Luna Inspired Street Food — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

My boyfriend and I decided to choose Luna's after reading about their street food concept.

The margaritas were actually pretty good with the seasoning on the rim. We enjoyed the pork belly bao buns (took a while for them to come out though).

My boyfriend ordered the Cali burrito. He first received a lamb gyro. We were like what since the waitress stated "here's your Cali burrito!" We were very confused since this showed the wait staff does not know their own menu.

I ordered the cuban street plate. I have to add here that my boyfriend is from Cuba and his family has cooked countless cuban dishes for me that are exquisite. I want to add that there is no actual cuban "street food". They serve take out food through coffee windows, such as espresso with pastries or croquettes (little fried ham and cheese sticks) or maybe a cuban sandwich but still, that isn't really street food since they don't do street carts or restaurants like that.

Anyways, my actual food was supposed to be mojo chicken, pulled pork, mango salsa, yellow rice and black beans. The mojo chicken is NOT mojo chicken - this was a bland reheated pulled chicken with maybe salt. Mojo chicken is supposed to be orange, lime and other citrus flavors with oil. If you want real good mojo to marinate chicken, go to wegmans and buy Badia mojo marinade (it is great for fajitas!). The pulled pork was fine but not great. The yellow rice was reheated and dry. The black beans were dry and cracked. The only flavor was the mango salsa which shouldn't be the main flavor since Cubans don't cook with mango!!! Oh, the fried plantains were good since you cannot mess those up at all. I feel like the owner or whoever just googled "cuban street food" and this is what they came up with.

The server who brought out food told me "careful the plate is hot!" Which is always a huge red flag to me which means they microwaved the food since when I ate some, the food was cold to lukewarm but the plate was super hot!

The wait was long, food was okay, drinks were good. Server wasn't very attentive but we could tell there was no leadership. The servers were all over the place and didn't have priority of who was seated. The poor waiter brought back 4 dishes from other tables during our wait. Should've been another red...

We visited this restaurant for the first time on September 1st of this year. I found it on a Google maps search. Made our way there and we sat outside. We were a party of 6 and our appetites were raging as we had been walking all day.

Our waitress I believe was Haley? I apologize to say I don’t remember. Either way she was absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, she was all by herself. The only waitress for the entire restaurant. She was hustling the entire time we were there.

She took our order but we didn’t receive it for AWHILE as I saw there was only 1 cook. So technically they were the only 2 servicing the restaurant. Plus, they were also doing take out and door dash at the same time! She was trying so hard to keep up with EVERYTHING. Taking orders, checking on customers, bussing tables, giving out door dash orders. The level of professionalism was unbelievable. She did it all with a smile and patience.

At one point it was like 9-9:15 and it was almost closing time and people were still coming. My table were telling people that it was more than an hour wait to deter them from stepping foot in the door to give her a breather.

We eventually received our food, apologize that I don’t remember what we all order but it was ok. I don’t blame the cook as he was the only cook for all these orders!!! By himself he was also hustling.

I went up to the bar area and eventually asked her why she was the only waitress for the night, her response hurt me when she said that the other employees called out. So she had been working a double shift because of it. And will be working a double the following day. To be back by 8am to clean and then open at 9. That’s disgraceful.

I actually helped bus our table and another table to just give her a hand with the load. She thanked me and I said “girl you’ve been a rockstar and I’m sorry you’ve done it alone tonight”.

We spent a considerable amount of money during our visit and being that it was our first time there I’m disappointed.

I hope she eventually got help is what my...

The food is average; the best thing we had on the menu was the chicken tenders. The Mac and cheese (I ordered the BBQ Shortrib Mac) and the rice in the Sticky Pineapple Chicken bowl, could've been much warmer. Very expensive menu. Lastly, (for the underperforming stuff) it seems to be common knowledge among Ithaca folk that this place has the habit of getting it's to go orders wrong at times.

HOWEVER

We came to this place 3 of the 4 nights we stayed in Ithaca, and on Sunday, we came twice for dinner; one without drinks, and one for drinks. So yes. We visited this location 4 times almost back to back. Yea the food is average in general, but it's one of the only places open late... Later than the bars in the commons late. Making it a great spot to hit after a full day of exploring Ithaca/talking to students. For some reason, the college town location, which is allegedly open til 1am every day, did not show up during our search for dinner, so we stuck with this one. Which closes at 1:30am Friday, and 11pm on Sunday and Monday (days we went). Each time I had drinks, I had the Mason Jar Sangria. Hands down one of the best drinks I've had, and it got better each time I had it. Very strong, and tasted great! We also tried the Running strong, the Luna G+T, the mango margarita, and the John Daly. They were all good, but the sangria took it.

We were served by Sam, Jordan, and Toni, and they were amazing, down to earth, went above and beyond, easy to talk to and knowledgeable about the neighborhood. Honestly, they're a big reason why I rated this place as highly as I did. Them, the chicken, and the drinks.

If only they served coffee haha

But in all seriousness, for a town where everything closes at 5pm, 10pm or 1am, this place was a consistent source of grub, and great drinks. Would recommend to anyone...