Leci's Italian — Restaurant in Jacksonville

First, while I am giving 4 ⭐'s this little place deserves your visit as well as a return visit by us in the near future. Next, Italian is our specialty as our daughter-in-law and son-in-law are both Italian and we frequent Italian restaurants quite often. Restaurant is located in a small strip mall with easy access off Phillips Highway going north and a U-Turn if your headed south. It's a small store front so it might be easy to miss. Parking area is small but well worth the effort to find a spot. Our pool group of 23 decided upon this place and must say not a single negative comment from our group. We were welcomed and all the tables were already set for us. Now for a party of 23 you would figure we would need 2-3 servers... nope got only one but folks Thanh was Super Women and an outstanding 10 ⭐ employee and can't say enough positive about her. Took every order and got every one right 👍🏼! What really really surprised us was Thanh didn't add an automatic 18% gratuity but left it up to each guest. As you can see when our $32 Bill came we left her a $10.00 tip, way over the 18% as again she was outstanding. They offer a very nice lunch buffet, served between 11:00am and 2:00pm with outstanding selections including a nice Salad Bar that many in our party, as well as other customers took full advantage of so 5+⭐. Bill and I decided to order off the menu and here's where our selections lost a little luster. I ordered the Stuffed Mushrooms...fantastic, large and well worth the price 5 ⭐. I ordered the Ministrone Soup. Now this is where taste comes in. To the both of us it was more like a Hearty vegetable Tomato soup. No beans, macaroni etc. it was delivered hot but not quite sure what to really call it so 4 ⭐. Bill ordered the Meatball Sandwich that came with fries. Now the meatballs were excellent but the bread was too much and not a crispy Italian style. Upon being served we saw that it was a bit dry and requested an extra serving of sauce which helped. Now just a suggestion but consider changing the bread to a Publix Italian and also offer a small side of pasta as opposed to fries. By doing so it would take this 3 ⭐ sandwich to 5 ⭐. With a full bar and comfortable inside we can understand why they have a loyal customer base and fully intend to return to try many of the...

I travel and eat in small one of a kind restaurants often. This location was just the third of worst but most expensive of the three. I and my husband were relieved to finally leave this place after horrible service that was also VERY slow. Other guests around us were also complaining of how slow and unattended the staff were. Our order started with water. We waited 20 minutes just to get that. When it arrived it tasted as if they went to the bathroom to fill our cups. I then asked for 2 bottles of water, waiter tells me it's $2.50 per bottle and I assume it's Evian or similar. Nope it's some cheap brand highly marked up but it sure did have a cleaner taste. When we make our order for food it takes even longer for the appetizer and our main dishes to arrive. What was meant to be an hours worth of time took two and half hours. This is a place that is highly over charged as it's food was the foulest. The red sauce is very bitter while also lacking spice. The cannoli dish was ruined by the inability to serve this dish hot. The plate came with a chill but giving how long my table was left waiting for food I was not willing to take the risk to send it back. If you eat here beware that service is horrible, slow, and uncaring. The prices are over the head and the food is...

We went on Black Friday about 3 pm. There were 3 other tables and eveyone was seated well away from others. The server was attentive but didn't hover. We started with stuffed mushrooms and Shrimp Aioli. The mushrooms were excellent. My only negative (if I had to find one would be that the crab was surimi). The shrimp aioli was excellent. I should have adked to take home the extra garlic and oil to have on pasta. I had the Veal Parmigiano with an upgrade to fettuccine alfredo and I added a single manicotti. I have not had this quality of Italian food since I lived in New York. As you can see in the picture the Manicotti is not a prepackaged round pasta tube. The filling was the perfect combination of mozzarella and ricotta and seasoned perfectly. My husband had the large Stromboli. He is picky and the customized his fillings to exactly what he did and did not want. Their homemade sauce is to die for. I can't wait to go back and try their bologanese sauce, mushroom sauce, and their clam sauce. They also have daily lunch, dinner, and happy hour specials. They have a full bar with plenty of bar stools. All in all, a true hidden gem in...