La Luna Ristorante — Restaurant in Branford

This is my second time getting pickup from this restaurant. The first time I had an awful experience with I’m assuming the hostess (An older woman with glasses). She was very rude to me. I was just picking up an online order for my coworkers and I. I thought ordering this second time, I would have a better experience because the food itself is delicious and didn’t want to write off the entirety of this restaurant from one employee. I had an even worse experience this time. It was about 7:45pm and they didn’t close until 9pm. I walked in to pick up an online order and no one was in the front. I waited about 5 minutes and walked around the restaurant. There were no customers or employees in sight. I walked past the bar and both sides of the dining area and still no one. At this point, I’m in the back almost in the kitchen and I see someone cleaning silverware I believe and I say excuse me. No response. I say again excuse me a bit louder and the employee said What? I said I’m here to pick up an online order. I am wearing my work uniform again, getting dinner for my coworkers and I. The employee asked me DoorDash or Uber eats pickup? I said no, neither. This was an online order for myself. She told me they don’t do online orders. I realized after she took her mask off, this was the same woman with glasses that was rude to me the first time I came here. I told her this was my second time ordering online. She went to the back, and another girl came out with my order and handed it to me. I’m really disappointed this restaurant has staff members that act like this to customers. I really enjoy the food but unfortunately won’t be returning due to these...

Googled 'restaurants near me" off 95 S in Bradford CT because we were starving. We had apparently missed the coastal restaurants and didn't feel like backtracking. LaLuna I was rated 4.3 stars. Hmmm! It is more of a function / event venue than restaurant. We had to hunt a waitress down, then we're seated in a whacky white room with corny Christmas decorations and laser generated flashing lights in front of a large bar sandwiched between a baby shower and 50th anniversary party. Luncheon special provided 2 three-course meals for $35 and included individual choice of either beef minestrone soup or a house /garden salad (both delicious and accompanied by 6 garlic knot rolls.) Entree: mostly pasta dishes (ex. Linguine and clams; eggplant Parmesan over pasta: shrimp.scampi (+$4); salmon (+$6), etc. Dessert: strawberry or chocolate cake The waitress upsold me to include blackened shrimp on my linguine and clams. I regretted this due to a different taste profile,.and the shrimp was very dry. The linguine and clams in and of itself was fine (extremely salty and full of garlic) and clams were whole in the shells, but minced throughout. My husband's eggplant Parm was over squishy pasta and watery sauce that tastes like unflavored hunts sauce from a can. Cake was surely leftover function cake, but delicious.

Result: we were stuffed for $63, including tip! Wish I'd stopped eating...

I regret the money I spent here today on really mediocre food. We had 3 appetizers, the Fried Mozzarella, the Eggplant, and the crab cakes. The Mozzarella was okay and the eggplant was good but the crab cakes were pretty awful. They were mushy and barely had a crisp on the outside plus it barely tasted of crab. The entrees weren’t great either but at that point I was already going through buyers remorse so I might as well finish the meal. The Sea Scallop and Shrimp Carbonata was grossly under seasoned and I believe it was supposed to have bacon in it but I didn’t taste any pieces? The Veal parmigiana was nothing special, and the beef short rib was horrendous. It was dry and had no real flavor to it, while the rissoto was kinda awful. The complimentary cheesecake they served me due to spilling water on me was stale, and definitely tasted like it had been left in the fridge for a while. It hasn’t been more than 20 mins since I left the restaurant and I’m already feeling a bit sick. Perhaps it was a good restaurant back in the day but now it’s only got mediocre food and...