Café Luna Chef Per Victor Kjellgren offers the house specialty, the ‘Rosetta.’

I am always on the hunt for a new restaurant and have for years considered myself very hip to what’s new and noteworthy around town. Café Luna is one that got by me. This off-the-beaten-path eatery has been in business for more than 10 years. It is located in a well-worn strip mall just off of Carmel Mountain Road, behind an Olive Garden Restaurant and a Burger King.

I have probably driven by the place a good dozen times and never bothered to look twice as it lacks street appeal. The windows are darkly tinted and there’s nary a plant or bench out front.

You think I’m being hard on the place, don’t you? Well, let me add that for all the things that someone like me might view as “challenges” for Café Luna, many more things are being done right, and that tips the scales (almost over) in the other direction.

Once seated, I came to realize that Café Luna is one of those places that doesn’t depend on the tourists, the foodies or the pharmaceutical reps to keep it in business. It was a Wednesday night at 6:30 and the place was packed with regulars, people who think of it as their own and who probably keep tight-lipped about this little gem so that they can have a table whenever they please.

The staff is the highlight of the experience. From our server who has been working at the restaurant for nearly eight years and knows the menu inside and out, to the young manager Curtis who comes from a corporate background and is effusive about his love for Café Luna, the employees almost “glow” with pride in their workplace.

This is a “ma-and-pa” owned and operated restaurant and the atmosphere reflects that. Quaint, not overly designed, but warm, well done and homey. Slate floors, decorative ironwork and thick plaster walls the color of a mango gives the room a Renaissance feel.

Silly me, I had looked at the menu and was already forming an opinion on what I was going to order when our server approached the table and said, “I’d like to have some fun with your dinner tonight. I’d like to start you off with the Rosetta and go from there.”

The “Rosetta” ($15) is a house specialty. Chef Per Victor Kjellgren rolls ham and Swiss cheese in homemade pasta, slices it into little medallions and bakes it in a cream and parmesan sauce. Yes, I loved it, calories and all.

Next course: the “Della Luna” salad ($7), radicchio and red leaf lightly tossed with creamy raspberry vinaigrette topped with feta and caramelized walnuts. A well composed salad.

One of the most popular dishes on the menu and my new fave is the “Pollo Pizziola” ($19). Boneless chicken breasts are sautéed with a puttanesca-ish sauce (capers, kalamatas, garlic, etc.) and served with spaghetti.

The menu tops out at $29 for the “Tournedoes Gorgonzola.” Two petite (3-4 ounces) medallions of filet mignon were cooked to perfect medium-rare and topped with gorgonzola and a mushroom cap. The accompanying sauce, a cabernet demi-glace, adds richness and sweetness to the dish.

Desserts are made in-house and very well done; do save room.

Café Luna is an old-fashioned, down-home restaurant with good food, a great staff and a décor just elegant enough to pull off a first date.

— Terryl Gavre