Brian S.
Yelp
I'm going to wait a while and give Pizza Luca time to improve, then visit and try them again, but so far the three times I've been, it's been less than impressive and makes me not want to go back. First, the good: the service has always been prompt and attentive, and the portions are generous-to-large. But most of the food just isn't good, and there are some things about food prep that really gross me out. Our most recent visit is a good synopsis. We sat at the bar, which is basically a counter set against the low partial kitchen wall, looking into the food prep area. We had a pizza, a salad, a pasta, and a side. My son ordered the pizza; he's ordered custom pizzas before and every one of them was inedible, so I told him to order off the menu, thinking it was his poor taste in toppings (which is definitely part of the issue), but this one was just as unappetizing, too. So maybe it's not just him. The side of potatoes was pretty good, albeit kind of drowned in mayo/aoli, and the salad was decent although also a bit drenched--but at least all the lettuce was fresh and clean. The pasta was way undercooked, like hard and crumbly, not just al dente, and I've never had sundried tomato pesto sauce like that; maybe it was straight from a can? It tasted like it was an ingredient, not a finished sauce. As we waited, I remarked to my wife that a lot, maybe most, of the food was being prepared just on the other side of the wall, some of it a direct line of sight from us at head level and barely out of arms reach, within easy coughing distance, some of it set for long periods of time in that position. Moments later, as if to prove my point, a couple sat beside us and started coughing openly without even attempting to cover their mouths. The food in front of them was definitely getting sprayed with cough particles. I am astonished the inspectors have approved this layout of seating/food prep. They need to put up plexiglass or something, at a minimum. So in summary, someone with good taste needs to review their menu (or make sure it's being cooked as intended), they need quality control, and they need to rearrange their prep area for basic sanitation. As-is it's one of my least satisfactory restaurants in Staunton; I will give it another try after a delay and revise this review if it's improved.