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| - My stepmother requested a cozy place with nice atmosphere for dinner when she came to town. With a good wine list. We also have a toddler. This is a tall order.
Now, it turns out that when she said "nice atmosphere and wine list," she really meant "no 'family restaurants with fluorescent lighting full of rambunctious kids'", which is sort of a tall order because, you know, we come with a rambunctious 2-year-old in tow. We don't go those places because we like the style, we go there because we're trying to be considerate to other diners, instead of getting the stinkeye all night. But whatever.
Lune D'Asie had a bilingual menu online, which also included a (2-item) kid's section. Prices looked reasonable, and from walking by, the atmosphere looked cozy enough. It's apportez votre vin, so I had stepmom lug a bottle of something nice across the US border. I don't know wine, and I didn't trust the dépanneur on the corner to meet her expectations. We ordered a range of meals - one crunchy noodle basket, one curry, one grilled salmon, and I got the pineapple chicken from the "Menu Lune", which comes with soup, coffee, and dessert.
The food was great. Tasty, hot, beautifully presented with fruit embellishments and just the right combination of flavors. The atmosphere was cozy and charming, with little crescent moon lamps that kept the toddler entertained with counting for at least 20 seconds. They had a high chair. But after we'd been in for about a half an hour, a large party arrived, and service plummeted. The waitress forgot that my meal was the table d'hôte, so my dad was asking for the check while I was wondering if the dessert would come. Dessert is tempura fruit, which needs to be made to order, so as the toddler started melting down from boredom (we had myriad toys, which had all been rejected, and were just minutes from being thrown across the room), a steaming (scalding!) plate of deep-fried banana arrived. But no coffee/tea was offered, ever. Bummer.
The check took forever to come. Turns out that we were supposed to go pay at the counter, so maybe we should have just gone up there in the first place? Anyway, we removed the squirming and babbling toddler from the restaurant, as there were other diners just itching to give us the stinkeye. Next time we go, because I'm sure we will, I just hope there's no big groups to take away the waitstaff's attention. The main appeal of this place for us is that it's literally around the corner from our house, but even if it were a bit farther I'm sure we'd stop by again.
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