Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas — Restaurant in Durham

Dear Shawn, Let me start by saying, I had a chance to visit your restaurant in Durham with friends on Friday January 20th. The food and service were great! We had been several times and for one reason or another were not able to get in. We arrived about 7 pm and were told it would be about a 15 – 25-minute wait, which is understandable. The hostess took our information, and we headed to the bar to get a round of drinks. This is where things started to go wrong. We were standing where we could order drinks from the bar when an employee came through and stated to us “guys you are in the way and need to move”! We learned later her name was Hillary. She is a blonde female with tattoos on her arms. Two of us moved to the area where your bathrooms are located, and myself and one other stayed to order drinks. At that time the hostess advised some people at the bar that their table was ready, and we were able to sit down. Two in the group ordered drinks and paid. The other two were in the process of ordering drinks when the hostess came and advised us our table was ready. The bartender, who was very helpful with our drink orders, said she would have the drinks and tab transferred to our table. We were sitting at a four top next to the hostess stand and Annalise (not sure of spelling) promptly greeted us. We explained we had two more drinks coming from the bar. She explained Luna’s concept and asked if we had any questions, we had a couple and she did her best to answer them. She did explain this was her second night, but she did great! We placed an appetizer order of the avocados which were outstanding, even the two that were going to hold off for their dinners tried them. They were still talking about the appetizer while we were at Killer Queen. The two drinks came shortly after we placed our appetizer order. We then placed our dinner order for the empanadas, carnitas and the brisket. Again, the service and the food were very good, but the sides were outstanding. We were a little taken aback that our appetizer and mains were delivered at the same time, but we understood things happen, and if this was the worst that happened you would not be receiving this letter. This is where things happened that in my opinion were totally uncalled for. Annalise came over to check on our dinner, and I asked for another cocktail. She pulled up our order on her hand held to find my drink, and I explained to her I had gotten mine at the bar. That’s when I noticed there was a caipirinha on our bill that we had not ordered. I inquired if you make traditional caipirinhas and she said yes. I asked if you have cachaça? Annalise inquired what that was, and I explained to her it was a Brazilian cane sugar spirit. It was at that time Hillary came over and told me you do have cachaça. I asked again if you make a traditional caipirinha like you would get in Rio or São Paulo? Hillary explained that you make a traditional caipirinha that great! Based on that information I ordered a caipirinha. Annalise came back in a few minutes with a drink that was not a traditional caipirinha. I tasted it and explained to Annalise that it was not a caipirinha. Within seconds Hillary was at our table asking if something was wrong. I explained the drink was not a true caipirinha. Hillary then stated that the drink was made how Luna makes your caipirinha. I explained that I asked before ordering if you made a traditional caipirinha like I would get in Rio or São Paulo, and you said yes. Hillary reached over and literally snatched my drink and water glass off the table and walked away. The bartender in the midst of all of this was at the other end of the table confirming the drinks that she had sent over earlier that we had ordered at the bar. Someone else at the table inquired about your caipirinhas, and we were told by the bartender that yours are not traditional caipirinhas. The bartender added that Luna makes them several...

I really wanted to like this place. My wife is a Southerner (NC FTW!) and my father's family is from Argentina; I lived there for some time as a child. The concept seemed great—American South meets South American. The execution and service were the issues.

I arrived a few minutes ahead of the rest of my party of 4. They couldn't seat us until at least half our party had arrived. I told the hostess that my wife has a back injury and couldn't wait for another table. My wife had actually just called and the hostess had said it was a 45 min wait, so we really needed that free table. She just had a blank face and didn't seem to care. I then told her I had seen our friends pull into the Corcoran St garage behind me. The hostess was not at all sympathetic. She should not be working in customer service. Funny how Angus Barn doesn't mind if you hold a table for your party, but this place is too good for that. Since she apparently could not take me at my word, it was lucky that my friends walked in while I was calling them. They sat us and we waited.

Nothing was brought to the table such as bread or biscuits, like is my experience from both Southern American and Southern hospitality, but I Won't deduct stars for that.

Our server arrived and, without introducing herself, went straight into the specials. Since I don't know her name, I'll call her tat girl (she had tattoos).

I was sad to see that there was no traditional Argentine empanada offered (ground beef, hard boiled eggs, green olives, raisins--sounds weird but tastes awesome!), especially since it was mentioned in Greg Cox's review. So, we all ordered the pulled pork and chicken empanadas with mac n cheese. I had a hard workout that afternoon and was in need of some protein, so I tried to get my party to split an order of chicken with me; but they're all light eaters. My wife said we could come back, although we now probably won't. The food came out fairly quickly, served by a pleasant guy with long hair.

Unfortunately, the empanadas looked overdone (dark brown instead of yellow/golden pastry). The fillings, particularly the pulled pork, were overcooked as well. The mac n cheese was lukewarm. The texture was interesting, but I had to shovel it down before it just got cold.

Despite the disappointment, I managed to convince my party to order some dessert. I love dulce de leche, so split that empanada with my friends. My wife is weird and hates dulce de leche, so she had the pecan pie one. These empanadas were almost perfect (yellow/golden, thinner, flakier pastry), and the combination with the superb vanilla ice cream was sublime. So they know how to make good empanadas but are inconsistent? I'll probably never find out.

By this point, I would have given them 2-3 stars (due to the great dessert). However, once we got the check and sat with our friends interacting a bit (again, it had been 3 months since we'd seen them), tat girl lost those stars. Despite the heat from the poor A/C, she never came back to refill our empty glasses of water. My wife told me when we left that she was trying to get us to leave. I would never have done that to a customer, and it made me wish I hadn't tipped her as much as I did.

I really wish I had said something. I might even call tonight. I'll give it to the long haired guy, he did ask about our food. But my one friend is very nice and never says anything negative. It had been months since I'd seen him and his girlfriend and I didn't want to spoil the occasion for them. This morning though he said that he wouldn't go back. I prefer to provide feedback, as I've worked in restaurants and customer service and we've always benefited from our most constructively...

I visited the restaurant with friends on August 21st. Our total party was 7 people. The waiter offered to split the bill for us and brought us the card reader to the table. Unfortunately, after I had already paid I realized I was mistakenly charged for another person in our parties drink (the card reader was not itemized and thus I did not catch the mistake in the moment which is my fault). This could be remedied amongst friends although if it were too challenging to have split the checks I wish our waiter would have expressed this. What I found really disturbing was a $53 dollar charge on my credit card when my bill total at the table with the card reader came out to $33 (I had one appetizer, one side and one cocktail although I was mistakenly charged for two cocktails). I like to think this is an honest mistake but I am now very hesitant to go back. The food was good but multiple billing issues have left a sour taste in my mouth. I hope the restaurant can fix these issues to keep patrons coming back because I did enjoy my meal.

Update: I guess I'm not surprised about the owner's response after reading his responses to other reviewers. As stated in my above response, the server made a mistake and charged me for one of my friends drinks. Not that big of an issue. The REAL problem is a $20 more charge to my credit card above the cost of that additional drink I paid for. I assure you while our service was good I would not be leaving ANYONE a 100% tip. As for not addressing this sooner, I unfortunately do not go home and check my credit card bill after every transaction I make and thus, check it before I pay off my bill every month. If you go home after every transaction and check your credit card bill then kudos to you! I'm glad you have the free time for that.

So to make things clear, your establishment was in fact paid for my friend's drink (a mango margarita $8), my meal cost (aguacate @ $8.25, maduros at $3.50, 1 mango margarita $8), and a 20% tip, and tax. I ONLY contested the $20 additional charge to my credit card statement because I am not trying to rip off a business nor would I ever not tip a server appropriately. I would leave my contact information to discuss this further but I do not have the time nor the energy to deal with people such as yourself. Having worked in the service industry prior, I recognize that the customer is not always correct, but I do believe it is absolutely prudent to treat other people with respect and you definitely do not do that. There is no sense of responsibility in any of your interactions on this platform and instead you resort to belittling your customers and pointing the finger in their direction. I wish no ill will on anyone trying to make a living, including business owners and servers employed by them, but I truly cannot support a business that treats its customers in such an...