I can confirm what has already been posted here. Yes, it is hard to find (look for the Hausbrandt…read moresign, see pic). Yes, there is in fact a grandma cooking the food (just as Jeff J. said, two in fact). Yes, the food is amazing. Maybe the reason this place is so hard to find is that it is a hidden gem that feels so authentic that you only hear whispers about it. But it is real folks. We started our meal with the fried polenta with ragu. The combination is a meal in itself. You can tell the ragu was fresh and well made because you could see the chunky bits of garlic, mushrooms and meat. The next course was the lasgna. It was rich with the ragu and ricotta. The noodles tasted homemade. It was a delicious dish blessed by a nonna. The last course was the steak Florentine. You can order it by weight. My conversion math may have been off because we got a HUGE cut of porterhouse. But it was absolutely tender and delicious. We enjoyed this delight to the bone. The service was exceptional. We were the only non-Italian folks in the restaurant but we were treated like family. I will also add that while I enjoyed our food selection, I noticed that the pizzas and pork/veal shank were also very popular and looked incredibly appetizing. My only regret is that we found this gem of a restaurant on our last night in Barga. I wish I had more time to taste more of the menu. The family owns another restaurant in Lucca (la Donna Clara) and one that's 3 km away that does seafood.

Writing this review is ridiculously painful because figuring out how we got there and its address…read morewas impossible. Their "webpage" is on Facebook, but their address on Facebook is inaccurate (stating that it's in Lucca city). On the receipt, there are two addresses, their page on TripAdvisor is matches one of the address on the receipt. When I put down the address here, the location on Yelp doesnt seem right. I tried to Google Map this place, but street images were taken in 2011, and this place wasnt opened yet. Long story short, we were driving down from Renaissance Tuscany Il ciocco resort on the SP20 looking for a restaurant, and happened to turn into this one off the side. It seemed like a traditional Italian restaurant you see on TV with cozy red chequered table cloths, a wood fire oven, and ladies behind the counter busy making pizza and pasta for you. We ordered a 4 seasons pizza (6EUR) and a personal sized lasagna (8EUR) - both of which came out of the wood oven! It was so delicious. We came in just before noon and there was only one other table filled but as we were leaving this place filled almost to the max and when we were driving out, people were waiting for our parking spot! WIth a beer and capuccion, our total was only 18.50 for too and we were so full.We really felt it was traditional Italian home cooking - awesome comfort food. We are still wishing to go back!

I was in Lucca and stopped here for dinner. The reviews were good and the menu online showed more…read morefish being offered I thought they would have more seafood, but being in Tuscany, I realized that most places don't. That's OK. The inside was very homey and nice. The owners, I believe are a husband and wife team who are helpful. Salmon carpaccio was an appetizer special - it was excellent Swordfish for the main was a mistake. Should have stuck with a pasta. This fish looked like it was frozen and it's was fair, nothing special. Tiramisu for dessert was so good. totally made up for the swordfish. It was made fresh that day and you could tell. This and the service raised the rating from to 4.

Both the gorgonzola gnocchi and the lasagna were some of the best dishes we have had in Lucca…read more Great service and a super helpful staff

A very lovely spot located on a beautiful street. The mista salad was only fair because of the…read morebitter greens they incorporated into it. The pizza was good but not great and the Branzino was dry. Service was so so, we had to fetch the waiter to take our order. If we had had a great experience we would of course come back tomorrow.

Pretty decent but not over the top good authentic Italian. It tasted more commercialized than…read moreauthentic...especially the pasta.

"cucina tradizionale casalingha, pasta , dolci e pane di nostra produzione cotto al forno a legna,…read morespecialita' carne alla brace e baccala', patate cotte sotto la cenere verdure grigliate ecc." one of the best restaurants in the garfagnana! i highly recommend it.

Food, ambience, and service were all outstanding. The pasta was excellent, but the dessert (piatto…read moreforte Lucchese) was especially exceptional which combined different textures and flavors flawlessly. Ambience was beautiful and elegant without being boring or pretentious. Staff were all kind and responded very professionally to requests and questions. Price was unbelievably low considering the quality and the experience.

Food was fabulous. We each had a different pasta dish and…read moreboth were really memorable. The ambiance is very nice as well.

"In un ambiente familiare fatti tentare dagli antichi e tradizionali sapori proposti dalla cucina…read moredi Federico e Federica" One of the best restaurants of Garfagnana! I highly recommend it, you won't be dissappointed :)

This was an amazing meal. The best lunch we had on vacation (we only went out for lunch)!! This is…read morea beautiful restaurant in an old building. They do have outdoor seating but we loved eating indoors with the cooling effect of the stone building. The service was outstanding!! They had a pre fixed meal but we opted for a la carte. We loved the sparkling wine we started with. It was a brut nature. There were 4 of us so we just shared everything. We started with the prawn carpaccio, it was amazing!! Everything we ordered was delicious but our hands down favorite was the black truffle ravioli. The rabbit tortellini had a lovely red sauce and I don't even like red sauce! It was so good!! That was our second favorite. The pappardella was the last to come out and it was also amazing. The gnocchi was tender and delicious as well. The seafood in it was tender and perfectly cooked. While we may have had favorites it did not decrease the deliciousness of every single thing we ate!! We only ordered one main, and it was the best duck breast we've ever had anywhere!! We also ordered two desserts, which were great. One was a deconstructed tiramisu and the other a pistachio semifreddo. Highly recommend this restaurant for service and food!!

Amazing food! We had the spaghetti with seafood and the octopus. Thus far, this is the best…read morerestaurant we've had in La Spezia.

It has been a while since we came here - for no good reason. But we love it every time we go. The…read morecuisine is genuine and delicious, the staff charming and attentive, and the setting beautifully rustic. I highly recommend this restaurants. Why on earth have I not been back for a while? This omission must be rectified soon!

We were visiting Italy in April and stumbled upon Antica Locanda di Sesto. We had the pasta in the…read moreparmesan wheel and the steak cut at the table. It was literally the best meal I had in Italy. The service was great. Definitely will come back.

Amazing Place! Charming atmosphere and the food is so good!…read moreI suggest to everybody the "Ravioli alla Bottarga" dish, because it's wonderful! I will surely go back very soon!

What a marvelous evening! The setting is beautiful, the food exquisite and the staff extremely…read morefriendly and willing to extend themselves to bridge the language gap between us who don't speak Italian and them who don't speak English. We felt very welcome, receiving unasked for extras.

This ended up being my favorite dinner of our entire trip to Tuscany. The staff was incredible and…read moregenuinely accommodating. I even called from the U.S. to make our reservation. I tried my best Italian, they met me with their English, and somehow we understood each other perfectly. This is clearly a place the locals adore, and it was evident the moment we walked in. I'm pretty sure we were the only tourists there, which made us love it even more. The menu was surprisingly available in English, though not everything made complete sense but that was part of the charm. Our server did a phenomenal job guiding us through the menu and offering thoughtful recommendations. The pasta dishes were exquisite. My husband decided to be adventurous and ordered a mushroom pasta (despite hating mushrooms) and ended up absolutely loving it. My ravioli with sage was unforgettable. I still think about it. I can't quite pinpoint what makes Ristorante L'Altana so special. It's a simple restaurant, nothing overly fancy, yet there was something about the food, the ambiance, and the beauty in its simplicity that made it stand out as the highlight of our trip.

Great food (nonna would approve), service is wonderful, it's like eating at your nonna's home!read more