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Mon-Thu. 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
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I think they should drop the "Italian Restaurant" and just stick with "We wanna be a lounge in Kirkland but we're only open until 10 so thats kind of cock blocking" status.
I would definately come here to have drinks, but really, please extend your hours.
Had dinner here - the waitress was extremely patient as we opted to take our time and order after we finished catching up. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms and some sort of "crusted chicken" dish.
Crusted chicken? Tasted a lot like Chicken Katsu. The mushrooms were good, but not amazing.
Also, the bread they serve prior to ordering reminds me of QFC flatbread that you stick in the oven for 20 mins and people think you're God. Serving it with that Hidden Valley "dipping sauce" made it aesthetically appealing, but was kind of a joke.
Good lounge, not dinner place.
This place can't decide if it wants to be upscale or not: they have a kids' menu, and people were there in fleece... but the lighting is dim, the plates are square, and the decor suggests that it's a bit on the fancy side.
I recommend they go family-style: the food does *not* support the upscale ambiance they are halfheartedly trying to cultivate. All of the preparations are heavy-handed and/or lacking freshness: the foccacia has too many toppings (and comes with a terribly paired mustard dipping sauce); the caesar salad featured day-old-looking lettuce, lackluster dressing and over-seasoned croutons; the carpaccio had about twice the proper amount of sauce (again, a very strong mustard); and the wine list is *weak*.
Our entrees were the best part of the meal. My chicken parmigiana, which seemed like a safe bet, was generally well done, though the sauce was a bit on the sweet side. My boyfriend liked his spaghetti and meatballs.
We won't be back any time soon... or any time at all. For the same price, I hate to say it, but the food's better at Claim Jumper. Yikes.
Lucia reminds me an awful lot of Purple, from the dark furniture and candlelight to the minimalist decor. However, appearance is the only thing these two have in common.
Lucia focuses on an 'Italian' cuisine but with a trendy twist. Unfortunately, being trendy also comes with a higher price tag. Dinner here is overpriced for the quality of dishes received. For a $20 chicken dish I'd go to Lola or Dahlia Lounge.
Lucia's saving grace, however, is their happy hour. On Wednesdays, they have $3 martinis all night and half price appetizers. The calamari was delicious - crisp and perfectly cooked - topped off with a smooth marinara sauce. My lemon drop was surprisingly strong for three bucks and the bartenders were both attentive and entertaining. The female bartender was even so kind as to offer us a dirty martini she made on accident (which I found out I don't like).
I'll come back here, but for happy hour only. I heard they have live music Wednesdays nights too...so $3 martinis, 1/2 price appetizers, and live music? I'll be there.
The place itself is fun, great wait staff. However the food was not good. My daughters meal tasted like kids canned ravioli. That would be fine if she was 8 not 18.
Don't think we will be trying it again.
Go to Purple.
How can this place call themselves Italian when they can't put together anything even resembling gnocchi? It's embarrassing how bad the food is here when Purple is a stone's throw away.
Firstoff, I must give you two WARNINGS:
1) DO NOT go here if you want authentic Italian food..
2) DO NOT go here if you want a waiter who knows something about wine.
While I was not hugely impressed with the food here, it was definitely edible, the portions were good-sized, and it wasn't very expensive. The waitstaff was generally very friendly, although not particularly knowledgeable...I'm sure most of them are Lake Washington High students...enough said.
We went there for the 2nd time after a year..... we were hugely disappointed. It seems the menu was slightly different and the quality of food definitely went for the worse...
We shared a green salad, each ordered an entree: spaghetti bolognese with chicken and beef short ribs with gnocchi.
The salad was fine, not bad -- look & taste like something I'd make at home. Though, the spaghetti was bad (sadly!!). The sauce was very bland & a bit watery. It was missing those rich flavor you usually get with the bolognese sauce. The chicken was a bit rubbery.
The short ribs had similar issues: the sauce was TOO salty and again missing certain flavor. Maybe because it's too salty all you could taste was salt... The veggies were over-cooked. The gnocchi were edible but pretty saggy. We were both very hungry so we ate most of the food but we both agreed that we'd skip the desert!
The service on top of it was not so great.... the waiter didn't look he was happy to be there at all and he didn't come around to ask if we need more water or something until we were almost done eating.
I have to say we'd had better spaghetti at Olive Garden (the sauce!!) or at home. I guess we won't be going back...
We had crab cake, salad and the classic spaghetti & meat balls, and tiramisu as desert. We order 1… Read more »
Spaghetti and meatballs. DA BOMB
WHAT DID THEY DO TO MY MAMA LUCIA'S????!!!!
Here, I thought I would be giving a shout out to my favorite Italian SPOT in Seattle, and instead, I come to find that it's now the snooty, lounge, with another one of those overly done singular word named places.
Ugh! I was SO hoping to return to this place with my husband to share with him the cozy little, warm, family restaurant I used to visit at least once a week, every week when I lived on the fabulous Eastside!!
WTH?!
And they put GOAT CHEESE on my favorite dish! I'm sorry- goat cheese smells like dirty feet.
And if I wanted a happy hour- I'd go sit my happy ass at any one of the bars down the way.
This is like your dear, sweet, little grandma being convinced by some sleazy salesman to get a Pam Anderson boob job, and drive a 350z!
First Toi closes, now Mama Lucias has been tainted by some euro-trashy designer and told she needs to wear leather pants.
Please, by all means, bring back the simple, happy, old menu with the amazing bread rolls, and bring back the happy, vintage yellow walls, with Italian kitschy decor.
Food was average service We had a pizza and jalapeno sauce salad (can't remember a name) which was very interesting. Greeting was awful We got seat in a corner because we didn't have reservation (restaurant have 3 table the whole time we ate there) Service was great by a nice man
A quiet place for a low expectations supper.
Went here last night with my husband for some dessert and port wine. The cold (read: stark) interior and uncomfortable chairs didn't make for a welcoming atmosphere, which was a stark contrast to Mama Lucia's warm and down-home decor, the former iteration of the restaurant (that was very good).
It was around 10 PM on a Saturday and the place was jumping with a lot of people that looked to be pretentious, over 40, and dressed to the nines while sipping wine and watching the live band. The rock music was good but way too loud--you had to yell to have a conversation across a table.
It took about 20 minutes for anyone to stop by our table and offer water. When my husband went to order port wine from the four choices, the waiter was apologetic and said they were completely out of all port wine. "Sorry, it has been a busy week." My husband was put off that they were out of ALL port wines because he was really looking forward to having some, especially after a 20-minute wait. So put-off that we passed completely and got up and left.
I'll probably return someday for a meal, but I won't be in a rush to go because of the slow service and lacking availability of menu items. I hope Lucia can prove me wrong next time.
I love love love this place, the PERFECT place for happy hour. I have been for happy hour many, many times and for dinner once. Lucia has the best HH prices I have found in the Kirkland Bellevue area. I have always gone on Wednesday nights when they have live music..If you don't like loud music don't go on a Wednesday evening. Their drink prices are fabulous, $3 wine, kazis, lemondrops and a handful of others, the drinks are always good (strong :) ). Happy hour apps are also %50 off, the crab cakes are amazing and have been more than happy with everything else I have tried there. The 'scene' is definitely Kirkland, but what do you expect? Bottom line, its a great night out..well worth it.
Their bread was very yummy! This is a good place to go for a consistent Italian dinner for a mid-week dinner, but not the best place to end up on a weekend evening. The food is nice, but the reason for not giving a better rating was that it is very cold in the restaurant and they might want to invest in some blinds for the windows for the days the sun is too bright to sit by the windows.
While writing this review I just looked to the 3/8/2009 review by Lauren H. and agree that the interior is really cold feeling, and not that cosy.
I hope the restaurant reads these reviews as there seems to be a theme about being cold and NOT cosy.
Overall Lucia is great. I work at a business a few doors down & myself & the girls I work with recommend it to our clients. The owner Michael is super friendly and the bartender Paul will do anything just to make your day. No joke, if your having a rough day, that guy will go out of his way to make you laugh!!!
I have had 1 not so fantastic experience there. My coworkers and I were having a meeting after work which we were discussing customer service because we pride ourselves on this at our place of employment. Very ironic the topic or our meeting, and honestly received not so customer service. The shorter bartender (i forget his name) was taking care of us, or should i say not taking care of us. Seriously, it took a lot of effort for us to even get water put on the table & he pretty well kept forgetting about us the entire time we were there & we would have to ask multiple times for something if we needed it.
I do have to say though, just because of my other fantastic experiences here, I still love it & plan keep going!
The happy hour prices are limited only to drinks. As such they are not that great. The atmosphere of this place is deceptively modern. The sleek black material give it a Non-Italian, almost sterile feel. No, black and white photos of the Coliseum and Lean Tower do not make a restaurant Italian (see Buca Di Beppo). As the evening continued I found my self drinking my beer slowly. I was doing this because the prices were not cheap enough for me to want to pay for another one.
The later it got, I noticed a change in the crowd. Women who were enthusiastically glamour-ed up started appearing. Guys with fitted, graffiti shirts strutted in. It was not long until armies of people who wanted to be seen started arriving and soon this little Italian restaurant become something else entirely. A douche-bag and skank factory.
How do you fix something that ain't broken? Ask the folks at Lucia, formerly Mama Lucia's, which was a perfectly nice little neighborhood Italian place tucked into the Park Place Plaza in Kirkland. It was intimate, cozy, decorated in that cornball, red-checked tablecloth-and-old-Chianti-bottle motif that is such a cliche in Italian restaurants that it's practically a uniform.
I don't want to even give this idea of theirs the credibility of a real review, frankly. I think one of the worst and most contemptible ideas in retail is to tart up your store in trendy new style - and raise your prices! - and then have the food be even less effective than it was to begin with. It's just pandering. This place is the result of somebody saying, "We're too OLD-FASHIONED! WE need to GET HIP!" and then tricking out their room in some Bauhausian nightmare of minimalist reductivism, like a Japanese spa foyer or a dentist's office.
IMHO, just an opinion and not any more valuable than anybody else's opinion, the food was better when it was Mama Lucia's, for one basic reason: it was unpretentious. It was a neighborhood Italian restaurant and you went there knowing full-well that you were not in for the gastronomic experience of a lifetime. There was no pressure of expectations to it. It was friendly and warm and the food was solid - not spectacular, not revelatory, but always good, hot, on time, edible, even enjoyable, and A BARGAIN. Please tell me by what culinary libertine reasoning you cram "Macadamia and Almond Encrusted Salmon with a Ginger Cream Sauce" into an Italian cuisine. For that matter, "Crab Cakes with a Ginger Wasabi Aioli". How about a Pizza with Papaya BBQ Sauce, Chicken, and Red Onion? And those Kobe Beef Burgers? I wasn't the world's best geography student but I don't remember a town called "Kobe" anywhere in the Mediterranean.
Pretentious. Trendy....which is certainly not a crime but, what happens when the trend, as all trends do, runs its course?
Lucia is a reduction, to me, of Mama Lucia's. It wasn't broke and they went and fixed it. Too bad.
The ambiance at this place ROCKS. I am in love with their decorator. As I walked in, I was greeted by a Frank Sinatra movie projected onto the wall. The restaurant is very open, which makes it very loud. The tables are too small once you get your bread, drinks, water, appetizer, and dinner. I tried the chicken parmigiana, at the recommendation of the waitress ("it's one of the best things on the menu"), and I was met with a grisly chicken breast (you have to look pretty hard for a grisly chicken breast!!) covered in bread crumbs. I don't think it was fried, which makes it healthier yes, but takes away from the classic taste. I wouldn't go there again, and wouldn't order the waitresses picks if I did.
They do have a fantastic online reservation system. I would recommend using it as it looked pretty darn busy.
Lucia is about average for expectations; it seems to be more of a wine bar than an Italian restaurant. I thought their menu was a little limited, and the entrees aren't what you'd consider the most traditional Italian fare (Kobe beef burgers, and fish dishes that look more West Coast American style).
The service was also okay; the place wasn't that busy when I went with a group of friends and we got a decent amount of attention from the staff.
Lucia makes an effort at ambiance -- very open air and pleasant enough, but it definitely comes across as a mall restaurant.
I'd put Lucia on the level of a decent place to hang out with work friends.
It's pretty reasonably priced for food.
The food here was great, nothing exceptional, but consistently good.
Service was attentive, which was great, but at times felt a little rushed. Decor was lovely and would defiantly go back!
I love this restaurant. I don't know about the 'old' Mamma Lucia, but this is a fresh approach on some great italian food at a really reasonable price. Think Belltown / NY / LA style restaurant, upscale in nature but without the attitude. Awesome crab cakes for $12...a 'truffled' mac/cheese for $9. "Spaghetta" for $12 that will absolutely fill any of you up - and it's good. Great Parmigiana's...
Fun bar. We didn't stay into the night, but there is a nice balance between a lively dining scene and bar scene. Sometimes that doesn't mix well - it's done really nicely here.
This is a great place for atmosphere, food and price. One of the best values on the Eastside? Defintely!
Someone invite Mama back, please!
One of our Kirkland favorites recently underwent a serious facelift, for the worse... The restaurant formerly known as Mama Lucia's, the warm home of friendly staff, perfect pizzas, inviting entrees, and the prime card discount has been replaced with a loud, cold, and overpriced restaurant that will compete in the same overcrowded niche as Purple and Cactus.
Mama Lucia's was our go-to dinner joint in Kirkland and my wife and I were so disappointed with our experience on Friday night, that I had to post a negative restaurant review.
Where they could have done better: 1. Overcharged us for drinks at the bar because they didn't have a negroni in their computer yet. 2. Our seat by the window was downright cold. When I half jokingly asked if they had a spaceheater our waitress both didnt laugh, and didnt show any concern... 3. No prime card! Despite still being featured on the prime card site, they decided not to take the discount card. 4. The $14 prosciutto, arugula, and parmesan pizza was really pretty good, but is priced $2 more than a better offering 50 yards up the way at Purple.
I'd really like to see this place do well, and hopefully sometime we're able to give Lucia's another shot.
I was not too impressed with this place. The whole movie thing playing against a wall where people were eating was just weird. I'm glad I wasn't seated in front of it as it would get annoying after a while when half of the restaurant is staring in your direction. The place is a bit loud and it was difficult to hold a conversation at our romantic (e.g. small) table. The food was fine, but I would still come back despite all of this, as long as they stay on Alaska Air's air miles plan... thank you triple points.
When my soup was a touch too salty and I mentioned it to the waitperson, he whisked it away, took the charge off my bill and offered a complementary glass of wine for my trouble. Now that's customer service!
Good home-cooked style Italian food and plenty of it. Forget about the fancier restaurants and have a meal like Mama used to make.
This is our fav Italian restaurant at the Eastside of Lake Washington. We have always had consistent good Italian meal. My past favorite: Dinner special Mushroom Risotto. We went there again for v-day last night. Hubby had penne pasta with sun dried tomato and feta cheese in white wine sauce. I had fettucini with garlic in white wine sauce. Both were yummy. (Though we suspected that they ran out of bread last night since it was so busy. The bread we were served tasted suspiciously like the one from QFC across the street.) On some nights, there is live music. Monday night is buy one get one free pasta night, and Tuesda night is half priced wine. We definitely will go there again and again and again.
Updated six months later.. Changed the number of stars from 5 stars 4 stars after I discovered another Italian restaurant in the area.
Mama Lucia's may be the best kept secret in Kirkland. Situated in an unlikely strip mall, across from a grocery store, Mama's delicious cuisine makes it will worth the extra effort to find the restaurant.
While the restaurant itself is about half the size of the local fast food joint, the fare served up by the happy wait staff make Mama's a giant of the Italian restaurant set. Each dish is delectable - and I've sampled MANY. Like any kitchen, you may be sitting elbow to elbow with your dinner companions (and maybe someone else's!), but it only enhances the experience. The wine selection boasts several local vintages, with nary a dog in the bunch. There is a wine that would complement every item on the expansive menu, from bruschetta to cannelloni to pizza. And don't forget to save room for desert! Yum!
Mama's has become a favorite of my friends and family, and I encourage you to make it a favorite of yours, as well. Try going on a Tuesday night, when the wine is half price and the adventure twice as fun! You will NOT be disappointed!
Now with a new name and website: LUCIA - http://iloveluciakirkl.../
Lucia lost the Mama but it didn't lose the good food. I never tried the old Mama Lucia's but judging from the reviews below it was pretty good. My husband and I visited the newly re-opened restaurant and loved the menu variety, the great food, the decor/ambiance, plus the fantastic service. We tried the poached pear salad, the tuna tartare, tomato soup, chicken parmigiana, and the chocolate lava molten cake and everything was de-li-cio-us! Don't miss it.
The Dessert was good.
The rest was crap. Don't bother going here unless you like;
1. Sitting on stylish yet cold hard seats.
2. Sitting in a dining area where there are far too many tables and waiters keep running in to the corners of them.
3. Like to be forgotten about and watch other people get bread with olive oil, but you only get bread 25 min after you sit down and place a order, sans olive oil.
4. You like paying for food that is salty and bland at the same time. My Kobe Steak was chewy.. my MEAT was CHEWY, it was so bad i actually didn't eat anymore than 2 pieces. We had 3 dishes and all were at best "Meh".
5. The wait staff is only nice to you when you pay the bill
Don't bother going.
This review is for "Lucia" not Mama Lucia's because I loved Mama Lucia's. They would have been a 5 star.
I was in Seattle for the weekend and my friends and I decided to head down to our regular spot only to see it had been completely transformed into a contemporary upscale place instead of the homey place we used to know that had great food and live jazz.
I can't complain too much, I only had the beet salad, though it was on the expensive side, and they do have Blue Moon on tap which bumps them up a star. Overall, I'm a little bummed, but we had a great time, and the service was great. I think the owner's son spent a little too much time in LA and is trying to makeover Kirkland, like it needs any help in becoming more OC, please go away.
The wine was nice...... And everything else pretty much sucked...
The atmosphere is cold and uninviting, the service is pretty much the same. All that could be forgivable if the food had been great but that was not the case.
My beet salad had mushy golden beets which made me want to gag a little and my lemon chicken pasta was pretty bland except for some sneaky black pepper that made my nose run.
It is really echoey in there and if your sitting next to some loud people you end up hearing about how they got high off one toke at the supper club and maybe they should call the babysitter and tell her they'll be home late and go play guitar hero and smoke a doobie.
That last part was the highlight of our dinner!
I went to Lucia last night for the first time and I really enjoyed myself. On Monday's they have half price bottles of wine and we got a nice red zin for a great price and we sat in the trendy but comfortable lounge and sipped away. The bartender was incredibly helpful and nice. He suggested different wines, food accompaniments, and even days when the place isn't packed. I will be going back for their happy hour and dinner in the near future!
UPDATE 12/29/2008:
I went last night for dinner and it was SO good! The pasta dishes are just perfectly put together and comforting and they have a great wine list. I also love the movie playing on the wall. All in all i really do like this place !
Tried this place a few times, every time the service was terrible, the food portions were miniscule, and prices outrageous. The only thing this wanna-be-swanky place has going for it is, it's almost swanky and hip. However, hip ambiance does not a good restaraunt make, never going back. Oh and, the food's really not that good either, a simple plate of spaghetti had zero flavor, the steak was tasteless, coarse, and all alone on that huge hip-swanky plate. The steak was around Daniel's prices, but nowhere as good.
The staff was great. Our waitress and the hostess came and checked on us. The food was great too. The portions were just right. Just enough to make you full and have enough leftover for lunch the next day. I recommend the Wild Mushroom Risotto with Sauteed Prawns and chocolate souffle for dessert. We will definitely will be back.
I went to Lucia last week for drinks and apps before heading to a birthday party at a nearby restaurant. I sat at the bar and was ready to leave within minutes of arriving.
The bartender that helped me was okay but the other bartender was beyond annoying. He was chatting with his friends at the end of the bar about their weekend escapades loud enough for the whole block to hear. He was kissing the waitresses while they placed their orders and even let them try the drinks before delivering them to customers. At one point there were at least 4 straws in a drink that I watched get delivered to a table!! He was loud, inappropriate and completely unprofessional. Where is the management at this place?? The staff seemed to be having their own private party.
The drinks were nothing spectacular and the apps I had were less than average. Certainly not nearly good enough to make this establishment worth stepping foot in.
I know it's a fairly new restaurant so they might still be working out the kinks but I certainly won't be going back any time soon.
Went the other night for dinner, was seated in the bar. Had a great time, bartenders weren't to up on the food, but they are BARTENDERS :) We had terrific service and the food was better than I expected. The place has a very eclectic crowd, but I kinda like the vibe. They were showing old black and white movies on a wall, and the bar had subtle but not dark lighting. I enjoyed it, and I'll go again.
A great little Italian place, great service and good food. It's small but they do a good job of… Read more »
OH my GOODNESS! If you have been here before and didn't like it....you need to come back! A totally revamped, upscale gitchy atmosphere. The last time I was in there, there was a 30 minute wait for a table, so we didn't end up staying...otherwise I would have given it 5 stars. This THE new IT place.....I'll give it a few weeks to cool off before trying again.
I love the food at Lucia-- never had a bad meal. HOWEVER, the last two times I went there, it was full of flies. You have to be suspicious about the cleanliness of a restaurant where you have to constantly swat flies away from your food. I won't be going back any time soon.
Had a wonderful meal here one evening. Bruschetta was amazing and the pork dish was good as well. Well worth a try.
I had a much better time when Lucia was Mama Lucia. The old Lucia was much more authentic (the deco, the size, etc), good food, fair price, and I always wanted to return for more. The new larger Lucia was comtemp, crowed, and pricy. I was disappointed with the change. I did not return since my last visit to Lucia. =(
I went here on a Friday night with my fiance's folks who have been long time patrons of Mama Lucia's. This was my first time here ever and theirs since the remodel. Having not seen the restaurant and decor before, I thought it was fun and chic. You could tell they are definitely trying to be "upscale". I had the ricotta gnocchi in a vodka sauce and I also tried my sister's wild mushroom risotto. Both were very delicious! The bread and sauce that they bring out are tasty as well. They claim the food was just as good as it was before so if the remodel is turning you off, that just leaves more seats for the rest of us. Yeah, the seating was a little tight, but there are many lengths I will go to for great Italian fare. I'll be back here for sure! Prego Lucia!!
Kirkland, WA
Category: Italian
Kirkland, WA
Category: Restaurants
Kirkland, WA
Category: Pizza
Redmond, WA
Category: Italian
Woodinville, WA
Category: Italian
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