Luigi's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Culpeper

My Partner and I had been looking forward to trying this one out, since it looked like a fun little italian restaurant. If Ciro's was really good, we thought this place would be good too. I had heard that it was on par with Ciro's, just a little pricier.

The outside front of the restaurant is really fun, as well as the inside decor. Nice and homey european-italian theming.

We ordered the mango flavored tea juice and the strawberry flavored tea juice. These sounded fun and a little fancy. They stood out from your standard sodas and milks. The second I taste it, my heart sank. It tasted like generic tea mixed with canned/carton Mexican mango juice branded Jumex. It's very cheap processed artificial juice you can even find in the dollar tree in town. It was the same case for the strawberry tea. Very disappointed right off the bat. For $3 too????? I just remembered too, I think it was served at room temperature and just added ice to it.

I ordered a Vegetable soup to start with. I would say it was one of two things that were actually good. Good, spicy broth with veggies and light noodles. Delicious and hot, but the portion was pitiful. I get that it was $3.50, but soup is one of the cheapest things to make. It was just vegetables with a couple noodles thrown in as if they were accidentally dropped in while serving something else.

My Partner ordered Stuffed Mushrooms, which were delicious, steamy mushrooms filled with melty cheese and crab. It was like 7 good sized mushrooms, I believe. Just meant to be an appetizer at $7. They were served hot and moist. My Partner immediately thought it may have been imitation crab, which disappointed her a tad, but she said it was still really good. (The crab portions inside were miniscule. I HATE seafood of all kinds, so for me to be able to eat them and enjoy them and not taste much crab, it has to count for something. Make a non-crab version, imitation or otherwise, and I'm buying.) Despite this, the mushrooms ended up being the star of the show, unfortunately.

Finally, onto the entrees themselves. This is where things really fell apart. I had order the Ravioli with Meat for $10. It arrived almost cold. Barely any warmth to it at all. The plate had a somewhat decent portion of ravioli, same for the meat inside the ravioli themselves. Meat sauce was poured on top too. It looked pleasant, but also a little flat. Probably due to it being cold. The texture of the breading was nice and soft. Very pleasant, the meat texture was decent. The meat sauce was a tiny bit chunky, which I always enjoy. However, the tastes themselves.... To summarize, it tasted like a step-up from Chef Boyardee ... It didn't have that can flavor, at least. Everything tasted flat and with no personality to it. Nothing popped. It tasted as if these were no sugar/diet versions of these ingredients. Even if it was maybe a step-up from Chef Boyardee's, we both agreed it still tasted around low-quality canned food. I HATE wasting food and money, but this was so deflating to see, as it was our bi-monthly date night. I couldn't finish more than half of my plate. I don't do that at restaurants. I usually pick my plate clean. I was deflated for the rest of the night.

My Partner ordered Penne Alla Napoli for around $13 we believe (Pasta with Shrimp and Pink Sauce. Pink sauce is a blend of tomato and cream.) The portions were good. She said there was more shrimp than other places, which she enjoyed. Won't you know it, but even her plate was just as cold. The presentation was decent, she says, probably due to the lack of warmth. I felt the same. I tried some of the pasta only, but it was kind of bland as well. Nothing popped or stood out. Just noodles with a bit of cream. My Partner noted that it felt like it was more tomato sauce than pink sauce. She felt that it was bland and nothing popped throughout the entire entree. "Shrimp was alright. The flavor of the sauce could have come out of a can." It deflated her too and really put a damper on the rest...

First of all, I never leave reviews, so this was really a horrible experience. Me and my husband were not sat quickly, and then were sat at a huge table right in the middle of the front of the restaurant, which I honestly rather have waited for one smaller since I felt I was in the way of everyone coming and going. Secondly, I ordered the chicken noodle soup and I wish I took a picture of how much cabbage was in that bowl, I could literally scoop all of the noodle and chicken BITS into one spoon. I didn’t even eat the soup it only tasted like cabbage. Then our app came out after our sides and they were suppose to be the cheese breadsticks but instead they were soggy and had slices of mozzarella on top and it tasted like old cheese, and we didn’t finish those either. We thought maybe the dinner would be better but we were wrong. I ordered the tortellini Prosciutto and I got a huge bowl of sauce, sliced ham, bunched up bacon bits that weren’t able to be pulled apart, and like a dozen noodles. My husbands meatballs and spaghetti were frozen meatballs and his ginger ale was so yellow, he had to stop eating for how much his drink made him uncomfortable. On top of all this, the server never checked up on us other than once when we were staring at our disappointing soap and bread. And at the end, our bill magically went up almost $10 after tax had added. So all and all, don’t come here, unless you want to spend the whole time wishing you were eating...

After a very long day and the fact everything closes at 9pm on a weekday in the area, we found this restaurant. A quick review showed numerous great posts and ratings so our entire party was excited about trying it. As soon as we walked in two staff members just stared at us like we had thumbs growing out of our foreheads. No matter, long day and starving. Not knowing any real back history I played it safe and got spaghetti and meat sauce. My buddy got an italian sub. Kinda basic right? This is where the train left the tracks. The side salad i got was the highlight of the whole experience. The spaghetti came and looked to be about a quarter cup of noodles in the tomato/meat/water blend. My buddies sandwich had three small pieces of meat and no Italian dressing. Just meat, lettuce and bread for an Italian sub. I made the mistake and asked for bread to go with my meal and it was a chopped up hoagie bun partially toasted on the grill. Partially meaning some burnt and most not. Another member got baked pasted and said it tasted metallic like out of a can. Unfortunately so did mine. Out of a party of five there was not one pleasant dish and that is sad. After all the reviews and the great dining room it was just a big let down. I understand the cost of rising goods but herbs are still cheap. I would have been happy with the portion size if the taste would...