This meal took place on January 13th, 2024
I have a rare Saturday evening off, so it’s date night! First off, I’m mad that it’s taken us so long to try The Cafe Bella Luna in Brewerton. Because words cannot describe how happy my stomach is right now. I haven’t had a cigarette since January 2023 and this meal almost broke me, it was that good.
For starters, you should know that Cafe Bella Luna is a small, locally owned restaurant and there is ONE person (Giovanni) in the kitchen and ONE person (Marc) handling all front of house work. Neither of them are “trained” chefs and everything is family recipes. So if you are looking for a quick bite or an in-and-out kind of dinner, you’re going to be disappointed. But it’s worth every millisecond of the wait time. And the wait isn’t even that long. But just be patient and understanding that two people can only do so much at once. But I absolutely promise you, it’s worth it. The dining room is adorable with live plants everywhere and a very comforting, homey atmosphere with light jazz and swing music playing, so you’ll find yourself bobbing along with the music while your food is being prepared. Marc is incredibly attentive for having so much to do and made sure to chat and talk about the food.
Now, onto the food. We skipped appetizers because all entrees come with soup or salad and we both felt like soup tonight. Chelsea got the Cream of Potato and Bacon, which was butter smooth with perfectly cooked little niblets of potato and just the right amount of salt. I got Italian Wedding Soup, which was a beautiful broth with sautéed greens and house made meatballs. To have so much depth of flavor in such simple soups was astounding. The table bread was delicious and warm with a wonderfully crunchy crust and the softest, fluffiest center and the house made black garlic butter was delicious but not overwhelming on the garlic flavor, so you get these lovely dinner rolls with a soft garlic flavor and I had to fight myself to not ask for more bread.
For our entrées, we both went with the freshly made pasta but with different sauces. Chelsea got the alfredo sauce and added chicken breast to her pasta. The pasta was incredible with such a beautiful flavor and thickness that you could eat it plain and be happy, but that alfredo sauce needs to be jarred and sold because it was absolutely immaculate. Creamy, rich, and not overly cheesy or grainy. At first I questioned whether there was even cheese in the sauce because it was so smooth, just to be humbled by lovely flavors of parmesan and romano cheese. I got spicy red sauce, which is their regular house made red sauce with cherry peppers added in, and you would think that with that description it would be very simple. But in reality, it couldn’t be any further from simple. The red sauce is house made (in case you aren’t sensing a pattern here, LITERALLY EVERYTHING is house made except for the shell pasta for the stuffed shells and rigatoni for Riggies) and it was legitimately the best red sauce I have ever had. Robust tomato flavor, hints of onion and salt and cabernet wine, just the right amount of sweet despite their not being a single grain of sugar in the recipe. The cherry peppers added a nice heat and there was just enough to clear the sinuses but not burn.
Despite being full from the generous portions of pasta, we HAD to see if dessert was as impeccable as dinner. And oh, how it was. Chelsea was offered her personal weakness of creme bruleé, so of course she had to get one. It was rich and perfectly creamy with a lovely vanilla flavor and the sugar was bruleéd perfectly and not burnt. My weakness is canolli, so I told Marc to surprise me with his choice of either chocolate dipped shell or a traditional sugar dusting. I ended up with chocolate dipped, and I regret nothing. The shell was crunchy and flaky and the filling was so smooth and creamy that I almost wasn’t convinced it was actually house made.
So yeah. Y’all are sleeping on The Cafe Bella Luna. It is ASTOUNDING how good every aspect of our experience there was. Marc and Gio are two of the nicest people I have ever met and are arguably making the best damn pasta dishes I have ever had in the Syracuse area. 1,000/10. I’m going to be dreaming of that pasta and canolli for the next week. Get out there and give these guys a chance. You won’t be disappointed in the food, but just remember that there is only two people working so you may have a bit more of a wait than expected, but it’s well worth any potential wait you may have.
9633 Brewerton Road
Brewerton, NY 13029
(315) 676-0374
