Lucia Ristorante / Winchester

I normally NEVER write reviews — good or bad but felt I had to say something for the service we experienced tonight. My husband and I have lived in Winchester for the past 2 years and decided to check out Lucia’s for the first time as it always seemed lively and has a cute area for outdoor seating. We were seated outside promptly but it all started going downhill after that. We waited about 15 minutes before someone came by to give us water and then probably another 10 minutes before a different person came out with some bread and butter — the bread was warm, I’ll give them that. But then NO ONE came by again to take our order or even check in on us. At first I thought they were just busy and taking longer to get to us but I noticed servers seating, greeting, and taking orders for groups seated outside that came in AFTER US. The couple seated next to us even noticed and asked us if anyone has helped us. So finally after at least 40 minutes of just sitting around with our bread and water, we headed back in to let the hostess know the situation. She was apologetic but no one there seemed very concerned. Even after all that, we decided to order takeout and waited another 20 minutes at the bar for the food to be prepared. I ordered the bolognese and it was okay but nothing special and definitely not worth the hassle and $50 we spent for two pasta dishes. I really wanted to love this place because of how charming it looked. Maybe the service would have been better/more attentive if we decided to sit indoors but, really, who knows. All I know is that we sat around for 45 minutes with bread and water and not once did any staff come by to say hello or take our order.

Scary bad experience here. My wife has a severe gluten sensitivity and even though she ordered the gluten free pasta, the staff mixed up her order with someone else's. The waitress came to tell us after we had been eating for about 5 minutes. She was sincerely apologetic and had the kitchen redo the dishes. To add insult to injury, we were still charged extra $5 for the gluten free pasta. The manager never came, and the experience ruined our rare date night. The place is charming but the way they handled this fiasco is well below even low expectations. My meal which was clams and mushrooms with linguine actually came with spaghetti, and the sauce was really salty. I hope the restaurant fixes things because this is really sad and good restaurants are hard to find these days. The 2 photos are of the dishes we did not order because it was mixed up with another table's.

The Team Blue Tasting Crew stopped in for a meal at Lucia and we were blown away. We learned that Lucia was opened in 1985 and is a sister restaurant to the original Lucia in Boston. There are five locations total. The service was amazing; we were seated right away and our waitress answered all questions that we had about the menu. There was outdoor seating and the drinks were amazing. We got sangria and an espresso martini. Both were phenomenal. The menu had plenty of options and everything sounded delicious. We got the scampi appetizer and it was a perfect combination of garlic and butter with a hint of white wine. It was absolutely delicious. We already can't wait to come back and try more items on the menu!

I have to admit, I was let down a little bit about this place, having been wanting to go to this place for some time. The ambiance was there, a good Holiday vibe. A nice half round booth for two was comfortable, until I looked at the space between the seat cushions had food debris, I got a little skeived. Our waitress was a Rockstar, very nice, sociable, gave us time to soak the vibe in. We ordered Caprece Salad and meatballs for starters. The so called salad, consisted of 3 thin slices of tomato with an almost invisible dribble of balsamic dressing, and very little small pieces of fresh basil, Really ??? The meatballs were firm , warm not hot,with a doble of ricotta cheese, very little tomato sauce, which was runny/watery, not a a good sign, in my mind. My Sweetheart got the eggplant with veal and fresh Fuccili in a small bowl side,which she said was good, but the sauce definitely needed to be tightened-up, was watery. I got the Chicken Parmisean with no taste and very dry, skimpy with the watery sauce, I had to ask for more tasteless sauce. Even putting red pepper flakes and sprinkle cheese did not help this sauce, or chicken, major bummer, I'm sorry 😐. We split a slice of Chocolate cake, with no dollop of whip cream/ice cream, just a couple of small pizzelles. I don't drink alcohol, I got a ginger ale, my lady got a couple glasses of wine, and the check was over $150.00 ! Pretty pricey for low quality food. Also, witnessed a woman cleaning tables just slinging food debris off the table on the floor, all over the edges of the table she was cleaning. I'm sorry, again , but that's not cool, healthy, or clean, I'll press "D" for all the above, add the no - flavor food , a fat check, not good first impression, this time. Had high hopes at the start, but no thanks.

Food was extremely salty in general. Sole fish dish didn't come with rice or pasta but just fish and it Wasn't fresh but extremely salty. We should've returned it but our company's sake, didn't. Drinking gulfs of water, waking up at night 4 times between myself and my husband, unable to sleep, very tired the following day. The server served Cold Bread 4 slices, in 2 meager baskets for a party of ten. I asked "Do you have hot sauce?" "We don't, I will bring hot pepper." But never brought it. Once the server brought the main meals, she totally disappeared. Didn't come around to see if everything is alright or needed anything. I needed some sauce, bread, and asked for hot sauce earlier, water for the table, the person was no where to be found. I will not return there. It was a heath hazard, blowing up your kidney due to High Sodium. September 10, Sunday, 2023 1:50pm party of ten. Don't recommend any dish - salty and not fresh sole fish. Health hazard.