luce cucina italiano

weorderedto go and we were not disappointed! it was amazing. weorderedthe baked tortellini, the luces pasta, kids barbie ravioli and superman spaghetti. it was amazing. beats olive garden hands down and reminds me a lot of maggiano's in buckhead (atlanta). the portions are huge! we will definitely be eating here again!

depending on what your order food isn't too bad. don't go there for lunch because even though they are never busy it takes forever. i'm third generation italian so i'm a little biased but the only thing that we like there is the grilled chicken spaghetti. the first thing we always test at an "italian" restaurant is the meatballs- luce's are premade frozen from somewhere and super salty. the side salads are made in advance which you can tell by the fact that then onions inside have been in there long enough for the lettuce to become infused with the flavor. the wedding soup is the same as you would get at the grocery store in can from campbells or progresso - which isn't a compliment unless you like processed meat and soups. the reason for the 1 rating is mainly because a couple of weeks ago weorderedthe usual chicken spaghetti and an appetizer of the spinach dip, the spinach dip wasn't really a dip at all- more if a can if opened cream of whatever soup with some thawed spinach in it- we couldn't eat it because it was super salty. i love salty stuff way more than my wife and if i can't eat it you better believe it's salty. i called the restaurant as soon as we tried this and was assured a credit for my next order. i attempted to order today and was told by the owner "tito" that my credit was only good for another super salty spinach dip- even though when i logged my initial complaint there was no stipulation. why would i want another disgusting appetizer that we can't eat? when we initially tried the meatballs in the restaurant and sent them back "tito" came out and "hand made" me some fresh ones which were just as salty and processed tasting as the first. so "tito" kudos to you for loosing a customer and his entire large family of $7- i've been in business for almost 20 years and we always stay true to our word and do our best to make things right. i'm about to spend almost $40 on pasta and some chicken and you can't honor what you said you would do? sad sad sad. lexington is lacking in the restaraunt category but no one i know will ever spend their hard earned money at your establishment again. 

i wish antonina's would come re-open.

might just have to give up on this place. we found luce's a few years back. since then it became our go to italian restaurant, good cheap food. over the last year or so this place has been going down hill. at one point they tried to offer delivery. it was a gamble whether or not they were offering it when you called. one time i decided to just pick up an order, was told to be there at a certain time. i showed up and one of my pizza's had not even been started (i was told by the hostess that kitchen wasn't paying attention, no wonder the chef had ear phones in). prices have also seemed to rise and quality gone down (if they even have the item desired). last thing iorderedwas chicken parm. the chicken was good but the spaghetti was nasty. the waitress asked me what i thought so i told her. she said that was odd since the sauce was the same on both, but when i looked at my spaghetti the sauce was much thinner. that was when it dawned on me, they didn't bother to properly drain my noodles and so i was really eating watered down spaghetti.

my wife and i went to luce last week on a whim. we were pleasantly surprised. we told the server it was our first time there, and she was very friendly and accommodating. weorderedthe garlic cheese knots, which were incredible, for an appetizer. my wifeorderedthe baked spaghetti, and iorderedthe luce's pasta. we were both pleased with our meals. for dessert, we had the lava cake, also satisfying. we will be going back.

i justorderedmy food in it was bland and tasteless.... i will not order from there again.

good choice. me, my wife, and 10 year old son ate at this restaurant this evening for the first time. my wife got the spicy chicken bowtie and iorderedthe eggplant parmigiana. my sonorderedthe alfredo on the children's menu which contained no meat. some chicken was added at our request for an additional charge. my son and wifeorderedwater and i had tea to drink. the total bill was $33.57 plus tip. (i think children's menu is usually cheaper on tuesday nights?)
all in all, we thought it was a good experience but a little on the expensive side. all of us including my son who is a finicky eater thought it was a very good meal and the waitress was calm and helpful w/o aggravating us. i would say all of the staff were noticeably polite, but not in a fake way.
the restaurant itself was very basic and clean with the exception of an adjacent kids game area which needed some attention.

poor. my daughter and i went out for a father daughter dinner, and decided we would try luce cucina. iorderedthe chicken alfrado, the sauce had no flavor what so ever, and was very runny, and the chicken was dry, when i said something to my server she said "a lot of people say that, but i will let the manager know." i went back a few weeks later and decided i would try it again, the food was the same, nothing changed. still very bland. however this time i was able to expierence the manager yelling at his servers like they were his children. that was no not professional at all. the female server acted as though she was used to being yelled at by them. the owners of this place should be ashamed of themselvesm, and get they butt off their shoulders, and fix the problems your customers complain about. this place could be an awesome place, if they cared. i wouldnt waste my time going there. you can get the same food from a chef boyardee can.

quick update. still have the same old cash register! takes too long to decipher the bill. that being said....darn good food! best calzone ever! great pizza! i drive ten miles from west columbia to meet my in-laws here for lunch. well worth the drive. only other thing you might want to bring with you is crackers to eat with your salad. they run out a lot. just say'in.


-----09 apr, 2010-----

great pizza. my in-laws talked us into going here last night. i have been searching for a good pizza in the lexington/columbia area for years. well, finally found the place, luce cucina italiano. the restaurant is not fancy, but decorated in a very low key kind of way. the wait staff is very friendly. weorderedour 16 inch pizza with three different items and asked that each item be split into thirds. i like mushrooms, wife likes onions and oldest daughter likes pepperoni. the waitress said no problem and the pizza came out perfect.

the hand tossed pizza had the right amount of sauce, cheese, onions and pepperoni. (loved the onion slices) outside crust was just right, not too hard and not too soft. great flavor. we will be back!

only minus to the evening was trying to pay the bill. there were four folks in front of me when we went to check out. it took 15 minutes to process these four tickets. when it was my turn, it took another 10 minutes for the cashier to try and enter the info into the 1980 style ncr register. she could not come up with the correct total. at one point she started to dress down our waitress right in front of me on how not to write up a order ticket. sad. a $499 point of sale computer could solve this issue.

to die for!. me, my husband and our son went there for dinner on sunday and it was the best! our waitress, ashley, was very nice and attentive! i had the chicken alfreado, which iorderedtoday (monday) because it was so good, and my huband had the philly and could not stop talking about how amazing it was! hes picky and finally found a philly worth getting! thanks so much and we will be back.
the taylors

terrible. i am still amazed at the way my daughter and i were just treated at luce cucina at lunch today. we bothorderedtheir lunch specials which were cheese ravioli and spinach ravioli which came with garlic bread for $5.99. we decided to add a side salad to each order for an additional $2.99. mind you at dinner it includes a salad for $8.99. with that said, our meals arrived on plates covered with sauce and cheese...when we dug into them for the raviolis we found 3 each. you get more in a chef boyardee can...this was ridiculous. when i mentioned it to the waitress she did not care but rather laughed about it...like she had heard it before. she said well you did get the lunch portion. i have eaten at this restaurant before for lunch and there were at lease 6 raviolis on the plate. she told me she mentioned to the manager how upset we were and he didn't even come out. she asked if we wanted to speak with him and i refused as obviously he didn't care anyways. so sad. love this restaurant when it first opened. will no return again. left there paying $19.82 and was extremely hungry. the salads were terrible as well...you get better italian dressing out of a bottle. now i know why the place is empty whever we drive by. don't give it very long at all.

the best of italy!. how you doin?

growing up in northern new jersey just over the bridge from the big city of bright lights, enabled my family and i to enjoy authentic food in the homes of our friends.

most of the families in our neighborhood had grandparents that migrated here from the old country and the conversations in those homes as well as the food was authentic old school.

ive been in the columbia/lexington area for 7 years now, and have attempted to sample various cuisine that is available in the area, but i have fallen in love with luce cucina italiano. this is the authentic taste of italy.

ive taken it upon myself to sample everything on the menu...one meal at a time. when i order a meal there i know the portions will be massive and the cost minimal. ive actuallyorderedmeals and split them in half just so that i could have more of that plate the next day. its that good!

this is the real deal...in fact it may be possible that the only english you experience here is on the menu. fuggedaboutit!