Luigi’s is the eponymous brainchild of Luigi Napolitano whose very last name translates to citizen of Naples, the city from which his mother Tina emigrated more than four decades ago. Tina is the bread-baking, pasta-making dynamo in the kitchen and is also responsible for many of the restaurant’s homey touches. Tina painstakingly hand-sewed the delicate lace covering over each lamp (above) as well as the curtains over each booth. Other homey touches include viney plants hanging from pillars throughout the restaurant and a framed picture of the Mona Lisa hanging above the buffet.
Tina, a spry octogenarian, is one of the sweetest, kindest restaurateurs you could ever hope to meet. She’s cut down the hours she works and sometimes the volume of guests prevents her from leaving the kitchen to meet them, but if she makes her way to your table, you’re in for a treat. Tina is not only the restaurant’s best ambassador, she’s a wonderful ambassador for her homeland, She doesn’t return to Naples as often as she’d like, but her fondest wish is that everyone has the opportunity to visit Lo Stivale. She escorted me to a map on the wall and pointed out Naples then regaled me with tales of her childhood. Tina may remind you of your grandmother (provided you really loved your grandmother as I did).
The most eye-catching aspect of the restaurant isn’t the absence of the once well-provisioned buffet, but the charcoal murals on the wall, most of which depict Roman life in the days of gladiators, spas, arcades and colonnades. Not even the section of the mural depicting the archangel Michael doing battle with Lucifer is out of place; the original painting was completed by Italian renaissance artist Raphael. Despite Tina’s homey touches and the intriguing mural work, Luigi’s does show signs of being timeworn, but in a comfortable sort of way.
Practically from its inception in 1996, Luigi’s drew in teeming masses for its weekday lunch buffet and its Friday night seafood buffet. That buffet is no more, courtesy of the Cabrona virus. Now, an Italian restaurant couldn’t possibly be good if it offers a dinner buffet, right? After experiencing Luigi’s rendition of a buffet, you might change your mind. That seems to be especially true of the Friday night seafood buffet which was extremely popular. Having lived near the water in Massachusetts and Mississippi, the seafood buffet wasn’t something we frequented, but it was worth trying once.
Luigi’s bountiful seafood buffet included mussels, crab claws, baby clams, fried calamari, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp and other fruits of the sea. None of the crustacean offerings were as sizable as you might find at a casino buffet, but they were better prepared and seasoned nicely. The calamari was onion ring sized and chewy, not top tier but not bad either. Luigi’s clam chowder was better than you might prepare out of a can, but not of New England quality (in New Mexico, what is?). Though the Friday seafood buffet is no longer offered, the menu does offer a number of seafood items.
Pasta and seafood entrees are served with your choice of soup or salad and bread. The bread is crusty and delicious, a perfect canvas for the terrific garlic butter with which it is served or with the olive-oil and seasonings blend also provided. Salads (iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, croutons) are served with your choice of dressing. Though denizens of the Duke City have been spoiled by tolerably warm weather virtually all year round, you’ll be grateful for a change of season when that means you can have a bowl or three of Luigi’s minestrone, Italian wedding soup or green chile chicken soup. All are heart-warming and delicious. My favorite is the green chile chicken soup which is not especially piquant, but it’ll make you celebrate cold weather.
While the seafood buffet may not have possessed the boatload of deliciousness I crave from seafood, the Frutta Di Mare, does. A mixed seafood (shrimp, crab claws, clams, mussels and squid) medley over linguine with your choice of a red or white sauce, the name of this dish translates to “fruit of the sea.” That’s an appropriate name considering not only the bounty of sea-birthed ingredients, but the way they’re prepared. The seafood is sweet and succulent, a perfect foil for the red sauce.
Luigi’s offers several seafood selections including one sure to appeal to New Mexicans who believe pain is a flavor and who like our food to bite back. It’s the Shrimp Fra Diavalo, shrimp in a spicy garlic sauce served over a bed of linguine. The menu describes it as “HOT!” The term “Fra Diavalo” translates to “Brother Devil” in recognition of its tomato-based sauce which employs hot peppers (maybe Cayenne) in its flavor profile. It’s one of those dishes that red or green chile wouldn’t improve; they’re not the type of pepper which makes this entree good.
If you do want green chile on your entree, it’s available in the green chile chicken lasagna. Alas, the green chile is almost decorative, or more appropriately garnish-like, for its lack of piquancy. Come on, this is New Mexico! The layers of pasta, rich bechamel sauce and molten cheese blanketing the lasagna are quite good, but the entire dish would have been much more flavorful with a fennel-kissed Italian sausage or even ground beef. Chicken, even well-prepared breast meat, is one of the most boring proteins on any entree. Sure it might make you feel good about not eating a more fattening meat, but there’s not much you can do to improve its blandish flavor profile.
15 November 2024: According to Statista, a food and beverage site, the most popular Italian dish in the United States for 2024 was lasagna. About 83 percent of respondents had a positive opinion of the dish. In second place was spaghetti with meatballs with 79 percent. Luigi’s is one of the few restaurants to offer true variety, proffering four different lasagna dishes: the aforementioned green chile chicken lasagna with a bechamel sauce, meat lasagna, spinach lasagna and crab lasagna made with real crab.
I jokingly asked our server if the crab lasagna was as crabby as Luigi, who’s actually a very nice guy. She described it as “crabby and cheesy” and recommended it highly. There is indeed a plenitude of crab and a copious amount of melty, stringy cheese in this dish, making it one of the richest dishes you can have at an Italian restaurant. It’s so rich in fact that you might not wish to finish it in one sitting, but so good you probably will. Statista did not offer a separate rating category for crab lasagna, but suspect Luigi’s version would receive close to a one-hundred percent approval rate. It’s simply magnificent!
Other pasta entrees are available with a variety of sauces: marinara, pesto, meat, Alfredo, mushroom, carbonara and even a rich broccoli cream sauce maybe even George W. Bush would like (he of the quote “I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.”) A number of hot and cold sandwiches are available as is a varied selection of domestic and imported beers as well as margaritas and wine.
8 September 2024: Before returning to Luigi’s after a fourteen year absence, I perused Yelp. That’s always a risky, unpredictable proposition. While some diners raved about Luigi’s fabulous fare, others blasted the restaurant. Executing a “by rating” filter helped. Being a glass is half-full guy, I focused on the five-star reviews, those written by other diners who also focus on all that’s good in a dining experience. The one-star ratings mostly provide comic relief. Many of the four- and five-star reviews waxed poetic about the pasta, but the overwhelming favorite seemed to be Luigi’s pizza.
Luigi’s has a formidable pizza menu. Each pizza is hand-tossed by Luigi himself. Available in small, medium, large and Sicilian sizes, pizzas can be crafted from your choice of thirteen items. There’s also a “Gourmet Pizza” section to the menu which includes the aforementioned carne adovada pizza. Sicilian style pizza, a thick-crusted, rectangular pie is my favorite. It’s the antithesis of the supermodel thin pies that have found favor in America. What distinguishes Luigi’s from others is just how fabulous the crust is. It’s like freshly baked bread with crispy edges. A combo pizza features pepperoni, sausage, meatballs, mushrooms, onions and green peppers. You probably won’t be able to eat more than one or two slices, but you’ll enjoy every bite.
2 November 2024: One of several atypical Italian offerings on Luigi’s menu is a carne adovada pizza. Pizza has become a virtual canvas on which pizza artisans paint with a broad brush, the more creative the ingredients, the better. There is virtually no sacred cow, no time-honored traditions left. When it comes to pizza, anything goes. Still, carne adovada pizza is one of those things that will have you doing a double-take. Even as you’re eating it and proclaiming it delicious, you’ll be questioning the propriety of this unique pizza…and it is a delicious pizza. I asked Tina what pizza aficionados in Naples would think of carne adovada pizza. She confidently told me “they would love it.”
The crust, in particular, is wonderful with a very out-of-the-oven, yeasty bread aroma and texture. It has just a hint of char on a crispy crust replete in its outside edges with those airy holes that seem part and parcel of most good, thick pizzas. The carne adovada itself has a chile marinated flavor with just a hint of piquancy. It’s strewn across the pizza in small shredded pieces then topped with a cheese blend from which bits of the carne peek out. If carne adovada is too outlandish for your pizza, the menu has several other options, including gluten-free pizza. Order the carne adovada pizza and you might just have a hard time thinking about ordering anything else. It’s one of the five best pizzas in New Mexico.
8 September 2024: As oft mentioned (but never lamented) on this blog, many restaurant menus include a charcuterie plate. Old-fashioned, unpretentious Italian restaurant standards like Luigi’s and Sal’s Ristorante and Pizzeria offer antipasto instead. Luigi’s antipasto misti listing on the menu doesn’t brag about its “imported cheeses and cured meats.” This antipasto is described as “mixed cold cuts over a bed of lettuce.” Those of us who grew up enjoying cold cuts will love this plate. Mixed cold cuts include salami, ham, prosciutto, provolone and olives with a side of Italian dressing. Sit in the back dining room and you can even watch NFL games while you nosh. For what more can you ask.
2 November 2024: In the 1986 Nora Ephron movie Heartburn, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep enjoyed a post-lovemaking spaghetti carbonara in bed. Nicholson’s character declared “This is the best spaghetti carbonara I’ve ever had. When we’re married, I want this once a week.” Spaghetti carbonara is one of my very favorite Italian dishes though it’s often so rich and creamy that once a week would be too much. Nor can I ever finish an order in one sitting. My Kim can’t either–so she usually has enough left over for another full meal. As is the case with many Italian pasta dishes, Luigi’s spaghetti carbonara (cream sauce made with pepper, bacon and Parmesan cheese) is even better the next day when the cream sauce has fully penetrated every strand of spaghetti.
8 September 2024: A panacea of Italian dessert favorites is available for diners with a sweet, but not too sweet, tooth. That means tiramisu that doesn’t taste like a cloying pudding. The tiramisu, served in a small bowl, is made with ladyfingers and is redolent with espresso, not quite enough for me, but sure to please most coffee lovers. Cannoli, the wonderful Sicilian tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough stuffed with a sweet, creamy Ricotta cheese-based filling are also available, including a chocolate cannoli. Lightly dusted with confectioner’s sugar, the cannoli is quite good.
2 November 2024: As mischievous bairns, my brothers and I would often share one of our mom’s wonderful pumpkin pies then leave the pie tin in our sisters’ room so they would be implicated in the pumpkin pie pilferage. Her pumpkin pies remain the standard. Not only are they the best (by far) I’ve ever had, they’ve virtually ruined all other pumpkin pies for me. Only Luigi’s pumpkin cheesecake comes close to mom’s. Every slice is thick, dense and tall. Though easily big enough for two, it’s so good you might not want to share. My Kim declared it “the best pumpkin cheesecake I’ve ever had.” That’s my verdict as well.
2 November 2024: Earlier in this essay, I mentioned the homey touches of the restaurant’s decor. Homey would also describe the service at Luigi’s. The wait staff is personable and attentive without hovering over you while you’re trying to eat. Sabrina, our gregarious server for our 2024 visits should have worn a big red letter “S” on her chest for the way she simultaneously took care of sixteen tables–professional service with a smile, too. On a Sunday when no other server showed up for work, she managed to keep everyone happy.
Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria is still going strong after nearly a decade and a half in a relatively inconspicuous facade on Fourth Street. Good portions, reasonable prices, excellent service and a diverse menu are the reason.
Luigi’s Ristorante & Pizzeria
6225 4th Street, N.W.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 343-0466
Web Site | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 15 November 2024
# OF VISITS: 6
RATING: 23
COST: $$
BEST BET: Clam Chowder, Cannoli, Tiramisu, Carne Adovada Pizza, Combo Pizza, Antipasto Misti, Spumoni, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Spaghetti Carbonara, Crab Lasagna
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I have to admit, this place was probably one of the worst Italian places I been to. Even worse than Joe’s pasta house
Just wondering Gil, are they still doing the buffet?
Luigi’s has not offered a buffet since the Cabrona virus. Their popular Friday seafood buffet is no longer available either. Frankly, ordering off the menu has always been the best bet at Luigi’s.
I agree though pre-retirement, Luigi’s buffet was a great option on the lunch hour rotation!
Didn’t you read the review?
We had the misfortune of trying the seafood buffet at Luigi’s tonight. It was dreadful. The crab legs were so over cooked that the flesh in some was like leather. The mussels, shrimp and clams were tasteless. Their chowder was not as good as what comes out of a can. It was a potato chowder which may have had a clam passed over it. The italian food on the buffet was eually bad. We won’t be back.
The rooms are not elegant. In fact, we were happy to vote for Luigi’s as a candidate for a free restaurant makeover, as prompted by a card on our table (they made it past the first cut). Elegance, however, is not what we look for on our Fourth Street crawls; good food well prepared at reasonable prices is. As we were leaving the place, its tawdry appearance gave pause to a couple who were just entering and stopped Jane to inquire how our meals had been. “Wonderful,” she said, urging them to head inside and indulge in some great Italian food. In essence, Luigi’s calls to mind Nelson Algren’s line about our much-loved former hometown of Chicago: “Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real.” We have been searching for this real kind of place ever since we came to New Mexico. We finally found it.
Luigi’s now has joined the gluten-free rage. GF pastas and pizzas are now available.
We ate at Luigi’s tonight purely by chance, as the Mario’s nearby was closed for Memorial Day.
My husband agreed with the review by John as far as acidic pasta sauce went. It’s the first thing he said. He also said it’s not terrible, just not how he prefers it.
I on the other hand, had pizza that was excellent! It had a great crust, not soggy at all and a good amount of ingredients. I ordered pepperoni, mushroom and black olive and there was quite a bit of each ingredient. It had good balance, the sauce was tasty and I just totally enjoyed it.
The fried zucchini that we had as an appetizer was great! The zucchini was cut into thin rounds and breaded with homemade breading, or at least it sure tasted homemade. It in no way tasted as if it had been frozen. We ate all of it and wished we had more.
So a mixed bag on the 31st of May, 2010. (Of course, this is almost 6 years after Gil last reviewed this restaurant and anything can happen in that amount of time!)
I think the address here is wrong, it is in Los Ranchos just north of the Smith’s shopping center and Sadie’s and Ezra’s Place not downtown, so probably 6225 4th Street NW
The cook should be brought up on charges. I am sure he or she is an eskimo that went to The Dublin School of Italian Cusine. The owners should be brought up on conspiracy charges for letting this out of the kitchen. The marinara was acidic and completely unseasoned with the exception of salt. The wine is overpriced and totally undrinkable. The salad was no different from a 1950’s truckstop with watery blue cheese dressing. The pasta was not drained and sloshed on the plate.
Don’t look in the direction of this place. It is a total clip joint. There are so many other ways to satisfy a craving for Italian. Chef Boy-R-di is genius compared to this place.
Two Big Thumbs Down!