Luogo — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

6 OUT OF 5 … EASILY

FOOD: The food at Luogo is absolutely fantastic, thoughtfully prepared, well-plated, and a delight to eat.

I started with the fall salad, a lovely mélange of distinctive flavors in each bite, topped with a crispy pancetta, that wasn’t pan-fried bacon crispy, but rather was somehow dried and rendered crispy, to concentrate the smoky flavor. Yum!

We then had our main course. I had the salmon, which was screamingly fresh; its surface was seared to a delicious crisp without over-cooking any of the flesh below; and the orange butter was a perfect complement, a rich, only lightly citrus note (as opposed to anything lemony, which would have detracted). I got a bite of my daughter’s duck ragout pasta. The duck, tomato, and seasoning flavors all came through distinctively and yet blended seamlessly to mellow and elevate each other.

The dish we couldn’t pass up was the truffled pasta, so we shared a plate before dessert. The truffle flavor came through loud and clear, amplified by only a few other ingredients, including butter. We were transported.

For dessert we both ordered tiramisu. It was in a lighter-flavored style (less chocolate and espresso forward), very rich and smooth.

A fine, fine, satisfying meal.

SERVICE: As you’d hope and expect, everyone listened. We asked for a quiet table and got one where we didn’t have to raise our voices to hear each other, even as the restaurant filled up. I asked for help with the Barolos; the sommelier described them carefully; and the one we picked was exactly as described. The fish was cooked exactly as much as I asked. We ordered a bit unconventionally, and asked for breaks between each course; and the timing was just as we asked. So far, between food and service, we’re up to a five out of five.

What made Luogo a six was that they also read the table and adapted. Luogo is set up for the kind of formal service that many folks expect as part of food and prices at this level: lots of different folks showing up, frequently and with formal carriage, to do some specific task, like, fill water, deliver breadsticks, bring new silver, pour wine, etc. I get that many people feel pampered by this kind of constant, formal, subservient attention. If that’s what you want, Luogo will deliver.

But when my family goes to dinner, we’re seeking great food that further and organically elevates the already deeply connected family conversation through which we elevate each other. When that’s working for us, it’s easy for anyone to see … the laughter, the proud-of-my-kids look on my face, and the unguarded delight and astonishment on our faces when we take a next mind-blowing bite of something. By contrast, we get quiet, even cringe just a little, when anything, feeling mechanical or intrusive, takes away from that flow (see my review of Yolan a year ago).

That I can tell, Luogo staff read us and silently adapted. The action slowed down. Our server relaxed and rose from formally subservient to serving us as an existential and good-humored equal. Overall, the restaurant adjusted its more formal script and flowed into our family’s improvised and connected one. Without stepping over any boundaries, the staff adapted to amplify the joy of a bittersweet family event, my 70th birthday.

That’s a six, easily :-)

POSTSCRIPT: A note for Mr. Scotto, the owner of Luogo and Pelato … as you can infer from my two reviews, I spent over 2.5 times as much at Luogo as at Pelato, and feel qualitatively better about it. The food in both venues is great, and a good value. Our server at Pelato was trying to give us the same good experience we had at Luogo. But the refusal to adapt to dietary needs at Pelato—the manager’s implicit demand, in her demeanor, that we be the ones to read and adapt to her rather than the other way around—made all the difference. Pelato could also easily have been a five, if not for incomprehensible, unyielding inflexibility at an otherwise fine addition to the Nashville...

We ate at Luogo for our date night. The atmosphere was really nice, the food was average, but the service was terrible. For the price point the food needed to be 30% better and the service needs to be substantially improved. It was only my husband and I, and the meal took 2 hours and 10 minutes from being seated to paying the bill.

Our server came over when we were first seated to say hello but then left without taking our drink order. He did not return for over 25 minutes. About 20 minutes in another server realized we hadn’t been taken care of and took our drink order. When he came back to take our order we asked him about the short rib and he raved about it. He said it was a meal you’d think about forever and one of the top 10 best meals he’d ever had. We both ordered it and it was truly just average, so I think he may have been pushing the more expensive dishes. We had a ton of time in between courses and were rarely checked on. There were a few other oddities that made the service feel unorganized. An example would be when a busser came by to clean the table from crumbs and 30 seconds later our waiter came by to do the same thing.

The drinks were good. I ordered an espresso martini which was your standard drink. My husband ordered the Quasi Spritz which he really enjoyed. We were glad to see mocktails listed out in the menu. The breadsticks at the table were incredibly salted and seasoned to the point where they were inedible.

The food was really just okay. Overall I think they need to review their ratios of accompaniments and sauces in the dishes. The Blue Fin Tuna Crudo was just okay, but could have been great if the tuna was sliced thinner and there were more of the accompaniments. The tuna was just not high quality enough to stand on its own without the additional components. The Short Rib had the same issue. The meat was fine, but there was not sauce and mashed potato to make it pop. Without the sauce it was honestly average at best. I would compare the meat on its own to wedding food. We both ordered it because of the glowing recommendation from our server. I wish we would have picked a pasta dish because I believe that’s where they probably shine.

We ordered the Ricotta Cheesecake and the Bread Pudding for dessert. The Ricotta Cheesecake had the same issue as the Tuna and the Shortrib. There was way too much cheesecake filling compared to the sauces and crust. The cheesecake filling was not good enough to stand on its own without a bit of sauce or crust. And the crust was incredibly hard to cut through. The Bread Pudding was unevenly cooked. My husband took a bite and asked me why it was so dry, which is really not what you want from a bread pudding.

The ambiance in the restaurant was really fantastic. The aesthetic was clean and trendy. The lighting was dimmed but not dark and it was not terribly noisy. The bar area where our tables faced was really well designed and decorated. They had a beautiful mural in the hallway leading to the restroom. It had the feel of a nice restaurant that was perfect for a date night.

Overall, Luogo just missed the mark for us. The food and service were just not up to the standard that this restaurant is trying to set. Our total bill was around $210 and I just would have expected a better experience at that...

I approached Luogo with the enthusiasm of a starving artist at an all-you-can-eat buffet, desperately hoping to find a serviceable Italian spot in my neighborhood. Spoiler alert: much like a Biden debate response, nothing worth remembering (for good) ever materialized during our $300 gastronomic tragedy at Luogo.

The olives in my martini were the first red flag - or should I say, green flag? The "Bleu Cheese" stuffing resembled a mixture of brick and mortar that even Bob the Builder would reject. The olives themselves were doing their best citrus rind impression - method acting at its finest, but ultimately inedible. I could only surmise they found these in a jar from the Jurassic era and decided, "Eh, why not?"

Our appetizer trio was a comedy of errors: Octopus: So overcooked, it could have been mistaken for rubber bands from the Staples clearance bin.

Zucchini blossom: The batter gave off strong egg roll vibes, with the blossom playing an excellent game of hide-and-seek between batter and cheese.

Eggplant and zucchini pie: By comparison, it was good - if you consider "edible" a ringing endorsement. The burnt cheese around the circumference added that special "we forgot about it in the oven" touch. The duck in the duck ragu must have flown back north for the summer because finding it was harder than locating my dignity after karaoke night. The dish was so tasteless, it could have been a contestant on "America's Got No Flavor." Eating a Stouffer's microwave meal would have probably brought me more joy - and at least a comforting dose of nostalgia. The service was as polished as a mud-covered boot, matching the staff's unkempt appearance. The patio furniture seemed to be sourced from Fisher Price's "My First Restaurant" collection, perfectly complementing the staff's interest in our experience.

We left after an hour, having barely touched our meals. When the server asked about our evening plans, we mentioned getting a second dinner - a statement that flew over their head faster than the duck must have escaped the prep area for the ragu I ordered.

We paid, tipped appropriately (because we're not monsters), and left to find sustenance elsewhere. The highlight of the meal was the wine we brought ourselves - a testament to our excellent taste and poor decision-making skills. I can confidently say I've never spent a worse $300, and I've been to multiple Vols games. The fact that this place has a 4.7 rating has shattered my faith in humanity more thoroughly than watching a reality TV marathon. Save yourself the existential crisis and dine elsewhere - there are too many good restaurants at this price point that won't leave you questioning your place in the universe. Unless, of course, you enjoy a side of despair with your...