Luciana's Ristorante — Restaurant in Dana Point

I’ve lived in south Orange County since 1981 and currently live in Dana Point and had never tried this restaurant. I made reservations to celebrate my wife’s birthday last night at Luciana’s on a recommendation from my insurance agent.

Before heading their, I called to ask if they allowed dogs in the patio dining area. Yes was the response to my delight. We hate leaving our dog home alone. This was the beginning of a very enjoyable evening.

Although I’ve read some reviews that service was a bit slow, I had reservations about the place when we arrived at the scheduled time and was asked to wait. Mind racing on what might end up being a disappointing evening, we were seated within 5 minutes. Not too bad.

Upon being seated, it took a few minutes before a table person (busboy seems a bit demeaning), offered water and asked for drink orders. Since we both wanted wine, he left. Three to four minutes later, our waiter showed up and offered to take our order, an by that time, we’d both read the menus and made our selections. We told him our wine selection and he immediately turned and walked away. Things weren’t looking good to us at that point. Five minutes later, the waiter brought our wine and recited the evening specials. We listened as that may change our previous selections. Although the specials sounded very appetizing, we settled on our first choice, a bowl of minestrone soup, grilled sausage & bell peppers for me & house salad, risotto with shrimp for my wife. A few minutes later there was bread and butter on the table.

After enjoying our own company, a glass of Chianti wine and bread, our soup & salad arrived, both of which were excellent. The prospects of a wonderful meal was peaking. Ten minutes later, the main dishes were presented at our table and we dug in. We were not disappointed in the least. Everything on the table was fresh and delicious.

As a birthday gift to my wife, the waiter brought out a small bowl of vanilla ice cream. This too was delicious.

My final thoughts are that we will return more often. This really was a fantastic evening and I’m not sure why I’d never tried out Luciana’s Restoranté before now. Thank you John C, for your...

Had been to Luciana's before and had a wonderful experience but on last nights visit not too good. It's was my wife's birthday. Made reservations which went well, showed up a little early and was greeted and sat by a young lady who must of been having a bad day. No smile nor any of the common courtesies given when being seated. Our server was pleasant, our wine was good, appetizer was good though it took 4 requests to get a second basket of bread. I ordered fettuccine my wife ordered cannelloni which was good, my pasta wasn't cooked and the sauce was not good at all. When I got it back the sauce had been freshened up but tasted even worse than before. A woman seated next to us also sent her dish back due to undercooked pasta and a woman at another table was telling her companion that her clams had no flavor and didn't finish her order either. I ate a few bites of my dish and set it aside and a busboy picked it up before our server came by the table where he could of seen I hadn't eaten much and hopefully would of asked if it was ok. When I asked for our bill our server did bring out a complimentary portion of ice cream with candle for my wife's birthday, which was nice but overall we probably won't be going back to dine there. I still left a 20 dollar tip for an 87 dollar bill but spending 107 dollars for a less than average Italian meal makes me think it would of been cheaper and better to just get some pasta and sauce from the store as it would of been much less expensive and tasted better. It's a shame that this dining experience was such a disappointment as our prior was exceptional we were hoping to make Luciana's our go to for Italian cuisine. Having read through the reviews I'm guessing that nobody at the restaurant even reads...

The food and the service here are absolutely outstanding. I've been here a few times in the last month and the quality of the food has been excellent and consistent every time. The patio seating is really quite nice. They've got good tables and chairs and heat lamps out there for the evening. The road noise is also really minimal. The indoor seating is okay. The lighting inside is really dim and I can't see my food as well when sitting indoors. The staff has been exceptional every time we've been there. They are quick to refill waters, check on us, and bring the food out hot. Often the management has stopped by the table to check and ensure everything is going well too. We've tried a few different entrees and every one of them has been great. The minestrone soup is really good and worth trying. The dessert menu is also outstanding. Their wine selection is honestly quite overwhelming. I highly recommend you give yourself ample time to look at what's on the menu and do your research to figure out what you want to get. I checked out a few of the bottles and some of them were overpriced and others were really competitively priced. If you're looking for a great cab, ask them for their priest ranch Cabernet. Really good. There is decent parking nearby. The restrooms inside the restaurant are a little bit funny. There's one single person restroom just down the hallway from the bar. Then around the corner from there are a couple more bathrooms, one for women and one for men, and then there's a shared sink outside of those two bathrooms. Two bathrooms. It works. But it's a little funny. All in all, I highly recommend it as a great local Italian restaurant. Make reservations before you go. Have...