glacial kitchen. i had high hope for casa luca, and i still maintain them, but my first visit today was a rocky start. food was adequate to excellent, service was very good, but kitchen was terribly slow.
i went for a friday lunch to eat at the bar by myself. jameson, the bartender, is competent and provided good service. i had an hour before i had to leave, so i didn't think there would be any problem. i was wrong.
i ordered the sockeye salmon crudo, which was outstanding, and the spaghetti carbonara which was ok, but not a signature dish worthy of its $26 price tag. a first glass of the on-tap house italian chardonnay, which was pleasant, then another after the food still hadn't arrived. for two dishes that barely had to be cooked, it took forever. over 30 minutes for the first course, and the second arrived about 3 minutes before my drop-dead departure time, and only after i had warned jameson that i was leaving. i then had to woof it down, and it really wasn't that great, so i left almost half. the spaghetti was all stuck together, sauce was good, but again, nothing special.
there's really no excuse for a downtown dc restaurant not to be able to turn out such simple dishes in a reasonable amount oftimeon a week day. dining alone at the bar, it's not like i was looking to linger.
tab with tip came to $82, an expensive meal for a "quick lunch". at that rate i would have liked to have the thetimeto savor the meal. staff apologized, but they can't control the kitchen. were i serving, i would have at least made the second glass of wine free to compensate partially, but i paid full fare-not a problem-but they did nothing to try to redeem the poor performance.
i'm a fan of fiola, and hoped to like luca even more, but the price tag was more fiola-like and the kitchen performance did not live up to their standards.