Moona — Restaurant in Cambridge

After what felt like an eternity of waiting (a month to be exact), our anticipation for our visit to Moona, an Eastern Mediterranean & Arabic restaurant, reached its peak. This intimate, mosaic-tiled gem is perfect for any occasion, but it's especially ideal for date nights.

Four of us embarked on this flavorful adventure and the place was bustling with patrons throughout our two and a half hour culinary escapade. We decided to embrace the communal dining spirit by ordering and sharing dishes instead of going the traditional appetizer and main course route.

Round 1:

Dips Plate (mustard labneh, hummus, smoked baba, olives, pickles) Batata Harra (spicy crispy potatoes, cilantro, and lemon) Fattoush Salad The smoked baba ganoush stole the spotlight, seducing our palates with its irresistible smokiness. The Fattoush Salad was a reliable choice, and the Batata Harra was a revelation - crispy, tangy, and just the right amount of heat. Hot potatoes indeed!

Round 2: Msakhan Duck Rolls

Eggplant Fatteh Mushroom Farro Lamb Burger Round 2 was a battle between the Eggplant Fatteh and the Lamb Burger, both of which emerged as the undisputed stars of this round. The Lamb Burger's perfect harmony of flavors and textures made us swoon, while the Eggplant Fatteh's delectable layers had us speechless. The Mushroom Farro and the spicy Duck Rolls were also a delightful addition to our gastronomic odyssey.

Round 3: Slow-cooked Lamb Shoulder

As a self-proclaimed lamb connoisseur, I can attest that Moona's slow-cooked lamb shoulder was nothing short of heavenly. It was so good that my inner carnivore emerged and devoured the plate in no time. The added touch of dates was surprisingly delightful, making it a true symphony of flavors.

Round 4 (Desserts): Hallawa Cheesecake & Kunafeh

I'm usually quite picky when it comes to desserts, but Moona's Hallawa Cheesecake and Kunafeh had me singing their praises. Both were stunningly delicious and served as the perfect finale to our feast.

To wash everything down, I indulged in a pomegranate, cardamom, and mint lemonade mocktail. Whoever came up with this concoction deserves a medal – I had four refills and could have easily had more!

Despite the packed house, the service was decent, and our food arrived with fairly good timing. Just remember to be patient and perhaps order some appetizers if you're on the verge of being hangry.

Lastly, we recommend taking an Uber to Moona, as parking might be a bit of a challenge. Overall, we were thoroughly impressed with Moona's ambiance, menu, and the talents of the chefs. We can't wait to return and explore the rest...

Took my wife here for her birthday after reserving a table on Resy. The location is in a nice part of Cambridge but you’ll find the dining area of the restaurant to be fairly limited in space. Because of the limited space it was quite loud and hard to hold a conversation or even hear the waiter. For this reason I wasn’t a huge fan of the ambiance. Upon glancing at the menu you’ll find the majority of it is alcoholic drinks and wines with a limited selection of small-plate food options. It was cool to see some contemporary renditions of middle eastern cuisine but it was definitely not what I would consider authentic. We ordered the grilled blue fish, Eggplant Fatteh, Kibbeh Dip, Arayes Kofte, and Stuffed grape leaves. Everything was mostly good in flavor. The kibbeh dip was bright in flavor but left more to be desired. The eggplant Fatteh was really tasty because it’s just hard to mess up with fried eggplant. We really loved the grilled blue fish with the perfectly dressed slaw on the side. There was too much going on with the stuffed grape leaves because of the short rib on top. And overall my favorite was the arayes Kofte because of the crispy bread stuffed with an elegantly spiced patty of meat.

For a small plate mezze type restaurant I would expect that the plates come out fairly consistently. At one point we were waiting a good 10 minutes between dishes. I would have wished the service was better timed. Moreover, the way the menu was written made it difficult to choose what to order. We had to ask a lot of clarifying questions to understand better exactly what we would be ordering.

Food was good overall, but I don’t think this restaurant is anything worth...

Loved the food. Service was beyond poor; Christine W ran the room - she was aggressive, arrogant and profoundly rude, impatient and generally a very unpleasant person.

Things that came out of her mouth: After we failed to order booze, she exclaimed “that’s it?” and huffed away as though she thought the total of the bill wouldn't be worth her time.

As if we were taking too long to order, she proceeded to announce that she would just order for our table of 6, because she knew what was good. When we asked for certain things, she insisted “I got this, I know how to do this, quantities etc.,” and basically grabbed the menu out of my partner’s hand.

A friend commented that my partner is usually in charge of ordering and she rudely scoffed “I can tell, will the queen bee be ok?” In taking control, she didn’t bother to ask about allergies or aversions and in fact said “there are 6 of you, you will figure it out.”

So the food proceeded to come out. There were things that we simply would not have ordered should she have bothered to ask and things we asked to be included (steak) which were excluded. She came over and placed her hands on my partner’s shoulders and said “is everyone doing ok, is the queen bee satisfied?” It was mocking and inappropriate.

When we didn’t order desserts she said “really???” in distaste, gave us our bill, then rudely just after we paid announced, “ guys, can we have this table back, things are starting to pile up at the door.” No please, no thank you.” It was a Monday night…. And we had not been there too hours.

We will...