Caffe Luna Rosa Review: A Disappointing Oceanside Brunch Experience in Delray Beach, FL
Caffe Luna Rosa is a popular and award-winning Italian restaurant located on the beachfront corner of Atlantic Avenue and Ocean Blvd in Delray Beach, Florida. It has been a staple among the local Delray crowd for over 15 years, but does it live up to the hype? Yancy and I decided to give it a try on a sunny South Florida day, and we were left feeling unsatisfied and overcharged. Here is why we won’t be going back to Caffe Luna Rosa.
The Initial Impression
We arrived at the restaurant around noon, and we were greeted by a long line of people waiting to get a table. We experienced an absolute Karen in front of us who seemed to be oblivious to the world around her. She had a beeper in her hand, but she was too busy walking around and enjoying the shops adjacent to the restaurant that she missed her call time. As the host denied her now late reservation, she argued with him about the situation, since they had given away her table to someone else. To fix the situation, the host offered her a great seat under the sun, but she complained that it was too hot and too bright for her already burnt-looking suntan. While the host was walking back with her and her guest, Yancy said, “We’ll take her table so we don’t have to wait!” The host was happy to see easy guests, and he gladly sat us down. Mission accomplished.
The Brunch Cocktails
The first thing we did was order two alcoholic drinks. That’s where our disappointment started. Yancy ordered a watermelon mojito, and I got a watermelon mimosa. The drinks came in skinny glasses that were almost a foot tall, as if we had ordered frozen slushies in Vegas or New Orleans. The straws barely reached halfway down the glass, making them useless. They advertised “fresh” watermelon juice, but anyone with a brain could see that the mimosa had lots of visible syrup floating at the bottom of the cup with just a splash of actual juice. I tried to stir it with the straw, but it was no use. Have you ever had a mimosa with ice and extra added sugar? Even a nail salon’s mimosa was better than that. As busy as the restaurant was, it shouldn’t have taken until right before our food came out to get our drinks, which cost $16 each.
The Seafood by the Sea
We both decided to order seafood, lobster to be specific, because why not? We were on the beach. Both of our dishes had the “M.P.” next to their descriptions, which means “market price”, or in other words, they’re going to overcharge you for no reason. My dish was a lobster eggs Benedict, which surprisingly cost $40. The lobster was tough and rubbery, as if it hadn’t been thawed out properly or it had been cooked and then left under a heat lamp for too long. The rest of the dish was your average Benedict with some added flair, like grilled red peppers and a few extra vegetables. Unless you live under a rock, you are familiar with the typical Benedict fare. Everyone who loves eggs Benedict knows that the hollandaise sauce is the soul of this dish, and guess how this one came out? Cold.
Yancy ordered a lobster roll with fries, which was $10 cheaper than my dish. His lobster salad was much more tender than mine, but as most places that like to rip people off, their lobster roll wasn’t just lobster, it was mostly shrimp with a few lobster pieces. Be better, Caffe Luna Rosa. The food was very mediocre at best for what Google refers to as a “high-end” Italian restaurant. I honestly would have preferred to eat at Cracker Barrel or the local Chinese buffet, at least the quality would have been a bit better.
The Service
The only positive thing about our experience was the service. Our server, Simona, was a nice woman who came over and greeted us with a great smile. We were seated on the far side of the front patio facing the beach, and we knew that her walking path to get to us was a bit more involved than the rest of her section, but she wasn’t fazed by that at all. While there wasn’t much conversation other than taking our order, she made sure to give us everything we needed.
The Verdict
Caffe Luna Rosa may have a great location and a loyal fan base, but it failed to impress us with its food, drinks, and prices. We felt like we wasted our money and our time on a disappointing oceanside dining experience. We won’t be going back to Caffe Luna Rosa, and we don’t recommend it to anyone looking for a quality Italian restaurant in Delray Beach, FL.
