Lucca Restaurant

Alberto

5.0

I randomly chose an Italian restaurant in Little Italy & stumbled upon Lucca. I have to say that it was beyond my expectations & according to my father who is here on vacation from Australia, it was one of the best Italian cuisine he ever tasted. We had calamari fritti, linguini di mare & grilled veal steak. Exceptional. I overheard the next table comment on the calamari: best tasting calamari ever, crunchy on the outside involving a tasty & soft calamari in the inside. We had tiramisu & pistachio ice-cream for dessert. The ice-cream was top... so creamy & rich in pistachio flavor. Truly taste like premium homemade & not commercial type of ice-cream. The service was friendly & I recommend to make a booking as it filled up in the Thursday evening. I was lucky to have a table without reservation.

Billy

4.0

Lucca in Little Italy was our first dinner in Montréal. It set the bar high for everything that followed.

The place was packed on arrival - reservation recommended. The menu is concise & confident, with daily specials worth paying attention to.

We started with three appetizers. The calamari was crispy with the perfect crunch - a strong opener. The grilled octopus was well executed, cut & served over a purée. Delicious, though I would have loved more octopus & less accompaniment. The standout of the three was the zucchini blossoms - a daily special, filled with creamy ricotta. Heavenly bites that only appear in spring. Order them without hesitation if they're on.

For mains, the lamb chops surprised me. I don't typically enjoy lamb - the gamey taste usually puts me off. Not here. Beautifully cooked, incredibly flavourful, & not a trace of gaminess. A genuine convert moment. We also shared a half order of the seafood linguine - perfectly cooked pasta with shrimp, scallops, & mussels. Exactly what it should be.

Dessert was the tiramisu & pistachio gelato. The gelato in particular - rich, creamy, & the kind of thing you'll think about all summer.

An incredible meal from start to finish. Lucca is a must when visiting Montréal.

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NAV

3.0

Luca, located in Little Italy, is a charming & authentic Italian restaurant.

The ambience is warm, though the tables are a bit closely packed. That said, the food truly stands out. We absolutely loved the burrata & pomodoro antipasto, & the arugula salad was just as fresh & delicious. The bread, burrata, & starters were so filling that we were already quite stuffed before the mains!

I really enjoyed my Chardonnay as well. I wasn't completely satisfied with my gnocchi, but my partner really liked his main course.

A special mention to the waiter, who was incredibly knowledgeable about the menu & helped customize vegetarian options for me, which I really appreciated.

Overall, it's a great place to celebrate something special. Pricy though!

Pietro

5.0

I am not one to post reviews but felt I needed to this time. This is my favorite restaurant in Montreal. It feels like home. Have been there several times & the experience never disappoints! The food is delicious. The menu is diverse & there is something for every pallet. The service is impeccable & the attention to detail is a standard every time. The staff is courteous & attentive. A must for a night out with friends, family or date night! Do yourself a favor & experience this gem of a restaurant in the heart of little Italy!

Kate

4.0

Situated in Little Italy, Lucca is an authentic upscale Italian restaurant. It's busy, cozy, & tightly packed; even with a reservation, there was a 10 minutes short wait. The menu lives on a chalkboard, the tables are closely staged, & the small bar stands nicely at the back of the restaurant. The server took the time to answer any questions we had from the menu.

We ordered the off-board special Antipasti. The octopus came tender, paired with fresh fennel, onion, bell pepper & cucumber, grounded by a grainy chickpea purée. Better still were the baked figs stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in bacon: tenderly sweet, salty & memorably unique (I loved it!).
For mains, the meat pasta of the week (pasta ragu della settimana) delivered ribbons of fresh fettuccine tangled with boar (!), spinach, & mushrooms in a hopefully homemade tomato sauce. The seafood linguine went all in on sea-saltiness, with a generous amount of mussels, clams, shrimps & scallops (& capers & pepper). Very savory!
Taste-wise, Lucca would be ranked on my top restaurants in Montreal :) (I might be a little biased tho cuz Italian food is my fave).

Jean-Philippe

5.0

One of the best place for business lunch in Little Italy! Friendly service & great dishes ! Calamari are out of this world !

Nicolò

5.0

Eating in Montreal feels like eating in Italy. It's a family restaurant: an Italian family.

JF

5.0

What a great surprise! My wife & I fell upon the restaurant when walking in little Italy & decided to see if we could get a table. The food was amazing, it teleported us back to Italy for a few hours!

Johan

5.0

I have spent months in Italy traveling with locals from Trentino to Sicily & this is the best Italian restaurant I have ever been to.

Didier

5.0

Lucca has become my'wishful thinking lunch cafeteria' as in... If I had enough money I would be eating here a few times every week for lunch! The team here is a big part of the reason why... both in front & behind the counter. They select fresh ingredients & produce a lot of what they sell in-house ... hello pasta & the wait staff is a bunch of several years experience regular staff (what a rare thing to find these days!!!). I have brought so many friends & associates there & realized I had not done a review for them & felt guilty about it... that's how good it is! Come in & try the specials of the day & tell me I'm wrong!
Then as a bonus, the decor is épuré & posh modern, they have a nice terrasse in the summer & their wine selection will show you some of the best Italy has to offer at a modest price considering!
CIao