Lucca's Pizzeria and Market — Restaurant in San Diego

I love pizza! And Lucca's interpretation of pizza is a delicious vision of one of the greatest foods ever invented. It's not New York, Chicago, Detroit, Naples, Rome...it's Lucca Pizza. The dough is it's own unique soft, chewy and pillowy, making it a great vassal for transporting the sweet tomato sauce, mozzarella, and generous portions of sausage, pepperoni, meatballs and soppressata into my hungry mouth...$22 for the Amante Della Carne pizza, great price!

The $25 Tuscan was even more unique flavor of pizza: Pesto, chicken, cherry peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, spinach...lots of unique flavors combing themselves into happiness.

Note this is a order at the counter restaurant, but service was still friendly. Ambience felt like very European, as many European bodegas also serve up good food. It's non pretentious way to get good food without having to feel like you have tip 20%+ because its not full service. The one minus star is that while I can see the pizza guru was hard at work, our pizzas took awhile to come out to our table, all the while I saw 8-10 other customer/food delivery folks pickup takeout orders...

I think this is Mission Valley‘s hidden gem! I am an Italian food lover, and this is by far the best Italian I’ve had here in San Diego. Tonight I chose to try a chef special, lucky for me, The chef was right there asked me my flavor preferences and surprise me with this robust dish with fettuccine noodles, sun-dried, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, amongst a few other ingredients. I really hope he remembers this dish because it is my new favorite. I have had a few other menu items, all of which blew me away starting with their pizza. You hear that New York pizza is so good because their bread is different because of the water. The bread here is different. I don’t know what New York pizza bread is like, but I would liken in to be on the same level as Luccas. I’ve also had spaghetti here, and the marinara taste like they freshly picked and crushed the tomatoes to make the sauce, I’m not even exaggerating, it’s definitely not your typical canned/jarred sauce. If you’re reading this and considering it, go! You won’t be disappointed. I don’t write reviews often (but I always intent to) but this dish really moved me to.

Thank you...

Lemme tell ya…. I called in to order and got a meatball and chicken calzone to go. Once I got down there on my motorcycle and got a chance to take a look at this absolute masterpiece, fine piece of art of a meal. I just could not ruin it, nor disrespect it on the ride home in my bag. This calzone was cooked literally to perfection, not a spot of burnt crust even on the edges, and not under cooked at all. Spices just elegantly draped across for that hint of real deal flavor. The chicken you could just tell, this was fresh high quality chicken and cooked perfectly. The meatball, this truly was high quality meat too and cooked just right, dancing within a cascade of cheese and sauce. 🤌MAMA MIA!🤌 Not sure if you can tell by now lol but I’m originally from New York and my family is very Italian and I have not raved about ANY Italian food I have had outside of New York. These guys are good. There’s so much more I’m gonna go back to try. If you’re looking to get some real good Italian food, forgetaboutit, go to Lucca’s like I shoulda been doin the last 4 years out here in California. I’ll see yas...