Ristorante Luca — Restaurant in Dayton

⭐️⭐️ (2/5 stars) Visited: Day before Father’s Day

We stopped by this local spot on a moderately busy evening before Father’s Day. We didn’t have a reservation, so a 15-minute wait seemed totally fair, especially considering they were running a special for the month of June and celebrating their one-year anniversary.

Once seated, things unfortunately started to slip. Our server didn’t explain the specials and seemed a bit disinterested (possibly because we’re younger and didn’t dress to impress, but who knows). Not the worst service I’ve ever had, but definitely not attentive. The biggest issue was how long everything took. Drinks, apps, and entrées crawled out of the kitchen.

Now for the positives: we got a free appetizer and dessert as part of the promo, and the fried mozzarella was the best thing we had all night. Genuinely excellent. I’m giving an extra star just for that.

Beyond that, though, the food was disappointing across the board.

I ordered a side Caesar salad that had a decent first bite, but then a rancid aftertaste kicked in. I’ve worked in restaurants, I know what it tastes like when dressing has been left out too long. I only ate two bites. No one asked if anything was wrong, and while I could’ve spoken up, it didn’t feel worth it at that point.

For my entrée, I got the Southern Tilapia with chutney, garlic mashed potatoes, and broccoli. The chutney was solid, but the fish itself was mushy and barely seasoned. I ended up boxing it and giving it to my cats. The broccoli tasted like it came straight from a microwave steam bag... bland and overcooked. The garlic mashed potatoes were grainy and a little off, but passable.

My wife ordered the ribeye (one of the pricier items on the menu) and it was a mess. I get that ribeye comes with a fat cap, but this was nearly a third fat and very gristly. It came with mac and cheese (very good!) and a baked potato (solid).

Service didn’t improve much as the night went on. Our server checked in once early, but barely again after that. Other servers ended up stepping in, which helped a little but also led to confusion. One of them was very obviously high... if you didn’t see it, you definitely smelled it.

No one checked in when it was clear I barely touched my meal. No manager, no second round of “how is everything?” just radio silence. And again, maybe I could’ve been more vocal, but I wasn’t looking to cause a scene. Still, that’s part of the job of a good restaurant, to notice when something’s gone wrong and try to fix it. Besides the Fried Mozzarella and the Mac and cheese, I'm fairly certain I could make everything better at home and I am definitely not a chef.

In the end, I can’t recommend this place. I genuinely hope they take this feedback and improve. But if this was the first anniversary celebration, I wouldn’t bet...

We had reservations for 4 but the place was packed and loud. We had to wait to be seated about 8 minutes. Our party ordered apps -calamari and foccacia which were OK and probably one of the best parts of the meal.

I ordered the Chicken Marsala, spouse ordered linguine with clams, friends ordered marg pizza and pappardelle .After ordering the server came back to say no chicken was available so I had to order something else. I changed to the picatta with fish. Overall the food was just not good. Specifically the picatta was served with cold mashed potatoes that were coarse and flavorless. We all tried them and no one could eat them. The cobia was edible and good though. C- for that meal.

Once the meal was served the clams were substituted with overcooked shrimp and if given this information another item would have been ordered but the kitchen apparently decided it was their decision without even asking. Pretty bad decision. The meal was mostly overcooked pasta with 3 rubbery shrimp: an F for sure for that entree.

The pappardelle was also fair, not much depth to the dish and fairly bland: C-.

The marg pizza took forever to come out and the rest of the group was almost finished eating by the time it arrived "fresh from the oven." It was bland, soggy and the toppings were sliding off: F for this one too unfortunately.

Dessert was 2 options tiramisu and flourless chocolate cake. We all tried the tiramisu and it was very good: A+. We all wish we had just ordered the dessert for dinner as it would have been much better option.

The meal was very disappointing and even more so when the check came for the price of solid D- meal with un-approved subs and mediocre food. Hoping things improve but this was a pretty dismal meal for...

Great wood fired pizzas. Not a huge selection of options, but that leads to fine tuning on what they do have. I went in for the wood fired pizza, but that is not the only thing they have. It's mainly Italian, but they do have steaks. The olive oil they use is sourced from Sicily(I am totally guessing here but the flavor profile matches) which lends to earthy under tones that makes the fuchsia bread at the beginning of the meal really stand out. The mushroom pizza is my favorite, the arugula gets lost as it is cooked but the cheese and mushrooms are very front and center and the light drizzle of balsamic balances the pie perfectly. The supreme is runner-up in the pizza category. Loaded with meat and cheese you would think it would have a grease taste, but fear not, the chefs added the acid required in the form of banana peppers that cut right through and make the slice a delight to eat. My wife had a meatball sub, the meatball itself was moist, and the flavor was solid. I believe these meatballs are freshly made, not frozen, I might be wrong, but if they are frozen, it's the best damn frozen meatball I've ever had. I believe the meatball is a 50/50 pork/beef blend. When it comes to the marinara, you can tell they pay attention to details. The marinara is balanced in a perfect way. The acid of the tomatoes is balanced and not sweetened with a sugary sweet after taste. Well done. This is a restaurant that takes pride in what it is serving you, and their choice of ingredients is the proof. Plan to make this a few times a month stop. Sorry I didn't...