De Luca Cucina & Bar

End-of-year dinner! We tried and shared almost all the starters. All delicious. The handmade pasta gave a rustic, homely feeling, though on the softer side. The sauce blended well and was not too heavy. The pizzas smelled good from the oven and over people’s table ;) For desserts, tiramisu is quite good, especially the moist lady fingers. My friend also said the cheesecake was one of the best white chocolate cheesecakes he’s ever had.

Last but not least, I was a little nervous when I booked the place as we have three Italians in the group, but they reckoned the food here was fairly nice (except that Melanzane Parmigiana should not be misleadingly categorized under pasta as it does not contain pasta 😅 and that the food from the Foggia region was actually underrepresented probably due to the exoticizing and homogenizing process of commercialization, which is common for all foreign cuisines.)

(Originally recommended by a friend from London H who discovered the place during her short stay.)

De Luca’s is a one of a kind!

I have always walked past and wanted to visit but I just never gave it a second thought… Well, I finally ended up booking in and it was fantastic!

The Restaurent & Bar area is lovely, but the real magic is located on the roof terrace overlooking Parker’s piece - it was perfect!

The food was extremely scrumptious and I cannot thank Mr De Luca, himself, for putting together such an awesome venue!

P.S - There is also a piano bar upstairs, so I can’t wait to visit again and use this area for some drinks with friends or a celebration!

Had mussels and calamari as starters. Mussels were well cooked with great seasoning so was highly satisfied. Calamari could’ve been smaller pieces so it fries better rather than being such a big chunky piece but the sauce was remarkable.

For mains we had bolognese and daily special pasta which was meatballs. Bolognese was classic, more like home cooked style but still great flavour. Meatballs with pasta is not traditional way to eat it but still the taste was okay. However both pasta could’ve been better considering they were both £16/£17 but not much difference from other Italian chain restaurant such as Zizzi or Bella Italia.
Also felt like the pasta was slightly over cooked and I would’ve preferred other types such as tagliatelle or linguine.
I was seriously disappointed for the fact that they don’t do arancini anymore as I really wanted to try it.

The service was great. They were all kind and friendly while being professional. The atmosphere of the restaurant was amazing, it was a hot day but they had air conditioning with full power. Upstairs rooftop was small but looks cute and the downstairs was comfy and cosy.

Willing to visit again to try different menus but I really hope they will do arancini again.

I had lunch today in De Luca, the staff is very good as all service in general. The food was very good. I had a stake super tender and tasty, very well cooked. Truly recommend if you are in town.

Great service. £10 Wednesday and Thursday are good for value. Delicious lasagna.

Went for food and then piano bar. Food was delicious and staff very attentive.

Piano bar stole the show though. Robin was a great entertainer and the intimate venue was just lovely.

Our time in the restaurant was lovely the food was amazing, perfectly cooked and brought promptly with incredibly friendly service

Our time in the bar was a slightly more mixed bag, we thoroughly enjoyed the piano although his frequent utterances that he was glad it was the last shift of the year didn't make us feel like he wanted to be there
The service in the bar was also imperfect, those I was with found the man working to be quite rude and condescending, he also did not initially pour the correct measurement of drink that we had paid for

That said we did have a lovely evening and would definitely consider returning the environment itself is lovely welcoming and warm

When I came here, I was a little disappointed to find they weren't doing pizzas at the time. If you don't include those, there aren't all that many vegetarian options available here.
It also wasn't super clear when they did offer it.
The risotto I was able to have however, was perfectly serviceable and the desert was quite nice.