Luigi's At The Beach — Restaurant in San Diego

I rarely write reviews, and I eat at different restaurants all of the time, trying new places, new cuisines and so on. I must say, I don't know how this place is in business. If Gordon Ramsey had eaten here, he would have told them that he wouldn't have fed that to his dog.

I got a combo plate that has Lasagna, Ravioli, and Fettuccine Alfredo. The Fettuccine was overcooked. The Alfredo sauce might as well have been milk and water mixed together. Explains why they serve it in a bowl instead of a dish as the sauce didn't stick to the pasta, but instead was puddled in the bottom. The ravioli was obviously pre-made frozen, and of that, it was like a store brand rather than a good quality. The Lasagna was quite obviously frozen lasagna as well. That was the only thing on the dish that was edible, and even then, I've had better frozen lasagna from the supermarket. The onion rings we got because my GF loves onion rings, were also obviously frozen store bought, and were overcooked.

When we attempted to complain, we couldn't find our waiter.. we waited around, and eventually noticed her in the back having a beer with a co-worker or possibly her boss. I guess that explains why, when asked what was good, since we had never eaten there, she first suggested the pizza, and then said "If you wanted a full meal, it's here" and pointed to the section that listed all of their main courses in the menu... I didn't ask how to read the menu. I asked what she recommended... Eventually, we gave up and just left. I don't think they even noticed. We left almost all of the food there, having part of an onion ring, 1 ravioli each, one bite of the fettuccine each, and ate the lasagna because we were starving and it was already 10pm. Most of the places nearby were closing. To think, they charge $21 for that crap. Olive Garden serves food 20 times better than this place, and cheaper!

Lastly, the decor... well.. what decor? The walls are painted mustard yellow, there are 6 TV's up against one wall, and.. that's about it. The place looks like they slapped some leftover paint they had laying around on the walls, threw some tables together and called it a restaurant.

The only defense I will give them is their Pizza may be ok, though it didn't look that incredible to me. I did note that every single guest I saw was ordering pizza. I didn't see anyone with a plate of anything but that. Perhaps they are a 1 hit wonder and only their pizza is good. For a place with the name of an Italian person as part of the restaurant title, it sure feels like the chef grew up in an Asian country, having no clue what pasta should taste like or how cheese works.. Perhaps for a $21 dish, we could get some real Parmesan rather than powdered stuff you'd expect...

I came here for 20 years and now they are not what they used to be.

I walk in at 2 o’clock in the afternoon with 2 other people. We were a party of 4 but the 4th person went to park the car while we would sit down and order.

There is not a worker at the front desk so we continued walking assuming we could find one in the restaurant to guide us to a table. It was not completely busy because it’s Monday at 2 pm so there are tables available. Wasn’t that packed.

Half way into the place some red haired waiter stops us and tersely says: “you completely missed the stop sign in the front that says wait here to be seated! And the lady who sits at the front! Come back with me now.” GET THIS: there was no woman at the front to greet us because you weren’t there doing your job! Rude awakening.

We walk all the way back to the front and she points out the completely unobvious sign and at this point we are terribly hungry as the rude waitress lectures us like an elementary school teacher.

She leads us back to a table we were going to sit at in the first place and as we do so, she demands: “is this your whole party?” We say: “no we have one more coming” and now she angrily rattles: “You missed ANOTHER SIGN! You can’t sit down unless your entire party is here! Come back to the front!”

So she shows us a whole row of signs posted on the greeting stand in the front which are way below hip level (Another lecture, more or less). They were uneasy to spot and almost completely unnoticeable. She demands we have to wait outside until everyone gets here. We go outside and the 4th person arrives. We tell him the story and he walks in with us. The waitress rattles: “ok is this finally everyone?!” and the 4th person asks why we couldn’t sit down even if we were ready to order. And she starts attacking the 4th person and as she is bantering he simply says: “No. Don’t grind on me.”

Shortly after, the curly hair rat manager pops out and wants to know what’s going on. He brings the conversation outside so the people inside don’t hear how screwed up it was.

The manager starts arguing as well and interrupts with the same redundant and dull lines: “well, I’ll give you a hypothetical” “I’m trying to think of the general people” “I’m sure she didn’t mean it like that” “we never took orders by phone prior to coming”

We...

Stick to slices, preferably on a lunch or daily special or you will be disappointed. I mean it. Take it from someone who has tried to like this place since it is 200 ft from my apartment, and I have fond memories of coming here when I was a kid.

I decided to give this place one last chance ordering their party size pizza (in hopes of getting a decent value) and I'm not kidding when I say it is the worst tasting, yet also most expensive takeout pizza ($93.50 before tip) I have had in my entire life. There is very little sauce on the entire pizza, and there are salad plate size spots on the pizza where there are no toppings despite charging ~$17 extra for two toppings. That and the crust is wider than on their smaller pizzas making the pizza mostly bread. These issues disappear the smaller the size you order, to the point where the toppings on individual slices are incredibly generous. So I am assuming it is an issue with whoever owns the restaurant or manages the kitchen setting toppings portions, not the individual employee who made my pizza.

If you are staying in the area and want pizza to-go I recommend getting Alfredo's in Point Loma delivered, even factoring delivery fee's and tip it is cheaper (and I'd argue much higher quality) to get pizza delivered from Alfredo's than to get take out from Luigi's, which is why I'll likely never order a pizza from them again despite living across the street.

Still a decent spot to grab a slice, and their service has always been on point, which is why I'm giving it 3 stars...