Restaurant in Lucca, Italy
Bib Gourmand Japanese. Book it.
A Michelin Bib Gourmand holder for two consecutive years, Nida brings focused, personal Japanese cooking — ramen, nigiri, gyoza, osashimi — to just outside Lucca's walls at an accessible €€ price point. Chef Masaki Kuroda's southern Japan-rooted menu and a calm, unhurried atmosphere make this the most compelling off-script meal in the city. Book it for lunch and try the teishoku set.
Nida is the kind of restaurant that rewards the traveller who does their homework. Sitting about 1km outside Lucca's city walls on Via Nicola Barbantini, it holds two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) — the Guide's signal for cooking that punches above its price bracket. At the €€ price range, that credential matters: you are getting recognised culinary craft without the €€€ bill that Tuscan fine dining typically demands. For an explorer visiting Lucca who wants one meal that genuinely surprises, Nida is the booking to make.
Chef Masaki Kuroda — who also owns Serendipico in Capannori , runs a tightly focused Japanese menu rooted in his childhood in southern Japan. The format is personal and deliberate: osashimi, nigiri, gyoza dumplings, and a ramen built on a pork broth that traces its lineage to Kyushu-style technique. This is not the pan-Asian fusion that often fills the gap in Italian cities when a non-Italian kitchen opens. Kuroda's cooking is geographically and emotionally specific, which is precisely why it works.
At lunchtime, the teishoku-set menu simplifies the decision further. You choose your main course; the chef assembles the surrounding dishes. For a solo traveller or a couple working through Lucca over a few days, this format is one of the most efficient ways to eat well in the city at midday. It removes the guesswork and keeps the bill manageable.
The room sits outside the historic centre, which means the energy here is quieter than the restaurants clustered near the Piazza Anfiteatro. This is not a venue with the ambient hum of tourist traffic. The atmosphere runs calm and considered, which suits the food: Japanese cuisine at this level asks you to pay attention, and the room lets you do that. If you are coming from a long walk on the walls or a morning in the galleries, the atmosphere here reads as a reset rather than a continuation of the Lucca bustle.
The database does not confirm a dedicated private dining room at Nida, and the seat count is not disclosed. What the data does suggest is a restaurant operating at intimate scale , a chef-owner model focused on quality per cover rather than volume. For groups, that means booking early and being explicit about party size when you contact them directly. A table of four or five is likely achievable; a corporate buyout or large celebration dinner is a different conversation and would need direct confirmation with the restaurant.
For a group of food-focused travellers moving through Tuscany , the kind of trip that also includes a meal at Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence or Osteria Francescana in Modena , Nida works well as the deliberately off-script stop: the meal where Tuscany unexpectedly steps aside and southern Japanese flavour takes over. That contrast is genuinely interesting to eat through as a group, and at €€ it will not disrupt the trip's budget.
The teishoku lunch format is also worth flagging for groups: a set structure where the chef makes the surrounding decisions means the table arrives at a coherent shared experience rather than a fragmented spread of individual orders. For groups who want to eat together rather than around each other, that structure has real value.
If your Lucca visit is built around Italian cooking, All'Olivo and Giglio both deliver regional craft at different price points. But Nida occupies a different slot entirely: it is the meal you book when you want one evening , or one lunch , that operates outside the Tuscan frame. The Bib Gourmand confirms the kitchen is working at a standard well above the casual end of the €€ bracket, and a 4.9 Google rating across 244 reviews is a consistency signal that is difficult to dismiss.
Getting here requires stepping outside the walls, but it is a short distance and manageable on foot or by taxi. Booking is rated as easy, which reflects both the restaurant's relative obscurity among international visitors and its location away from the main tourist circuit. That combination , serious credentials, low booking friction, accessible price , makes Nida one of the stronger arguments in Lucca's dining mix for the traveller who wants depth rather than convenience.
For broader context on eating and drinking in the city, see our full Lucca restaurants guide, our full Lucca bars guide, and our full Lucca experiences guide. If you are planning accommodation alongside this meal, our full Lucca hotels guide covers the current options. Wine travellers should also check our full Lucca wineries guide.
For reference points on what Kuroda's style of Japanese cooking looks like at the highest level in Japan itself, Myojaku in Tokyo and Azabu Kadowaki in Tokyo represent the upper tier of the tradition he is drawing from. Nida is not in that bracket , nor is it priced as if it were , but knowing the lineage clarifies what Kuroda is doing and why the Michelin inspectors noticed.
Nida is located at Via Nicola Barbantini, 338, approximately 1km from Lucca's city walls , accessible on foot or by short taxi from the centre. Pricing sits at the €€ level, and booking is direct with no significant advance lead time required for most visits. The lunch teishoku-set menu is the most structured entry point. Hours and phone contact are not confirmed in current data; check directly or via a local concierge before visiting. For more options in the area, Buca di Sant'Antonio and Il Mecenate offer Tuscan alternatives at different price levels.
The venue data does not confirm specific dietary accommodation policies. That said, a menu centred on sashimi, nigiri, gyoza, and ramen has natural flexibility — raw fish courses are inherently pescatarian-friendly. check the venue's official channels before booking if you have serious allergen or dietary requirements, as this is a small, chef-led kitchen running focused menus.
At €€ pricing with a Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2024 and 2025, the lunchtime teishoku set menu is the clearest value proposition here. You choose your main course and the chef builds the rest of the plate around it — a format that suits curious diners who want to eat well without committing to a long tasting format. For the price point, it is hard to argue against it in Tuscany.
Book at least one to two weeks ahead, particularly for lunch when the teishoku set menu draws a consistent crowd. Bib Gourmand recognition two years running means Nida is no longer a quiet local find — visitors who show up without a reservation risk missing out, especially on weekends. Hours and phone are not publicly listed, so check the address directly or use a reservation platform.
Nida sits about 1km outside Lucca's city walls on Via Nicola Barbantini — a short walk or taxi ride from the centre, so factor that into your itinerary. Chef Masaki Kuroda's menu draws on his childhood in southern Japan, which means the ramen here uses a pork broth style specific to that region, not a generic approximation. First visit, go at lunch and order the teishoku set.
The €€ price range and Bib Gourmand positioning point to a relaxed, neighbourhood-level setting rather than formal dining. Smart casual is a reasonable call — clean, put-together, but no jacket required. Nothing in the venue data suggests a dress code, and a focused Japanese lunch spot outside the city walls is not the context for black-tie.
The venue data does not confirm a bar or counter seating at Nida. Given the restaurant's compact, chef-driven format, walk-in counter dining in the style of a Japanese kappo or omakase bar is not documented here. Book a table to be safe — the seat count is not disclosed, and availability is not guaranteed.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
