Lucca

I have only ate here for lunch and I usually get the chicken sandwich with soup or a salad. I have not yet tried their pasta. My sandwich is always very good, it can be a little bland at times but thats just cause its not loaded with sauces and there is a lot of bread on the sandwich too which I don’t mind because then I can dip it in my soup! But I would recommend trying their sandwiches for lunch, they are a little different but good!

Just left Lucca. The food was good. Our waiter was very patient and accommodating. Our biggest disappointment was that while finishing our meal we looked over and were able to see the prep cook at the stove and observed one of the ladies twice dropping food off a tray on to the floor and then picking it up off the floor then back into the pot! My friends and I were appalled! I then found the owner and told him what we saw. He thanked me and then immediately confronted the cooks. For the rest of the meal we received constant dirty looks from the chef. Regardless to say we could not wait to leave! I have worked in customer service and think this was handled poorly. The owner should have waited to confront the cooks after we left. Won’t be back.

We were lucky enough to pick Lucca for a nice, but hopefully not too lingering dinner while passing thru Des Moines on a cross country road trip on I-​80. The gentrified area & contemporary design of the restaurant were an unexpected pleasure. The squash risotto lived up to its rave reviews, and our server was happy to allow us to split the 3-​course menu, without an up-​charge for plating it separately! We ordered an extra salad a la carte — mixed greens with pear & crumbled goat cheese — and the crisp glazed salmon and roasted Brussels sprouts lived up to expectations! Wish we weren’t just passing thru, Lucca is worth regular return visits.

Lucca is my go-​to restaurant for date night. Minimalist, cozy atmosphere. I’ve never had a bad meal. Whatever risotto they’re serving that night, I’m having. The service is top notch. Come here when you want to feel like a fancy pants and you won’t be disappointed.

Went back recently for lunch… the food was still mediocre. Service was okay. The place still smelled of cooked fish… a better ventilation system would help, especially for those customers sitting at the back of the restaurant.

One of our favorite date night restaurants. The service has always been beyond comparison to any restaurant we have been. The staff is knowledgeable about every item on the menu. The menu changes frequently and they have never missed a beat when we had questions. In a nutshell, food, drinks, dessert and service is fantastic.

Womp. Womp.
Upon stepping into Lucca in the charming East Village neighborhood of downtown Des Moines, we were hit with a wall of heavy air and a strong cheese smell (coming from an extreme lover of cheese — the fact that this wasn’t an attractive smell is surprising).
The kitchen is located in the center of the minimalist space (brick walls, few pieces of artwork and lofty ceilings). We started off with a glass of Moscato and cabernet. I am not a Moscato fan but this version was mind-​blowingly delicious — Castello del Poggio (Asti, Italy). Can’t wait to buy a bottle of this for home.
Note that the menu is prix fixe and $ 40 per person. Three courses including options like goat cheese with blueberry compote, sauerkraut and kidney bean soup from an Italian recipe, risotto with shrimp, gnocchi tossed in a gorgonzola cheese and scallops with Brussel sprouts. Here’s the thing, as delicious as this all sounds, the presentation and actual product fell short of our expectations. I had hoped that the simple décor was leading up to food that served as the eye candy for the space.
Our waitress was attentive and did a great job explaining the menu. Unfortunately, the Moscato was the highlight of our experience at Lucca.

The risotto was under done by about 10 – 15 minutes & the potato on the steak had zero flavor. The steak was cooked rare as requested but slightly dry, the sauce didn’t make up for it. The Scallops were defiantly NOT fresh, it had an overbearing «fishy» (old) smell when the food arrived. The potato gnocchi was defiantly AMAZING.

My friends and I came here for lunch on a Saturday after a recommendation. We walked in and were kinda confused. Since this was our first time, we did not know you order at the counter, pay, then sit down at a table. The menu was very limited but all looked good for $ 10.
I ordered the vegetable Brie sandwich which a spinach and feta salad. The sandwich was good at first but then got cold and there was a lot of bread to vegetable ratio. The salad was disappointing since there was no dressing and it was just spinach and a little feta cheese.
The atmosphere is very nice and contemporary. Overall I’d want to come back and see what they offer for dinner!

Great food and great service. Its nice to see a place that has limited unique, fresh, and changing menu.
Wine is also great here. Have been here a few times and have not been disappointed yet!

Took 35 guests here a couple months ago and was very pleasantly surprised! Of course, with a 35 top, the food took a little while to come out, however, it tasted fantastic! They even went so far as to ask what kinds of drinks (ie: whiskey, wines, etc.) we prefer and they purchased it prior to our visit! Top notch service and great atmosphere! I will eat here again!

Ah, well, if you insist… I went to Lucca with my husband years ago, first on our own, and then because a business acquaintance promised better treatment if we mentioned his name.
The food was great, but we’ll never go back. Both times, we found the staff too big for their britches, and for the kind of joint this is! If they are nicer now, we won’t know, because we are… out of there! Service, to us is 50%, if not more, of the experience.

Great food. Great service. The good was so well prepared and delicious. Limited menu but if you like Italian you can’t go wrong with whatever you order. Clean place but not fancy.
No reservations on Unilocal but you can call

One of the best restaurants in Des Moines. Located in the trendy East Village, Lucca has a trendy atmosphere with exposed brick walls and all-​white-​everything. There is a limited menu but everything is outstanding. Don’t leave Lucca without trying their homemade gnocchi (at least once). Bar selection is limited (at least in terms of cocktails), so you may be better off ordering wine.

My wife and I had a few very good dinners here. We ate here the night I proposed to her. The risotto is very good. It’s a nice place, with very high ceilings, a sparse, industrial interior and tables with enough space between that it feels intimate.
Now that we’ve lived in Chicago for a few years my idea of «fine dining» has changed quite a bit, but Lucca is a nice place and I wouldn’t hesitate to give it another shot for a nice dinner in Des Moines.

I suppose we made a mistake thinking my wife and I didn’t need a reservation on a 10 degree Thursday night. We were seated immediately, offered wine and then ignored as if to demonstrate indignation for «just showing up».
The prix fix menu did not describe the dishes, but instead indicated the two primary ingredients. Interaction with the «laid back» staff was required to understand the offerings. I enjoyed the chicken liver pâté bruschetta and my wife was pleased with the capicola and pear antipasto.
Things began to deteriorate at this point. My three cheese genocchi, although slightly bland, was cooked to perfection. My wife’s seafood ravioli on the other hand, was cold in the middle, suffering from inadequate reheating time in the microwave.
I selected the braised pork shoulder as the protein offering, served on white polenta. It was bland and unremarkable. My wife’s salmon looked like a burnt offering and was essentially indelible.
I hope we caught Lucca on an off night. I doubt we will be going back. For $ 38 apiece we could have had a better meal at the school cafeteria.

It’s important to make sure that you wash your hands. What I’ve learned about Lucca is that there isn’t a lot of hand washing going on. From the chef that tossed the spinach salad in dressing, to the assistant chef checking her cell phone then going right back to cooking, I didn’t see a single hand wash the entire time I was dining. This confuses me mostly because the space is so open. I’m a little grossed out by what I saw.
Let’s start with the drinks. I felt like a gin and tonic. I did get a lot of gin, but the tonic was flat to the point where no carbonation was left. If you’re going to use fountain or bottled tonic, you better make sure there are bubbles. If you’re pouring from a liter bottle of tonic, once you open it you have 4 – 8 hours –TOPS– before it’s no longer palatable. My guess is I was served tonic from a bottle that had been open for days.
I’m trying to understand what happened with the spinach salad. It was literally packaged spinach, tossed with dressing (not very good), and bacon crumbles were on top. Are you serious? We are in the middle of the midwest with farmers producing their best and the salad that I am served is a pre-​packaged spinach salad with bacon crumbles? Bacon crumbles? It’s almost insulting.
The gnocchi. Is it standard practice not to reheat them fully? I realize that there is some prep work that goes on but food needs to be served hot. The mushrooms were served hot. The gnocchi, no. Two separate pans, I get it, but they both need to be HOT. The flavor of the gnocchi is fine, and the mushrooms were a nice pair, but I’d still like to see something inspired by what kind of food is in season right now.
Finally, the pork shoulder was dry. Flavorful, served very hot, but very dry. The jus was delicious, but it was just almost impossible to get past how dry the meat was. One of the luxuries we have in the midwest, and in Iowa in particular, is the pork is top notch. This dish wasn’t respectful of the animal, or the diner.
With all of my heart I want to love this restaurant. Sadly, I’m hesitant to return because it seems that over time the quality has gone down and the focus on sanitary practices seemed nonexistent. The service was friendly and attentive, and the meal was paced right. It’s just hard to get past watching the kitchen staff horse around, check their cell phones and forget about washing their hands.

Was visiting Des Moines over the weekend so I just had to return to Lucca. It was my 2^nd visit to the restaurant and, i must say, it just keeps getting better… and it was pretty darn good to start with.
First of all, the owner is sweetly handsome. At first I thought he was giving me the eye as I was putting my dog in the car (don’t worry, it was not hot out and it wasn’t too cold. Any my car has a very comfy dog area with a super soft bed and everything a dog could possibly desire). I parked right across the street form Lucca so I could keep my eye on my pooch in the car.
Well…sad to say… I think the owner was really eyeing my dog because he asked a lot of questions about her when I entered the restaurant.
Anyway, I think Food and Wine magazine compared the owner to George Clooney, but I think closer to Cary Grant. And there is a cute waiter there who looks a bit like a blond raccoon with a buzz cut. Also, a tall dark waiter that most people would probably find attractive.
Of course, all of this would be irrelevant if the owner had not created such a delightful restaurant with superb food. Gnocchi with sage, Rigatoni with black olive pesto, butternut squash risotto, goat cheese and beet salad. Yes, I had all of these dishes. You see, I asked the owner what he recommended for a vegetarian like me and he really served it up. Is it possible he liked me too?
Service is efficient even if the speed at which items came out of the kitchen was a bit alarming. How did they get this apple spice cake with caramel sauce so warm in what seemed like a second? Was a microwave to blame? Probably not, but the pace of dishes coming out of the kitchen could be a bit more leisurely. But, what, am I now complaining about fast service? Yes, i guess I am. Servers are fine and friendly, but all seem a bit green when compared to the owner.
If you find yourself in Des Moines, you should definitely find Lucca.

My wife and I went there for the first time recently. Cool restaurant. I like the simple, but elegant design. It is very long and narrow and the kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant.
On ordering — the menu wasn’t large and you had to choose a first course and second course. Everything was priced the same ($ 33). Dessert was separate and optional.
I had a Moroccan soup and Pork Vindaloo as my second course. Both were very delicious. My wife had a mixed salad and a salmon dish with orzo.
The server was great — very friendly, knowledgeable. He was a little slow bringing our wine and apologized and only charged us for 1 glass. Otherwise, he was very good at describing the menu and attentive to us during the meal.
PS — might be tough to find for first-​timers. The gray awning doesn’t really stand out.

I had lunch with a friend today. It was my first experience at Lucca. I loved it. I ended up deciding (after much debate) on the turkey and swiss sandwich with a greens salad. The bread was the best part. It was thick, airy, and so delicious. Everything inside the sandwich and the salad were also just so yummy.
I can’t wait to try dinner. I hear it’s amazing. Lunch comes highly recommended, though!