Luca Cucina Italiana - Berkeley

A small, cozy spot with unexpectedly phenomenal Italian fare. A great place for a delicious yet unpretentious date night.

This place was so fantastic. The service was great, the food was great, and it’s so affordable. Loved our dinner here, thanks for a great time!

Mediocre food though lovely servers. While I have nothing against the location or interior, I was hoping for tasty food. My linguini didn't look or taste homemade, the vodka sauce was fine but...DON'T try the meatballs small and weird tasting! Perhaps the ownership is new as I can't understand many of the reviews. And my partner in crime complained about the Special he ordered... so go elsewhere.

Came with a large group for a friend's birthday; one of the party members made a reservation ahead of time which was a good idea. Pasta was decent, comparable to Pasta Bene in Berkeley on Telegraph. Service was decent as well and they brought dishes out quickly. Portion sizes could have been larger! Wish they had wine or drinks, but they had signs indicating this was the case. Was not a fan of the extra $4 charge for meat on all pastas, but makes sense because inflation is definitely a thing :

The food was great. The service was not great. It was freezing in there, as well, and there was a heater over the door but it was not running even though the room was full of patrons. They seemed to be so busy fulfilling take out orders that it took 45 minutes for the waiter to come to our table to take away the dishes from the last customers who sat at our table and take our drink order. It might not be bad if they served drinks or something but it was a cold wait with no acknowledgement from the staff. We had to stand up and wait in line with the take out delivery people to call attention to our table. No drinks came, not even water. The waiter seemed very inexperienced and it seemed like he was the only one working on Valentine’s Day. He took our order and we waited another 45 minutes for the food, which arrived half warm. The potatoes were cold but the chicken was fresh and warm. The chicken piccata and eggplant parmigiana were perfect aside from the cold potatoes. Sauces were great. Our waters arrived after our meal arrived, the appetizer never arrived so we tried ordering it again to eat with our meal. The appetizer salad arrived and it was quite big, but not very well dressed. It was a generous portion of arugula with some vinegar, beets, nuts and cheese but not quite enough oil to balance the acidity off the leaves.A new server arrived who served our meals and she was much better. Quick and friendly. Overall I enjoyed the food but was surprised by the service.