La Tavola Di Artu - LUCCA

For disgusting food at disgusting prices, I cannot recommend La Tavola di Artu highly enough. Situated in Via Santa Croce, Lucca, Italy, and NOT IN THE LEAST profiteering from the ‘Comic Games’ convention currently infesting that beautiful town, I paid €8.90 for 3 slices of reformed ‘turkey’ (as can be found vacuum packed in most supermarkets), half a dozen chips and a small pile of grated lettuce. Oh wait, I exaggerate; the €8.90 included a 50cl bottle of still water.

La Tavola di Lucca is situated along Via San Paolino not far from the wall. It has a small outdoor eating area as well as an indoor section. On our arrival we were warmly greeted by the host and Stefania, our lovely waitress. We had soon placed our orders for the house white wine, which we loved, and some mineral water. The menu at this restaurant is extensive. On our first visit we opted for pastas and soup, with a freshly made chocolate continental cake for dessert. The second time we tried main dishes with sides of roasted potatoes and vegetables. All the meals were delicious with the meats cooked to perfection. On both occasions our host treated us to limoncello while the bill was organised. There is a yellow section of house specials, which is worth looking at before you finalise your orders. We felt well looked after at this restaurant and there was no pressure to leave at the end of our meals.

The place offers a very limited selection of pastas. The service is terrible, we waited for 45 minutes and they could not serve a table of 7 at the same time, so we ate 2 by 2. The portions are small and the pasta arrived at the table only luckewarm. Any Italian can cook much better at home. Definetely avoid!

Lucca is a beautiful medieval city with lots of piazzas and lots of restaurants. We don 't usually eat where all the tourists are (even though we are tourists . We found La Tavola di Artu off one of the piazzas and were attracted by the sign out front (in English . We were promptly seated and what we loved the most was that we were not handed a menu. Instead, we were told the types of pasts and gravies/sauces they had. Three of us ordered the penne arrabiata and one had the meat and cheese plate (basically ordered because another table had it and he said I 'll have that ! . We love the fact that in Italy everyone cooks pasta perfectly al dente. The arrabiata was not too spicy (my preference , the bread was fresh and crusty (just the way we like it and service was excellent. We had a nice conversation with Luciano who talked us into dessert, budino. We tried the creme and chocolate and both were creamy, delicious and home made yum! This was a truly relaxing and pleasurable meal with great service and great food. Prices were terrific (7 euro for the pasta and wine was excellent. Grazie Luciano.