La Cena Ristorante & Wine Bar

My husband and I used to go to La Cena when it was located near our home. We knew it had moved, but didn’t want to come downtown. Now that I work downtown, we just might have to make an exception… or I can at least get take out. I really loved the Ellie Fish back in the day and it’s been almost 20 years! Is Scotty still there?

Really enjoyed the experience. The food was amazing.
To address some of the critics; It’s fine dining — it’s an experience, not just a meal. Go expecting to be there for an hour or better if you order dessert. Don’t be in a rush — dishes are prepared individually and with a lot of care. Details are clearly stressed over from the front of the house to the kitchen. They take a lot of pride in their work and it shows.
Food was a 10 — there was just too much of it.
If you enjoy Italian wines — this is your sweet spot — the list is near intimidating; but recommendations were freely offered and delivered on expectations.
We met the owner on the way out; he was a complete gentleman in direct contrast to some of the feedback below. His care and concern about the dining experience, not just the meal is clear.

This is the best Italian in Jacksonville, hands down! My husband I and our friends went there last night (probably our 6−7^th visit) and had a fabulous time. Although the restaurant is never «packed» per se, the service and food are always first class. We highly recommend the Carbonara and the Veal Chop. We got to see Jerry (chef and owner) while we were there and he was a kind and gracious host. We love the wait staff as they have become friends over time. We adore this restaurant and will continue to go to La Cena for its consistently exceptional food and great service!

Food was better than good but the wait staff was rude. Here’s how: We asked if it would be convenient to sit by a window in the upper section at 530pm with only one other table occupied in lower section; I specifically queried if this would create a problem for the servers with us being seated outside the main dining area. The waitress said «Sure, you can sit up here. Choose whatever table you want! It’s not a problem. «, and then no one came to serve us for 15 minutes. I finally asked a gentleman in the bar area if he could find our server. He said with attitude: «no one is serving you because you aren’t seated down there! They waitresses wont tell you the truth but I will, as the maitre’ d!» We responded that we had asked if it was ok to sit here and if the servers would mind, and they told us it was fine. He ROLLED HIS EYES!
The food was good but not exceptional. The up charge on the appetizers if you order without an entrée is asinine. This pricing model makes no sense to the customer. Another weird thing: My friend asked if her Caesar salad could be made with dressing on his side, and the waiter said snottily that «then it would not be a Caesar salad, so no, we won’t serve the Caesar with dressing on the side!» Offensive attitude.
Overall a poor experience. I won’t be back.

Just wonderful food!
Now, there have been a few reviews about the service and I’d like to address that first. The wait-​staff are courteous, but it is not the place where they are going to sit down at the table and make friends. The waitstaff do not add to the experience (which would make it a 5-​star restaurant), but they don’t take away from how great the food is.
We started with the mussels in white-​wine/​garlic sauce which were great.
We ordered the veal, chicken, and then requested a dish of ricotta and bolognese sauce and they created just a spectacular pasta dish.
If you like cappuccino, order one… really good.
Overall this was a great place to get food in a downtown that is really barren in terms of quality restaurants.

Food is decent but service is terrible. If the food was great I wouldn’t go.
Was insulted multiple times by our server… When ordering apps was told they needed main order as they had a table coming in right after us (we were there 18 minutes early). Not allowed to make substitute, God forbid you ask for shrimp for chicken. Asked for check and after taking 23 minutes to print a piece of paper was told «enjoy your 45 minute cab ride.»
On top of all this, friends purchased two nice bottles of wine and they never served them.
Brian

Just had another fantastic meal at La Cena last night. Of course we began with the Mussels Luchiana because, well, I am addicted to them. And they did not disappoint. Every succulent morsel popped with flavor and we almost drank from the bowl of buttery, garlicky sauce, but good manners prevailed… this time. Anyway, ’tis the season to splurge on calories, so I tried the Trenette Alla Cornelia I have always wanted to taste. Oh wow. I almost wish I never ordered it because now I am going to crave it every time I dine there. My companion had the Beef Strip Steak with green peppercorn sauce. I was lucky enough to get one yummy, perfectly-​cooked bite… medium rare just the way we love it… before it was completely devoured. As always, the house bread was delicious and the salads were fresh, crisp and delectable. Service was right on point and the atmosphere was charming. Looking forward to many more visits in the new year.

Unless you’re a local celebrity, this place has the worst service ever. I know I don’t have a lot of reviews on Unilocal but I’ve reviewed this place on many other sights and everyone should know that La Cena is run by an awful human being. He’s a good chef but a terrible person who treats his guests and staff like garbage. This is not a good place to take your date for a special night. Chef Jerry will go out of his way to make sure that you know just how little he thinks of you or your loved ones.

My wife and I walked into this restaurant on a week night during art walk. The streets were flooded with people yet this restaurant only had 1 patron sitting at the bar. Upon entering the building, we were not greeted. I walked over to the bartender and asked if they are open, to which her response was «I guess.» She tossed some menus our way from across the bar, and walked to the back — not even seating us. We immediately left after such rude service and happily took our business to a place that appreciates it’s customers.
Editing to respond to the owner:
We both had attended art walk after work. We were both dressed in neat, professional clothing. You are delusional.

After visiting an exhibit at MOCA, I went with a few friends, who recommended this restaurant. When I first walked in, on a Friday night, the front room was completely empty until we were brought to the back of the restaurant where there were no windows or anything interesting to look at, including the bread sticks in the middle of the table, sticking out of something like a vase, deformed looking and gathering dust.
The waitress asked us if we wanted wine, shoved the wine menu at us and made a «hurumph» kind of noise at the two of us who declined. When the other two members of our party just bought a glass each, she gave them that look like we must be a bunch of uncultured rednecks.
I used to own an advertising agency and am a professional writer, so I tend to read all the details on a menu. Soon I noticed all of these requirements, which are not listed on their online menu. It said that there is an $ 18 charge if you only have an appetizer and an $ 11 charge PER PERSON if you split a meal. So, if you don’t like to eat a lot, like me, then you can have a ridiculously expensive meal without much food or get a whole meal that you’re not going to eat. The $ 11 and $ 18 up charges are because they provide bad Italian bread and a pretend salad.
At this point in my review, the owner would probably chime in that the pasta dishes come in small, medium and large for those that want to eat less, however, each size going up is only $ 1 more, so, ordering the small is still usually over $ 22.
The house salad that comes with the meal is iceberg lettuce with a few fragments of tomatoes and cucumbers: and THIS is a gourmet restaurant serving iceberg lettuce? What? For dressing, the waitress, who looked completely unhappy to be working there, asked me what kind of dressing I wanted. I asked, «What do you have?» She said that they only have one dressing: the house vinaigrette. So, why ask? She wouldn’t give me Caesar dressing, unless I ordered a Caesar salad, which would cost about $ 5 more.
I wanted something with veggies in it, so, I ordered a pasta dish with mushrooms, peas and bacon (not pancetta as Italians would use, but it’s lowly cousin). It came and was a huge plate of over cooked pasta swimming in an extremely heavy cream sauce. I know the peas were frozen and the mushrooms were your basic and flavorless white button mushrooms. Yuck! And, again I ask: this is supposed to be gourmet?
I hated the salad and threw the 2 lbs of leftover greasy pasta out when I got home. I took it with me, because I had eaten very little and my friend, eating with us, was paying for my meal. I didn’t want him to think that he paid $ 30 for no reason. But, he did.
Then the owner came over to talk to us. He sounded like a pompous pair of buttox. He said that he’ll only have a restaurant if it’s all done his way. So, the customers don’t matter? And he bragged that the restaurant is supplemental income, he doesn’t need it. Blah blah blah. Mr. Owner, go back to your day job and stick with that, sir, because you seem to only want to have it your way instead of wanting to please your customers who, put their faith and a big wad of cash, in your hands.
I would never go back. There as nothing gourmet or creative or fresh about the whole expensive experience.

Wow! I cannot say enough good things about this place! Jerry welcomed us with open arms and shared fun stories, amazing wine and incredible food with us. His homemade pasta is what has me craving this restaurant from Mesa, AZ! I am going back to Jacksonville and hope to make this a routine stop on each of my trips! Thanks for the wonderful evening, Jerry! :)

Excellent place discovered by accident, even though it’s right downstairs from an apartment I live in part-​time. It’s only a dinner house, and when you walk by on the front, it doesn’t look as if much is happening and you’re not even sure it’s open. However, there’s a whole large, lovely back room and that’s where most people eat. It’s very classy looking and quiet but not dead. It’s dressy, but I had been cleaning my apartment, didn’t look great and actually blundered in by accident and they were still nice to us.
The food is truly superior. Excellent house made breads and bread sticks, a real northeast Italian menu (the chef is from New York) which means that it’s not the Southern tomato-​sauce drenched idea of Italian food. I had an excellent branzino florentine with the best fennel I have ever tasted. We had mussels (thumbs up) to start and my sister had a pasta dish — house made pasta — for her entrée. Even the house salad was excellent. Then we had the luscious classic chocolate mousse.
The wine list is also to be commended, particularly since most of them — except for the truly pricey ones — are available Northeast style in small carafes which give you about a glass and a half. The selection is Italian, from all regions, and interesting. I had a Gruner Veltliner, for example.
You may have to hunt this place out, but if you’re in downtown JAX or even staying around there, definitely go. I’ll be back…

The business owner from this restaurant decided to leave me several nasty comments with personal attacks, which have now been removed by Unilocal.As such, I have decided to remove my comments in response, which are now out of context.
My original review remains below, unedited.
However, because of the way I was treated as a customer, I’ve downgraded my review to 1-​star.

Fabulous! We were 40 minutes late for a reservation on a Friday. We called and were assured they would have our table. We were seated and well cared for, assured again we could make our concert. Food was flawlessly prepared. I had the gorgonzola dressing, husband the vinaigrette. Both were fresh and cold on a hand made bed of greens. Fish entrees were beautiful and wine list was extensive and well priced. Good selection of higher end wines at very reasonable prices. Wonderful service by staff attentive and experts on the menu, a rare thing in our business. As we are both consultants in the food industry we see a lot that goes wrong… this was a great example of things done the right way from start to finish.
The chef is attentive and obvious care is exerted. He even answered the phone when we made reservations.

My boyfriend and I arrived at La Cena at 6:10 for a 6:15 reservation. We were told that our table was not set yet, which was fine. After standing in the empty front area of the restaurant for about 10 minutes, we decided to sit down at the table they designated for us (still not set, and probably the worst table in the whole restaurant).
It took another 10 minutes for the waitress to set our table, coming back multiple times with different pieces (silverware, glasses, breadsticks, etc). My boyfriend never received forks. We finally got our food menus at the end of this process and waited another 5 minutes for the wine list. The menu was a shortened version since it was a «show night» which we made the waitress aware that we were attending at 8PM. The waitress disappeared for a while, and when she came back we ordered all of the meal (drinks, appetizer, and entrée). This was at 6:40. We received our mussels and nothing else. Finally, at 7:35, we decided to ask for our checks to be able to make the show at times union center. We left without even seeing our entrees, and with no sign of them coming out anytime soon.
Side note, the table next to is ordered entrees only and still waited over an hour for their them.
We will never even consider trying this restaurant again.

Such an amazing dining experience! I was visiting Jacksonville for the first time on a business trip and found La Cena on Unilocal and decided to give it a shot because it was close by. The staff was super attentive and so very friendly! The chef came out to greet us and check on our meals. The food was incredible! I had the fish of the day with the Portofino preparation, it was wonderful. For dessert, the Best chocolate mousse I have ever had! Definitely the highlight dining experience of my weeklong trip! I definitely recommend La Cena to anyone seeking a quaint, cozy, relaxing and incredible dining experience!
Thank you again to their staff for a wonderful evening and I will definitely see you if I make it back to Jacksonville!

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. My husband and I were in Jacksonville celebrating our 13^th wedding anniversary and to attend the Paul McCartney concert. I researched restaurants diligently to find someplace special where we could have a great, early dinner before the show. We had 6pm reservations and showed up right on time.
It took about 5 minutes to seat us as the person at the bar was busy hurriedly opening bottles of wine. As soon as we sat, we could tell the 2 women handling the tables were overwhelmed. They were literally running around, throwing plates on tables, stacking and throwing dirty plates in the back. I saw a diner nearly get hit with a fork as the were moving too fast. We thought ‘uh oh’. We sat for another 10+ minutes gnawing on breadsticks before anyone acknowledged us. Finally someone took our drink order and we got a very nice $ 50 bottle of wine. We sipped on that a good 15+ minutes before one woman hurriedly rushed by to take our order.
At this point we felt bad that they were so busy, and we smiled and tried to laugh about it. We both ordered from the «Contingency Menu» that was given to us (really –is this what you want to call your pre-​event menu???). I don’t like bring labeled a ‘contingency”. Maybe they can take a lesson from NYC where theatre prix fix menus are common.
Ok so the true Bad Part of the evening came when our entrees arrived (mind you it is now 7pm — the food all came out quite fast, but it took well over 30 minutes for them to take our order). My husband and I ordered the same thing — a veal dish with artichokes and lemon sauce, listed as saltimbocca on the menu. $ 32 entrée.
The second they threw the plates in front of us (with no offer of pepper or Parmesan cheese), I knew the orders were wrong. The plate in front of me had veal, but in a brown broth with parsley and lots of rosemary and side of broccolini. Not at all what we had ordered.
My husband called the lady (Vicki?) over and I told her this was not what we ordered. She said yes it was and proceeded to explain how it was cooked. I listened and said bring us a menu that is not how it was listed. She brought a menu and immediately she said oh my gosh — ‘he’ made an error when printing the contingency menu. The item listed as saltimboca had the wrong description — it was apparently the description for Fantasia. What happened next was so disturbing. She proceeded to point out other errors on the menu. Shrugged her shoulders and said ‘he’ obviously printed it too early in the morning, and well… oops sorry. Never did she offer to get the right meal or do anything.
I couldn’t believe it! I had taken one bite and was not eating it, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said sorry. Next time we’ll do better.
I ended up paying $ 32 per person for the wrong meal plus our $ 50 bottle of wine. We still left good tip as that is what we do — but words cannot begin to describe how frustrated and sad I was. And did I mention this was our 13^th wedding anniversary dinner??? The veal was prepared well — but I did not like the recipe. I really wanted those artichokes and lemon sauce. I just couldn’t believe that she didn’t offer to replace the meal or at least not charge us for 1 of the 2 WRONG meals.
So sad. Terrible customer service. I have a lot of corporate clients in Jax and will certainly not recommend this place. Disappointing.

La Cena has been in my bookmarks ‘To Try’ since I started Unilocaling five years ago. FINALLY made it in to dinner when I was craving pasta and Carrabba’s wasn’t going to cut it.
We had a reservation — which is definitely recommended — and even though we showed up really early for our reservation the hostess was able to seat us promptly. I had perused the menu online, so I went in with a tentative plan of what I wanted to indulge in. While I was a little hesitant at the price, we shared an order of the Mussels Posilipo (red) to start. The bowl was overflowing with these delicious bivalves in we dived right in.
For my dinner I paired the Caesar salad with the small order of the Spaghettini Carbonara. My advice: opt for the small order. I did and I still came home with lunch for the next day. I’ve ordered Carbonara many times in my pasta-​loving life. I’ve even tried to make it at home when I get adventurous in the kitchen. None of them compare to what I feasted on at La Cena. The ‘sauce’ was so light and played very well with all the goodies that were tossed into the pasta.
Next time I’m craving impressive Italian, I know where I’m heading.

Interesting place. Doesn’t look like much on the outside, but once you walk in you see a pretty nice looking bar after which point the restaurant opens into a pretty large main dining room with an elegant atmosphere. Sparse decorations, but the table settings make the room appear very intimate and fancy.
My fiancée and I ordered the veal carpaccio and the veal caprese. The hostess/​waitress gave us a heads up that the veal carpaccio was thick but well tenderized so we decided to try it. Unfortunately, it was still too thick for our tastes so we sent it back. The staff was very polite about this and quickly replaced it with another appetizer, the beef carpaccio, for no charge. Both items were delicious. The beef carpaccio was appropriately thin and actually quite beautifully served. The veal caprese was perfectly breaded for a satisfying crunch but not so much that it overwhelmed the flavor of the included cheese and tomatoes.
The service was outstanding.
A couple of detractor things I should mention, though. The menu makes this abundantly clear, but there is an upcharge for sharing a plate, and various other upcharges for this and that. This is probably all done out of some sort of necessity, but the way it is written on the menu appears tacky, as does the first page of the menu which states that the restaurant was built entirely from private funding versus public? I’m new to Jacksonville, so I’m not sure what that was about, but… basically, both of us were put off by how the menu was written. It really seemed to lower our expectations of the restaurant, and certainly isn’t welcoming. Otherwise, I’d say the place could use some more decoration, but I welcome good food over décor any day.
Bottom line: great food that’s fresh but not quite at the 5-​star level.

One of my favorites. Small restaurant. Expect a long delicious meal. You better have reservations. I’ve heard of too many people that were turned away since they didn’t have one.
For this occasion, we had a large group. Since the person who made the arrangements knows the owner, they gave us a special menu. Tons of great food. Each dish better than the next. Almost disappointed that we had so many appetizers that I could barely eat dinner.
Do not look for mixed drinks. But they do have a good wine selection.