Lucca’s Deli, a long-standing restaurant for the past 70 years on Castro Valley Boulevard, has served top-notch sandwiches and Italian goods to a loyal fan base.

It’s the location for the best, freshest and refined sandwich in the East Bay.

Lucca’s was voted best deli in the East Bay for eight years by the Hayward Daily Review from 1998 all the way up to when their “Best Of” series stopped running in 2006.

The location is owned and managed by Syavash Alaee, a veteran in the restaurant
business.

Syavash started as a waiter in his teenage years working at an Italian restaurant. Later, he majored in Engineering at Cal State East Bay.

With his degree, a deli wasn’t exactly Syavash’s first career option. However, he decided to quit the field and pursue his true love of food, and bought his first restaurant in San Mateo in 1979.

The atmosphere is open to rays of sunshine, with the giant-paned windows and simple table sets.

The patrons are friendly, warm and welcoming with speedy service. It’s top-notch service that is rare to find anywhere else in Castro Valley.

Syavash bought Lucca’s 20 years ago and spruced it up into an Italian grocery as well as a deli.

The location has a variety of European goods, from German chocolate to Italian sauces, candies and bread.

All of these delicacies come from 30 different distributors.

Lucca’s doesn’t feel like a small town deli, but like a specialty food store you would typically find in San Francisco’s North Beach.

Customers are surrounded by vast amounts of Italian and European food.

Lucca’s offers a little bit of everything—from chicken piccata, beer stroganoff, polenta, almond biscotti, ginger snaps, leibinz, lemon flavored thins, de cocco rigatoni and even cranberry mustard.

They have a wide array of fresh savory meats like capicola, prosciutto and salsa turkey, as well as a variety of cheeses, from smoked gouda, gruyere and fontina cheese.

Even though there is an abundance of groceries, the sandwiches are the heart of the deli.

Their grilled chicken sandwich with mozzarella on rolled wheat bread with everything on it is a complexly-flavored yet simple Italian-American sandwich.

The honey turkey sandwich on a sweet roll with honey mustard and cheddar cheese is another customer favorite.

It may seem like a relatively simple sandwich- something you can make at home, but even the simplest sandwich at Lucca’s rises above the average lunch.

The mainstream sandwich shops don’t have much on Lucca’s well-purposed sandwich making, making it an easy pick for a satisfying lunch in the East Bay.