Lucio

Prior to enjoying a local production of «A Christmas Carol» at The State Theatre here in town, we decided to hit Lucio’s for dinner on 12÷19÷15.
We were seated in the back room for the first time, which seems to be an addition that is a bit on the utilitarian side compared to the rest of the house. Started off with two Tanqueray & Tonics ($ 7.50 each), which were the very weakest G&T’s I’ve EVER been served in a restaurant. I’d like to say that maybe the bartender waved a bottle of Tanqueray over the tonic-​filled glasses, but I don’t think he even did that. Awful.
However, the starters of «Lobster Bisque» ($ 6 each) were swoon-​worthy. This place really does fabulous soups, as we’ve enjoyed their wonderful «Crab Bisque» in the past just as much as this lobster version,.
Husband’s «Chicken Parmiggiana» ($ 15) & my «Fillet of Sole» ($ 15) — both accompanied by the wonderful house-​made Angel Hair Pasta dressed in house-​made Marinara sauce were just as good if not better than our last visit. Portions were enough that we took some home to enjoy for lunch the following day.
For dessert, we shared an order of «Chocolate Mousse Pie» ($ 6), which was so rich that we were glad we decided to just share one portion.
Service was pleasant & attentive without being obtrusive. Bill after tax but before tip came to $ 68.42. Apart from the overly-​weak cocktails, very nice meal. But again — it would be nice if this place would think about updating the menu a bit. It’s been the same old same old for YEARS now. No changes, & very VERY few interesting «specials». I SO miss the old Lucio’s — more choices (check out my first review).

Wonderful evening. Delicious pasta and a fine Chianti. On a cold, rainy night, it couldn’t have been more comforting.

This is hands down my favorite place in Culpeper! (And that’s saying a lot since Culpeper has so many great restaraunts)
The best time to go is on a Tuesday, where you can order their angel hair pasta and homemade marinara sauce. It’s SO delicious. (My husband and I have to practice some serious self control to not go every single Tuesday, since they have a special on that dish for only $ 9 a plate.)
I think their customer service is great and I happen to like the way the inside looks– it’s in a fixed up house and has a very family like and somewhat eclectic feel to it. You’ve gotta check it out.

Absolutely loved our dinner there a week ago! The soups– peach Riesling and crab bisque — were both delicious. I had a special veal and eggplant dish that had the most tender and flavorful veal I have had in weeks. My friends had the lasagna, which they loved! Great prices, good atmosphere. Wish we lived closer!

Amazing dinner, a salad with chicken and citrus vinaigrette, the service is a bit rigid but nice wait staff, they don’t have as many codes with the pens and napkins as they used to. However, all that expressed, the food is very good, fresh and made to order and reasonable.

I love this place! My family and I come here a couple times a year and we usually have the same waitress – she is personable and very nice – and she remembers us every time. If you ever do come here, make sure that you do so around Christmastime! They get very festive and put up gorgeous lights and decorations around the place. The food is good – I’m a pasta girl, so I’ve had the vodka pasta (amazing) and the pasta with the clams (also super good). I LOVE their mozzarella caprese. Get two, just in case! Everyone always steals from mine when I get it. Thank you Lucio!

This place gets absolutely 0 stars, and I think even that is generous. Here we go:
Firstly, I’m no expert on Italian food (yet). I have done my fair share of cooking it, and I’ve also done my fair share of tasting and researching different cuisines and different places. This place is trying desperately hard to pass itself off as an authentic Italian restaurant, but don’t be fooled — this place is as Italian as Papa Johns. Their menu is minuscule compared to some other Italian places I’ve been to, which inspired confidence — the smaller the menu, the higher quality the food, right? You and your logic, hahaha. Dead. Wrong. Chicken Parmigiana is a simple dish, and mine was absolutely bland. How do you get a bland chicken parmigiana? You don’t make your own breadcrumbs, or at the very least, don’t season the store bought ones you are using; you don’t add salt or pepper; you use a terrible marinara sauce from a jar; you use store bought mozzarella (seriously, it may take a while to make, but if you are Italian and work in an Italian restaurant, you probably should either a) know where to get fresh made mozzarella or b) do it yourself); and you for some reason mix your pasta serving with marinara (same jar stuff) and Alfredo (NOT EVEN ITALIAN!) and serve that up. People have fought wars over more frivolous stuff than a poorly made chicken parmigiana. My date got the capellini con vongole (clams). Clams = canned, and, amazingly, STILL HAD SAND/​GRIT! When she told the server that she wanted to return it, she was met with near disdain, as if questioning the food was an insult. No, lady — that food is an insult to tastebuds everywhere. There were MAYBE 6 total people in the restaurant, and service was still slow. The meatball appetizer was perfectly… microwaved. The actual chicken was very likely frozen. Culpeper, last I checked, is in the HEART of Virginia farm country — you are telling me you can’t find local free range chicken for a reasonable price? I raise them — ask me. Lastly, the décor was just as bad as everything else. Only decent thing is this place is apparently located in an old house, so that is kind of nice. Will never come back to this place unless it gets taken over by the mob, then, even if they end up offing me, I know I’ll get a decent meal.

Dinner items here are very good. Atmosphere is nice and is good for groups, special occasions, date nights, etc. My only problem with this place was the caprese salad. It was just some grape tomatoes, slices of cheese, and thick balsamic syrup… not at all what is expected. Otherwise, it’s a good find at a fair price.

My boyfriend and I had dinner here this past Saturday night and it was lovely! The pictures on the website don’t do the atmosphere justice — it feels incredibly warm and inviting much more so than I was expecting. Everyone who works there is incredibly friendly. Everything on the menu sounded great and tasted great and was a great value particularly as the portions are large. I would definitely come back!

ACCIDENTALLY POSTED THIS UNDER ANOTHER RESTAURANT’s reviews but it’s meant for this restaurant:
Lucio was one of these places we said we’d go to but never did. I don’t know why we waited so long. Wonderful ambiance. Warm cozy and beautiful décor. The staff is very attentive and it’s quiet enough to have a conversation over dinner. We had Capellini with clams in white sauce, and ravioli stuffed with kale and ricotta. Both were splendid. My husband had a bowl if chicken pablono soup and he practically scrapped the bowl getting the last drop. The almond amerhetto cake was a nice change from tarimisu and every bit as moist. This is a new favorite and we’ll be back again!

This is a charming little restaurant in an old house in downtown Culpeper. We had a group of seven, and I think that may have thrown our server off. Every element of the meal took forever to get to us. On the plus side, when it did arrive, we enjoyed the food. I had the eggplant parmesan, and I was pleased that it wasn’t greasy or too caked in breading. The pasta on the side was good, but I think it would have been better with just the marinara and not tossed in alfredo first. All in all, a good experience, but not outstanding.

Oh my gosh. What a joke this place is. My husband likes to limit his carbs so he ordered the chicken parmigiana and requested the vegetable of the day in place of the side of pasta. He didn’t bother to ask what the vegetable of the day might be since we are into June and farmer’s markets are already producing great stuff. Are you ready? They bring a bowl of canned corn! It was so shocking we all just cracked up at the table instead of complaining. I ordered the «panko crusted» grouper which had a horrible sweet sauce that I couldn’t eat. The mashed potatoes were delicious, so that’s what I paid all that money for was mashed potatoes. I came home and popped some popcorn for dinner. What a waste of money. It’s a shame because they have a nice space.

I’m Italian I know Italian food and while it’s not first or second choice for food it’s most defiantly my third. Also, anyone who knows my mom knows her pasta sauce. She cooks it in this 40gal pot for three days and it is simply the most amazing marinara any human could make. I’m not just saying this cause she’s my mom it’s just really that good.
Lucio’s … Is a really, REALLY close second.
I’ve wanted to try this place for a while and should have written this review months ago when I first tried their food. Around Halloween my roommate who had also been dying to try this place out but because of look and feel didn’t feel like jumping through hoops for an upscale restaurant (city kids here we’re used to dressing up for someplace this good) so when she saw the sign for lasagna night for $ 8 bucks she jumped. I think that was the best $ 16 dollars ever spent in recorded history. It was simple yet flavorful well rounded and could again stand up against my moms. She also ordered two salads with ranch on the side for me and some citrusy one for her. Homemade… The ranch I want it either bottled or the recipe and the citrus one mind=blown.
Fast forward a week manicotti night… Truly amazing… Manicotti never was a big favorite of mine, it’s a take it or leave it dish. Yeah, I’ll take theirs any day.
Since then I’ve eaten here a few times even around Christmas when they decorated the place like a winter wonder land. Epic selling point for me I don’t need to dress up.
Anywayz, Lucio’s is a must for locals and travelers alike so please visit… Often haha.

You can put your new baby on the floor! This is the option that was given to us by the hostess tonight. My husband visited Lucio yesterday to make reservations for my birthday dinner (today). When making the reservation he said that we would be bringing our newborn along. Today we arrived and were told that our options were to put our newborn in a high chair (which is not possible considering she cannot hold her head up yet) or place our infant in her car seat on the floor of the restaurant. No slings available and no putting the car seat on the table. I’m a new mom, it’s my birthday and I just left in tears. :(Thanks Lucio

Something very wrong. My wife and I made reservations for Tue. Mar 4– our 53^rd anniversary. I called before a snow storm. They told me they would call if they would have to close. It snowed, SUNDAY NIGHT and was clear by Monday night. So we showed up Tuesday night. Closed. They could get there to put up a sign but not call us. Just About Thyme saved the day. I will not return.

We recently joined friends for dinner at our long-​time favorite, Lucio. After seeing some mixed reviews here and and hearing some negative comments, we were a little hesitant to make this reservation.
Well. We had a wonderful time. Two of our party of four had the evening special, Braised Eggplant on Angel Hair pasta. Another member of our party chose the Lasagna, and the fourth tried the Cappelini alla Vongole. Appetizers included House and Cesar salads.
We were all very pleased with every morsel we ordered. The fresh pastas were delightful. The salads bright and fresh. Dressings arrived on the side if requested that way. Service was attentive, but not overbearing.
We look forward to our next visit to Lucio.

Where is Gordon Ramsey when you need him.
We went on Tuesday night. First time in several years. What a major disappointment. There was only one other couple in the place when we arrived and they left soon after, leaving us alone in the restaurant.
The setting is beautiful, and the service is acceptable, if only the food quality matched.
We ordered the mozzarella and tomato salad appetizer. It was mediocre at best, the dressing was about as bland as the mozzarella.
I ordered the chicken Marsalla. When it arrived it was so sweet I thought the chef had tripped and spilled a whole cup of sugar into the sauce. It was really too sweet to eat so I sent it back. The only other thing on the menu that I wanted was not available that night. The only thing that kept me from going totally hungry was the side of Angel Hair pasta, with three stingy tablespoons of sauce. Would it have bankrupted them to put 5 tablespoons of sauce on the pasta?
My partner ordered the Alfredo which was grainy as if they had shaken a can of Parmesian cheese over it rather than cook the cheese into the cream sauce.
In desperation I ordered the «New York style cheese cake» as a dessert. This mess had been in the fridge for at least a week and had turned hard. There was not the slightest hint of creaminess to it. It wasn’t fresh, and did nothing to salvage the night.
It is obvious why we were the only ones in the place. When I last visited here several years ago it was packed. Poor quality food, lack of freshness, and no attention to the recipe’s has turned it in the place to avoid in Culpeper.
It’s sad, because we are left to the chains, for edible food in Culpeper.

I went here with my husband tonight for dinner & it was both of our first times here. We called ahead, but there was no need as I think we were the first people for their dinner shift. We arrived at 5:35 (they open for dinner at 5) & were sat right away. Our server came right over, took our drink order, & explained the specials.
We both went with the She Crab Soup for a starter ($ 5/​ea) — I had a glass of Lizard Flat Chardonnay & he had a glass of red wine (can’t remember which one). They offer 3 whites & 3 reds by the glass for $ 6/​ea. The wine was just ok, nothing special about it. I would’ve loved to have had White Zin, but that was only offered by the bottle. Our soup was good, but not the best She Crab I’ve ever had (that was from Claires at the Depot in Warrenton!). The texture & consistency were off, but it wasn’t horrible.
For dinner, I went with the Veal Parm & followed other review suggestions by trying the pasta side. The portion was huge (I had to take some home) & it was good. The veal was cooked well & they were not sparing on cheese or sauce which was really nice to see. The pasta side was also good & there was a good portion of that also.
My husband had the special, Veal Scallopini with pasta side. His veal was sautéed instead of fried and came in a Marsala sauce (which he wasn’t sure was actually Marsala). He enjoyed his dinner as well, but was not
Overall, I felt that the atmosphere was the best part of the meal. It’s a house turned restaurant & is very well maintained. It’s a nice restaurant, but not overly fancy. The service was quick & friendly. We ended up spending about $ 60 total for our meal. While we had a pretty good experience, I don’t think we’ll be adding Lucio to our list of regular places to eat in Culpeper.

We like this place a lot for Italian food, and it is about the best you will find in the area. The pasta if delicious and tastes home made — it is simple and wonderful. The scalopini thin, crispy, tender and delicious, I love the parmagianna. My wife had the eggplant parm, and said is was the best she’s had — and that says a lot as it is her favorite dish. It offers the perfect balance of eggplant, chesse and sauce for her. We really enjoy this place for the food to the simple, but comfortable atmosphere. The service is top notch too.
I’ve read some of the reviews below and wonder why people would go to an Italian restaurant and order steak and crabcakes? Go there, order Italian food and I think you will be very satisified. Tutti Bene.

Four of us decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day at the lovely house turned into a palace of delicious cuisine!!! Good service and food is great !!! casual dress although the ambiance tells one otherwise… All I have to say is she crab soup. Is it the cream? Is it the crab? Or is it the hint of tomatoe? No matter what it is, this place is a definite stop for us in Culpeper. a definite must for anyone in that town.