There aren’t a whole lot of reliable dinner options around Mid-Beach, and even fewer casual ones. So Bar Luca, a hotel restaurant, is worth considering for a meal after the beach, when you’re hungry enough to tackle wings, an (Italian) Cuban sandwich, and rigatoni alla vodka—all in one go. This is an Italian restaurant, although the menu also has sandwiches, a smashburger, and fish dip. It’s all good enough, and you can eat it on a pretty patio in front of an art deco building we seldom stop to appreciate. The dim dining room probably consists of tourists taking advantage of happy hour and random folks who were in the area when their stomachs started growling.
video credit: Mariana Trabanino
Food RundownGrilled Chicken Wings
A plate of eight wings you won’t get mad at. They give you two sauce options, and we like the buffalo hot honey even though it leans more sweet than spicy.
video credit: Mariana Trabanino
Italian Cuban
It’s not a bad sandwich, but the description is more exciting than the reality. You don’t really taste the garlic aioli, and normally porchetta makes itself known in a sandwich, but not this one.
photo credit: Ryan Pfeffer
Rigatoni Alla Vodka
We appreciate that this doesn’t have the word “spicy” in its name like most fraudulent rigatoni. It’s not spicy, but the sauce is thick, creamy, and gets better when you mix up the sauce in the bottom.
photo credit: Ryan Pfeffer
Dining and Cooking