Café Lunette — Restaurant in Halifax

Tres Tres Bonne👌👌!!! Located on Halifax’s iconic downtown waterfront boardwalk, Café Lunette is a French café, bistro. Inspired by the French “savoir-vivre”, Café Lunette celebrates the everyday indulgences. Whether it’s enjoying an incredible pastry 🥐 and cafe☕️ , spending an evening there for an unforgettable meal trying their classic French cuisine, prepared with the very best ingredients, this brand new café is the perfect escape - no airfare to France required 🇫🇷

Upon arrival, you’ll be greeted with a warm East Coast Bienvenue, inviting music, stunning ambiance and a vibrant open kitchen, to take in the preparation of your meal.

The fantastic wine and drink menu has been carefully curated for the menu, with an array of options. We loved the Lightfoot and Wolfville Bubbly (a must try local bubbly 🥂, if you are visiting the East Coast) La Vie En Rose, Spritz A Lunette and others. Have fun with trying something new. The café Lunette team were very helpful with pairing recommendations.

Hors d’Oeuvres: This was hard to narrow down and choose what to try, as everything on the starter menu looks incredible. We had the “melt-in-your-mouth” french onion soup. This was by far the best french onion soup, that I have ever had. It is filled with flavor and beautiful fromage and croûtons. We also had Fois Gras, that is a daily creation on the menu.

Main Course: We each ordered something different and exciting for our main course and we all loved it 😍 Among favourites were the Steak & Frites (hand cut beef fat frites, mâitre d’hôtel butter that are a must try!!!) the braised lamb with boulangère potato, sauce chasseur, and the seared halibut that was to die for. All portions were a perfect amount of food and oozing with flavour and taste. It is worth taking your time to savour every detail and flavor, ambiance and views of the open kitchen.

Dessert: oh-my-gosh! huge kudos to the pastry chefs on their beautifully designed dessert menu. Of course we had to try the CRÈME BRÛLÉE (wow!) - we also had the opera crêpe cake and baba au rhum with vanilla chantilly. If you can, save room for dessert and each order something different to try! Each dish was beautifully plated and some of the best desserts that we have ever had.

The service from the entire team at Café Lunette was over the top and very welcoming with their “Bienvenue au East Coast” charm and hospitality.

Day two: we were very fortunate to be able to return to Café Lunette the following morning during the brunch hour. As soon as you walk in, you’ll see how the café is alive with a vibrant vibe that is filled with the most divine smells, bright natural light and just an overall good feeling.

It is a completely different experience than the evening, in all of the best ways. It is so worth taking in an evening and daytime experience at Café Lunette. This is quickly going to be one of the hottest brunch locations in the city with an added bonus that it is nestled along Halifax’s iconic waterfront. The pastry team is next level 🙌 My search for the most French-like butter croissant in Nova Scotia is finally over (they are a must!!! you’ll smell them before you see them). We purchased a few extra to have the next day and they were just as fresh! A quick visit yielded some tasty treats taken to-go, including the buttery croissant and delicious hot coffee and lattes in the most beautifully branded crisp green to-go cups that are totally Instagram worthy(see my pics)! Perfectly designed with a warmer sleeve, for an après Lunette stroll along the waterfront 🌊. (does it get any more East Coast than this?!)

This is a place you will want to return to, time and delicious time again. Hurry and book a reservation at Café Lunette!

Merci Beaucoup, Café...

Visiting Halifax in July means a greater chance of good weather and lobster season. The time when these tasty crustaceans are at their prime and the reason Café Lunette offered a special Ooh La Lobster ($54) three-course menu.

But to start, an oyster ($3) to sample Nova Scotia’s array of seafood. It had a sweet finish, the restaurant using a lemon herb mignonette studded with chives, which wasn’t too pungent and just lightly flavoured the oyster.

It was a much better starter than the lobster bisque that had a bitter aftertaste. At first, I thought the bitterness stemmed from the Pernod, an anise liqueur, used in the soup but finally tracked it down to the crackers of all things. Once you scoop those out, the remaining soup was a bit salty but edible and incorporated a lot of lobster throughout.

The lobster spaghetti uses thicker strands of pasta and sauce, so everything sticks together well. The spaghetti had a great chewiness and while it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of lobster, the seafood was cut into small chunks and sprinkled throughout so each bite had a bit of lobster. It was a great main.

You can see the seafood in the truffled lobster and mushroom roll, but the truffle oil was too overpowering. I only had one bite and already my mouth was flooded with so much flavour that I can’t imagine having an entire sandwich. If you love decadence, you’ll want to try the lobster roll.

No lobster was used in the dessert but there was seaweed in the lemon posset. While it’s an interesting maritime addition, the seaweed does add an earthiness to the posset that’s an acquired taste. The consistency of the dessert was nice, almost like a panna cotta but thinner since it doesn’t incorporate gelatin.

The sea salt caramel crème brûlée was very rich and somehow both very sweet and salty. It’s a bit much on its own but when combined with the lemon posset the tanginess earthiness of that counteracts the flavours of the crème brûlée nicely so we ended up eating the desserts together.

Café Lunette’s cute atmosphere made us feel like we wanted to stay there and chat forever, the dining room is open and airy but there’s still a sense of privacy as ample space is given between tables. They are also so friendly – much like Halifax’s general populace – our waiter coming by to say goodbye as they were handing off shifts for the evening. We had a wonderful night and what a sad ending when we finally had to bid the café and its delicious...

As avid foodies, my husband and I are always eager to explore the vibrant restaurant scene in downtown Halifax. With new spots constantly emerging, we've been making our way through various establishments. For my husband's birthday, we decided to book a table at Café Lunette, excited for a Paris-inspired French dining experience.

Unfortunately, the evening turned out to be quite disappointing.

Despite having reservations, we were seated in what felt like a neglected area of the restaurant, right in a high-traffic zone near storage. It was clear that this section was less desirable, which set a negative tone for the evening.

Upon being seated, our server briefly took our drink orders but informed us shortly after that his shift was over, and a new server would be taking over. While this is not uncommon, it was surprising to see the initial server continue working nearby, yet rarely did our new server check in on us. It wasn’t particularly busy, so the lack of attention was noticeable.

Determined not to let the service affect our night, we were still hopeful about the food, having seen great reviews online. Unfortunately, this is where the experience continued to falter. I ordered the three-course lobster menu, starting with the lobster bisque. While it had a flavorful base, the sodium content was overwhelming after just a few bites. My husband had the Caesar salad, which he found to be good but unremarkable.

The second course was even more disappointing. I chose the lobster spaghetti, only to find it excessively salty, with pieces of lobster shell in the dish. When I kindly mentioned this to our server, he offered to redo the dish, but I declined. Instead, he offered a complimentary dessert, which was already included in the three-course menu.

My husband’s main course was chicken, and he too found it overly salty.

The service issues continued when I excused myself to use the restroom. Upon returning, we waited an additional 25 minutes for our server. Eventually, my husband had to flag down our initial server to request the bill. To top it off, we were charged for a dessert that I never received.

Overall, our experience at Café Lunette was far from what we had hoped for. From the subpar service to the poorly executed dishes, the evening did not meet our expectations. Regrettably, we will not be returning to this...