a good reputation will make you more money than cutting corners.. with the exception of thetimewhen the world cup was going on, this place has been completely dead this past year. given my own bad experiences i don't blame people for avoiding it. the location is also strange, it's easy to miss them and they're too far from the tech parks to be a viable option for lunch.
despite not liking this place in the past i have given it more tries. it's the only place i know to get this kind of food in this end of town. i don't always have thetimeor inclination to drive downtown so i desperately wanted this place to get better. unfortunately it hasn't. it started out well then plummeted over the years it's been open.
here's the major problem. everytimei've wanted to get something specific from this place, they have not had it. wanted to order a gelato cake, not available. wanted a waffle cone for gelato, out of stock four times i went for gelato. wanted to order a crepe, crepe machine not working. wanted to order a specific kind of crepe and they didn't have the ingredients to make it, two separate visits. the shelves of extra stuff they used to sell are empty. their menu is covered in black marker, striking out things they don't serve anymore and making options even more limited. i don't think there's much of an excuse to be out of stock when there's a grocery store across the street, but then again there's usually only one employee working at a time. given the comments i've heard and conversations i've had with employees, i think the management needs a reality check. if you keep cutting corners, you'll eventually have nothing left. there's no reason for anyone to come when there's nothing being sold!
the worst was the times over the winter when their winter hours were not easily found. their phone's answering machine still listed the summer hours and so did their website at the time, so there were a few times when we drove all the way out to find they were closed. one of those days was my birthday, which added to my disappointment and mistrust of this place.
the quality of the actual food is still sub par. when i got two different chicken paninis on two separate days, the meat was old and dry. it was as if it had been in a fridge for days and reheated in a microwave. they skimp so much on fresh ingredients.
i love some of their gelato flavors and it's the only thing that could convince me to go back, currently. their gelato quality has even been slipping too, however. they don't have as many flavors as they claim and they're usually the same ones. now there are much better places to get gelato in ottawa so i can hardly justify going and spending money at luna when there's been so much disappointment. anytimei've gone in the last year i've questioned why i keep doing this to myself.
i don't know if this place will survive, but if it does it's going to have to do some major overhauls. i don't even know if that will work since the location is still strange for the demographic it needs to be popular, and luna's reputation is so bad i'm not sure anyone cares anymore. good luck.