we decided to give it a try. Can I just tell you, all of us had a fabulous experience that will be remembered for a lifetime!

One of the owners, Sean Williams warmly greeted each of us as like we were royalty. We then went to the bar for a drink while we waited for a table to open up. Moments later we were escorted to a table just outside the doors that open up to the sidewalk, energy and good vibes of Boston.

Christiano was our waiter and was extremely attentive to our every need. He was also very knowledgeable and helped select a perfect wine for our party. We tried many of the appetizers and all were delicious...mussels, short ribs, caprese, mozzarella bread, and calamari. Everything was fantastic, but the calamari was my favorite! It was extremely tender and served in a spicy tomato sauce-positively scrumptious! I'm still thinking about how good it was! As longtime co-workers we share our dinners as well. We had filet mignon, lamb chops, halibut, and asparagus. Every meal was exceptionally prepared and grilled to perfection!

Although none of us had any room for dessert, we plunged ahead anyway. We had tiramisu, panna cotta, and a dark chocolate and raspberry torte. Again each dessert was impeccably prepared with surprising twists, and was enjoyed by all of us!

The ambiance, the service, the food was amazing! A perfect trifecta! I would highly recommend Lucca and would return here in a heartbeat!

I just discovered Lucca also supports 3 local schools in the area!...