32 replies to this topic

[Summit Lover]

Lucius - Italian Restaurant.

128 Gipsy Hill - opposite Gipsy Hill station.
London SE19 1PL

Tel: (020) 8761 8909

Opening hours: 5pm - 10pm weekdays, Midday to 10pm weekends.

Please let us know what you think of this restaurant by adding a comment and voting in the poll

Edited by Summit Lover, 21 August 2011 - 09:37 AM.

[gingerzing]

I went there last week to get pizza for take away. The staff are really nice, and the service was very fast. It has a nice feel to it, so next time we will eat in, me thinks.

[JBoot]

Visited Lucius on Saturday evening about 8.30pm. The staff were really friendly and welcoming, taking us through the extensive specials board and offering their thoughts on what was good. We opted for the pizzas in the end and they were delicious and very well priced - will definitely be taking advantage of their take-away service in the future.

The restaurant/bar itself is really nicely decorated with a slightly eclectic but cosy feel, with the door open and the big glass window at the front you could almost be in the med somewhere... They apparently have a lounge area downstairs and a small garden area although we didn't venture down on this occasion.

As we were leaving we were offered a free sample of a new dessert (Eton Mess) that was on the menu. As the pizzas were quite large and filling we had opted to skip dessert but I knew I had to give it a taste and it was lovely so I think I will need to leave some room for pud next time!

[Howard]

Although the atmosphere of the place is refreshingly different, I have to say we were a bit disappointed. Our pizzas were on the bland side, spoilt by flavourless over-chewy salami and water that had leaked from the mushrooms in the cooking process. There didn’t seem to be any salads on the menu, my bottle of bitter was very chilled rather than just cold, and the tiramisu lacked both punch and substance.

I also found it a little off putting that there were also Thai dishes on the menu. Generally speaking, I think a restaurant should have faith in the food it’s focused on and not try to hedge its bets by having other, completely incongruous dishes on the menu too. After all, who wants to be smelling Thai green curry while eating spaghetti bolognaise?

We may give them another shot when they’ve had more of a chance to fully find their feet, but it won’t be for a while. I look forward to reading other people’s views.

[CPConvert]

We ate there on a Friday night, having had a good chat with one of the owners a few days previously. Had a combination of meat and veggie starters and they were terrific. Not expensive either - thoroughly recommended.

[RetiredMember1]

Lucius gets an excellent review in this week's Time Out: http://www.timeout.c.../2:30554/lucius

[Summit Lover]

We are here last night having read the glowing write up in the Transmitter. We enjoyed ourselves overall - friendly service, cosy ambience and the wine was very good. Tyre food was ok, but not as good as we were expecting - the pizza base was a bit soggy and the toppings a bit bland. We asked for some chilli oil to pep things up but got some mildish chillies sliced into olive oil so not quite what we meant. My ravioli was nicely cooked but the sauce was a bit bland too. R's starter - seafood risotto - was amazing though and beautifully cooked.

So, overall a thumbs up, but I am not sure we would trek down the hill again just to go there though with will the fab restaurants in the triangle. We might go on again if we were passing though.

[andreas]

Tyre food was ok,

Which type of cuisine is this, O Lover of Summits?

[Summit Lover]

Italiano! Mainly pastas and pizzas

[philipburgoyne]

Having missed Lucius out of Sundays tour of the triangle I persuaded the other half that a Tuesday visit was in order. It is a lovely building, compact, but ultimately very appealing. I think we arrived before eight and there were a few people there. Our order was taken fairly quickly...Antipasto sharing plate and Sea Bass and Steak. It took around 40 minutes for the antipasto to turn up... which was disappointing as one of us hadn't eaten all day. But when it turned up it was a very generous plate of goodies which, for lunch would suffice on it's own. Another long wait for the mains, which were also good. I asked for mustard and someone was dispatched to the local shop to buy some...sadly it was american hot dog mustard... which did the steak no favours!
Sea Bass was cooked well but the combination of the wait and the hungry attack on the antipasto blunted the experience. Would I go back? Absolutely! but maybe leaving it a while to polish up the service. Or was Tuesday night an unfair test?

[Palacegirl]

We had dinner there last night - antipasti to share, followed by a pizza - not sure about the comments re the bland, chewy salami - I thought the opposite : great tasting, good quality !
Chilli oil on the table would definitely be nice for anybody who wants to add a bit more 'spice'. The staff are extremely nice and welcoming. What I like most about the place is probably the slightly eccentric interior, especially the toilet... Quirky and unusual is also the lounge area downstairs (in case you have to wait to be seated) - it's a GREAT addition to the area.

Will be back soon

[Ziwa]

Dinner at Lucius last night - its an easy leap from the station to a table, so seemed a good idea for hungry folk on the way home. We liked the interior and the cosy, interesting, quirky space. The service plan seems to be semi-pub style - no table cloths, no place settings, everything comes in a bucket for you to sort out yourself. We chose a table with a nice big candle, but many tables didn't have the candles lit, leading to a slightly unprepared look to the room. The wait person was nice, but seemed easily confused and not switched on. She was more interested in returning to stand at the bar than attending to tables. The food was good, but there were some small disappointments. Ravioli were bland and the sauce was lacking depth (but did taste fresh). No cheese was provided until we asked (requiring arm-waving to get the waitress's attention). My seabass was nicely cooked. The highlight actually was the very perfectly done green beans under the sea bass. Wine was fine, but like the bucket of silverware, was just placed in front of us, to pour ourselves. There were plenty of people - turnover was relatively fast. I think its good for a nip in for a dinner out that fills the gap but not a date.

[Muffy]

I have been twice to this eating place now.
My first visit was a little hit and miss but I really enjoyed the second time.
I had a really nice main course with a really good and well priced bottle of wine.
I woudl recommend the place and hope to support as often as possible.

[misspoddy]

Went there tonight for the first time.
Looks quite nice, even if a bit run down I thought. Waiter was very nice, but food took quite some time to come...

We had the veggie platter, which on the menu said you had to share, so we ordered it for me and the hubby to share. But then we got TWO big platters . Slightly confusing, but as it was really lovely we were quite happy and munched it all up. After that Big Pod and Mini Pod had Pizza which were not very good considering the competition in CP. Soggy, far too much cheese and doughy. I had Penne Arrabiata which was ok, but nothing to knock you off your chair. Except the amount of chili, which was a bit much for my taste. And for a little bowl of penne and some tomatoes was well over priced.

Happy I checked it out. Nice place for a glass of wine and a starter platter to share/or not. But wouldn't need to go again.

[Chillifiend]

This place has a great atmosphere and is a really cosy place to eat. The only problem I have with the food is that with the pizzas, they seem to think that there needs to be a huge amount of topping, especially with mushrooms, where in fact less is more with some ingredients. There is no need to completely cover the pizza surface with any topping. Also chilli oil (proper, not just chopped fresh chilli in oil as Summit Lover mentioned) would be a welcome addition. Having said this I will continue to back as the specials are normally great and they have a good and well priced wine selection.