Luna Blu

I went to Luna Blu for lunch today to use a Groupon since it was literally on the brink of expiring. The Groupon requires you to make a reservation which I was able to do with no problem. I work in the area and have always passed Luna Blu but never went there for lunch. After seeing a deal on Groupon, I figured I’d take advantage and give this place a try. My friend and coworker, who joined me for lunch today, has been here a few times, mostly ordering food to go.
Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by the hostess who immediately sat us at a table and provided us with our special Groupon lunch menus. The Groupon was for lunch for 2 people. It included an appetizer to share, 2 entrees, and 2 glasses of wine for $ 22. I happened to purchase my Groupon when Groupon was having a sale so I paid even less! Score!
The wine selection was very limited to a red wine (Malbec, I think) and a white wine (Pinot Grigio). We went with the white wine. For an appetizer, we had the crab bruschetta. Honestly, I wasn’t the most excited for the appetizers so I took a gamble with the appetizer selection and to my surprise, the crab bruschetta was really delicious! I would certainly get it again. My friend selected Spaghetti al Ragu as her entrée, substituting the spaghetti for angel hair pasta. I selected the Penne Mare e Monte as my entrée. This consists of penne pasta with crabmeat, shrimp, and mushrooms in a creamy rose sauce. Again, food was delicious. No complaints there at all.
The only thing that I didn’t like was that the service seemed a little slow, especially since we only had an hour. Also, the restaurant is fairly small so you may be sitting in close proximity to the next table. However, the staff was very nice and willing to explain anything on the menu to us if we had questions. I will definitely be coming back even if I just order food to go. I was very happy with my food.

Enticed to visit Luna Blu by Groupon deal and glad we did. Quaint restaurant with many selections to choose from. The wife has a wheat allergy and was thrilled to have so many non-​wheat choices which is generally not found elsewhere. My side salad was large, very fresh and had many items included. We both had pasta dishes which were very good-​mine a red sauce with shrimp and crab-​would surely choose again. Too full to try dessert but also had nice glass of Italian Pinot Grigio with each meal. Will definitely visit again.

4 great meals! All of us did the 4 courses for $ 35. Everything was fresh and full of taste. Wait staff (Christina) was perfect. Waiting on the deserts now.

Make no mistake about Luna Blu: the food is good and the staff is friendly. I cannot agree with the $$ rating here, as its prices are higher than most restaurants in that category. If you go with the LivingSocial/​Groupon deal for a fixed price menu on Tuesday (as I did), then the restaurant prices itself into the $$ range, and delivers much better value (
Menu:
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Décor/​atmosphere: hard to pin down. More than anything, I would call Luna Blu cramped. On some nights, when you’re not seated next to a large family, it might be accurate to call this intimate or cozy. While I was comfortable, I could see that the place was nearly at capacity and the staff had to maneuver pretty frequently around guests. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a formal experience (the menu for the fixed price menu was finally found after a few moments of digging for the exact dog-​eared piece of paper it was on), but most people were wearing comfortably informal attire (collared shirts and slacks). Light music played in the background, and there was a reasonably successful attempt at things being «blue» in accordance with the name.
Bar/​drinks: each of us got a glass of wine with our meal. The selection from which we could choose was understandably limited (there were about 5 to choose from), but there was an extensive wine list – as you’d hope at an Italian joint. I had a Montepulciano and was pleased to find that the glass was only 8 dollars when I ordered another – outstanding restaurant value for the quality of the wine. This is a «wine bar» according to Unilocal… I did not see an area to come and simply drink wine, but they do have half-​priced wine bottles on Monday and Wednesday, along with special wine meals at the end of each month. From what I saw, the wine-​lover will be pleased but probably not thrilled with the selection and prices here.
Food: easily the strong point of the experience. The fixed-​price menu allowed the customer to choose from about 8 items. Erica, our very friendly waitress, was kind enough to leave the full menu with descriptions of the meals. She also explained to us the house favorites and the most unique dishes available. My date opted for the sea bass (barracudi caprase) and I ordered the crab, shrimp, and mushroom penne (penne mare et monte). We also shared the calamari appetizer. For dessert, we ordered the chocolate mousse. They also brought us some good bread to dip in olive oil.
The calamari was fine – nothing outrageously good but certainly tasty in a tomato sauce. The seabass was fresh and served over basil, tomato, and mozzarella, but the penne was the star of the meal. The rose sauce, which Erica recommended, had us both raving and dipping our bread in it. The pasta and seafood in the dish also impressed. The dessert, a large wine glass full of chocolate mousse and a few slices of strawberry, literally left a great taste in our mouths – simply divine.
Service: I have sang Erica’s praises already, but another waiter also came by to refill our water. Everyone was kind and attentive. I worried at first, as the LivingSocial deal requires a reservation to be used (only saw that the day I went to redeem it). Luckily, they told me to come on in as they had space. I am also pleased to report that Groupon/​LivingSocial customers are not treated like second-​class guests at Luna Blu… some establishments have treated me that way. While the presentation could use some work (maybe a nicer/​laminated menu) and I’d prefer a few more choices of wine and/​or entrees, the folks at Luna Blu were happy to have us and treated us well.
Pricing: paying full price for food here would probably not quite be worth it to me. Hard to say after one meal. What I will recommend is the LivingSocial deal – if you like that, you should head back (as I plan to) and give another dish a try. In any case, it’s more like a $$$ meal.
Overall, a nice date spot, good value with a coupon, and friendly people. The food we had was tasty and enough to earn Luna Blu some more of my custom. If you’re looking for Italian fare in downtown Annapolis, this place deserves to be in the conversation – though it is not as upscale as some (Osteria) or as cheap as others (Mangia’s). Thanks to Erica and the staff for making us feel welcome.

Cute Italian restaurant in a very cute town. I came here with a large group for dinner. We had reservations at 8, which is on the later size, and we thought that we wouldn’t have a problem with getting a table, but when we arrived, we had a wait quite a bit as people were finishing up, and the restaurant could put all the tables together to accommodate our large group. A little bit annoying that we had to wait, even though we had reservations.
The 4 course meal is a steal! However, it’s A LOT of food. They serve regular portions for this, rather than trimming down portions. It’s great, but I was visiting so wasn’t exactly able to get a doggie bag. Instead, my friend ordered the 4 course meal and I ate a bit of her appetizer and dessert. The shrimp appetizer was delicious! Maybe it’s something about those capers and olives and that savoriness, but this was probably the highlight of the entire meal. I ordered the Seafood Fra Divola for my appetizer. They were certainly generous with the seafood and the spicy marinara had a little bit of kick to it. For dessert, I tried a bit of my friend’s dessert, the egg custard. It was rich and creamy. I think I would have been able to enjoy it a bit more if I wasn’t completely stuffed from my pasta.
Overall, it’s say it’s 3.5 stars for the food and affordability, but dock half a star as they weren’t that organized with their reservations…

The restaurant had an odor when you first walked in. Once you get use to that you will make yourself comfortable in some really tight quarters. The servers have way to many tables to be attentive. My wife and I both ordered the $ 35.00 4 course dinner. Make sure you are aware that you can sub your salad choice for the difference in between the items. The entry was littered with clutter and gave the impression that the restaurant needed a good cleaning.
I honestly did not feel as if the food was worth the menu prices. I would suggest that you save your money and head down to Tsunami.

My boyfriend and I celebrated our anniversary at Luna Blu just last night. We arrived for dinner at 5 pm on the dot, so we ran into no complications with seating and reservations. Being that this restaurant is quite small, I could see this being an issue. Erin was our waitress, who to my understanding is also the owner. She was very sweet, attentive, and knowledgeable. All good things. We got an appetizer, took our time with it, and then ordered dinner. Erin was accommodating and didn’t make us feel rushed. Our dinner was delicious. Presentation was nice, and the food didn’t disappoint. This was such a nice place for a date. We also liked that our appetizer was ½ off, being that we were dining on a Tuesday before 6. (I believe the special is ½ off apps Monday-Wednesday’s from 5−6pm) We will be back in the future.

Erin is always so accommodating! Set my husband and I up at the front window table for our anniversary and just made our night so special. Get the lobster ravioli — the BEST! And the fried green tomatoes for an appetizer.

Amazing food and even more amazing service!
Luna Blu offers a pleasant atmosphere and we always feel very welcomed… as if Erin, the Owner, has invited us to her home for dinner.
The 4 course meal is a BARGIN!!! So much food, certainly plenty left to bring home for lunch the next day. (My husband looks forward to the leftovers… something about how the sauce taste even better the second time around).
It’s impossible to resist the fresh bread and olive oil dip, which is seasoned perfectly. The bread with a glass of wine is a great start to any dish you select.
We live on Kent Island and dinner at Luna Blu is a simple trip, especially with convenient parking behind the restaurant. We never miss dinner there prior to a show at Rams Head. I recommend making a reservation for dinner, we love the table at the front window, it’s a great seat for people watching.
We haven’t made one of the Sunday night Wine Dinners yet, (hate to admit this), but it’s on our list to attend. I’ve been told the dinners are excellent, fun, and always for a cause with a % of sales donated to a charity. Plus, oils and vinegars from Cleo’s! Yum!
Compared to other restaurants in Annapolis, (especially other Italian ones), Luna Blu is far better and much more reasonably priced. And the wine list offers a nice range in selection and prices!

Food was great and it’s always nice to have the owner taking care of us! Would go back in a heartbeat, the menu is a bit limited of you are looking for meat but if you love pasta this is the place in Annapolis to go. Prices are great!

Great atmosphere, awesome service! The food it’s amazing and very flavorful. I recommend this place for sure!

I had the 4 course dinner for $ 35. It was great.
The mozzarella and eggplant stack salad was delicious. The house salad dressing was yummy. For an entrée I had piccata, delicious. I loved that you had a choice of having it over pasta, spinach or asparagus. I opted for spinach.
The teramisu was a nice ending to a wonderful evening. I can see why most of the dining room was filled with regulars.

We were walk-​ins with no expectations, and came out fans. It is very small but cozy and wonderfully set.
The service was perfect.
The food was fabulous. We had the special that was $ 35 for appetizer, main course and desert. Salad was included.
I would go back in a minute. If you’re in the area, try it. You’ll love it.

Not many places in this town where owner and chef will also wait on you and make you feel special. Very smalll so make a reservation. Erin is a total host. Let her walk you through the menu. The $ 35 Four Course is a wonderful deal. We felt like we dined at a friends house and loved every moment.

We went here by recommendation from a new friend as their «Favorite» spot, so we gave it a try with high hopes.
At first glance this place may turn some people away, but it is small and comfortable like your grandmothers house. Some of the lights can be a bit over bearing at the tables and if you’re not into paper top tables move along. My wife and I don’t care about these things if the food is great and, trust me some of the best food I have ever had have been in the worst looking places you can imagine, Luna is nowhere near a horrible atmosphere, just Grandma-​ie.
Now to the food. My wife and I opted for the for course meal for 35 $ each, it includes and app, house salad, entrée and desert. For my starter I got pan seared scallops over polenta and my wife got the mussels and clams in white wine sauce. The first thing that jumped out to me was that the scallops were over cooked, not super bad, but over. After that the polenta had no seasoning reducing it to more of a scallops over bland grits? The mussels and clams where cleaned perfectly! no grit or beards and cooked well, the whit wine sauce was a bit off and again not seasoned well at all. The salad’s were your standard house salad nothing exciting here.
Main course. I got the Penne Vesuviana with sausage. Here’s the thing, it wasn’t a bad concept and, I imagine some people would like it but it was just not executed well. The biggest problem was the sausage, it tasted like it was frozen and then microwaved. This can happen with sausage when you freeze it and then throw it in a pan to brown before you plop it in a pasta sauce. It was unfortunate because if executed well I LOVE THIS FLAVOR PROFILE! Side note to the chef maybe try subbing mascarpone in instead of mozzarella. My wife got the lamb lollipop and risotto special. It was horrid. Again this goes back to seasoning in the resotto, It was cooked perfectly, no seasoning so salt and pepper had to be aggressively applied. The lamb was also under seasoned and a bit fatty overall creating a underwhelming dish.
Dessert. We both got the Tiramisu, and the marscapone was good but it overall tasted like a cream cake with cocoa on top. Meh.
We both had high hopes for this place, but you win some and you lose some. The wine was great and, our waiter was FANTASTIC (John I think). We will for sure give this place a second chance based on the fact that it was a slow night on the coldest day of the year, so maybe the A game wasn’t rocking and again our server made this a very good experience! So I will see you next time Luna Blu. Please make me eat all these words!

So I went to Luna Blu went I came to visit my hometown, and friends and their spouses decided dinner would be great. We wanted to do Saturday night at 8:30, for six people. What do I do to make that happen? Make a reservation. We called at 2 pm and successfully made an 8:30 reservation for 6 people.
What was unsuccessful was getting a damn table. I got there at least ten minutes early, and was told out table was currently paying and we would be sat shortly. I waited for over an hour. We saw them give our table away. No one could give us an answer about when we would be sat. Then to appease us offered us free dessert. At that point the waitresses were rude, and I was told AGAIN, that a table was paying and was about to leave. When I mentioned that I’ve heard that before, she was so rude. No manager in site and I couldn’t leave because at this time everywhere is packed.
Dinner was okay, and the waitress was inattentive, I had to flag her down twice.
Would not go back.

So what is the point of a reservation? To know that my table will be available when I get there.
That apparently was not the case last night. I had an 8:30PM reservation with my best friends and their hubbies. My friend got there at 8:20, and somehow they still manage to give our table away to another party. We waited almost an hour for our table. When we addressed a waitress about it, her reply was not very nice. She apologized with an attitude. That doesn’t fly in my book.. But in the end, they covered our dessert. At this point, I’m over it.
After waiting an hour to get our table, we made our round of orders. I got the Cesar salad as an appetizer and the lobster ravioli has my entrée. The salad was average but I loved the lobster ravioli. Delicious. Sauce as on point, crab meat, peas and mushrooms everywhere. All my favorite food in one dish. Next comes our dessert. I ordered a dessert that started with a «Z» that consisted of a yellow egg custard served in a glass topped with strawberries. Was not a big fan. It really did taste like egg. I was expecting a crème brûlée type of taste but it just tasted like straight up egg. My boyfriend’s tiramisu was delicious though. I guess I just ordered the wrong dessert. It’s all good. I didn’t have to pay for it.
Our waitress, whom was not the blonde lady that we dealt with earlier that evening, was very sweet and attentive.
Would I come back?
Maybe on a night when I have time to waste. I’m pretty sure it was an isolated incident, which I understand but I thought it could have been handled better. The food was good but I wouldn’t make the 1 hours drive (I’m live in Arlington, VA) for it unless I have other things to do in Annapolis.

Extensive gluten free menu including gluten free pizza. Small cozy ambiance.
The gluten free pizza that my wife tried was not that great. Suffers from the soft pizza dough center that most GF pizzas have. Interestingly, Dominos and CPK do a great job in cooking the pizza evenly.
I had the carbonara. It was drenched with alfredo sauce. I should have read the menu more carefully. If you’re expecting ‘real’ carbonara, you’ll be greatly disappointed. I was hungry and I still couldn’t finish it because it was that bad. Taste, consistency, both awful.
There were other items that I may try and will likely give them another shot, but not anytime soon since there are other restaurants I’d like to try.

We had a reservation through Unilocal for 7.30 and we did arrive about 10 minutes late and so weren’t seated until just after 8. Not sure how we would have been seated at 7.30 as they were full anyway!
Menu looked great, and a very good deal for the 4 courses for $ 35. Service was prompt and friendly from the table waiter.
My husband ordered the pasta with shrimp, scallop and crabmeat and I ordered the pasta arrabiata which was okay although very spicy, even though I can eat quite spicy food, this was hot hot!
Immediately my husband ate a shrimp he said it was not right. It had an ammonia taste to it akin to seafood not being fresh. We eat out at least 3 – 4 times a week and have very close friends in the seafood export business so know what seafood should taste like! Immediately we drew the waitress’ attention to this and sent half the scampi back to the chef. No feedback.
We summonsed the waitress and asked what the chef had said. Not being her fault, she tried desperately to explain it was the difference between sautéing shrimp and grilling and we were welcome to have some additional scampi grilled. She also pointed out no one else had a problem!
Not the point. These were not good and potentially off. Please tell the chef.
Still nothing from the chef, the matre’d or the waitress.
Long story short … the flavours in the seafood dish were good, it was just the specific scampi were not good.
The only way we felt to deal with this fundamental lack of customer service was to leave without leaving any tip.
We won’t be back and very disappointed in the experience.

I love the fact that a percentage of her lunch time sales went to the CASA organization today, which is why I ate from this restaurant today. I think that for the amount of food I received, the price was very reasonable. The lady behind the counter, who I think was the owner was super nice and very quick with my carry out order.
The food was presented very well but it was super bland. Also, I ordered an Italian steak and cheese — now excuse my ignorance of Italian culture, but when I think of steak and cheese, I’m thinking chopped steak, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. Well to see what I got, check the photos. She did an amazing job on the tiramisu though.. I’m eating that as I write this review… yummm!
Oh, and I asked for seasoned potatoes with my sandwich, and got pasta with pesto sauce.