Luciano's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Garden City

Nice place, mid range prices, excellent waitstaff, and decent decor. The food is good quality at moderate prices, but you can wear jeans and a nice shirt and feel like you fit right in. And yes, their waiting room is a yurt. It had heat when we were there but I imagine they would air condition it in the summer.

We went at 5pm this Saturday, and the wait qouted was 45 minutes to an hour. (We ended up waiting about 25 minutes and lucked into one of the few booths. Call ahead if you want to cut down on the wait). When seated we were immediately greeted, provided with water, and was soon enjoying hot bread with balsamic vinegar / olive oil dip.

We ordered the calamari and two cups of the lobster bisque and pasta meals. My daughter had the children's penne mac and cheese, my husband had the shrimp linguine, and I had the clam linguine in white sauce. First came the squid and the lobster bisque. The calamari were crunchy, almost a little too salty, but tasty dipped into the red pepper sauce. The lobster bisque was very rich and tasty and drizzled with a little cream on top. While there's no way I could have eaten a bowl portion, a cup split with my husband was a perfect app.

Our main dishes arrived. My daughter's penne with mac and cheese looked good. My husband's shrimp scampi linguine looked very good with large shrimp. And of course my linguine and clams. The dish is a very good portion size and had just enough clams and wine sauce to make it delicious. After the main dishes were brought our server offered fresh grated Parmesan to the table and all of us took advantage of it. So what was the verdict?

My daughter wiped out her child's portion of the penna mac and cheese. Which is about a third the size of any of the adult meals. But she obviously enjoyed it as she finished off the portion as well as the garlic toast that came with it.

My husband said that his dish was balanced between the lemon and the garlic and the wine that it included for the scampi. He did finish about three-quarters of it but said it was very filling. When asked he said he would order it again if he was in the mood for it.

So what about my linguine and white clam sauce? Well it was delicious and it's one of the dishes I tend to order a lot when I go out to Italian restaurants. In fact, in a nice Twist of faith, I found no sand in my clams. And well, that doesn't sound like it's a big deal, but I've had this dish higher-end restaurants and found sometimes it's very hard to get away from even just a little sand. But not a bit here, which was fantastic. So if you like clams and linguine, then I would highly recommend this dish.

In fact I didn't find the prices anything but moderate. My daughter's kids meal was $5, the two soups were $5 a cup, my husband's meal was $16, mine was $15. Frankly I think we walked out of there paying far less than we would have for comprable food in maybe a slightly better atmosphere. But I like the fact that the atmosphere is where it's at because it makes me feel comfortable wearing jeans or something nice.

So we finish the meal with their tiramisu which quite good. My husband, myself, and my daughter split it 3 ways and it still didn't get finished as it was very rich. The only thing I would say probably stay away from is the coffee they serve. Not that it wasn't good, but at $4 a cup for just coffee, it seemed a little spendy and was the only part of the meal that I questioned the price of.

And I should mention that our server was really fantastic, attentive, and we wanted for nothing. All in all, we...

I'm sitting at the restaurant eating a second serving of garlic bread because that's how amazing it is.

First off, the ambience is very nice. It is the restaurant for the chatter but there is not annoying music in the background so it's perfect. The waitresses are extremely busy but are handling their orders very well! The amount of plates they can carry is amazing. 👏

Second, shoutout to Dahlia for her amazing service. She knows how to treat a customer right. She recommended a wine that I enjoyed more than I should've. Would've had a second but I'm alone so 🤦‍♂️

Third, the rosemary buttery bread with the olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette mix was a very interesting appetizer! I have never had quite something like it. It hit my digestive system and I'm like "Oh boi, my stomach has a hard time recognizing the vinaigrette" having never tried it but it tasted very good, quite a twist to an appetizer if you ask me.

Fourth and foremost, the baby I came for. The lasagna. This was the holy grail and I was not dissapointed. The cheese ontop was downright melty and so gooey, of perfect consistency. It was so hot I burnt my tongue three times before I stopped to analyze the pain going on, that's how good it was! I loved the seasoning as well, I didn't desire to add a dash of salt of my own.

My favorite part? The garlic bread, hands down. Oh my goodness, so crispy, garlicy and buttery. It was also my dessert at the end, I asked for another piece. 🤣 Happy to say that I will be back once again to see Dahlia's beautiful smile and grab another plate of lasagna with a lot more garlic bread! Thank you Luciano's for an amazing experience! 🤗

Update for Feb. 23rd and 24th, I came two days in a row just because of how amazing it was! I brought my coworker with me and he was breathtaken at the calamari. He loved the Gabriel for dinner. I had the Chicken Scaloppini which has hands down been the best dish I've tried from here, having visited 4 times already. Dahlia is still as wonderful as ever, providing fantastic service and helping me decide on what to eat, she is so good at describing the...

Me and my family ate here last night and one person returned their dish because of a chemical taste in the dish. And my husband got sick immediately on the way home… he was puking and in the restroom from the minute we left until this morning. I unfortunately got sick later in the night and we got completely different things. We all felt terrible after our meal and was thoroughly disappointed with the service with the manager that we spoke with about our concerns with three of us getting sick after dinner. We called right when they opened the next day and was told we would get a call back from the manager in an hour… We waited three and decided to call. Once we spoke with Elisha and got passed to the manager she was immediately condescending after we told her about our experience and didn’t have anything else to say other than we have really good reviews and don’t have issue with anyone getting sick, it’s weird because no one else got sick and I’m going to have to look into this because I’m not sure..? She wasn’t apologizing or understanding the extent of the situation. She just wanted to get off the phone and her customer service was one of the worst I think I’ve ever experienced. It was extremely disappointing to hear her take zero accountability our acknowledge the fact that we had a bad experience to the point of calling and bringing it to her attention. She was snarky and not helpful in this situation. Our purpose in calling was to make them aware we got sick off of completely different dishes, and there might have been a serious issue with their food. After her going in circles I told her she can expect an accurate review for both experiences. Unfortunately this place isn’t what it seems with service or quality of food. We left with a bad taste in our mouth literally and...