Locale Neighborhood Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Tucson

We have come to dine at Locale on several occasions, both by ourselves and with small and large parties. We have had good meals at the restaurant and until yesterday thought very positively about Locale. After our dining experience yesterday, we are thinking we need to spend some time away and hope that our next visit will be better.

We came to the restaurant for lunch at about 2:30 PM. The inside dining room rooms were moderately busy.

After being seated, we ordered two glasses of wine and some bread. Our server is not a new employee for Locale, we have seen them before, just never directly working at our table. My order was quite easy as I usually stay on the safe side with Italian dishes.I ordered eggplant Parmesan, a dish I've had all across Tucson and the greater United States. My wife asked the waiter for a recommendation for a dish that would be creamy and they recommended the Fusilli, which is pasta in a white sauce with mushrooms. The the server asked if she wanted a protein on the pasta and she selected salmon. At no point where we told that salmon would be a $12 up charge, although I could pretty well guess it was going to be expensive.

When the food came out, my wife's first impression was that it needed more sauce in the pasta. She asked the server for some additional sauce to make it more creamy. The server rep replied that that would have to be priced as a side dish. Oh well, so much for more creamy.

My eggplant Parmesan was dominated by a leafy type of green that I later found was Argulla. My first impression was that there was more leafy substance on the plate, compared to the actual entrée, being the eggplant Parmesan. I also noticed that the eggplant was not very fluffy or expanded.

As I ate the eggplant Parmesan, I was struck that it tasted old, like it may have been in the pan for several hours. It also was charred a little bit. I started eating the leafy greens and found them to be extremely bitter; just an awful taste. So I tried to focus on the little bit of eggplant Parmesan that was on my $19 plate.

Eventually, the server returned and asked how everything was. I immediately responded that the leafy stuff dominating my plate was disgusting. I described what it tasted like to the server. They did not respond. I told him that the eggplant Parmesan was serviceable, but was small in size, especially compared to the lettuce farm that took up the rest of the room on my plate. As our discussion continued, the server explained that several people don't like the leafy greens, and that they could have substituted the Argula with a more traditional mix of salad greens. The server continue to explain that the next time if I wanted to order that I would have to state what I wanted.

Now, I would think that the mission of any effective server would be to make sure that the customer is satisfied with their meal. In the case of my dish, and explaining that the taste of the leafy green was disgusting, it would be good business to bring out some kind of a side salad that could substitute for the bitter leafy stuff. This was not offered. In the case of my wife's meal it would've been good business to go back and get a small container of the sauce and bring it out to her, but that was going to be an up charge.

We continued our meal and noticed that the server had disappeared, another server took over the table and completed our check. For the some total of $79 we both had meals that were not satisfactory to us. The quality of service was directly reflected in the tip.

Preparing to write this review I noticed that they have been many critical reviews of the eggplant Parmesan dish, and it makes me wonder if the owner actually reads these reviews, because if they have this dish should be radically changed. I'll be glad to provide them with references for other Italian restaurants in Tucson that can do eggplant Parmesan, not include a bushel of green stuff, and have their diners walk away happy.

As much as we like Locale, it will be a while before...

Have been here twice in the last 6months. The service, atmosphere, and drinks were fantastic. Really the drinks were very nice. However the food both times has been uninspired and well. Stingy even. First time I went with very high hopes! I already had browsed the menu online and knew what I was going to order! I got the fried artichoke because I am artichoke fiend. It was served not soggy, but not crispy, ans basically at room temp. No flavor (which didn't bode well for the fried eggplant to come).I also ordered the Burrata. I LOVE Burrata. I was served what I am pretty sure was ONE half of a Belgioso Burrata ball. Pre cut and had not really retained the cream. Once again, only 1/2 of a burrata ball precut and the size of a golf ball. Unacceptable. Already cut and put over an exhorbitant amount of greens and a few tomato . Even more so. To top it off the eggplant Parmesan was similarly ill prepared and was really lacking flavor. The tomato sauce literally just tasted like canned bland crushed tomatoes. I really like eggplant Parmesan, Burrata and artichoke,but I really wasn't going to return. Fast forward to last week and my sister took me to drum roll please.... Locale. We decided on drinks and appetizers and I kept my previous experience to myself. Maybe this was the universe telling me to give a second chance after all. Once again the drinks were lovely as was the service and the beautiful space they are located in. The carpaccio was good, not great but passable. But very bland. Not the meat, nor anything on the plate "popped" with either fresca or flavor. One or the other is all I ask! The caprese was embarrassing. Truly. Paper thin tomatoes, pre sliced mozzarella rounds(Belgioso again I'm guessing), and pre-chiffonaded(so wilted and lacking aroma), basil sprinkled on top. Like 3-5 extremely small, tasteless ribbons of basil. And since they've been sitting, there was no aromatics or real "basil" flavor. I ended up drowning it in black pepper and salt. Bread and oil was served hot and had a wonderful aroma and flavor from being toasted. The olives that I ordered were delicious and had a variety ratio that was not lopsided so that was a highlight. I decided to forgo ordering an entree. I want to like this place a lot just because of how great the staff is and what a nice location it's in, but I just really can't recommend anything that I've tried except for the olives and I don't think they make the olives "in house". A caprese salad there's absolutely no excuse for and Italian restaurant to not nail that. It is basic preparation and presentation. Three main ingredients. Each should be flavorful. The mozzarella shouldn't be dried. Even pre cut it should be stored to not become dessicated and if it was stored properly than this means the cheese came off an old unused log. Basil should always be torn or cut to order. If that is too time consuming (it shouldn't be there was probably only five people in the restaurant besides myself) leave the basil whole. There should be absolutely no problem sourcing extremely affordable in Tucson. In fact there's no excuse for it the only one I can think of would be convenience or laziness. A gigantic bunch of Basil that is organic an indoor hydroponically grown can be purchased for $3 at merchants garden. If you are a local restaurant it can be purchased there for even less. There's simply no excuse for basil to be indistinguishable from romaine. Simply none. The menu is great it's just severely lacking in execution. And just for clarity both times I've gone have been in the afternoon for lunch. Not super busy but not super dead. Maybe the dinner is better but since they have the same lunch and dinner the quality should be the same regardless. I will attempt to eat there one more time. If someone takes me . Such potential, and I WANTED to LOVE it so! Hopefully something changes.

Staff, Atmosphere, Bar, and location: 4stars Food: 2stars. (Yay bread and...

I have never had such a 1st to worst meal in my life. We first visited this restaurant during their renovation and were willing to support them and pay the extra price because we were told how special they were, even though the atmosphere was that of a house being renovated. I got the salmon meal, and my wife got the pasta and clams. It was so amazing that when we were actually able to hire a baby sitter and go back on 09/28/24 we were both so excited we got the exact same meals that made us fall in love with Local in the first place. My wife got the same meal and it was on par with the first time she got it. My meal was a whole different story. First, we showed up on a Saturday night after attempting to make a reservation, and when we called, they said they only did reservations for tables of 8 or more. We obviously infered that reservations would not be much of a deal because who would not allow reservation on a date night for a couple of two if they could not handle them. Well, low and behold that no one there realizes how much a baby sitter costs because when we got there it was a 40+ minute wait for only a table of 2, even if you were willing to sit outside.

When we finally waited our turns and ordered the exact meals that were so special to us last time, it was when the camels back was finally broken.

I ordered my salmon meal, which comes with salmon, potatoes, broccolini, and slices of cooked garlic. After a few bites, I dove into my cooked garlic, expecting it to have that delicious cooked taste. Well, low and behold, I got a slice of completely uncooked garlic, which, as all of us foodies know, can completely ruin a meal and makes your mouth and stomach burn. Me being the sport that I am, expected this to be a one-off and kept eating until another piece fell under my fork behind some of the salmon. At this point, I realized that every piece of garlic was completely raw, and I was no longer able to eat my dish.

When our waitress finally arrived to check in on is, I told her of my issue and because not much of my meal was eaten I expected her to at least offer a replacement. Unfortunately, her response was, "I'm sorry, I'll tell the cook, and would you like me to box that up for you?"

Who waits 40 minutes in line to eat a couple of pieces of brocoli and 3 bites of salmon and wants their meal packed up unless their is a significant issue with the meal???

My hope was that she was just new and did not know any better, so while leaving, I brought up my issue with the male who claimed to be one of the manager that was helping at the check in all night. Clearly, a manager would handle the situation professionally, right? Again,unfortunately, I had to show him my almost completely full take-home container with the large pieces of uncooked garlic on them, and he responded the same as the waitresses who I thought was new. "OK, I'll make sure to tell the cooks,"

Not one iota of professionalism was shown from my server or the so-called manager. For this reason, I have to now change my review to 1 star for my food, my service, and the atmosphere.

If a company is unwilling to take reservations except for the parties, they know they are going to make an included tip on, well they have no care for the atmosphere.

If the service refuses to fix food that is ruined by uncooked ingredients, they dont care about service or food.

A 1 star on each equals a 1 star overall.

My meal was better tonight when I was actually able to use my hands to pick out every piece of garlic and then microwave it, and that in itself should say the whole story.

The sadest part is that I bet that they never even respond...