Lucia Restaurant Bar - Carmel Valley

Everything is cooked well, especially the strawberry shortcake. Strongly recommend.

Pretty good experience. Although no tasting menu was available. Food was pretty good. Servers, etc. were friendly. We used to dine hear when Cal was the executive chef. Food was much more elevated then. Very nice place, just a different experience from our previous ones.

Had the tasting menu which was a fair value The gazpacho, smoked salmon stuffed with dungeness crab, and scallops were delicious. The sea bass was dry and fishy in taste. The profiterole was unique. It had a brown butter crust with a delicious madagascar filling.

Phenomenal place. Just shy of a Michelin star in my opinion. Ingredients are fresh and stay truthful to their flavors. Nothing is pretentious. It is just good food presented in an upscale, classy manner. The food is a bit subdued for the atmosphere but perhaps that's what the chef is going for. I couldn't ask for a better dinner with friends and family. Will return just for Lucia.

My wife ordered the double lamb chops ($60), which were large and cooked medium-rare. Unfortunately, she struggled to cut through them, making it difficult to enjoy the meal. It would have been better if they had pre-sliced the meat. The sauce lacked flavor, and the presentation was quite minimal. Although the Brussels sprouts sounded delicious on the menu, what she received was disappointing—some slimy onions and paprika accompanied by only four tiny Brussels sprout leaves. My crab cake and Caesar salad were equally lacking in flavor. There were no hints of citrus or herbs, just a mayonnaise-based dressing on the salad. It seemed that whoever was in the kitchen that evening wasn’t putting in any real effort; it felt as if they were just going through the motions. Overall, it was a culinary disappointment, especially given the high prices charged.