Sol y Luna — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I had been wanting to try Sol y Luna for quite some time, because I had always heard that it was the parent restaurant to one of my favorite little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants: Señor Sol in Northridge. Well, I finally ate at Sol y Luna, and what a COLOSSAL let down!! The meal was absolutely nothing compared to the quality, portion size, and especially, the price point of Señor Sol....not even in the same league!! I am a big fan of Señor Sol in Northridge, where you can get the valley's best tacos for about $3-3.50 each. Their fish tacos are jaw-droppingly gigantic, offer overflowing toppings and fish, are incredibly fresh, and are intelligently held together with two corn tortillas for stability (as all soft tacos should be served)!! I ordered a fish taco at Sol y Luna (which they have the absolute chutzpah to charge a whopping $7 for!!), and it showed up at my table with barely ANY toppings on it whatsoever AND wrapped in a single corn tortilla.... which, of course, ripped after the first bite. Sol y Luna's fish taco was truly embarrassing compared to Señor Sol's masterpiece. How could these two restaurants be related in any way?!?! I ordered a potato taco as well (also at the criminally overpriced $7 price point!!), which was also quite anemic....small in size with barely any toppings on it. I ordered an Arnold Palmer to drink....expecting it to be mixed with fresh brewed tea and fresh squeezed lemonade since Sol y Luna is a sit down restaurant with waiter service. What I got tasted like tepid fountain tap tea mixed with high fructose corn syrup tap- style lemonade. The deeper into the meal at Sol y Luna, the more mind-boggling it was that they could have any relation at all with Señor Sol. The final blow was the bill. I had two meager à la carte tacos, split a similarly meager cheese quesadilla, and a drink....and my bill portion with a normal tip came out to nearly $30!!!! I felt really ripped off, especially since this same meal at Señor Sol would have had twice the amount of food, been much better quality, and all for about $13-14....not to mention Señor Sol's chips and avacado salsa are off the charts better than what Sol y Luna offered. Again, the question screams: How in the hell are these two restaurants under the same ownership?!?! I gave a generous second star to Sol y Luna because the tacos and quesadilla, while extremely lackluster and RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, were at least decent tasting. That said, do yourself a big favor: save a lot of money, and get much bigger portions of more quality food at Señor Sol just a mere 5 miles to the north.... it's...

Monday, Labor Day, my family visits Sol y Luna for a 75th BDay lunch. Party of 5 and they place us in a booth with a chair at the head of the table. I'm sitting at the head and it's a tight fit.

We order our drinks from Marta and some chips and salsa. Upon return our salsa man somehow looses the grip and drops the salsa in my wife's purse; pico, onion, and sauce is everywhere. My wife needed to dump everything out, wipe everything with many napkin swipes while trying to stay engaged in this festive lunch. Apologies were made by our salsa man and Marta.

We order. While waiting for our food I've now been bumped from behind by passing waiters/bussers, because I'm sitting at the head in the middle of the aisle, without acknowledgement. The fourth time was by a waiter carrying a large platter of dishes and he makes contact with my head; immediate reaction of "I'm sorry" and he continues on because his table is probably hungry.

Our food arrives. My mother's sope dish is wrong; she ordered two carnitas toppings and it came out as two chicken. Our food runner is confused because the ticket says chicken. Marta arrives and in Spanish says to him, "No! It's carnitas not chicken." Food runner shows her the ticket and she pushes him away saying in Spanish, "Fix this. Get the chicken!" (I speak Spanish). If the ticket says chicken, that means our server Marta submitted it as chicken.

About 10-min later my mother's sopes come out as ordered. In the meantime, the rest of us have begun our meal giving our 73-year old mother samples of our food so she can enjoy the festive lunch as a group.

Our bill arrives. No discount given, no manager appearances, and no final apologies to assure we would not be leaving on a sour note. No checking in on my wife to see if her purse isn't ruined. It smelled like pico in the car on the way home (we had to laugh).

But c'mon Sol y Luna! You dropped the ball in the "service department" and didn't even attone for it. I'm guessing nothing was ever said to management regarding these less than subtle gaffs. Maybe I should have been that guy and made a scene. You know, "squeaky wheel gets the oil". But that's not me.

This review is for anybody who wishes to hear...

5 of us met for lunch after a hike last Thursday. We requested separate checks and the waitress approved. After a series of service mishaps, for example, bringing dip but no chips, incorrect soup delivered and other minor mistakes, we finished our lunch and drinks.

After receiving our separate checks and attempting to pay server we were informed that we could not do separate checks -- we had one too many persons and the POS system could not handle it. I asked if we can just move one person to a different table (clerically speaking) and were denied. OK, we said, just give us a single check and we'll figure it out.

In the meantime, one of us had gotten up to go to bathroom and paid her bill at register. Thus the new check had overcharges -- partly our fault -- and asked for a re-do of check. It appears the server forgot or didn't understand because 20 minutes later I ran her down vacuuming the floors. We finally got the fixed check and paid the bill. But its not over...

I found a parking spot on street (2hr meter) and pulled into valet lot to turn around. The valet came up to me and I curiously asked how much for parking. He said its free, just tips. Great, thinking I'll get it valeted and give him at least what would have been meter money anyway....

After lunch I returned to car, pulled out all 3 of my $1 bills and he said its $6. What??? When I reminded him what he told me, he informed me that its free only between 12 and 3. Thanks.

I gave him my credit card and noticed a $7 dollar charge. I pointed that out and he further informed me that there is a $1 fee for using a credit card. He then went back to his booth pulled out a magnetic sign, stuck it to the post and said "See?" (it wasn't much after 3pm and i guess he wasn't fully set up for charging yet).

Thus the lunch service snafus also resulted in our lunch going past 3pm and and extra $7 on top of my portion of the food bill.

I gave 2 stars because the food is good and the priced are reasonable, otherwise zero stars. I've brought my hiking group to this spot after a Tarzana hike in the past,...