Luigi's Grotto

We arrived at Luigi’s Grotto for lunch with some good friends from out of town. As this was their first time in Seattle, we thought we’d take them for some authentic Italian. Atmosphere was good at best. The waiter (Luigi?) seated all 7 of us and asked what we wanted to drink. He returned with 3 sodas (cans), three glasses containing a single ounce of substandard wine (watered down), and one beer. We were asked if we had any dietary restrictions (3 vegetarians, 3 carnivores, and 1 vegan). We waited for menus. Instead we were served parmesan bread – roughly a bite per person. Then came salad. We assumed this was part of the appetizer and ate and talked while we waited for menus. Luigi appears again with a platter of perciatelli with vegetables and a 5” pizza. No meat for our carnivore friends, no choice of entrée. Despite the pathetic portions of pasta offered and our ravenous hunger, we were unable to eat much more than a bite or two. The pasta was fresh, but flavorless; the broccoli (mostly woody unpalatable stem chunks) was undercooked; the zucchini and eggplant were overcooked, and the tomato pieces tasted canned. We all sensed that we were being served leftovers. The pizza was fair, but was hardly enough for one person as an appetizer, much less an entrée for 7 and we questioned why it was given to us at all. I tried several more times to flag down “Luigi” to inquire about the cost, but he pretended to be too busy (this despite the fact that we were the only customers he had). We were served a bowl of ice cream and the pasta was taken away and replaced by the bill. $196.00 ($28 per person!) for food that was far from fresh or original. “Luigi” was thoughtful enough to calculate in a 20% tip for himself. Total bill: $237 for LUNCH. Poor service and food my Sicilian grandfather would have been ashamed of.