LUCIANA- HEBREW FOR MISERABLE

First the good news: The food there is fantastic! Beyond that, there is almost nothing to recommend the place.

We went to Luciana twice this week with two different groups of people. After the first time there, we should have known better, but we figured that they deserved a second chance.

We have long enjoyed Luciana, but this week they outdid themselves in the miserable department. Reservations there are a must, so it is always crowded which we can not understand at this point.

The first time we went, our waitress served us and then never came back until it was time to give us the bill. We finally flagged down another waitress during dinner to get a refill of water. Service of food was slow and different dishes arrived at different times. Considering that three people ordered the same dish, it is strange that they came at three separate times. No one asked if we wanted dessert or coffee/tea. Ok, we figured- chalk it up to a bad night.

Tonight (Feb14) we went again. They were advertising all sorts of specials for “Love Day.” We were shown to our table and then became invisible. Finally, we flagged down a waitress, she told us what the specials were and disappeared. A second waitress appeared and claimed to have no knowledge of the so called Love Day specials. We offered to show her the email announcing same and she disappeared. At the end of a THIRTY minute wait, a waitress came and took our orders. She, too, had no knowledge of any specials for the day. After waiting 30 minutes for a waitress, we waited another twentytwo minutes to get our food. When we questioned the waitress about the complimentary Kava, she disappeared and did not come back for ten minutes, but she came with two glasses of Kava (one per dining pair). When we finished eating, we waited for quite some time and finally stood up and stopped the waitress as she passed our table for the gazillionth time. There was a Love Day dessert of three sorbets per couple. We wanted them. She had no knowledge of same. We told her to get them.

Twenty minutes later, we were still waiting. We found a man who claimed he was the manager. We politely complained about the lack of service we were getting. We mentioned that it seemed odd that the staff had no knowledge of the Love Day freebies (hey, that way you don’t have to absorb the cost). We complained about the time it took to get service. We asked him what he was going to do about it.

He asked if we liked the food and walked away never to be seen in the restaurant again during the time we were there. He did send the young waitress who apologized and gave us a whole bunch of excuses that were insulting in their bald faced falseness.

Does anyone in Israel believe in customer service?

Luciana is located on Emek Refaim. Run- away from that place. Go anywhere else.