Luce — Restaurant in Charlotte

Will never go to back to Luce restaurant again. To give some context, I made a reservation for 3 guests total on Wednesday, November 15, at 5:15pm (quite early) , to celebrate my mother's birthday. I made this reservation one week and a half ahead of time, and I let them know about the celebration and that I was going to bring a special wine with us (I'm already aware of corkage fee). When we finally showed up, we were met with the most awkward cold service. Yes, we were received by a hostess, busser and our waiter (Alberti), but the way they treated us made us feel like we were unwanted there. I guess I was right with my gut feeling, because our server never poured us the wine after he opened it or showed at the table at every courseto check on us. Which was weird, considering how empty was the restaurant at the time we showed up (it got full eventually).On top of that, on every course, we were rushed to finish. They never asked about the food, except for one occasion. They would just show up rushing to pick up the plates when we were not even done. Fast forward, we were rushed with the desserts, had to wait for one of our desert wines that didn't show up on time, and just before we were going to order our coffees, the server simply placed a check without asking if we wanted anything else. When I told him that we wanted coffee, he told us that we had 10 minutes to finish, because he had a party upcoming. We ordered and the order was brought incomplete. This was embarrassing, because it was my mother who they kept missing during the entire service. That's no way to treat a guest, and on top of that, he dropped again a check with an imposed 20% gratuity for a party of 3. Yes, a party of 3, not 6. I tried checking the policy of gratuity, and no were did I find a policy stating an imposed percentage on a small party. I'm all for great tips, but it should always be for excepcional service, not for mediocre and cold service. And good luck if you bring that up, because the manager was no were to be seen. I also noticed how they were so warm and gentle with other patrons, but not with us. I have worked in hospitality since 2006, and I have never, EVER felt this marginalized at a restaurant. And the food wasn't even that great. I usually get pretty good service at the majority of places that I go, so this was pretty shocking to experience. If you want a genuine Italian restaurant, with amazing, warm and kind service and exceptional food, I recommend Dolce, EYES CLOSED. They will treat their patrons equally, no matter who they are. For a $300+ dinner, I expected great service. This place was subpar.

**Edit: To the owner's response. While the reservation was at 5:15pm, we actually sat down at 5:25pm and if you're a business owner, you know that it's going to take at least an extra 10 minutes to order anything. So no, that's not almost 3 hours of dining. If you pay close attention to the check, you will also notice that we ordered many food items, plus consumed a full bottle of wine (hence the corkage fee) and two after dinner drinks to be consumed between 2 people (the third guest is a minor). You can't expect for two people to chug down an entire bottle of wine and 2 cordials in 1.5 hours. That's not realistic. 1.5 hours is an estimate, but that can change, depending on the amount of items to be consumed. We basically spent at your place $120 per person. I don't expect to have the staff attempting in many occasions, and on all courses, to remove the dishes that we were still trying to eat. You simply don't do that. Also, it would be a good thing to train your staff to ask if we want anything else before dropping the check. We were still not done ordering. One suggestiog that I can offer to you is to do what some of the best restaurants out there do when they're in a rush to flip a table: if the guest finish the desserts but are still not done because maybe they're ordering after dinner drinks, be gracious and invite them to have complimentary...

The staff really sets the tone for a dining experience. Unfortunately my experience was negative. Party of 6 for a friend’s birthday, everything was fine at first. They were not busy at all. Maybe 4 other tables total last night. We had ordered our apps and entrees all at once to get it out faster. Food still took forever to come out, apparently we are supposed to ask for our main course we had already ordered to be brought out? Hard to do when the entire staff is no where to be found. 2 of us on the end of the table had no issues with waters being refilled but the remaining 4 at our table sat with empty glasses till they finally found a staff member walking by and stopped him for water. When the check came we were shamed by the waitress for not telling her prior that we needed separate checks. She made a huge deal about it and blamed us for not telling her sooner. In my opinion, if you have been working there for 10+ years as she stated to us, you’d think she’d have the experience to be proactive and ask us how we’d like the checks when taking our orders, or disclose no separate checks as many restaurants do. Our group was all young female professionals but she kept referring to us as “girls” and talking to us as if we were children. It is unfortunate because I really enjoyed my food. Other patrons did not get the same treatment that we did and were treated with a bit more respect than us “girls”.

My only other area of opportunity is to be more thoughtful of food allergies and restrictions. If you do not eat pork, perhaps look at the menu prior as well. My friend cannot eat pork so she had a limited selection as they cannot remove it from certain dishes. It was her birthday and they did bring out a free dessert but it appeared to contain gelatin which may have pork and she couldn’t take the risk so she did not...

We have been here several times in the past and usually had good experiences. My wife is a big fan and it was her birthday celebration so we came here with a group of 8 people. Two of us arrived 10 minutes early and sat at the table. We were waiting for almost 20 minutes before anyone asked if we needed anything (including just water). When the rest of the party arrived, the waiter seemed rather annoyed or too busy to bother with our large party for anything we needed. The food was good (chicken parm was very good and the lasagna was also good). When it came time for dessert, i had brought two cakes from my wife’s favorite bakery that the restaurant ok’ed us to bring in. When I reminded the waiter about the cakes for a surprise when my wife left that table, he was very annoyed when I simply mentioned the cakes. While they brought out the cake and candles I supplied, they didn’t put any candles in the second cake (minor issue). But they never brought any silverware or plates for any of the 8 people and never came back to check on us so we were left using coffee spoons and sharing 3 bread plates for 8 people. When it came time for the bill, the waiter just brought out 1 large bill, never inquired if we needed it split up, and was visibly disgruntled/annoyed when we asked to separate the check so I could take care of the bill for my wife and her family. Because of the splitting of the bill, the waiter made us wait forever to collect our payments (I guess as punishment) until the point that we had to take the checks up to the bar just to pay our bills each. Worst service I have received in quite awhile at a nice establishment in Charlotte. On top of this there was a 20% tip already added for the large party. A manager was nowhere to be found to discuss our bad...