Back in the beginning of 2015, we made a visit to Mezza Luna in Smyrna with our friends Claudia and Randy. We had a great time and really enjoyed our meal at the “hole in the wall” next to a liquor store. Since then, Mezza Luna has opened up a second location, just two miles from Date Night Headquarters in East Cobb. It’s Claudia’s birthday, so let’s invite our pals on a double date to see what’s cooking at the sequel.
The bad news is that Mezza Luna replaces Hoof and Ale, one of our favorite “beer and a burger” joints near us. Hoof and Ale was an East Cobb secret, but apparently it was too much of a secret and they closed after three years. We will miss them. Gone is the “blackboard of beer”, replaced by more sedate decor.
We are greeted with a delicious basket of bread.
You could almost skip the appetizers and munch on the bread. It’s that good. We do forgo the apps because we have had some snacks earlier in the evening, which means we get right down to dinner, after a bottle of wine is ordered.
What’s a better accompaniment to an Italian dinner than a bottle of Chianti Classico? Yes, even we can give up our beer for a glass of good wine.
There are four of us tonight, but each couple orders the same thing, meaning we only have two entrees to show you. If this dish is on the menu in an Italian restaurant, I will probably order it (and looking back on our original visit to Mezza Luna, apparently I chose it there as well):
Fettuccine pescatore has all of the food groups. Fresh pasta, clams, mussels, calamari and shrimp are covered in a red tomato sauce. It’s served steaming hot. How do they get the noodles to keep the heat? Anyway, the two of us who order this are very happy campers.
Our other dish draws raves as well.
Linguini and clams is Eve’s go-to Italian treat. It’s pretty similar to my dish, but she does not get as much of a variety of seafood. This is another excellent plate of food.
We are all pretty full, but since it’s Claudia’s birthday, we must celebrate with dessert.
The limoncello cake is light, fluffy, lemony and complimentary for the birthday girl. The cannoli are tasty too.
This is the kind of dessert that makes you want to lick the plate. Not wanting to embarrass our dinner companions, we scrape most of the chocolate off of the plate with a fork.
The Bottom Line on Mezza Luna 2: We miss our Hoof and Ale, but Mezza Luna is an excellent replacement. This may be another of East Cobb’s best-kept secrets. There is no mention of a second location on the Mezza Luna website, and we had to put the location onto Zomato, so we are probably the first review to post here. Hey, owners Tony and Luigi, wazzup with that? With food this good, we have a feeling that word of mouth will spread the news about Mezza Luna, but remember that you heard it here first.
I took my family to Mezza Luna II on Saturday night. The restaurant was mostly full, but there was no wait to be seated. From the moment we sat down and waited over 20 minutes to be greated the service was REALLY bad. Thankfully the food was good. This may be the closest solid Italian food without trecking all the way to Rosa Mia in John’s Creek.
My waiter was “in training” and trying his best but he was getting no “training” or support at all. The manager/owner was not helping the situation! The place was busy and he was doing nothing. If the management can’t run the front of the house how can you expect the waiters to be any good. If I go back and the service is not improved it will be my last time. I can’t imagine the service being any better without a competent front of the house manager.
Bottom Line:
Chef 4/5 stars
Front of house- 1/5 stars
Sad when a really good chef is brought down by the front of the house. I don’t see this place lasting long.
Interesting. Our service was not bad. We were the slow ones eating because we were talking so much. Thanks for your comment!
[…] I guess we didn’t eat there enough. Fortunately, it was replaced by the always-excellent Mezza Luna. Our new favorite place for a burger and a beer is now Moxie Burger in Roswell, which we probably […]