New Moon Cafe

Superb food and servers. Can’t get a higher quality meal anywhere, including SF. If you come to Nevada City and want excellent food, sourced with a lot of local, organic ingredients, this is the place. Nice wine list also.

I just have to say, this is my happy place. Hands down best service and best food (and wine) in 100 miles. You won’t come across another spot like this. We drive from the Bay Area to see what splendid food they serve (which changes day to day). Wine list is very impressive, changes weekly. Just amazing.

People of Nevada County, someone please open a restaurant! It has been proven by restaurants like New Moon, Bistro 221, and Cirino’s that you don’t have to be that great to have a packed room every night. You just need to hire an uptight French waiter and a couple hipster kids, call the food seasonal, and raise the price across the whole menu. People will come.
What is going on New Moon? Why have you fallen so far from grace?
New Moon has become a big let down for me and many of my friends in the area. They used to be my favorite, now I swear to not come back until enough time has passed that I can forgive them for putting me and my family through more than one mediocre experience.
The last 3 times in a row at New Moon have been a complete let down. The service was overwhelmingly slow and the food was not very good or hot for that matter. Please know that each time at least one of us had a great meal, but there were at least 4 people each time. One word says it all, Blah!!!

This is hands down the best restaurant in town! If you haven’t tried it you should. Just make sure your prepared to pay little extra. By far worth a few extra bucks! Friendly staff, great beers, and the best food in town. Make sure to get a reservation or you won’t get in for dinner.

Wonderful dining experience. Do not miss out if you are in the area. Service could not have been better. Extensive wine list and most important the food is to die for. Again, do not miss it!

We live in Granite Bay and met some friends at New Moon Café in Nevada City on 4−7−16. We were greeted warmly and expertly served by Mary. We had the asparagus soup, beet salad, orange salad, the gnochi, swordfish and halibut. Everything was beautifully presented, tasted lovely, and superbly fresh. We loved every bite. Mary graciously comped our corkage. This simple act of kindness will ensure our return visit. Darold Mark…

Love this place ! Have eaten here several times over the years and it is always good. Good service good food and nice people here!

We adore this place! The service is always great, the food is crazy fresh and good and we always leave so full and happy! We love the roast beet salad and their gnocchi are always a fav!

This is by far one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. I love the ambiance with the wall of windows bringing in the light, white table cloths, the fresh wood fired soda bread, above average and interesting wine menu, pleasant servers, and the always fresh and updated menus made up of locally sourced items. I have been there many times throughout the years and have never been disappointed. In fact I am looking forward to heading there with friends next week for our annual Christmas Shipping excursion in Nevada City. Can’t wait!!!

Has Nevada City had such a lack of competition for so long that this is deemed «fine dining» and amazing food?
We live in California where we have unlimited access to the most beautiful ingredients. New Moon lacks the ability of execution although the menu seems promising.
The one star is for the wine list even though no one seems to be educated on it.

This is a delayed review for a dinner we had in April of 2014. The reason for the delay is because we felt bad for the server, who was clearly untrained or didn’t feel comfortable speaking up to the chef or management.
I took my wife here for her birthday and we ordered 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and a glass of wine. New moon has a fairly extensive wine list that our server knew little to nothing about. Our salads were lacking balance and the flavor profiles were totally off resulting in a very acidic and pungent taste. We ordered mussels and pork belly with asparagus for our appetizers. The mussels were very underwhelming and the bread they were served with was burnt. Normally any good mussel dish results in the request of additional bread and me accidentally eating all of the broth. Not the case here. Our pork belly was so tough that we couldn’t get through it with a knife. My wife ordered the sea bass special for her entrée and it was served overcooked with some sort of fruit based relish (that wasn’t complimentary) on top. She ate a few bites of her sea bass, let me taste it, took a bite of her rice, and then gave up after three courses of disappointment. I ordered a pan seared flat iron steak (medium) that was encrusted in so much cumin that I could taste nothing else, not to mention it was cooked well done. My entrée sat in front of me untouched for the duration of our meal until I requested our check. Our server asked if we wanted boxes for our entrees and when we declined that’s the last interaction we had with any of the staff.
We’ve dined at many fine restaurants around the globe and new moon ranks near the bottom of my dining experiences. The chef sent out mussels with burnt bread, is it that hard to replace the burnt bread with something edible? Our server saw our entrees sitting there and never thought to ask if anything was wrong with them. There was no management walking around inquiring if/​when they saw plates that had been barely touched. The chef and kitchen had no problem seeing the server bring back entire entrees less a few bites and dump them in the trash. Did our server not inquire about our food knowing the kitchen doesn’t care? Did the kitchen not say anything to our server when she dumped our entrees in the trash because they don’t care? Is management not walking around because they don’t care? Simply put, in a restaurant that charges these exorbitant prices our experience should have not been overlooked on so many levels.

To quote my favorite movie, our trip to New Moon «came and went like a fickle north wind.»
The smell from the outside hooked us in. My initial thought was, woah, this is a place I can take my fancy grandmother! As we walked further into the dining room, there was indeed an upscale ladies lunch clientele filling the room.
Would be a good place for a formal family birthday or a business lunch. The service was very pleasant, which is probably why it can keep a clientele with deeper pockets, but I was also heavily focused on the food.
We got loganic sandwiches, which is a word I just made up for purposes of this review to mean ingredients that were both sourced locally and organic. Anytime a restaurant is taking care of our planet and local community, they are automatically cool in my book, BUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTT the meal we ordered was so unfortunately basic compared to the $ 18 we paid per lunch entrée.
My sandwich lacked a thicker bread to hold the unexpectedly soft fried chicken in the middle, so the inside kept flopping out of the bread. There was also no crunch element that you expect from the fried chicken sandwich, and had no flavor identity (plain, maybe?) Pluses were the beer, wine, booze, and soft drink list that has everything from non-​alcoholic ginger beer to the newest Lagunitas seasonal beer.

At a recent visit, we found the food to be good but unexciting with the portions ridiculously small and the prices ridiculously high. We have eaten in many fine restaurants over the globe, but have never felt more taken advantage of than our visit to this establishment.
Nothing is worse than paying close to $ 300 for dinner (4) (no drinks, no appetizers, incl. tips) and going home hungry.
This is not Paris — Get Real!

Quite a pleasant surprise with the quality and inventiveness of the food. I did not expect to find such a high quality restaurant in little Nevada City!
They were also down a server the night we went and the entire staff did a tremendous job hustling to keep their patrons happy.

I’ve been going here for years. The quality and taste is outstanding. Fresh, local and often organic ingredients, top of the line chefs, friendly and welcoming staff, and an elegant atmosphere make this place ideal. This is where to bring guests who you want to impress.
In addition, the lunches are delicious and very reasonably priced. Great value. I like to sneak out of work and grab a quick lunch at least twice a month. I get the half sandwich and salad and am always amazed by how creative the cooks are. It’s delicious!

Very disappointed in this place after hearing rave reviews. I ordered the squash crêpe with browned butter. It was unimaginative and not very tasty, and most disappointing was the total absence of browned butter in the sauce topping the crêpe.
My spouse ordered the pork, which was tasty, but not stellar.
The servers seemed stretched a bit too thin – ours flubbed our wine order because he seemed not to have enough time to search for the bottle that we’d asked for.

I have given this place the old college try, and still do not understand the glory the place receives. I believe they have become complacent due to the lack of competition in the area. I had lunch with my 7 year grand-​daughter and a friend. First I explained that it was my grand-daughter’s birthday, could they please alter an entrée to suit the complicated palate of a 7 year old, maybe plain pasta with butter. No they had no pasta! Then there was a lamb burger, I said, can be make that simple, simple, sure, but you still have to pay the $ 18! What a tactless and insulting way to ‘make accommodation’, my friend and I had the duck salad for $ 18 each. The duck was over cooked and the dressing bland and without imagination. I should have sent it back, and did not. My first mistake, the second was ever going there in the first place. But a gift certificate was the only lure!!!
Overall this was a very, very sad $ 100 lunch in a small town that should and can do better. The arrogance of the entire place is indicative of people who have not stepped outside their comfort zone in quite sometime. While I know the reviews for this place range, the prices, quality of food and overall experience simply do not measure up. The only explanation I have for the good ratings is the wine list. It is a decent one and not terribly priced, so if you drink enough the food, ambiance and service might just seem great!!!
Leslie S.

We experienced the same arrogance noted by another reviewer. While we waited at reception, a woman who arrived before her dining partner was treated by the host with condescension in a discussion of whether or not they had a reservation. Not a good omen.
Before seating us for our 7:15 dinner reservation, the host boasted that half of the entrees on the menu were sold out. He showed no hint of contrition that this might diminish our experience at his culinary palace.
Once seated, the waiter gleefully warned us, «Don’t even look at the menu until I tell you what we’re out of.» No hint of regret that we would be limited to about four choices. We asked if there were any impromptu offerings, but no luck there.
Meanwhile, a nearby party of a dozen drunk young women shrieked and howled to the point that conversation in the dining room was nearly impossible. We flagged down a server and suggested that she ask them to moderate their revelry. She indicated that there was no chance of that happening.
We left and went to Bistro 221 where we had an enjoyable meal with solicitous service. Everyone in our party had plenty of experience dining at «the best restaurant in town» in cities around the country and the world, but none of us had suffered the hubris and inconsideration that seems to be standard fare at New Moon Café.

Happy birthday to my daughter. She got to pick the restaurant so we drove up to Nevada City. This was highly recommended on line as well as by several business in Nevada City.
It was drizzly and cold and the town is completely decked out for Christmas.
New Moon was fantastic. I had the quail and my daughter had the duck. My son in law and hub had the scallops. Our appetizer was the house made raviolis. I mean eyes rolling, in the back of my head, fantastic.
The menu is seasonal so it changes regularly.
Drinks are limited, wine and beer; They do have a pretty good selection of beers.
Go to friar tucks for an apéritif if you want something different.

I anticipated a higher quality experience based on what I’d read and their website. We went for lunch and there weren’t many vegetarian options; I ended up getting a vegetarian quesadilla ($ 16). The vegetables were peppers and a salad on the side. I asked if the greens could be cooked and put in the quesadilla and skip the peppers. It was a mind boggling request for the waitress. She had to ask the cook if they could do this.
Thankfully someone came to their senses and realized I wasn’t asking them to stop the earth’s rotation and I got what I wanted.
The food was okay… not what you’d expect for the money. We’re in California — the country’s richest vegetable bounty — and all they had were green peppers. Come on?
So, it wasn’t really an «A-​Ok» but I don’t feel right giving them only 2 stars. At least they cooked my greens. ;-)