A nice little Italian joint
Dinner this week with Margaret, and I was looking for someplace new to go. Luna Ristorante sounded intriguing, so away we went.
The address is on Willow Pass Road in Concord, directly across from Todos Santos Plaza. It’s actually tucked into a side street, or passageway, or alley, that goes through to Concord Blvd. It’s confusing, but you’ll find it.
Luna is a small, very Italian place that looks like it makes most of its money on lunch–when I called for a reservation they said just come on down, and indeed there were only a couple of tables of people, which is a shame because the food is so good and the prices are so right.
Starting out with the smoked salmon bruschetta, we immediately noticed the not only the attractive presentation, but the fact that the host saw to it that we received 4 pieces , not the 3 that are standard for this dish. I’ve never understood why anything comes with 3 pieces, but I was pleased to see this attention to detail.
The ladies all had the Caesar salad:
Caesar salad with extra anchovies.
Gail and Lisa both enjoyed the extra anchovy, Margaret just shared hers. The key ingredient, the dressing, appeared to be house made, not just a commercial mix.
I had the butternut squash soup, and enjoyed every bit of it.
Butternut squash soup, thick and rich
Gail and Margaret both had the calamari steak. This is always a bit of a gamble–it is either great or awful, with little middle ground. Fortunately, Luna serves a good one, on a platter with potatoes and veggies:
Calamari Steak
One of the specials was linguine with crab. Who could pass that up?
Linguine, crab and broccoli.
Okay, it’s time for the chef to ease up on the parsley decorating the plates, but the dish was excellent. I have to approve of a dish where the sauce doesn’t overwhelm the pasta, but rather complements it.
Service was decent, but it certainly should be when there aren’t many customers. Prices are excellent–my linguine was about $20, and the bill for 4 of us, with an appetizer, drinks, salads and entrees, was just over $150. As you would expect, there is a good selection of wines. They don’t have a hard liquor license, so Margaret couldn’t have her martini. No place is perfect.
We like Luna Ristorante. Good Italian food not out of can, decent service, a nice location and great prices. Hard to ask for anything more.
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