3J's Cafe — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I give 2 stars because the waitress did the right thing by not charging us. I do NOT give 3 stars because we had to ask her not to charge us.

Story below:

We came to Luna because we googled breakfast places, and it seemed pretty popular. Had we known about Common Wealth next door, Luna wouldn't have even been an option (their menu is superior to Luna's).

Luna's is definitely crowded and cramped. Their outdoor furniture leaves much to be desired (in fact, one of the chairs was missing important back support pieces), and our table wasn't cleaned well.

The waitress spoke to us, seated us, stepped away, and then proceeded to come back out and take orders for a party that seated themselves after us.

When we did order, We started with waters for everyone, and then a cappuccino, an orange juice, and a hot apple cider. My water jar had what I assume were coffee grounds on the lip of the jar where my mouth is supposed to drink from. We also requested straws. The straws came out bare, not wrapped in paper. To the waitress's credit, she carried them to us in a napkin, but it was still kinda gross.

We placed our food order, and she brought us our drinks. While we were waiting on our order, we checked out the menu for Common Wealth (next door), and were immediately sorry we didn't go there. Then the waitress came out and informed us that they were out of orange juice. This is supposed to be a brunch place on a brunch day, but whatever; things happen. At the moment, it wasn't a big deal. The rest of our drinks came out, and we were just waiting on our food.

We decided that since we already ordered and had our drinks, that we would stay at Luna. We began drinking our drinks - which weren't exactly hot - and then the waitress came back out a few minutes later (again, this is after she had brought us our drinks and we had started drinking them) to tell us they had run out of BATTER. At a brunch place before 1pm on a big brunch day (Sunday), they ran out of the ingredient needed for most of their breakfast/brunch menu. We didn't want anything else, and at this point we preferred to just go to Common Wealth anyway. Our not-very-hot drinks were going to be almost $10, and after the experience we had, it would have been good judgment on the waitress's part to just waive the bill for the two drinks we actually got. She did not do that. So I had to request that she waive it based on our experience there, which she agreed to do.

Then we quite thankfully left and went to...

My most enjoyable moment at Cafe Luna was viewing it from a distance.  As I approached the tiny door of the establishment I was quickly greeted by a weathered waitress who seemed confused that a large group of 5 would be seeking nourishment in the form of brunch.  After glaring at us in disgust she was quick to profess that a table of 5 was just not going to be possible.  We briefly gave her a visual demonstration of adding a fifth chair to one of the many empty outdoor tables and she only then seemed open to the possibility of feeding us. She then sat us at a table bookended on one side with a parking meter. The atmosphere was that of screaming children, tourists paying for parking, and bees. So many bees. In fact I believe our table was placed on top of a sacred bee burial ground and thus was disturbing generations of murderous bloodthirsty zombees. The menu was nicely laid out and easy to read. Our waitress arrived and we efficiently placed orders for food and coffee. After placing our coffee order the waitress disappeared and reappeared quickly with 3 homely mugs of coffee. Whilst reaching to deliver said coffee to the tabletop she made direct eye contact with one of the patrons in my group and proceeded to eject 75% of the coffee volume directly on his shorts and legs. While maintaining eye contact with him she asked whether she spilled on him as if it were a question and not a known fact of everyone in the vicinity. Without waiting for an answer she immediately turned around and left, presumably to begin accosting additional restaurant patrons. At this point a kind tourist (likely presuming we were parking attendants due to our proximity to the meter) asked us how to work the parking meter. After finding out that we didn't know, he continued to grace our brunch with his presence as we enjoyed the waterfallesque flow of 106 nickels being individually dropped into the parking machine. It was then that our food was brought out to us by what I can only presume was a sentient swarm of bees. The Philly Bagel was a good choice and I enjoyed it. The make your own omelet, however, was unexpectedly small, especially for the hungry adult male in my party. Luckily, it was likely that he supplemented by inadvertently consuming several bees throughout the meal. Cash only was muttered as we received our nondivided check. All in all I rate the brunch...

I was visiting Philadelphia and was so excited to come across this cafe but was very disappointed with the food...Seriously don’t go there if you have another choice. I ordered early bird sandwich. Multigrain bread with egg, avocado, cilantro and turkey. I decided to wash my hands in the restroom. On the way to the restroom I passed by the kitchen . It is an open space and anyone can see what is going on in there. To my surprise none of the employees were wearing sanitary gloves and one of the employees was texting on the phone with one hand and making food with another hand. These are very unsanitary and unhygienic conditions for making food. When my sandwich arrived it was missing egg and avocado ( mind that the price was $10.50) it came with two pieces of bread and few pieces of turkey in between. I told the waitress that half of the stuff it is supposed to be there is not. She apologized and brought the missing egg and avocado separate. I talked to the manager telling her that if the person in the kitchen would not be texting on the phone and making food at the same time they had better chance getting the order right. And I told her that who knows where that phone was before and now she is texting on it and touching all the food with the same hand....how unhygienic is that? She said well our employees are wearing gloves. That was such a big LIE!!! I have not seen one of them wearing gloves. I could tell the manager was just trying to get rid of me and there was no sincerity in her action and plainly tells me in my face something which is not true...Such a cute place but so sad that the food is made in such an unsanitary conditions. Good way for customers to pick up extra germs and get sick from it. If you don’t want to be one of the victims then go eat somewhere else. Plenty of other places nearby. Hopefully the owner of this place will read this and take...