Luca West — Restaurant in Westlake

UPDATE! THEY FINALLY CALLED! Spoke with the restaurant manager Michelle today. She apologized for our experience and is sending us a Gift card. I will keep you updated!

Update: Used to love this place. Last two times we have gone food quality is not that great. We went June 8, 2024 at 5:30 for my and my son's birthday. It was about half full. Our waitress wasn't very knowledgeable b/c she was new. My Husband and son ordered the bone in Ribeye. I had the Lobster risotto (our usual). My husband informed our waitress he didn't want any pink in his steak. The table next to us ordered the T-bone. While we were ordering they were complaining about their steak and sent it back. When my husband received his steak it was bloody. The manager came over and apologized and took his steak back. The steak came back rubbery. You couldn't cut it. At the time I didn't know my son's steak wasn't good either. He didn't say anything though. The steaks were real fatty. My husband informed the manager after he had a hard time cutting it he didn't want it. She offered to get him something else and he declined. He told me that nothing on his plate had been moved. The steak was in the exact spot he sent it back in. He assumed the steak was put in a microwave since it was so rubbery and everything was hot. He was livid. The steak was $80. He felt they should have just made him a new one for that price. If it had been over cooked they would have to have made a new one. The bill was $300 with the steak removed. For that price we expect more for our dinning experience. Between two tables with two different kinds of steaks, it isn't a good record when nobody liked their food. This was my son's first time there and he said his last time. After learning my son wasn't happy either I tried calling them twice and my husband once to discuss our experience (we left 3 messages). He didn't want to ruin our birthday's with complaining that day. That was June 10th. We never heard from anyone. We won't be going back.

old review:...

Went here for a birthday dinner and was mostly underwhelmed for the price point. We found the menu descriptions misleading at times and several dishes/components were severely under seasoned. One of our cocktails was a tequila with clove syrup that had no balance, despite being a reposado tequila with several aromatics the clove overtook everything and gave a distinct impression of drinking potpourri. We had the truffle lobster cream soup which was fantastic with large well cooked pieces of lobster, but there was no evidence of any balsamic in the dish. The beet salad was lacking salt and acid and felt flat. The beef carpaccio is listed as having shaved black truffles, there was a thin dusting of flavorless black mushroom and a drizzle of truffle oil, which is a flavored oil that doesn't actually contain truffles (had I known that it was prepared this way I would not have ordered it. Truffle oil isn't listed on the description and it felt like a bait and switch.) it was tasty, but felt dishonest. The veal chop with demiglace was fantastic and robustly flavored, which made the wholly unseasoned carrots and fingerling potatoes stick out like a sore thumb. The ossobucco had a perfect texture, but honestly tasted like they had just braised it in plain unsalted water despite the description alluding to a chianti base. Upsetting considering it was a $50 bland pot roast with noodles. The tiramisu was ok at best and the sponge layer felt stale. Our server was kind and attentive, but the kitchens pacing was pretty terrible. Overall pretty disappointing and confusing considering that the good dishes were fantastic, but the misses were utterly uninspired. Unfortunately even though the ingredients were prepared well, the inconsistent level of seasoning and misleading descriptions means I can't recommend...

We were invited for the birthday here and it was very well worth the experience.

They have a wonderful patio and we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy it on a very nice evening. Our table was right next to the bar so toward the evening it got a bit uncomfortable due to amount of people gathered by the bar.

Between me and my wife we tried 2 appetizers: Tuna Carpaccio (good, nothing special) and Carpaccio di tartufo nero (Kobe Carpaccio, also good but nothing special); 2 main courses - Branzino (Fileted table side so a nice touch by the restaurant) and Agnello (slow roasted lamb shank by the recommendation of our server, which definitely was a good recommendation, it was very tender, falling of the bone).

We also tried 3 of the desserts: Tiramisu di Casa (it was very rich and excellent), Mousse al Cioccolato (their version of Dark Chocolate Mousse, served in mini chocolate cups, excellent) and Crème Brülée (excellent as well) - so essentially, desserts are top notch. Ice cream (Gelato, they had 3 different varieties) were ok, nothing special. We had coffees and cappuccino's with desserts (my decaf cappuccino was excellent, kudos to restaurant for having decaf version)

Service was also good, albeit a bit slow but having a full patio and a full restaurant would do that so this nothing to complain about.

The prices for the restaurant is on the high end, in line with some other high-end restaurants in the city.

If you are a west-sider, you are very lucky to have this restaurant on your side of the city. To my east-side friends - is this worth the 35-45 minute drive? Maybe once - but since the menu is the same as their downtown location, you can save yourself a lot of time (and have a better view) by...