CANTINETTA LUCA

I am a food crazy person (or a**hole), I’ve been lucky and eaten at the most celebrated places in existence. So here’s what I have to say:

Amazing…..

We had a pizza, salmon, shrimp, octopus, eggplant, house cured meats and pasta.

I can’t find a single flaw in any dish, it was perfect.

There was an amazing woman (be sure to call her Mam) that manages the bar area, she’s tony and will put a smile on your face.

The chef is great, humble and a master, in fact he was a little taken back by the compliments.

Carmel by the Sea is an amazing town and LUCA is the icing on the cake.

JonT

Loved the place. We had the full service meats board with buratta, great drinks and wine selection. Even had a terrific espresso martini for dessert. 100% going again

Please do yourself a favor and ignore all of the 4-5 star reviews. This was by far the worst dining experience I've ever had from start to finish. I never understood why anyone would ask to see a manager after a poor experience...until now.

We ordered two cocktails (the best part of the meal, and that's not saying much), 2 $34 (!!!) bolognese pastas, and a side of broccolini. One bite of each and we were ready to send our meals back. The meat in the bolognese tasted like hamburger helper - flavorless, dry, awful. The broccolini was severely undercooked - I can't imagine they cooked it for more than three minutes. Unfortunately, our waiter never made another appearance at our table to ask how our food was, if we needed anything else, etc. until it was time for the check, so we were forced to eat what was in front of us. If we weren't decent people, we would've walked out right then and there.

Typically after a mediocore meal, I take the loss and leave, however this time I felt like I needed to be honest. When our waiter finally came over to clear our plates (without even asking us how our food was), we told him how unsatisfied we were with the entire experience. After a moment of expressing his confusion and a less than empathetic apology, he cleared our plates and handed us the check...not once trying to make it right, asking to see what he could do, comping an item, NOTHING.

Luckily we're not locals and will never be coming back. I never write reviews, but if I can save someone from coming here and having the same experience I had, it's worth it.

Bad service!

This was a lovely find in Carmel by the sea. We arrived last minute and weren’t able to book some of the more popular restaurants so we expected very little. However our server was friendly, helpful and very available to assist us. We were also surprised by the quality of the food, my pork chop was cooked perfectly and the flavour combinations with it were surprisingly tasty (I’m talking grilled peaches, kale and mushrooms). I will say that the focaccia we ordered as a starter would have been nicer with some herb seasoning but otherwise dinner and dessert were fab. Our cannolis were the best we’ve had in America so far so I’d definitely recommend that one in particular. My boyfriend kept taking bites out of my tiramisu also! We were seated quite close to another couple but they turned out to be quite friendly too so that was okay. I can imagine some people preferring more privacy though. All in all I would come back.