Caffe Luna

Some of the worst Italian in Raleigh. Dinners were cold and service was slow. The owner was rude to us. We will never return.

This is THE place to go in Raleigh to observe really drunk and loud people screaming and annoying the hell out of the entire restaurant. Look at me! I’m really obnoxious and bothering everyone! Yay and the waitress doesn’t want to jeopardize her tip so pretends its okay! And everyone is too terrified to speak up so we get away with being attention grabbing sex-​starved morons! Yay! Isn’t it great to be super low class and get to ruin everyone else’s evening? What great entertainment. I was just waiting for the streaming vomit finale.
You would think a restaurant would not want to get the reputation for those in training for Alcoholics Anonymous. Next time, maybe the owner or manager should consider all the tables and civilized patrons and the impact of one peasant group that does not belong and throw them out. What does a customer need to do to get evicted these days? Stand on a table and urinate? I guess the waitress would then pretend there is a leak in the ceiling.

This is one of our go to restaurants in Raleigh. The wait staff is always very nice and attentive. We also like the general feel of the restaurant.
The food is always fresh and we have never been disappointed. Some of our favorites are the tagliareni del golfo, the lobster ravioli, the Caesar salad. Just to name a few. You just try the Irish bash and the tartufo.

Amazing… New York quality and NC prices
I had the veal parm it was some if the best I every had… Parker and his team do an amazing job… the crazy was perfect and the pasta Al dente

Came here for lunch and had the worst service imaginable. Our server was a tall guy, dark hair, I don’t remember his name but that didn’t matter because I barely saw him. When we first arrived we waited 10 minutes for our waters and even then they were brought by another server. When we finally saw our server we had been sitting there for 25 minutes and we’re ready to order. He took our order and then we didn’t see him again until it was time to pay the check. When I noticed other tables had bread and we didn’t I asked the hostess for some. She got us some and apologized for us not already having some. When it was time to pay the bill I had to ask her to find our server. She again apologized. What was the most frustrating is the amount of times we saw him walk by us and not acknowledge us. If we return we will ask for a different waiter.

This is one place where even after telling them the food didn’t taste good, they didn’t really care. «Here, have a cheesecake» they said (which we couldn’t get ourselves to eat because we were so annoyed)
I ordered the shrimp in spicy sauce, the diavolo. Watery sauce with a canned tomato taste. The shrimp were good and the only reason I didn’t starve that night. The other entrée was a lobster stuffed pasta in a cream sauce. It had no flavor at all and 7 pasta in it– terrible portions. Extremely upsetting especially because it wasn’t exactly cheap.

My fiancé and I decided to try Café Luna since we are considering having our reception there and we were definitely impressed. The food was absolutely fabulous. Given how good the food was and the ambience of the restaurant I felt it was quite a barging. I really do like the atmosphere. The owner greeted us when we arrived and checked in on us periodically to make sure we enjoyed our dining experience.
One warning I would give is if you want to go there on the weekend get a reservation. They fill up quick. If we hadn’t gone as early as we did I am certain we wouldn’t have been able to be seated.
Atmosphere 5 — I love the décor. It is an older building that gives the restaurant a gravitas and sense of history that so many of the places around Fayetteville street have.
Service 4 — I had no complaints about the service. Our server was friendly and attentive.
Cost/​Value 5 — Given the quality of what I got I feel Café Luna is a great value. I got first quality Italian food and it did not cost substantially more than eating at Ruby Tuesday’s.
Food 5 — We had the Prosciutto e Melone for an appetizer. The presentation was different than I expected. I had envisioned prosciutto wrapped melon but it was sliced melon draped in melon. Despite the presentation being different that expected the quality of the melon and more so the quality of the prosciutto more than made up for it. My fiancé has the Fiocchi. It was exceptional. The sauce was a delicately flavored white sauce with just a hint of the pear and the cheese filled pasta had a nice sweetness from the pear. I had the Linguini Pescatore. If you are a fan of linguini in clam sauce this dish is a must do. The sauce was a red clam sauce with roasted garlic and a generous assortment of other seafood. I can’t say enough good things about the quality of the pasta. If it is not made there I want to know where they source it from because it was some of the best pasta I have had in North Carolina.

My boyfriend and I have been meaning to try Caffe Luna for years. Let me start by saying, the service was great! Our server was attentive and very nice even though she was slammed with other tables. First, we ordered drinks and the salami appetizer, which was ok. I ordered the Fiocchi and my boyfriend ordered the Lasagna. The Fiocchi was again, ok, but was cloying sweet. It is a pasta stuffed with 4 cheeses and sliced pears in cream. It was weird to have crispy sweet pears in pillowy pasta and just didn’t work. There was nothing to cut the sweetness and I felt like I was eating dessert. My boyfriend asked me to try a bite of his lasagna and tell me what it tasted like. I promise you, we were transported back in time to our teenage years, because we both agreed it tasted EXACTLY like a can of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni. It was horrible and unlike any lasagna I’ve ever had. We noticed the table next to us sent theirs back. How do you screw up Lasagna at an Italian restaurant?! Then in a last ditch effort to save our evening, we ordered the cheesecake and coffee. The coffee tasted like 11am Tuesday morning at the office and the cheesecake came straight out of the freezer, crumbly and complete with ice crystals! Needless to say, we had high hopes and were left completely disappointed. I’m still confused as to how this is a Raleigh staple.

We LOVE this place! Food is consistently good, wait staff professional and the owner is on site socializing with customers. Came here for our son’s graduation with out of town folks — all left happy and satisfied!

Cool spot, casual but buttoned up. Wine glasses were the smallest I’ve ever encountered — luckily we had a couple of bottles on the table to keep them full. Lasagna was good but not great — fire engine red tomato sauce, and very sweet. Salad was great, and service was solid.

It has been way too long since I have updated my review here. It still remains one of my favorite places for a great Italian lunch or dinner. Can’t beat it for quality ingredients and superb taste. Linguine with red clam sauce is a family fave… one that many of us crave and go back for time and time again.
But most importantly, this is a phenomenal place to host any kind of event. I have attended many here… our good friend’s anniversary dinner, our own family reunion, a recent wedding, to name a few. And now I have hosted a major event myself.
What is so wonderful about hosting an event here is that they are so wonderful to work with! And they don’t rip you off just because your event has the word «wedding» in it! I called everywhere when I was faced with planning a rehearsal lunch and Caffe Luna was the ONLY place I talked to that just wanted to make it nice without it being ridiculously expensive. From the first contact to the last, we couldn’t have had better communication, cooperation, service, quality, and value! Darcey, Shannon, Parker… you all are wonderful and I can’t thank you enough for making our event perfect at a reasonable price!
Highly recommend for any size gathering you want to have!

One of my favorite Italian restaurants. I love their fiocchi and the linguini Pescatore is also on point. Cant wait to go back and try everything on the menu.

This is a great place. They have all the three ingredients which make restaurant recipe great — good food, courteous service and nice ambiance !!! Their homemade pesto is just to die for. They have very less options for vegetarians but their menu is a treat for non-​vegetarians.

Once again, date night … and Caffe Luna has been on our radar so we decided to check it out for our first time this past Sat (¹⁰⁄₃).
Atmosphere was chill, and we were seated promptly upon arrival.
We opened by splitting a Insalata di Cesare and Mozzarella Fresca — good stuff. The bread was really soft, too. Now, having read reviews about the Tortelli Crostacci, I had to try it, and man, was I not disappointed. It’s a great dish to have, especially on your first visit! Susan ordered one of the specials, the Fish Suppa. It was pretty good, too. We closed with an awesome cheesecake that I can’t remember the name of — argh (it had chocolate, and Bailey’s in it).
The wine (by the glass) selection could be better, but that’s a very minor ding in my book.
Note — while the food was really good, the service was awesome! I believe our waiter’s name was John. I personally remarked to him near the end of our meal that he was stellar.
Definitely going back …

Consistently fantastic! I love this place. The only thing that would make an experience at Café Luna better is if they could muffle some of the noise. Every single surface in this place reflects noise :) So be prepared to snuggle close to the special person you bring here so you can shout sweet nothings in their ear because this place is LOUD. The noise level is totally fine because the food is AWESOME! The Tortelli Crostacci is the best decision you will ever make. Only one word of caution on the menu– I have read reviews where people rave about the tiramisu… it has been totally lackluster and not worth it every time I get it here but I guess it’s to preference. I’m sure there are other amazing desserts here, I just haven’t found them yet because I kept hoping the bad tiramisu was an isolated experience.

If you’re reading this, I hope it’s not too late…
If you’ve already ordered, you still have time to call your server back and correct the egregious mistake you probably made. Even if your food has already come, you should really consider just boxing that up and placing another order.
Because there’s only one thing to get at Caffe Luna that will change your life (for the better), and that’s the Tortelli Crostacci.
Unfortunately for me, I did not order this. My girlfriend did.
There are really few things worse than having dinner envy, and I had a baddddd case of it as soon as I took a bite of her pasta deliciously stuffed with sweet crab meat, lobster and prawns, smothered in cream sauce.
I got the Taglierini del Golfo, fresh pasta with peas, shrimp and red peppers, also in cream sauce. This was very good. But one bite of her Tortelli and I knew I had messed up. Learn from me. Don’t have dinner envy. Order Tortelli Crostacci, prepare your utensils and bask in your pasta victory.
The décor and atmosphere of Luna were also fantastic. Very warm and friendly vibes, a few big tables with friends celebrating, smaller tables with couples on dates, families having a night out, really the whole gambit of clientele. Love all the windows facing out onto Hargett St, adds a cool element to people watch and see the city going by outside.
P. S. We also got the stuffed portobello mushroom appetizer, which was fantastic. Excellent tomato sauce to sponge up with complementary bread (they even gave us extra tomato sauce because we were clearly going bananas over the stuff). Would highly recommend.

This place ruined date night. The only redeeming factor of this place was the friendly waitress we had. That’s it. We were seated at a small table which had a family of fruit flies buzzing around our food all night. We got the melon and procuitto appetizer, which I was very excited about. Having lived in Italy for a little time, this is a dish I loved to order. I’ve never actually spit a dish out in my napkin before. My boyfriend tried it too and was shocked at HOW BAD it tasted. Not a good way to start the meal. The two entrées we had were both bland and saltless. Neither the pasta nor the sauce tasted homemade. Huge waste of money on something I could have made in ten minutes at home. Really sad this wasn’t the great Italian place that I had looked up.

Have I not reviewed Caffe Luna? Wow. Caffe Luna is my number one spot for italian food downtown. I am massively in love with every aspect of this place. This is my first choice for every date night — we even had our rehearsal dinner here the day before our wedding and my large, loud, demanding Italian NY family raved about it.
The service is always spot on. The owner, Parker Kennedy is always on the floor interacting with guests. Every server/​hostess I’ve had has been great at giving us a mix of alone time to enjoy our meals while remaining attentive and knowledgeable about menu options. The atmosphere is relaxed and romantic without feeling too formal or casual.
The building is old, beautiful and decorated with art (I think by the owner’s wife!). There are three separate dining areas that flow into each other and a back terrace. No joke, it reminds me of many of the restaurants I dined in in Italy.
Of course, the food is the point that drives my 5 stars home. It is phenomenal. I have tried many of their menu items and got to sample even more at my rehearsal dinner. My go to is the Fiocchi — fresh pasta stuffed with 4 cheese in a pear cream sauce. So rich — so so good. I have to stop myself from eating the whole plate immediately.
This is a place you can bring your date, your parents, your colleagues, your friends — it’s a versatile lunch and dinner spot that leaves me planning how quickly I can return.

Café Luna has a very colorful ambiance with a Tuscan feel and I was impressed with the high windows, hard wood floors and Sunflower-​colored walls. We ate here after a gala event late on Saturday and were able to get a nice meal at 9pm and were not rushed at all. The server was really chipper and kind and did a great job of refilling our water glasses and checking on us. The calamari were very fresh and crispy and the bread and olive oil were also very tasty. I had the linguine pescatore and my only complaint was that the noodles were not al dente. They were overcooked the sauce with the seafood was not as flavorful as it could have been. Overall, it is a solid 3 star in my book. The location in the hub of Moore Square is what makes this a great choice and I had not problem at all making a reservation on opentable.

Oh Caffe Luna, you made me so sad this weekend. I recommended you for a triple date with some friends and everything went badly.
Our server did not come over to take our drink orders until 20 minutes after we arrived. One of the girls at my table was just looking at him when he arrived and the first thing he said is «You look like you want to say something to me» — :blink blink: «No, what??» The server had a major attitude.
I ordered the Linguini Fra Diavolo which has been my favorite entrée since 2003 and he brought me the Linguini al Granchio and ran off before I could tell him the mistake. I never saw him again until he brought us our checks. He never asked about our meals.
It was just a horrible experience. I will not be back for a long time.

Pescatore only had 2 shrimp and muscles, one scallop. Flavor great just needed a little more meat

So I like Italian and have seen this spot and NEVER thought it serves Italian. Boy was I wrong. This is some of the best Italian I’ve had in Raleigh! I’m a guy from the Bronx, I have had plenty of Italian. I wish I’d come here sooner.
The party of 6 I was with all had great meals but everyone was jealous of my wife’s Farfalle al Salmone & my veal parm. They were incredible! Dessert was just as refreshing, the apple pie ala mode & tiramisu hit the spot. We WILL be back

We tried Caffe Luna for the first time Saturday night with some neighbors… and wont go back.
I’ll focus objectively on the biggest turn-​offs.
1. Touting Parker’s love for Italian wines, the server totally let us down when we asked her to describe the Talamonti Trebbiano d’Abruzzo compared to the Inama Soave Classico. After leaving to check her cheat sheet (which i have no issue with) she came back and described the Talamonti as ‘medium bodied and safe’ and the Inama as ‘medium bodied and more outside the box’. I thanked her but told her that wasn’t very helpful, and requested a bar manager or wine expert, but rather than send anyone to help she brought me printouts. Not the service i expect from a wine-​centric restaurant. We ordered the Talamonti and it was underwhelming. We also had to request an ice bucket after the bottle was just left out on the table. The wine koozie wasn’t very impressive either.
2. The food was lousy. I ordered Penne Cappesante because I was really wanting a good scallop and the spinach drew me in. The scallops were poached into a rubbery, flavorless, lifeless, pale white disappointment. The spinach i am 99% sure was frozen shredded spinach and tasted terrible. I picked around the spinach at just the pasta for a bit, but left about ¾ of my plate in a broken water/​olive oil mess.
My fiancé tried the Ravioli Fiorentina which was just plain tasting, and the red sauce had no depth. It tasted like plain store bought red sauce. Another disappointment.
On the up side, the bus-​boy service here is outstanding. Full waters and quick removal of finished dishes. I was a bit surprised when i had him take away my ¾ full plate and said no thank you to having it boxed he didn’t ask if there was any issue. Having already asked for a manager during the wine process with no response, i was just ready to get out of there.

A crying shame you can’t be bothered to post your dress code on your web page or Facebook wall, so I could have shown up appropriately prepared for the owner’s 50’s-era aesthetics. It’s 2015, do we not know how modern technology works? It’s funny, though… the hipster with the fedora on and the guy whose jeans had ripped knees, both seated in the dining room, somehow passed the dress code and the owner’s scrutinous gaze. I guess it only applies to the people who look too «poor» or «working class,» I suppose. Allegedly good food will always be eclipsed by a poor customer experience and owner’s attitude.
However, Tuscan Blu thanks you for the business.

I stopped into @Caffe_Luna before I went into one of the clubs downtown Raleigh. You always know it is better and cheaper to eat before you go out. I was impressed with the quality of the food that the serve. I even had the calamari when I went, and the owner told me that they only served the freshest calamari, not the end pieces of junk like you get at Olive Garden or Red Lobster.
Both the food, and the service were great.
#330

My wife and I decided to finally try this place for the first time tonight. Overall, it was okay. We both thought there is a lot more potential there. It was a Friday evening and we made reservations. We were seated promptly and the place was fairly crowded. It was a nice atmosphere there. The servers were all very nice. The menu has lots of unique sounding pastas. However, the food, at least what we ordered, was just okay.
To start, the complementary bread was great. Very very good bread. We each started with a salad. Both were good. However, I felt like they were a little over-​priced, especially my basic mixed green salad. Both of our pasta dishes were good but not great. My wife ordered the Fiocchi. The pasta itself was really good. The pear inside added a nice subtle touch. The downside though was the sauce. It was a very bland cheese sauce. No flavor. I think this dish would have been better complemented by a tomato-​based sauce, such as a tomato cream sauce, with more tomato than cream. I ordered the Tortelli Crostacci after a high recommendation from our server. I was very pleased with it; however, my sauce tasted very similar to my wife’s sauce. I think mine tasted better because I added parmesan cheese and ground pepper at the table. Even though I really enjoyed my dish, I thought the sauce could also have been improved.
Overall, I’m glad we finally tried this place. We would consider returning but maybe try different dishes.

I’ve been trying to dine at Caffe Luna a handful of times now, but it’s just never worked out. Until now. Mom and I went during Triangle Restaurant Week. Prior to arriving, we easily made a reservation on Open Table and our table was ready for us right away. What a wonderful Saturday night dinner! $ 20 fixed menu included an appetizer or salad and entrée.
Fresh bread and olive oil came out for us to snack on. Mom and I each had the Insalata del Pastore or Mixed Green Salad with Goat Cheese and Walnuts. It was fresh and absolutely delicious although it came with tomatoes which I don’t care for so I gladly passed those on to her plate.
We wrestled over what to order for our entrees, but ultimately got one of each of the items and then traded tastes. I had the Jumbo Stuffed Shells — with Ground Beef, Spinach, Sweet Italian Sausage, Parmesan, Ricotta & Mozzarella Cheeses. My God, I ate too fast because it was all just so good! Mom had the Salmone alla Luna — Fresh Atlantic Salmon Poached in White Wine with Lemon. To top it off, her dish was finished in a Creamy Mustard Sauce with the perfect texture.
I don’t recall which wines we had, but we each had a glass of wine. Both of them were wonderful and our water glasses were never neglected. The owner (or manager?) stopped by to check on us and was quite a gentleman. Service was superb from the hostess greeting to the gentleman who brought us water, our server’s attention, and the food runner who made sure we had just what we needed. Our small table in the front window gave us a great view to Hargett St. and the interior of the restaurant was quite elegant. As we left, we enjoyed reading the article on the wall in the entryway about the history of the restaurant.
Caffe Luna is surely a lovely little gem in downtown Raleigh that I intend on visiting again!

This wonderful Italian restaurant in downtown Raleigh is a fantastic value, with great food and a solid wine selection. My dish of Toretelli Crostacchi (pasta stuffed with lobster and crabmeat) was very good, but the other dishes around the table looked even better!
Raleigh’s downtown restaurant scene gets better with each passing visit, but Caffe Luna is one of the originals. It should definitely be on the menu for anyone visiting North Carolina’s capital city.