Luce

This is a review by a vegetarian
Luce is all over the damn place. Some menu items are delicious. Some are inedible. Some are great value. Some are 50% over market. Luce is cozy but Luce feels a little low rent.
Focassia and small plates make for nice $ 10 – 12 lunch but pastas are way overpriced even for housemade. Two of our three were delicious but one had clumped fettuccine that hadn’t cooked through, mega-​al dente. The kale and olive side was too salty. Olives start salty so the kale only needs the barest of seasoning but it was doused like a leach on a leg. Cauliflower poplette were expert but fig goat cheese crostini were dessert level sweet.
Pet peeve: don’t cover my pasta in cheese if the menu doesn’t say cheese.
I’ll probably come back for a light meal but I’m not paying the pasta premium again.

I’d wanted to go to Luce for a while before my dad and I went. I was a little mystified as to why it was so dark in there– truly atmospheric. At a tiny table next to shelves holding what seemed like stores of polenta, canned tomatoes, and other mysterious but appealing items in bags and jars (again, it was dark in there), the dining section seems almost secondary to the kitchen, which is completely visible though separate. You have to walk through it to get to the bathroom so I took advantage of that. They had desserts on racks. I wish I could tell you more about what was going on back there but I was mostly just enjoying being in that expansive kitchen space for a moment.
We got the roasted beets and both types of crostini: the chicken liver mousse and the fig and goat cheese. Yes the portions are small. My dad got the tagliatelle with beef and pork ragu while I got the black cod with fennel and saffron. For dessert, he had the buttermilk panna cotta and I had the flourless chocolate cake. Both of our meals were great, but if I went back I would get his meal all over again. The ragu was perfect and the panna cotta, as my dad put it– and he lived in Rome as a teenager– the best he’d ever had.

Pros: the house made pasta is among the best I’ve had; the beets, carrots and farro Parmesan pie were delicious; the panne cotta was melt in your mouth good; the service was great, especially given she was the only server in a full restaurant.
Cons: overpriced for the potions; low class décor with a lack of adequate heating in a high priced place; there was a bit of bone in my tagliatelle; the fig goat cheese crostini was overpowered by the fig, leaving no taste of goat cheese; the flourless chocolate cake was overcooked.
I’d rather go to Nostrana if I am going to pay $ 16 for lunch, so I doubt I’ll be back.

Super cute space, and seems like folks who work there are nice, and if that’s what I was paying for they’d definitely get more stars. However, the food was not good. I got the spaghetti, which I’m almost convinced they must have accidentally given me the half portion of because it was a tiny amount of pasta for $ 16. It was sitting in a giant puddle of oil, which I know is hard to avoid when getting takeout but I couldn’t eat the last few bites of my incredibly small portion. I won’t be going back.

Simple looking but sophisticated at its core. The pastas are delicious. Come with time and enjoy.

To the tune of E-40’s «choices»
Table ready on time? Nope
Got some free wine? Yep
Had to do the dishes? Nope
Food was delicious? Yep
Undercooked pasta? Nope
Worth what it cost ya? Yep
Vegan and tahini? Nope
Solid meat and linguini? Yep

The food was good and all, but $ 140 for four people with ONE small glass of house wine. Yipes. Not THAT special.

Don’t eat here if there’s a prix fix menu. This review is long overdue, but ate here on V day where we had the misfortune of the prix fix menu. The pasta dishes were clearly the standouts, but yet here we were eating mediocre antipasti and meat dishes. Wine list was Italian and extensive (good), service was disinterested, ambiance was meh. I love Italian food so I’d like to return, but when throwing around dinner ideas Luce never comes to mind– it just wasn’t that memorable.

As much as I appreciate excellence in a dish, I appreciate consistency in a meal. My meal at Luce was consistently excellent and I look forward to returning. With the aromas off the plate as they arrived and the tastes I experienced, they use quality ingredients and have a quality craftspeople in the back of the house. The server provided good advice and had good timing.
Octopus salad: grilled octopus, potato, small black olives, parsley, olive oil. The octopus was perfectly grilled — tender, aromatic, not overcooked. The dressing was flavorful and complementary.
Pappardelle with rabbit. A delicious sauce and the pappardelle was as tender as any that I’ve had in Portland. Ok, *nearly* as tender as the melt-​in-​my-​mouth pappardelle I had at Genoa, but the difference is minor. Fantastic.
Panna Cotta. I order panna cotta often and theirs is truly at the apex of tender, tart, and sweet. Perfectly balanced, served with an entirely complimentary strawberry sauce.
For my late lunch, I ordered a half portion of both the octopus and pappardelle. With a glass of wine for each and a selection from Smith’s Teas with my dessert, I left perfectly satisfied.
The wine list is stellar. I’ve never seen Lacrima D’Oro on a menu, let alone by the glass. It paired well with the pappardelle.

Ok, but not standout in any way. Tried five things off the menu, pastas, meat, salad, and dessert. Nothing spoke to us, and we spent about $ 75 in total. It was decent, but not blown away by bread, salad, pasta, chicken, or dessert.

Wrong from the get-​go. My husband and I were greeted by a less than enthusiastic hostess who asked us if we’d mind sitting outside. We noticed that a two-​top inside was just getting up to leave and asked if we might be able to take that table. She told us it’d be about 5 minutes and we said that was fine. Sat down to wait and took in the ambience… cute place. Was snapped out of my daze when I realized that the hostess was standing over by the now bussed table waving her arms at us, signaling that we could come sit now. We went and sat and the hostess walked off without a word… the whole interaction rubbed me the wrong way.
I almost suggested we leave when nobody came to our table for over 15 minutes… I watched as the only server casually walked around to all his tables but never so much as glanced at us. Eventually he came to the table next to us and asked how their meal was… they requested some focaccia and he went to the kitchen and came back with it a little later. Still hadn’t stopped at our table. Then he went to the table on the other side of us and asked how their meal was, pouring them more water. He finally deigned to come to our table and asked if we were ready to order. I awkwardly asked if we might not have a glass of wine first, we both ordered a glass of house red which he went to fetch.
I will say that his service was fine after this, but I couldn’t help having an already disappointed feeling about our evening.
We started with an antipasto platter of various things (potato salad, marinated mushrooms, etc.) which were good except for the chicken liver mousse, which came on a crostini that was burned to a crisp. My husband actually mentioned this to our waiter who informed us that it was intentional, that they ‘char’ the crostini. I’m sorry but this was not charred, it was BURNT. Completely black on the bottom and I could barely taste the chicken liver mousse because of it. Whether intentional or not, I know what tastes good and this did not.
My husband ordered the arugula salad and I the fennel salad, both were very flavorful for being so simple… definitely my favorite part of the meal.
I ordered the rigatoni which was overwhelmingly smoky and the pasta was very undercooked. Yes I know the difference between al dente and undercooked, this was underdone pasta, all there is to it.
The last thing I will mention is maybe a bit trivial but after all this I did begin to get nitpicky… I ordered a second glass of wine although my first wasn’t yet finished. Our waiter came back to the table quicker than I had predicted and refilled my glass from the bottle when I still had about a quarter glass left. I was surprised he didn’t bring me a second glass but even more surprised being that he should’ve at least waited until I was done with the first glass before refilling. Didn’t stop him from charging me for two full glasses of wine on the bill.
I would never go back here and would never recommend it to a friend.

Best bolognese I’ve had since I lived in Italy! And the panzanella heirloom tomatoes were like peaches! Go to Luce for full flavors, a nice interior, and great prices. Go early to avoid a wait.

The minestrone here is $ 9 (is it just me or is that abnormally high for a bowl of soup?) so I felt justified in asking my server, «Is it a lot of soup?» in the nicest tone I could muster. His response? «It’s a bowl of soup.» He was nothing short of rude and inhospitable for my entire meal. Not only this, but the soup was terrible. It was overly salty, the vegetables weren’t cooked down enough (they were practically raw, ugh) and it had no pasta in it. I know that not all minestrone necessarily contains pasta, but come on. You’re a pasta joint.
The rigatoni was subpar as well. Eggplant, tomato, smoked mozz… how could it be bad? I don’t know, but they managed. The smokiness was overwhelming and the pasta wasn’t cooked all the way (cut open the noodles to find white starchiness in abundance). The eggplant had zero flavor and the dish was even COLD. I really couldn’t stand being talked down to during a meal by someone who was serving me cold rigatoni.
Smell ya later, Luce. We will not be meeting again anytime in the foreseeable future.

For this comparison on the dishes we compared against Piazza Italian, Luce’ gets a 5 star.
We waited 20 minutes to be seating, waiting in the small side banquet room next to the main restaurant.
Luce is a very small place seating maybe 35 people, with a visible open kitchen. Very quaint and pretty quiet, almost like eating dinner at Nonna’s house. They have great appetizers including bread but we stuck with ordering the minestrone soup and fresh pasta and clams to make the comparison.
The house wine was a hearty chianti at $ 8.00 a glass, served in juice glasses. More $$$ than PI but very good. The soup came out piping hot! Lots of veggies including the cabbage, is was heartier than PI’s version and simply better. 4 – 4.5 stars. Spicy, hot, tons of flavor, definitely recommending the soup.
The fresh spaghetti and claims was fantastic. 25 – 30 small clams, great fresh pasta, spicy, and very flavorful. Kind of a light smokey flavor with heat. 5 stars in this dish. We ordered 2 more glasses of the house red and had the olive oil cake for dessert. So good. The nod definitely goes to Luce’.

I wish the tagliatelle was more al dente but loved the super small European-​style portion sizes!
I had the tagliatelle ($ 8 half lunch portion) chicken liver mousse ($ 2 for 2), and red leaf with anchovy. All very simple and very good. This is def not your heavy Olive Garden pasta joint.
Will def be back!

The food was good, but the portions are super small. I ordered the ravioli in a vegetable broth. It came in a small bowl, with 5. Yes 5, small ravioli.
For $ 10 I expected a meal.

Congratulations, Luce! You’re officially the slowest restaurant in Portland. They have 2 staff waiting this place on busy nights like Friday nights; you know that half hour wait time for a table? Pretty sure that’s mostly self-​induced, to make themselves seem more popular than they actually are. When the boyf and I finally got a table, there were around 4 tables still empty around us (and remained that way for a good 20 — 60 minutes), despite the full waiting room next door. Shameful.
All of which would be forgiveable if the food were good, but quite frankly, it’s NOT. The pasta here is TERRIBLE. The gnocchi was overcooked and tasted like mush; as was the garganelli. Everything tasted like watery mush. The lamb was too tough, the duck managed to be watery and dry at the same time. What. The spare rib was fine, but tasted like they’d used a jar of generic tomato sauce and dumped it on there. And those $ 2 antipasti plates are such a joke — you are literally paying $ 2 for a bite of something.
The only reason I didn’t give this place 1 star is because the interior is pretty damn cute. Also, the parmesan leeks were so good, they deserved a star of their own.
But yeah, otherwise, thumbs way down for this one. Andrew Knowlton has the worst taste. I mean, he named his freaking kid «Julip». No wonder he likes this place.

I try to be fair in my reviews, I give places a second chance, Ive even found myself making excuses for a location but this place… it was wrong from the minute we walked in.
–5:30 two other tables occupied. Many empty.
–Pressed hard to order. Pressed to order again.
–Had to ask for the wine which had been ordered (noted in another review)
–Waiter, odd. The rest of the evening we couldn’t put our finger on it. Was he put off? Uncomfortable? Moody? He was just odd. Add to that he persistence to order and order now… it didnt work well for us.
–He asked if we had questions re the menu. When asked about the pasta and crab, what sauce etc? His response was” none”. I sat waiting on him to say more– something– something saucy but no. He just stood there looking at me. What am I to make of this? So I ask .“how is it served?” Will he say something saucy to me? NO he says ‘its pasta with crab, lightly dressed’. What the hell does that mean? Lightly dressed with what? Dried crickets? Peanut butter? I gave up and ordered it. Not like I’m in a third world country. It turns out to be pasta with a light butter or oil, some herbs and crab. It was ‘nice’. Not delecisouso or remarkable. Not worth going back for.
My friend ordered Ragu. It came as wide pasta noodles with some ground meat which, at some point, had seen some sauce… long before it saw our plate. This ragu is not what one expects. I expected a slow simmered, luscious, rich well… ragu. It was ground meat not quite damp with sauce. I know I know everyone does it different but this different didn’t work.
–Continually asked if we were done.
–Started to take the focaccia several times, asked to leave it
–When we asked for the bill the waiter cleaned the table of glasses, silverware etc before going and getting the bill. Ya think you could clean the table after we leave?
As we were leaving there were still empty tables. We didn’t hold anything up. We didn’t sit and chat for hours.
Dang man. I have no idea what was going on. It was odd.
It was so odd I have NO desire to give it a second swing.
We weren’t about to stay for desert, instead we went straight to Nostrana where we had fabulous service and mind blowing dessert.

Luce has been my favorite go to mid week in need of a guaranteed excellent meal.
The lentil soup and of course the delicate and bursting with flavor pasta dishes are excellent! So good it reminds me of dining in Italy!!! I love the small converted space with the minimalist approach. I am glad they focus more on the food and service.

This is a fantastic little restaurant we stumbled upon while trying to visit Davenport. Luce had an excellent Italian wine selection, mostly small bottlers you rarely see in the US.
The Antipasti selections were phenomenal and amazingly priced. There may be a little shock as the size of the appetizers, but the quality is high and the portion still reasonable. Each $ 2 dish bought us:
–Cauliflower polpette — 2 medium size veg meatballs — excellent dish for both vegetarians and carnivores
–Sardines — fennel crusted, perfectly cooked, 1 filet
–Quiche — pretty generous size
–Breads — few different breads, huge portions