The Cafe Moonlight — Restaurant in Vincennes

We had dinner here, and typically I would wait for a second try before being as harsh as I intend to be, but the problem here is structural. Watch for it.

Coming in the door the greeting was unenthusiastic at best, and the service (one of the things the customer pays for, mind you) was mediocre. It doesn’t matter if you’re “only interested in drinks to start with” (or close enough to that to make no difference); if the customer was interested in other things to start — and he was, that’s what matters. Adjust, and stop scrolling through your phone. The service (one of the things the customer pays for, recall) got better as the evening progressed, but it never got to be notably good. It cost the overall rating a star and him on the tip. (The tip was decent, mind you, but not as good as it would have been.)

The appetizer was the build-your-own bruschetta, which was the first bright spot of the evening, quite good. He got the stuffed pork with the asparagus and mash, while she got the filet with beans and mash.

The mash was quite respectable — not fabulous, but fabulous in mash is difficult and rare, so we couldn’t reasonably expect better. The asparagus very good, maybe cooked a bit past ideal, but very good; on the whole I would have preferred it grilled, though. The green beans, on the other hand, were definitely overcooked, to the point that the added bacon and onion was no help; it wasn’t mush exactly, but it was in the neighborhood.

The filet was fine, but it was about a grade underdone. (Those who advocate undercooking meat deserve the same opprobrium as those who endorse overcooking it, and in places where flogging is prohibited should at least be ignored as raving lunatics.) The stuffed pork, on the other hand was the star of the night. It sounded, and looked at first, a little odd, but it was a delight. I might quibble about the details, but it is a first rate work of culinary imagination, and the execution left nothing to be desired.

The desserts were quite serviceable. The crust of the crème brûlée was within the acceptable range of brittleness, and the crème anglaise was also in the acceptable range. (I’ve had something approaching the ideal crust maybe twice, and always prepared by someone who spoke French fluently.) The chocolate-something cake (I lost interest at the word ‘cheesecake’.) was (I’m told) chocolatey but plain, and a nice contrast to the ice cream, though maybe a bit too plain. The ice cream, on the other hand (how many hands is that now?) was excellent, so maybe the cake just suffered in comparison. (Pro tip: Change the cake, not the ice cream.)

And now (at long last!) we come to the cause for the inordinate haste of this review, and it comes in the form of a consumer advisory alert: DO NOT BUY THE WINE!! The wine wasn’t exactly swill, but it is decidedly mediocre. Here we owe the server a debt of thanks (which kept his tip from being lower) for discouraging us from getting a bottle (which was sized in a jeroboam or a magnum or such). A single glass of it was drinkable, just, but a bottle would have left me searching for a potted plant to drown. You might object that I only had one wine on the list, which I readily concede. I have two sound responses: a) The same people made several of the wines on the list; ii) The same person who chose the wine we had presumably chose the others. Both the maker and chooser should consider different lines of work, such as shoe sales.

But the insult added to the injury of this wine is that we were charged what would be Big City Prices™ for a much better wine for this stuff that is an insult to the vintner’s and enologist’s art. I don’t mind paying for what I get, but I most assuredly didn’t get what I paid for. You can look it up — I did afterwards; this stuff is marketed as bargain-basement discount wine, and we were charged Big City Prices™ for a very good (but not premier) wine.

In sum, we had a please dinner overall, but I am compelled to repeat my consumer advisory:

DO NOT BUY THE WINE!!

You can...

I was a server for 5 years so I’m not one to ever complain, much less go out of my way to leave a negative review, but I’ve never had such a terrible experience with a server in my life.

Our server was BEYOND rude. My grandma and I drove from terre haute to have a girls day, which is rare for us. We walked in and the server looked annoyed with our presence and rolled his eyes when we asked for a high chair for my infant. He took 15 minutes to come back for our order-there was one other table besides us who already had their meal. He got very snarky with my grandmother when she asked about her tea

My grandma asked if the sandwich was served cold or hot and our server rolled his eyes at her and was condescending and snarky in his response. He also repeatedly interrupted us when we were trying to order and was just extremely rude to the point we were nervous to ask what sides they had So we just ordered fries. We left him a tip out of principle but i considered not leaving him one because he was so rude-and I’ve never considered not leaving a tip before in my life. Even if the service is just not good, I always leave at least 30%. He got 15% and was lucky he even got that.

The food was mediocre and pricey for what it was. Within an hour, my grandma and I were both sick to our stomachs and had to cut our trip short due to stomach issues if you know what I mean…

All in all, it was not a good experience and it was the first, last, and only time we will ever stop at the Moonlight Cafe which is a shame as we always want to support local...

I've never had dinner here before this was the first time for dinner I've had lunch here on occasion. I would've given a five star review but the service was very slow and 2 stars at best. It could have been more prompt and efficient. We waited for seven minutes before our first acknowledgement by our waiter/ server. It was just my girlfriend and myself. Once the waiter finally came to the table and took our order a lot time had lapse. Never once did come to ask how the food was once our main entrée was delivered. He asked how everything was when he presented the check. During the wait for him to return to the table to take our dessert order, there was a bus boy at the nearby table clearing another table. I asked him to take a plate that was left on our table and he said that the servers job I don't do that. I told him no you need to take it now and he gave me a rather rude look and stare. The intervals from which the waiter came back to the table was very long. It would've helped if the chairs had been padded but they were hard with like school room chairs. The dining room was decorated very nice and the decor and artwork is very tasteful. Music was a little loud. The food was exceptionally good from the appetizer to the main course to our dessert. It was exceptional. That is five stars ONLY - The service really was a lot to be desired for a good...