Greg C.
Yelp
It's two days later, and we're still raving about certain dishes we had at a lovely dinner at Antica Locando di Sesto.
It's a traditional place -- a very old restaurant that has been in the same family a long time, as I understand it -- and its feel is very much that. It's location is pretty off the beaten path, about 15K north of Lucca up the Serchio river valley, though it happened to be quite near where we were staying.
But the food is off the charts good. Very traditional, artisanal food, largely local or regional in origin. The mixed antipasto is popular, and quite good, consisting of several meats (all but the DOC prosciutto di parma sourced by a member of the family), including a really nice beef carpaccio with arugula, their spelt salad (very traditional to Lucca and apparently somewhat of a novelty to some, but as californians the only thing we found unexceptional on the menu), some amazing meatballs.
The standout primi was tuscan white beans with a very fishy/salty note from tuna roe, which we drizzled with excellent local olive oil.
We chose a veal chop in lieu of the very popular thick steak chop a la fiorentine -- basically "black and blue" in US parlance. It looked great to one of us, but we were sharing and the other didn't want raw meat.
Wine was terrific. While other reviews I've read suggested they push the house wine, they did not and happily helped us select a great Barolo. That said, the house wines seem to be popular; I'm not a big fan of Lucchese wines so far though.
Desserts were good, but not drop dead.
Make reservations. If you can, cross the bridge to ponte a mariano on your way out of town, and look for Saura gelateria (turn right off the bridge, on your right in 3-4 doors). It's the best we found in the Lucca area, and the road it's on continues back to town.