Bar Lucca — Restaurant in Whitemarsh Township

As we stay in Plymouth Meeting, Conshohocken is our go-to place for nice dinners. One of our favorite restaurants in the area is Blackfish. El Limon, positioned at a completely different price point, is also great. I was hoping that Bar Lucca, a restaurant whose mailing list I have been on for a long while but had never gone to until today, would meet the high standards set by some of its neighbors. Sadly it fell quite a bit short.

Our reservation was for 10:15 p.m. Unlike other places in Conshohocken where finding parking can be sometimes a bit tricky, it was very easy to get a spot, given the parking lot adjoining the restaurant. Once in the restaurant at the mai‧tre d's desk, we expressed an interest in sitting outside and our request was accommodated. Being able to sit outside certainly was enjoyable as the evening had cooled down considerably.

For our food, we went with the charred octopus for appetizer, and the boar pappardelle and sea bass for our main courses (and yes, we had read some of the reviews earlier which explains these choices!) The charred octopus appetizer came out very quickly. It was undoubtedly the biggest disappointment of the evening. The octopus was devoid of any flavor and it was tough to even cut with a knife and fork. The other components of the dish that came with it - the celery hearts or the red potato - did not complement the dish at all in my opinion.

On to the main course, my wife had the seabass and it was very, very good. The crispy skin of the sea bass along with a nice accompaniment of squash puree and zucchini noodles made for an excellent dish. However, the pappardelle I had was nowhere nearly as good. It was severely under-salted and somewhat underseasoned. It is common for me to ask for crushed red pepper at Italian restaurants given my palate but it is quite unusual for me to ask for salt and sprinkle salt in such gay abandon on my food. (And I believe, the level of salt I desire in my food is not higher relative to the average American.) So that was it as far as food was concerned. As the dishes did not impress us (and the octopus was a distinct disappointment), we decided to pass on dessert. Our total bill pre-tip came to approx. $57 - not cheap by any means for what we were offered.

Service was reasonable. I love it when restaurants leave a pitcher or carafe at the table and that was the case here. The waitress did come and check with us from time to time, though it took her some time to get me the salt that I so desperately needed with my pappardelle. Also something I found a bit annoying was the fact that the main courses were brought out while we were still in the middle of working on the appetizer. That is not something I see very commonly and for good reason.

Overall, would I go back to Bar Lucca? Unlikely. There are many other restaurants in the Conshohocken area which I am yet to try out so I am much more likely to try those out than come back here. Again if you are looking for a nice place in the area and don't have the same luxury I do as a local of trying out many different places, then I would highly recommend trying out Blackfish, less than a mile away on...

We planned on eating here because we could sit outside. Living within walking distance we were hoping this would be a great spot to take friends! Plus, as a resident of Conshohocken we've been trying to get to every restaurant in town. When we parked we walked by the outdoor seating at the front of the restaurant and saw a four top table being cleaned and a two person table set for dinner. There were at least three other tables with diners seated outside, one had just received their food. We went inside to the hostess and asked very nicely if we could sit outside and she said, "oh no, I'm sorry" without giving a reason and sat us inside. Inside it was loud, hot, and overall I was not very comfortable. I'm pretty disappointed in my experience dining at Bar Lucca.

The service was perfect and the food was stellar. We ordered the gnocchi and mushroom truffle pizza. They were incredible. The pizza was excellent heated up the next day. I'm still dreaming about it! The pizza came with chili oil, we couldn't find the heat in the chili oil, but it may be because we're used to Han's chili oil.

After we had received our drinks and before we had received our food I watched as the same hostess who had denied us a table outside seat a couple our same age at the table which was open and set when we had walked by it on our way into the restaurant. We were told we couldn't sit outside, but these people could?? Later the four person table which was perviously in the process of being cleaned was now set and ready for diners. I watched the hostess sit a middle aged couple at that four person table. These people came in after us and were served by our server. This blows out of the water two theories about why we weren't able to sit outside. First, we arrived too late and the neighborhood has curfews, false when we left both tables were still enjoying their entrees. Second, it is possible the servers have zones and it is the hostess's responsibility to evenly distribute guests to allow servers to make equal tips, false our server served at least one of the two tables. Why we couldn't sit outside is still a mystery but next time we are making reservations and asking how long the wait will be to...

As we explained to the two managers as we left (who seemed uninterested), this was the most dreadful experience we have had at a restaurant in years. We were seated quickly, and the noise level was deafening (78 decibels according to our phone). The noise never abated.

We ordered the food; the waitress was very friendly, but because the restaurant was so busy, she was not attentive to us. My salad was lacking in peaches (it was an orchard salad) and was tasteless. We waited and waited for our main courses to arrive.

After a while (approximately 30 minutes after ordering), our waitress came over and asked if we needed anything else. I said, "When are our main courses coming?" I also asked for a refill on my iced tea. She said she would on our meals. A couple of minutes later, she returned and said they would be out in one minute. She did not bring a refill of tea.

About six or seven minutes later, our main courses arrived. Still no tea. When the waitress checked on us, my wife reminded her about the tea.

Meanwhile, my wife's scallops were overcooked and too salty. The asparagus was impossible to cut; it was as tough as bamboo. My Short Rib Rigatoni tasted fine (albeit very bland), but it had very little short rib and mostly rigatoni.

At this point, to say we were exasperated would be an understatement. Eventually, our waitress returned and asked how everything was. We noted how "dreadful" an experience we had; my wife showed her the pile of uneaten asparagus. She apologized and said she would report it to the appropriate person. We then paid ($104 for the meal, including tip), which was very overpriced.

As we were leaving, we stopped at the desk where you check in. Two men were standing there. We related this information to them. They perfunctorily said they were sorry and would look into it. There was no sense that they were doing anything more than spouting meaningless words.

They never asked who we were, offered to reduce the check, or offered us something complimentary if we returned. They just wanted us out of their way; that was the impression they gave. Clearly, this was not the experience we were looking for.

In short, a dreadful experience in...