Lucio's Italian Restaurant was established in Paddington in 1983 and enjoys a remarkable reputation for exceptional Italian food and magnificent Australian Art. "Food and art for me is like the air that I breathe," says Lucio Galletto OAM. "The combination of great food, great service and great art on the walls is, in my view, one of the best dining experiences you can imagine." Lucio's is open five days a week, Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner with a focus on Northern Italian cuisine, fresh pasta and modern touches to classic dishes.
Mitha Komala | @mithakomala
+4
AMAZING ITALIAN FOOD 💥💥💥
Must Order: crab pasta, scampi risotto, florentine steak!
Their pastas are all hand & home made :)
Great interior & vibe - feels like youre in Italy!
But tbh, the waiter is quite rude. Would be a perfect restaurant if they improve their attitude.
A must restaurant of choice for any occasion especially the special ones!!! Food is yummilicious and always consistent! Service is superb, warm and genuine and welcoming.Would definitely recommend.
Exceptional experience - service slick. Food very high standard. All round professional outfit and a big night out in a beautiful area. Vongole a stand out. Service very polished. Amazing wine list. Perfect night out.
A marvellous Saturday night experience, with wonderful, patient and good natured staff! Lucio himself was on hand and the food was truly special, particularly during truffle season! We loved the Carpaccio al Tartufo, and the lamb for secondi was excellent. Excellent ambience and value for high quality produce!!!
Authentic Italian dishes and pizza. Pizza crust is close to as good as it gets in Sydney. Still different to the Italian pizzas but gives them a run for their money.
Really love Lucios. The atmosphere of eating with 1,000’s of dollars worth of art hanging around you creates a somewhat unique experience , especially given the intimacy of the place.
We went with the degustation with matching wines. Don’t know where to start it really was all good. The 34 year old pasta dish, yes it’s been on the menu since they first opened, is delicious. The squid ink pasta which has been on the menu for many years also did not disappoint.
The octopus was probably the standout though - slow cooked for 4 hours - it just melted in your mouth.
All of the wines where quite unique and were great matches. I have been avoiding matched wines of recent times because many places get it wrong, and I end up having preferred to just buy a bottle of something I like. But I’m glad to say my faith in this combo has returned.
Fantastic service , so efficient and friendly - like clockwork everything arrived just as we needed it to.
Very friendly and professional staff, great decor and lastly but not the least, delicious food. Have to admit that it wasnt the best Italian we tried, but it was still quite good.
A pretty good italian place although on the pricier side of things
The pasta is the best dish you can get here particularly the lucio 33 year old hand made crabmeat pasta. The pasta's texture is quite hard which is great and the crabmeat and sauce pairs nicely with it
The mains are ok, spatchcock is pretty decent and my colleague seemed to enjoy it. The veal was decent, the rack part was delicious, soft and juicy however the other method fo eating was a bit dry imo
Staff is excellent and lovely
Defo recommend and revisit
Being there 5 years ago before I went again recently. Food was still great, love the atmosphere and every single bit of it, arts on the wall, friendly staff. Will definitely go back!
Never misses the mark. Slick & professional. A Paddington icon. Italian modern at its finest. Well drilled service staff. A great soul in this restaurant. The lamb & ravioli on this occasion was 10/10. Wine list magnificent - a real gem.
What more could you ask for than beautiful comforting pasta on a rainy Summer's (felt more like Winter) night. We were recommended by friends to order the special pasta (whatever it may be) and the signature crab pasta that's been on the menu for 32 years. Luckily for us all the pasta came in an entree size so we were able to taste all four and they were all equally delightful. From the green linguine with blue swimmer crab, the ravioli with cherry tomato and basil, the squid ink tagliatelle with braised octopus and handkerchief pasta with seafood and chili. The zucchini stuffed with scallop mousse was a lovely delicate entree. Wine list was well catered for and the service in the true Italian style made us feel like we were back in Italy.
Took my girlfriend out here on her 29th Birthday. We had a great experience, absolutely loved the service from the people there. This has got to be one of the best pastas we had in Sydney. I'm a huge fan of carpaccio, and the one we had from here is quite possibly our favourite now. It may not be everyone's style of pasta but we enjoyed it. The coffee with biscotti was a nice touch that made our night. We're looking to go back sometime.
Delicious linguine. Ordered the crab linguine after a recommendation from a colleague and so glad I did! It was delicious. Best crab linguine I've had. Shared an entrée of bruschetta which was great too with crispy pancetta, pumpkin and buffalo mozzarella. My partner had the lamb rack which was cooked perfectly but the jus that came with it was far too tart and overpowering. For a fine dining restaurant it was way too loud mainly as there was a large group of men who looked like they'd been sitting and drinking for some time so it was rowdy.
Deserves the hats and accolades. This is essential Sydney dining. The welcome and introduction perfect. These guys are pros. Real pros. Even Italian! I'm loving it before we sit down.
I ordered a black handkerchief pasta with seafood for entree, a roast duck dish for mains, and a chocolate five ways for dessert. These dishes will change from time to time in keeping with whatever is in season, in fact, the menu has already changed since I ate there a month ago. I believe the black handkerchief pasta is a staple though, so I do recommend that dish – it’s a very different style of pasta and those who have only ever had typical spaghetti, penne and fusilli might find it too different. However, once you get over the slightly glossier texture, the dish is really quite unique and delicious!
The food was so nice!! I absolutely loved it. We received complementary entrees of marinated olives and grissini, and we also ordered some extras for the table..
Mademoiselle Delicieuse
+4.5
Following our visit to L'étoile it seemed our dining-out bugs had well and truly been bitten. So with Dr King's birthday being just around the corner, this was excuse enough for Kiki to arrange a surprise dinner for him to enjoy one of his favourite cuisi
Heaven for the middle aged foodie. Reliably high quality haute Italian fare, excellent wine list, service and surrounds. Lamentable coffee the only downer.
Our walk through the streets of Paddington was topped off by a stop at Lucios for coffee. We asked if they could do coffee in the street. Not only did they do excellent coffee, but added freshly baked Italian biscuit. Then the owner would not accept any payment for this! Amazing... restores ones faith in service and hospitality.
Fine dining Italian Style. The consistency of great service and atmosphere at Lucios is the best compliment to exceptional food and an excellent list of Australian and Italian wine Fresh hand made pastas are hard to resist, whether one of the daily specials or the perennial favorites of black ink rag pasta and seafood withgarlic a hint of chilli and generous drizzle of olive oil , which I must always mop up with a bread roll, rivaling the rag pasta is the fresh green tagliatelle with a very generous serving of blu swimmer crab lubricated with a sweet rich tomato sauce, a favourite on the menu for over thirty years, the only hard decision is whether to have the pasta as a starter or a main when the fish is always perfectly cooked as is the risotto and duck with extra crispy skin! a special occasion restaurant where everyone is made to feel relaxed and at home!
Dropped in one Thursday at 9:30pm. Even though the restaurant was emptying we were welcomed and treated fabulously. Highly professional operation Great service and beautiful food and wine.
Tasting menu was fantastic. Great Friendly service. The beat Italian food outsde of Tuscany :)
Could this be sydney's best Italian restaurant???
We celebrated our anniversary at Lucio, it was an amazing experience. The food was absolutely divine, from entrée to desserts. Restaurant is quite artistic, bright and vibrant. The service was great, staff were friendly. We would definitely go back. Highly recommended.
A Sydney Italian institution in a quiet and pretty part of Paddington.
My husband took to Lucio's for my birthday treat, and it's a classic, timeless restaurant with beautiful quality food and wine.
We had the phenomenal NZ Chardonnay, which went perfectly with our appetizers and mains, and finished with a beautiful Muscat to accompany dessert and petite fours.
Staff are knowledgeable and service is friendly, plus the various artwork on the wall adds to its charm and character. Definitely be sure to include Lucio's to your Sydney 'must-try' restaurant list!
Eating at this restaurant makes you feel part of history just like the paintings surrounding you on all walls. I loved the zucchini flowers fritters, light and tasty. The pasta dishes were both outstanding but the ink squid fazzoletti were our favorites. Staff is very friendly and they tend to leave you alone so that you have time to enjoy the whole experience. Overall, it's a great Italian restaurant with authentic cuisine. I've seen a few negative reviews but you can easily tell that they fake as the profile has only a handful of reviews but I have to commend Sally on handling very well the negative feedback and providing factual information to address it with class. Well done on that as well!
What a beautiful experience. A meal at Lucio’s is always special regardless of the occasion, in this case a family lunch for my daughter’s birthday. The entire table of 7 loved every bite, and the service (fine dining but friendly and welcoming) and the gorgeous, art-adorned space topped it off. We will always return to Lucio’s, an evergreen classic that stays true to its heritage while remaining fresh and modern.
Had a craving for pasta and made a lunchtime booking online during the week. The food quality was very good and so was the coffee. However, with only two staff on the day, we waited 15-20 minutes before we even got the menu.
I had team lunch recently with a few friends at this old establishment at Paddington before Christmas holiday. The ambience of the place is good and the restaurant has a good vibe, wall decoration and bright sunlight inside. The service from floor staff is generally good and efficient, but too bad they forgot to put a steak knife for my grilled veal which is an amateur mistake for a fine-dining establishment like this one.
I've tried 3-courses menu and they're all mostly good. The special dishes for me were the ravioli of ricotta and wakame and the pistachio creme brulee. I've tried some cannoli from my friend's plate and they're not my favorite since the pastry was a bit too crumbly and the white chocolate taste overwhelmed the ricotta.
Excellent service and definitely one of the best Italian restaurants in Sydney. The Two Hat recognition did not disappoint.
The best thing is that they're trying new stuff, so not just giving you traditional Italian dishes.
My favourite dishes of the night were their wakame ravioli with crispy native salt bush and burnt butter, the marron risotto and the lemon panna cotta with lime sorbet and watermelon granita.
The only thing that I would comment is the bread. It was stale and very hard to bite into and the butter was hard and cold and haven't been given enough time for it to soften.
Given there are many restaurants out there that start their service with amazing, warm, freshly baked bread and home made butter, it will be good if they could have at least sourced better bread and butter and at least warmed up the bread prior to service.
Other than that, everything was great and will come again.
Bonus: it's relatively quiet as well
The best gnocchi I had in my whole life! I went to celebrate my 5th anniversary with my partner and we just have compliments about it. Amazing experience, everything is fresh and the staff is really friendly. 5 starts!
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes