Luca Cucina Italiana and Lodge

Located in Talipanan Beach, the final stretch of sand connected to White Beach, Luca has been popular to both local and foreign tourists in Puerto Galera for its authentic Italian taste. The restaurant is nothing fancy, just a simple structure with wooden tables and bamboo chairs.

View of Talipanan beach from Luca

From Tamaraw Beach Resort, we headed to Luca to have our late lunch. We decided to walk along the shore to save money and to discover the stretch. But when we arrived in front of the luxurious Sunset at Aninuan, it was high tide and we were apprehensive of the water's depth, so we decided to take the tricycle going to Luca.

Tricycles are found at the main road, just opposite to TBR's entrance. The regular rate from Tamaraw Beach Resort to Luca is 150 Php but you can always TRY haggling. In our case, we paid 120 bucks for the bumpy road ride. Travel time is about 7-10 minutes, the catch is the tricycle will not really stop in front of Luca, it will stop after the uphill rough road just before the downhill path which we walked to reach Luca. For this reason, I think the tricycle rate is both reasonable thinking of the fuel consumed during the ride and quite unreasonable because it did not really drove us to where we were really going. From the downhill path, we passed by Bamboo Beach House (we're coming from the back) then walked our way to Luca.

The steep downhill path

The rough uphill road

Skimboards for rent

When we arrived, there were few visitors in the place, only a group of Koreans and Italians accompanied by some Pinays. Some of them were restaurant guests like us while some maybe staying at the lodge. Their most popular dish is seafood marinara, but because of histamine incompatibilities, we ordered Tonno (real tuna and tomato sauce) in penne pasta. We also tried their household pizza, Luca's half fold and half open composed of tomato, ham, salami, mushroom, mozzarella, and onion. For the orders, we paid 750 bucks, that includes our drinks. The servings were large for two people to consume, so we just took it out for dinner.

Penne Tonno

Luca's half fold and half open pizza

Indeed, I had experienced a piece of Italy in my plate at Luca. The real tuna in the pasta and the pizza were really worth the bucks we paid, plus, we had something for dinner already which saved as money for pasalubongs.

DC in front of Luca

For more information about Luca Cucina Italiana and Lodge, visit their website here.

Have you been to Luca? What are your impressions of it? Please let me know.