If you are in the mood for excellent Italian food with a Napa influence when visiting Orlando, Florida, I can highly recommend La Luce By Donna Scala located in the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort.
We were staying down the road at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort and wanted a nice restaurant to visit that was within walking distance, since it was such a beautiful evening. We chose La Luce, and we were not at all disappointed. The decor was very bright, modern and casually upscale and had wonderful views with all the floor to ceiling windows. Love their branding and their logo too. The light bulb is indeed shining bright! We decided to share a number of dishes because everything sounded so delicious!
I don’t normally rave about salads, but the Asparagus Salad we had at La Luce was simply incredible. Featuring shaved asparagus, lemon mascarpone, avocado and toasted pistachios, the flavour and texture combination was out of this world. It was literally one of the best salads I have ever tasted – well worth the trip to La Luce alone!
Next we sampled one of their thin crust pizzas. This delectable offering featured hot Italian sausage, greens, tomato, oregano and tavoliere. The crust was crunchy and bubbly on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Toppings were generous and of very high quality. An excellent pie!
For our main courses, we ordered the Rigatoni con Polpette featuring veal and spinach meatballs, tomato and reggiano and the Cannelloni with braised short ribs, greens and ricotta. Both pasta dishes were fantastic! Tender meat, perfectly cooked homemade pasta and both dishes were topped with some outstanding aged Parmigiano-Reggiano table-side. Absolutely delicious! And La Luce has a nice wine list too. You oenophiles out there may recognize the iconic label on the bottle of Frescobaldi ‘Lucente’ in the pasta shot above. One of my all-time favorite wines – when I can’t splurge on Frescobaldi first run ‘Luce’, it’s an admirable second Super Tuscan in their line up. Loved La Luce! Our server was outstanding too – very attentive and knowledgeable. Highly recommended! For now, back to the cage.
