Buca di Sant'Antonio

Buca di Sant'Antonio has occupied the same address at Via della Cervia 3 — a stone's throw from Piazza San Michele — since 1782, making it one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in Italy. The dining room has the original beamed ceiling, copper pans hanging from the beams, and the slightly worn warmth of a building that has been feeding people for two and a half centuries.

The cooking is the traditional Lucchese canon, executed without irony: zuppa di farro (the ancient grain soup that is the local birthright), tortelli lucchesi al sugo (meat-stuffed pasta in a slow-cooked ragù), capretto al forno (oven-roasted kid), wild boar from the Garfagnana, baccalà alla lucchese. Daily handmade pasta and excellent regional bread.

The wine list is a respectable Tuscan-anchored programme — strong Lucchesia (Colline Lucchesi DOC and Montecarlo DOC), serious Chianti and Brunello, focused IGT Toscana. Pricing is fair and the by-the-glass selection is honest.

The room takes around eighty covers across two interconnected dining rooms. Service is warm, family-style and run by people who have been there for decades. Closed Sunday evening and Monday; book a week ahead for Saturday.

Buca di Sant'Antonio is the Lucca birthday booking that doesn't try too hard — the restaurant has been on Via della Cervia since 1782, the dining room has the original copper pans hanging from the beamed ceiling, and the kitchen turns out the proper Lucchese repertoire (zuppa di farro, tortelli lucchesi, wild boar) with the kind of unselfconscious confidence that only a 240-year-old kitchen can manage. Sunday lunch is the locals' booking.