Lunch in Lucca: Where to Eat at Midday

What a Lucca lunch looks like

A Tuscan midday meal usually starts with a primo, a first course of pasta or soup, and in Lucca that often means tordelli lucchesi, the local filled pasta served with a meat ragù. You can stop there with a coffee, or add a lighter secondo such as grilled meat, tripe or salt cod, and finish with fruit or a small dolce. The rhythm is unhurried but not heavy: locals treat lunch as a real meal, then get on with the afternoon.

Lunch is also where Lucchese baking shows up. Torta coi becchi is a savoury-sweet tart filled with herbs, rice, raisins and pine nuts, and buccellato is the anise-scented ring-shaped sweet bread sold in bakeries across the city; both turn up on lunch tables and in pastry shops. A plate of affettati misti, the mixed cured meats and cheeses, is the easy opener when you want something quick before a primo.

The other midday habit worth copying is the standing coffee. In Italy you order and pay at the bar counter first or after, drink your espresso in a minute and leave, which keeps a lunch stop short when you have a train or a museum slot. Ordering at the table costs more in many cafés, so decide whether you want the counter or a seat before you go in.

Lucca has plenty of pizzerias too, and a pizza at midday is a fast, cheap way to eat if you are sightseeing. Our guide to the best pizza in Lucca covers the slices and sit-down pies worth your lunch hour.

Inside the walls or out towards the Lucchesia hills

Almost everything worth eating at lunch sits inside the ring of walls, within a fifteen-minute walk of Piazza dell'Anfiteatro or Piazza San Michele. That makes the centre the practical choice if you have only a day, because you can eat and then walk straight back into the city. The trade-off is that piazzas facing the main sights carry the most tourist menus, so a short step onto a side street usually improves the cooking.

Beyond the walls, the Lucchesia hills hold country trattorias that serve long, family-style lunches, useful if you have a car and want to eat before or after a drive. These places are spread out along the old roads north and east of the city, so pick one and build the drive around it rather than trying to visit several. The two below, at Coselli and Sesto, are the classic stops on that circuit.

Buca di Sant'Antonio: the historic lunch stop off Via della Cervia

Buca di Sant'Antonio, on Via della Cervia a few steps from the centre, occupies what was originally a stable for changing horses, with the Buca itself the lower dining room. The walls and ceiling are hung with copper pans and objects, and the kitchen turns out regional dishes made to old recipes, which makes it the most atmospheric choice for a traditional lunch. It is a full sit-down meal rather than a quick plate, so book it for the day you want a proper Lucchese lunch.

Osteria Verciani 'Il Mecenate a Lucca': tortelli lucchesi and local specialities

Osteria Verciani, trading as Il Mecenate a Lucca, sits in what was once a historic Lucchese dye works, and the room keeps the feel of a convivial old trattoria. The menu is a run through local specialities, with tordelli lucchesi and a herb-rubbed tagliata among the dishes named by the guide, and in summer tables are set outside opposite the church of San Francesco. It is an easy walk from the centre, near the Madonna dello Stellario.

This is the kind of place where the owner takes your order himself, and the local cured meats and cheeses make a good opening before the pasta. The room fills up at lunch, so a table booked ahead is the difference between eating here and walking on.

Cantine Bernardini: an elegant trattoria in a palazzo cellar

Cantine Bernardini occupies the cellars of the historic Palazzo Bernardini on Piazza Bernardini, and it runs as an elegant trattoria with careful, seasonal cooking rather than a rushed lunch counter. The dining room is small, so booking matters at midday, especially when the centre is busy. Come here when you want a slower, more polished lunch without leaving the heart of the city.

Trattoria Canuleia: a small room with a summer garden

Trattoria Canuleia sits on the lane of the same name off Via Nuova, a short walk from Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, in a small room with a garden where you can eat outside in summer. The kitchen cooks to order, which makes the service slower than at a café but the plates better presented, and the menu carries a good range of gluten-free options including gluten-free bread. Book ahead in summer because both the room and the garden are tiny.

Its position just off the square makes it a strong lunch stop: you eat well and then walk back into the Anfiteatro without crossing the city, and the gluten-free bread means a coeliac in the group is catered for as well as everyone else.

Piazza dell'Anfiteatro: Peperosa and the postcard tables

The oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro is the most photographed lunch setting in Lucca, and it has the reputation of being the city's most tourist-facing piazza. Ristorante Peperosa stands out from the other tables for its elegance and, on one local blogger's visit, for the quality of both the plates and the wines. The trade-off is simple: this is the most tourist-facing piazza in the city, so you pay for the view as well as the food.

All'Olivo on Piazza San Quirico

All'Olivo faces one of the characteristic piazzas of the historic centre, with three elegantly furnished dining rooms and a pleasant outdoor service in summer. The kitchen cooks the territory on both land and sea, so you can order a seafood primo or a meat secondo without leaving the centre. Booking is advised, and it is a good midday choice if you want a central table on a small piazza rather than the crowded Anfiteatro.

Antica Locanda dell'Angelo near Via Peschiera

Antica Locanda dell'Angelo, on Via Peschiera, began life probably as an inn and has become an elegant restaurant, with cooking that balances local tradition and national dishes. The dining room suits a lunch that is a little more formal than a trattoria, and the wine list gets attention alongside the food. Reservation is advised, particularly at midday when the centre fills with visitors.

Gli Orti di Elisa near Porta Elisa

Gli Orti di Elisa sits on Via Elisa near Porta Elisa, one of the main gates into the historic centre, and is run by second-generation restaurateurs who have given the place a younger feel. The Tuscan menu runs from pizza to fiorentina, tagliata and salt cod, with Tuscan soups and tordelli lucchesi among the local dishes, and the dessert list includes torta coi becchi and buccellato. It is deliberately family-friendly: there is a changing table and high chair for babies, and older children are given toys or colouring, which makes a midday stop easier with young eaters.

Osteria dal Manzo on Via Cesare Battisti

Osteria dal Manzo, on Via Cesare Battisti in the centre, is the more polished option when you want a midday meal with a bit of ambition. The kitchen cooks fish and meat as fusion-style versions of classic central Italian dishes, and a young sommelier advises on pairings from small producers. Simple plates are available for children, and in summer you can eat outside by candlelight; book if you want an outdoor table.

Eating outside the walls: Coselli and Sesto

La Cecca, at the foot of the Coselli hill south of the city, traces its name to the founder who opened a grocery there in the 1940s, and it has since become a family-run trattoria serving the dishes of the region. It is the lunch stop for a country drive, with a garden setting and a menu built on Tuscan cooking. Coming here means leaving the centre by car, so plan it around the rest of your day.

Antica Locanda di Sesto, on the old road north-west at Sesto, is a historic medieval locanda with warm family management and regional cooking; the guide names pappa al pomodoro, the thick bread and tomato soup, along with braised tripe and baked caramelised fruit. This is a proper country lunch rather than a quick plate, and it is best booked if you are driving out for it.

Lunch dishes to order in Lucca and what they are

Tordelli lucchesi are the dish to know: filled pasta that the local guides put at the front of a Lucchese lunch, alongside a herb-rubbed tagliata. Order them as your primo and follow with a smaller secondo so you have room for a small dolce. To learn how they are made, our guide to cooking classes in Lucca is the place to start.

Torta coi becchi is a savoury tart with a pastry base, filled with herbs, rice, raisins and pine nuts, and it appears on lunch menus as an antipasto or a light plate. Buccellato is the other Lucchese staple worth buying for later, sold in bakeries around the centre and near Piazza San Michele. Both make a good addition to a picnic if the weather holds.

How to order and pay at lunch

At a sit-down lunch, order a primo and a secondo separately if you want the full meal, or ask for a single plate if you want to keep it short. The conto, the bill, comes at the end and you ask for it rather than waiting at the table.

Book ahead for the small rooms: Canuleia, Cantine Bernardini and the osterie on side streets fill quickly at midday, and a phone call or online booking the day before is usually enough. If you are on a tight schedule, take the bar counter for coffee and keep the sit-down meal for the day you have time. Otherwise, lunch in Lucca rewards slowing down.

Which lunch in Lucca suits your day

For a traditional midday meal in the centre, Buca di Sant'Antonio and Il Mecenate a Lucca are the two most Lucchese rooms, while Osteria dal Manzo suits a more ambitious lunch. Canuleia and Gli Orti di Elisa are the practical picks for gluten-free eaters and families, and La Cecca or Antica Locanda di Sesto make sense when you have a car and time to leave the walls.

Order tordelli lucchesi at least once, take the buccellato home and make the coffee a standing one. Our guide to cooking classes in Lucca is the natural next step if the midday dishes inspire you to try them at home.