My wife and I really, really enjoyed our first visit to this restaurant that receives rave reviews from everyone in the suburbs.
Very good service throughout- you can tell everyone is service-oriented and enjoys their job... it shows. The ambience is excellent, the decor is appropriate and tasteful and the background noise level does not hinder table conversation. The wine list is particularly noteworthy and for those who don't know a good wine list when they see it, Cafe Lucci has received MANY Wine Spectator awards over the years. Probably 3,000 restaurants in the entire World receive a Wine Spectator award in a given year and Cafe Lucci has a dozen such plaques on the wall from a dozen years of making the cut. The menu offers a decent selection of items... something for everyone and at various price points. In general, the food was delicious across the board. Everything was prepared well and with good, fresh ingredients.
I have to admit I am a huge fan of grilled octopus and grilled squid. Accompanied by chopped heirloom grape tomatoes and sliced kalamata olives in a light vinaigrette, the octopus is of excellent quality, prepared perfectly and is delicious. The heirloom grape tomatoes are seriously incredible, and who doesn't love olives? The olives are a touch overpowering with the other ingredients, in my opinion. I found myself eating each ingredient by itself because they each were so delicious on their own.
The arugula salad is comprised of all of my favorite ingredients (arugula, goat cheese, dried cranberries, caramelized nuts, and a vinaigrette) and is excellent. The salad is very, very good (recall it has all my fav ingredients), but there was a little too much dressing per capita, in my opinion. Lately I've become a 'less is more' dressing guy.
The short rib ravioli with truffle butter is over the top flavorful yet quite special in my opinion.
The roasted eggplant parmesan was especially memorable because typical interpretations at other Italian restaurants contain fried eggplant, but here at Cafe Lucci the eggplant is sliced thin and roasted, (baked?), so it is light, delicate, elegant and absolutely outstanding. The tomato sauce accompanying the eggplant is clearly homemade and has a great texture and tomatoey taste... Simple and impressive- Bravo!
The cannoli and tiramisu are solid dessert choices. Both the marscapone filling in the cannoli and the tiramisu are light and sweet, as they should be. Really very, very good. Tiramisu is topped with an amazing homemade raspberry sauce on top. The sauce on its own is delicious and perfect and shows culinary skill, but I generally prefer my desserts 'sans-sauce'.
All in all, this was a very good experience at a very good restaurant. We will definitely return! read more