Restaurants in Lucca
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A
Forno Giusti
Join the crowd queuing in front of this excellent bakery to purchase fresh-from-the-oven pizza and focaccia with a variety of fillings and toppings. It’s the perfect place to buy picnic provisions.
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Trattoria Canuleia
What makes this dining address stand out from the crowd is its secret walled garden out the back – the perfect spot to escape the tourist hordes and listen to birds tweet over partridge risotto, artichoke and prawn spaghetti or a trad-itional peposa (beef and pepper stew).
reviewed
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Villa Bongi
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Antica Bodega di Prospero
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Da Felice
This buzzing local favourite behind Piazza San Michele is easy to spot – come noon look for the crowd packed around two tiny tables inside, spilling out the door or squatting on one of two street-side benches. Cecina, a salted chickpea pizza served piping-hot from the oven, and castagnacci (chestnut cakes) are Felice's raison d'être.
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Gli Orti di Via Elisa
Don't be surprised to see 'Siamo Completo' (Fully Booked) chalked on the board outside this eating address, well away from the tourist action and busy! Gorge on gnocchi in zucchini (courgette) flower sauce, or bean soup with salt cod followed by grilled meat while the kids radiate happiness with pre-meal colouring, games and so on. Offers high chairs, bottle warmers and other kid stuff parents need.
reviewed
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La Pecora Nera
Plump on a big empty piazza, well away from the madding crowds, the Black Sheep – the only Lucca restaurant recommended by the Slow Food Movement – scores extra brownie points for social responsibility (its profits fund workshops for young people with Down Syndrome). Thirty-odd different pizza types and a handful of Tuscan classics is what's cooking in the kitchen.
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Osteria del Manzo
Quite often the local favourites are strictly inside, and this – simplicity in the making – is one of them. Enjoy typical local dishes beneath a beamed ceiling, watched on oddly enough by a collection of garden gnomes. Someone clearly collects miniature bottles too.
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Ristorante Giglio
Set in the frescoed splendour of 18th-century Palazzo Arnolfini, this elegant restaurant serves refined versions of local specialities such as fresh farro pasta with rabbit sauce, polenta with porcini mushrooms, and buccellato (sweet fruit bread) filled with ice cream and berries.
reviewed
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Forno Giusti
Join the crowd queuing in front of this excellent bakery to purchase fresh-from-the-oven pizza and focaccia with a variety of fillings and toppings. It’s the perfect place to buy picnic provisions.
reviewed
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Vecchia Trattoria Buralli
A once-intimate local favourite now in all the guidebooks, this busy crowd-pleaser is a great for sampling wine from the surrounding Lucchese hills. Fare is wholly traditional and a green parrot sits on the packed terrace outside.
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Ristorante Olivo
Known for its fresh fish, which is brought in every day from Viareggio, the Olivo epitomises old-fashioned Lucchesi dining. The wine list is excellent (with Tuscan drops dominating) and the menu balances classic Tuscan choices with seafood specialities.
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Dianda Pasticceria
Cakes, pastries, puff-pastry apple strudels, meringues and a multitude of other killer calorie-rich sweet treats are baked at Dianda Pasticceria, a delightful cake shop, within picnic distance of Lucca's botanical gardens, and with coffee counter to down an espresso standing up.
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Prosciutto & Melone
Next door to Osteria Baralla, it's hardly haute cuisine but the fine choice of pizzas and salads alongside the mainstream primi and secondi ensure an easy midday refuel. Sit within the dark-green stable doors or snag a table on the shaded street outside.
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Buca di Sant'Antonio
This atmosphere-laden restaurant, around since 1782, is an outstanding spot for tasting top-notch Italian wines. Its flattering lighting and banquette seating make it a favourite destination for romantic dinners, and its standards of service are unmatched in the city. The food doesn't quite live up to all of these attributes, alas, the rustic dishes on offer being similar to the fare served up in many other, less-expensive eateries around the region. Bookings essential.
reviewed
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Taddeucci
The perfect accompaniment to a mid-morning or -afternoon espresso and gift to take home, buccellato is a traditional sweet bread loaf with sultanas and aniseed seeds, baked in Lucca since 1881. Taddeucci is the pasticceria (pastry shop) to ogle at and shop for this traditional Lucchesi sweet treat. Pay €4/8/12 for a 300/600/900g loaf.
reviewed
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Gigi Trattoria
Buzzing by noon, this 1950s cantina on the old market square - revamped by three young Lucchesi in the new millennium - is another hot address among Lucchese. Recipes are plucked straight out of grandma's cookbook, local contemporary art to buy hangs on the walls and simplicity is the predominant philosophy driving the place.
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Osteria Baralla
This busy osteria, rich in tradition (think 1860), is in every guidebook and for good reason. Feasting on local specialities beneath huge red-brick vaults is magnificent. Don't miss the soup with new-season olive oil, salt cod and chickpeas. On Thursday it's bolito misto (mixed boiled meat) day, Saturday roast pork.
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Machiavelli
A much-loved Lucca favourite alongside Leo, this funky old-fashioned osteria has a definite retro air to it. Walls are pea-green, the bar is painted lavender-blue and the clientele is staunchly loyal, local, fun and of all ages. There is live music some nights and the cuisine - salted cod with leeks, chickpea soup and grilled pork ribs etc - ooze natural flavour.
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Locanda Buatino
A Lucca legend, this age-old trattoria - it is reckoned to be Lucca's oldest - with a fun 'n' funky air of retro wafting through it, has the added advantage of being a short walk from the madding crowds, outside the city walls. Chef Angelo chalks up a different menu daily - cionca (veal's head) is a speciality. Live jazz sets the place jiving Monday, October to May.
reviewed
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Locanda di Bacco
It is strictly cucina lucchese e Toscana - albeit of a refreshingly creative nature - at this fine specimen of a restaurant, grandly situated in an old building, with marble-topped tables. Pappardelle with hare, gnocchi with gorgonzola, honey and nuts, or a side order of cabbage cooked in red pepper wine, garlic and oil are among the many dishes with an imaginative twist.
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Trattoria da Leo
Another address everyone knows and goes to, Leo is famed Lucca-wide for its friendly ambience and cheap food – which ranges from acceptable to delicious. Get here early to snag one of 10 tables lined up beneath racing-green parasols on the street outside and go for vitello tonnato (cold veal with a tuna and caper sauce) followed by fig and walnut tart. No credit cards.
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La Corte dei Vini
Strategically placed between Piazza Napoleone and Piazza San Michele, this friendly ‘enoteca e picola cucina’ (wine bar and small kitchen) is a great choice for an aperitivo or casual meal. It specialises in rustic dishes, including tortelli Lucchesi (meat ravioli) and minestra di farro della Garbagnana (soup made with spelt). Get here early to score a choice table on the front terrace.
reviewed