Caffe Lucio Italian Restaurant

While the loss of Lucio will forever be felt in Santa Cruz, his spirit carries on at Café Lucio. A few changes to the lighting and music have mellowed the vibe but the food is as good as ever. It’s nice to see so many of his longtime staff here and ensuring a little bit of Lucio is always near.

Really great staff greet you at the door like an old friend… and it only gets better. Terrific appetizers, bread, pasta and salad. Main course for our table of three was a salmon special and filet mignon that you could cut with a butter knife. Outstanding crowd of families and happy youngsters all around. I will be going back in the near future and taking several friends as guests.

What A great experience tonight! I had the best gnocchi I’ve had since I left Florence Italy three years ago! The service was superb and there was a live band playing… Kind of a cross between George Strait and Jack Johnson… Kind of beachy and mellow… I highly recommend this restaurant and a great location as well. Fun atmosphere for families or couples.

the best seafood pasta i’ve ever had– and lord knows im a picky SNOB when it comes to italian!(i’ve been to italy 6x).
fantastic service, food was amazing. just found this place because its next to my friends house– what a gem! they had a band playing that were great too. played angel from montgomery, my fav john prine song.
this is now my other reason for visiting santa cruz. five+stars!

We love this place!
The bread is to die for, service is amazing, the food is great! I never know why this place isn’t packed all the time! The only reason I didn’t give it ⁵⁄₅ is just due to the noise level. It’s a family friendly environment which is great, but if you want a romantic date night this might not be the go to place. The prices are very reasonable and they usually have live bands on the weekend. We will continue to go here for our Italian cravings!

This place was recommended to us by an owner of an antique shop in Soquel and can I just say it was amazing! It was a super fun and cool atmosphere! The disco ball may not be for everyone, but it definitely helped to wake me up after a long weekend of post-​holiday stress and a long day of driving. We also loved how you could watch the food being made from your seat and I just wish we could afford to try one of the cocktails, because they sounded delicious and had the cutest, most unique names! The Ravioli was recommended to us and man oh man, was it tasty! Even the minestrone soup was flavorful and a huge portion for the price! We would definitely come here again and maybe next time we’ll break out and dance and have one of those adorable cocktails which may induce the spontaneous dancing! Before our food coma of course. ;)

The food here was delicious. I ordered the butternut squash raviolis, which were served with simple olive oil, but were some of the best raviolis i’ve ever had. Perfect portion, too — I ate every last one and felt completely satiated. Our waitress was really sweet, but we didn’t get to see her much. I’d say they were short-​staffed, until I saw several people (bartenders) loitering near the kitchen. Anyway, I’ll be back to try more of their raviolis next time I’m around!

so the owner personally tells me I should go to a fast food place and get a happy meal! a happy meal would have more quality then this place sad to say. I’m not getting bullied by his immature comments! quality is better than price or quantity anyday. it’s not good to treat customers that way. the food is so bad! they don’t know true Italian food. just speghetti oas in a can food here. if you can’t handle the truth, then suck it up.
I want to see a good review about this place from some professional Unilocaler’s

Great service, very attentive and friendly.
But industrial dough doesn’t and will never make good pizza. C’mon people, it’s not so hard.

I love the food, the atmosphere, the wait staff, everything! This place is for celebrating good food, friends and family! Everyone is made to feel welcome right down to my crazy grandsons! I miss Lucio but he left his uplifting spirit at Caffe Lucios.
For those of you complaining about the price, the servings are large, share with a friend or take it home for the next day.

I was very skeptical based on the 3.5 stars but my husband wanted to walk to the closest place for a quick dinner right after we checked into our hotel (on our honeymoon) it was very quiet as it was 9 pm on a Sunday (only a few other tables) It had music and a disco ball going, very fun atmosphere.
I am so glad we came here! Everything was so good. We had the polenta appetizer — very yummy and in general I hate marinara sauce but I found myself using bread to fish it up.
I had the artichoke ravioli. Was expecting the normal 5 large ravioli– no I got 10+ nice ravioli with artichoke ind ide AND chunks of artichoke in the dish, enough for a piece with each bite of ravioli. And lots of fresh basil.
Husband ordered shortrib ravioli. It tasted like a mini pot roast in every ravioli. Very tasty and hearty.
I also ordered the Momma Mia cocktail. Grey goose vodka, prosecco, guava and lime. I don’t know if this is a normal cocktail or their own creation but it was so good. Will definitely be making at home.
I am very lazy about writing Unilocal reviews (even though I use Unilocal constantly) but I had to write a review after being so blown away a place with as lower rating.
Go there — just do it it’s soooo good! (And our waitress, Miss Brittany was a doll– so sweet and helpful and nice!)

Just tried this place. Nice décor, service was good but extremely loud inside with music blaring and lots of people, like they need a soundproof wall. Hard to hear us talking.
I had a gluten-​free fettucini dish which was $ 23 and he had the lasagna. $ 20 for lasagna with hardly any meat in it, and small portion. My fettuccine was really good and filling course didn’t finish it. The food was really good and flavor, though. Had kids next to me that kept bumping into my chair, blocking waitresses to get through too.
Was docking 2 stars for what I just said. Too expensive, if you ask me

Just waiting for the cool sweet relief of bankruptcy court. Front of house was friendly but nothing can overcome an entrée swimming in grease, a salad dressed in water (at best) and a bought-​in dessert. Too bad, the staff seemed nice, but hopefully they can find better positions.

My husband surprised me with a dinner at Caffee Lucio in Santa Cruz, and I must say… to die for! Everything from the exterior to the interior to the service was excellent. But, the food, oh my the food was beyond expectations! If you are near the area, or don’t mind a short drive like we did (25 mins) this place is an absolute MUST!

This upbeat, chill restaurant has organic and gluten free cuisine that is very tasty! We enjoyed our dinner very much, the food was delicious and generously portioned– and our server, Janelle, made it the perfect experience for our first night in town.

Wow this place was awesome. I need to personally thank Janel she was great and very sweet. The food was great and the atmosphere was really fun. I guess the women’s restroom is a sight to see as my wife and sons girlfriend thought it was hilarious. Anyway if you go to Santa Cruz and want a great meal go here the food was great and the service top notch from the hostess to the numerous bus staff to our wonderful waitress

Very friendly, fast service, delicious food! They serve a lot of organic and farm fresh items. The portions are large so you can share or bring home lunch for the next day! Definitely have the gnocchi with pesto sauce, it was delicious! We did sit outside, which was nice for the kids, but the traffic was a little loud at times.

Very good meal! They had very good drinks, appetizers, and ambiance. My sausage marinara pasta was a little salty, but I added some Parmesan cheese to balance it out. The dessert was pretty good too, a chocolate cake and espresso gelato. The chocolate dessert cocktail and port wine were also delicious.

The eggplant parmesan was terrific. I loved that it was not deep fried or even breaded. So yummy. Seems healthier.

Our son lives in Santa Cruz and wanted to try this Italian restaurant. I’m not quite sure what to make of it with it’s twirling disco ball, flashing lights, and loud music. On the upside, they have outdoor tables with adorable round lights.
The food was pretty good: Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli with Creamy Tomato Sauce and a pasta dish with short ribs in a white wine sauce. Both of which were on the special menu list. The hubster also ordered a salad that was nothing but spinach, a few nuts and? Honestly, it wasn’t that impressive. The bread was really tasty dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.
Although the price was a bit high, we decided to top off our dinner with some dessert. We all know Italy is known for some seriously incredible desserts ~ right? These desserts were very rich ~ and not in a good way. The strawberry, vanilla, chocolate gelato ball dipped in dark chocolate tasted like it had freezer burn. I ordered the Affogato. It came in a very small dish Vs. a glass and the espresso was SO strong, I could not finish it. The chocolate cake ~ far to deep bitter chocolate tasting.
The most disappointing part of dinner was the piercing loud girls sitting at the table directly behind us. Seriously, when has it become appropriate to be so loud in restaurants that you can not hear each other talk at your own table! If you want to carry on like you were at a football game, stay home and make your own dinner, but let others enjoy a nice dinner out to relax and enjoy each other’s company!!! Will not be returning any time soon.

Sensationell– Pizza ist richtig gut und kommt auf jeden Fall an né «richtige» Pizza ran! Aber wenn der Chef Italiener ist, ist das ja irgendwie auch klar!!! Molto bene!!! So awesome !!! Super! Très bien!