DeLucca's Italian Grill — Restaurant in West Columbia

5/13/25 Horrible experience from start to finish. We arrived shortly before 5pm and were greeted rather harshly with "do you have a reservation?" There were only 2 other parties seated. We were seated directly next to one of the other parties, despite the restaurant being nearly empty. No water was offered. We ordered a coke and a Steel Hands Beer. They arrived rather later than would be expected with top notch service, and the beer was only 3/4 full. We were given bread and a whipped strawberry butter. After a while the waitress appeared and stated "what do you want". No warm greeting, no suggestions, no "are you ready to order?" We ordered a crab cake appetizer, Pasta ala Vodka with salmon with the cream of salmon soup, and a Ribeye with "whipped potatoes and seasonal vegetable" with house salad. Well, the plates came, and came and came. Nothing was cleared and the entrees arrived to a two top table with no room to put them had we not already stacked all the other plates. The crab cake was disappointing... mushy with a yellow mayo ish drizzle and the thinnest slices of lemons you have ever seen. Next came the cream of salmon soup which was so overly salty, it was not edible. The house salad was fresh and dressing served on the side (the win for the evening). The entrees were pathetic. The pasta was Penne with a very light sauce that was, again, much too salty to eat. The salmon was so small for the price, it was less than the size of a decent entre at $23. The Ribeye, at $36!, was paper thin and so full of fat, it couldn't possibly be cooked as anything other than well done and was slathered with way too much cold butter. It was served with a glue like mash potato, over salted and dripping with butter. The seasonal vegi was broccoli rabe, that must have been drowned in butter, and salt, again! The waitress was cold and never cleared plates, never checked on us, and only at the end, offered to refill the coke - not asking if we would like another beer. We asked for the check, after stating the food was inedible due to the salt content. She said she would take the plate back to her manager to "see if we might give you a discount". Total was $88 before tip. I did leave a $10 tip, but it should have been zero. Also, only 4 other tables were filled while we were there. So why be so cold because we didn't reserve a table? Definitely not worth your...

I will preface this by stating that this review is based on my last visit only!! Overall, I have been here numerous times and the food is always very good and the staff has been friendly.

My wife and went in last week around 12:15pm or so, it was Wednesday or Thursday. When we arrived, there were only two other tables occupied. If you have been here, then you know that it is a smaller dining area and that you may be seated close to others.

The blonde-haired lady (Do not know her name, but always there) wanted to seat us at a table right next to two ladies at a different table. These two tables were extremely close to one another. Since they were obviously not busy this day, I asked could we be sat in the corner, at a 2-seat table. The blonde-haired lady did not like this request at all. Her facial expressions conveyed it all, but she also felt the need to be sure that we knew she was saving that area in case 6 people came in. She was not even remotely friendly about it but rather obviously perturbed. This was 2 seats across the back wall of 10 seats that could be slid left or right to accomadate anything from 2-10 people and 100% empty when I requested the change.

At this point I was done and had no intention of spending any more money here than I had to. My wife ended up ordering lunch, but I chose to not order as I was not going to reward this lady with an increased lunch ticket based on her snotty attitude this day.

While we waited, I also witnessed 2 other ladies come in and be seated only to ask to be moved. They received the same exact treatment; they were moved but only after they were certain to be made aware of this lady's annoyance. Unbeknownst to the two ladies, this waitress would also continue to throw them stink eye on occasion.

It will be a while, a long while in fact before I ever go back, but I will eventually go back because I do like the food and our other visits have been fine. As a local business owner just down the street they are also convenient to us but there are far too many other choices to have to accept this lady's rude behavior due to having a bad day or whatever it was.

If you have never been here, I do recommend it as the food has always been very good. The service has always been decent until the above day. It can be a little abrupt at times due to only a couple of ladies working the dining area and...

We have been eyeballing this restaurant ever since experiencing Ariana's next door. We called in a DeLucca's Salad with no ham or turkey. Instead, we wanted roasted chicken. I took a look at the menu and realized it was an upcharge to add the chicken, and sincerely thought we would need to pay extra. The girl who answered the phone was extremely nice, genuinely took her time with my questions, and gladly helped to make the salad like we wanted it.

The food... where do I start? I've eaten a lot of salads in my time, but this one really stuck out. Not only was it fresh and well-presented (I didn't get a picture, we were too hungry), but the dressing options were incredible and diverse. They had the usual fare, plus some of their in-house dressings. We chose lemon dill, and while that doesn't sound all that exciting... understand me when I say, "Wow!" It wasn't heavily creamy. There were no imbalances of ingredients. It was a delicious addition to the salad, and I feel as though they may have caused me to become addicted to it! (I mean that in the best of ways!)

My husband picked up the salad while I waited outside. At first, he was slightly irritated that it wasn't ready, but he retracted his irritation as soon as we dug in. They made it completely fresh, and we even tried to find anything wrong with it - as we do review a ton of restaurants. Not a single leaf was wilted or turning pink.

The service was, by his standards, really good. They were nice and professional young women, and they chose to take their jobs seriously. Not everyone is cut out for customer service, but they were! Thank you!

The atmosphere only gets knocked down because it was a bit cramped, but some may call it cozy. We don't like being squeezed into spaces, especially if restaurants are very busy. I'm not sure we would dine in at a peak time, but we likely would in a lull. I also wanted to mention, as I said, we write reviews. The people that were in the restaurant seemed to get offended when my husband was taking pictures (he's a local photographer), and people looked down their noses at him. That is not a comment on the restaurant. It is a comment on the people dining in it.

Overall, we highly recommend giving them a shot! Their salads are delicious, and the roasted chicken? Fabulous. We will...