The best sandwich in town: Croque Monsieur at Luna
The best sandwich in town.
It's at Luna. It's their version of a ham and cheese sandwich, and it's truly unbelievable. They call it a Croque Monsieur, but if you know traditional French cuisine, it's actually a Croque Madam, because they serve it with a fried egg on top, served sunny side up.
It's perfect.
It is deeply rich in flavor; the ham is cut with the grain, and sliced thin so the flavor has nowhere to hide. The gruyere cheese that they use to pair it with is mild, but has just enough nutty goodness to cut through the flavor of the salty meat. They cover it in a Mornay sauce, and bake it in the oven for just enough time for everything to crisp up nicely. It's served with frites, and my friends, I must say — it's dynamite.
No, it's beyond dynamite. It's the best in all of Champaign-Urbana.
The only problem.
I have only been to Luna three times, and each of these times, I have ordered this particular item. It would be hard for me to order anything else. It's just that good.
But here is something that truly baffles the mind: with a sandwich this good, how can the service at the restaurant be this poor?
I had heard rumors about the service at Luna, and read comments on Smile Politely about it as well. But, I brushed it off with a simple, and familiar thought: "These people obviously don't know the service industry."
And all truth be told, most people do not. It's hard. Damn hard. And when your food comes out a little late, or the waiter is being rushed on a busy day, you should shut your mouth and be thankful that someone — anyone — is working to serve your lazy ass a meal.
But what I can't understand is pure neglect, time and time again. Each of the three times I have been to Luna, I have been greeted warmly, with smiles and menus. I was seated promptly and given ample time to look it over.
And by ample, I mean almost ten minutes.
Seriously, each time I have been there, the server didn't come back to see what was what for five to ten minutes. That means, no water, no coffee, no chance to ask questions. Just nothing. We just sat there, looking. And here, I can see my waiter, standing across the room, doing all sorts of things. Checking on other tables? Not really. Just doing other jobs associated with being a waiter.
The only problem is that he was forgetting to actually be a waiter. I was the waiter, literally.
When he finally did come over, he offered us coffee, and I told him, "Yes, please!" and he failed to bring me a cup. When I asked him for more water, he said, "No problem!" and I had to ask again. When it came time to get the check, it took him almost five minutes to return with it, and another five for me to get the bill to sign.
This is, of course, was the worst experience I had of the three, but each time, the service was truly slow. Painfully slow.
And the room was barely a quarter filled. In fact, my waiter had just two other tables aside from ours. I've waited tables. Believe me, it's hard, but it's not that hard.
Don't let it stop you.
It's still the best sandwich in town. And Luna is a really lovely place. the decor is excellent, and while it's definitely on the upscale side of things, it doesn't feel forced at all.
And the food, of course, is awesome. And this sandwich, this Croque Monsieur — I would put it up against any one at any restaurant, anywhere in Champaign-Urbana. It's splendid.
It costs $9.95 plus tax. Tipping is optional, of course, and while I highly recommend a standard 20% + bonus for exceptional service, I must say, these particular experiences made me second guess my belief in high tipping without pause for consideration.
Needless to say, it's that good. It's so good that I am willing to put up with willfully slow service to eat it again.
And I will. Perhaps this Sunday.
18 comments
You’ve made my tummy growl, sir. I want that sandwich right now for breakfast.
Rachel Drum
I have had the same experiences with Luna service. Maybe they are trying to imitate the European culture of restaurant service, which can have the attitude more that the customer is the guest. Here, we adopt the motto “the customer is always right”. When I was in Switzerland, we had to ask them for absolutely everything, menu, drink, food, water, tip. It feels like you are being ignored, but really it’s just the culture.
Let it stop you. After the wealth of bad experiences, no sandwich is worth that. I was disgusted by the service I got there, and it sounds like it has just kept on its bad pace. Search around, read about the inconsistent food quality, the consistently (bad) service quality, and make your own decision. There are enough other quality restaurants in this town that don’t abuse their customers.
Timbo
When you pay high prices, you can and should expect professional service. Too many expensive restaurants in this town with ambitious menus hire undergrads to serve and prepare their food. This results in poor preparation of what could be excellent meals falling flat because of unprofessional service/preparation.
It is great that students are willing to work for their beer/book money, but if a restaurant wants to charge folks north of $20 for an entree, the manager better make sure the customers get concordant good service. In larger cities, people make careers preparing and serving food. They do a great job and make a decent living working at high-end establishments. Undergrads and other inexperienced servers are not necessarily all malicious slackers, but they simply do not have had the chance to gain the experience, judgment, grace, tact, and je ne sais quoi that truly masterful servers possess. Too many places in Chambana (Jim Gould’s and Kennedy’s come to mind) fall into this trap and they suffer for it.
FWIW, the server I had was not a young, inexperienced college student, she was probably in her 30s/40s and seemed perfectly comfortable in her neglect and seemingly active attempts to make our experience unpleasant. If I’m dropping $40 per person in this town I expect a certain level of service.
I also have a love-hate relationship with Luna. I LOVE tapas and I love the restaraunt’s atmosphere. I HATE the service and I especially hate paying something like $12 for several halved yukon gold potatoes with gruyere served to me cold after waiting over 20 minutes for my order. The only time I have half-decent service is when I go for brunch. Otherwise, I usually leave feeling more disgruntled than satiated.
Was poor service standard before Iren moved to San Francisco?
Absentee ownership has its discontents.
I thought it was often a little lackadaisical even when Iren was in town. I’ve only been there once since Iren and the restaurant moved, and had ok service, but was not all that impressed with the food. Not bad, just not quite there.
Has anyone spoken to the owner or manager of Luna? Surely they’ve read the comments here and on Yelp. Every time I see something about this I’m glad because I think, well, this has got to change things for the better.
Foodie
I am sorry but the sandwich you describe makes me feel nauseous. It must have about 300 grams of fat and huge amount of cholesterol and salt. Yuck. I do like some of Luna’s food, but I have also had trouble with service. One time I had to leave before I got my food to catch a train. I love their new location, and a lot of their food so I hope they will keep working to improve the service.
Foodie —
To each their own, but I don’t know too many “foodies” who don’t look upon things like cheese, salty meats, butter, and cream with great favor. And 300 grams of fat in one sandwich? My friend, I think you need to spend a little time in consideration of your estimates. That’s an outlandish claim. FYI — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardee’s#Products_and_Nutrition. Monster Burgers have 107 grams of fat.
But in moderation, all of those things listed above can be wonderful to eat.
UrbanaJake
The cure for bad service, especially at the start of a dining experience? Walk out. I did at Luna.
The service at the DMV counter is of better ilk.
Luna was the site of the worst service experience I’ve ever had. It was almost impressive just how bad every part of of that meal was. This was a couple of months after it opened, and I was so furious that I said I’d never go back. I’ve been dragged a couple of times since, and while they managed to improve (and I’d have been astonished to see how they could have gotten worse), the experiences were still unsatisfactory—especially considering the cost. They really seem to not care in the slightest, since it’s such a frequent topic of conversation and nothing ever changes.
Per Tracy’s implied suggestion, I Googled Luna + Champaign + Yelp.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/luna-champaign
It’s typical blog stuff. Either “EXCELLENT!“ or “BOTULISM!“
I recall that I invented one of the drinks on Luna’s menu. I have yet to be compensated.
Oh the quandary of the struggling artist.
Rob - You need to keep in mind that anyone who’s going to take the time to review a resstaurant on Yelp or many other places are going to be extremists. If it was just “alright”, they wouldn’t feel compelled to post a review.
I’d love a chance to be wowed by Luna again. I want to love the place, but they make it hard.
Okay, I love their food, so I wanted to give Luna one more try.
Went for brunch on Sunday around 1pm. Took them more than 5 minutes to offer us coffee, but then were almost bothersome with the refills—every minute or two! (Maybe I should pace my caffeine intake better..)
We ordered simple omelettes, but waited more than 20 minutes for our food even though there were only 3 other occupied tables in the whole place. At one point we flagged our server down from across the room as he rearranged the flowers in the tiny little tabletop vases for the 3rd time. Once it was time for the check I pretty much dictated to my fellow brunch-goer how long the whole process would take.
Everything happened according to the standard Luna is apparently known for. The food was delicious, and while the server was pleasant, the actual service was severely lacking. Luna, I want to keep you in my rotation of delicious brunch options, but these days I’m more likely to haul myself all the way to Urbana for some La Gourmandise than keep putting up with this!
Karl
Sounds good, but pricy for an egg sandwitch and bad service, thanks for the heads up. I’ll go elsewhere. Carmons maybe.
I’d hardly call this an “egg sandwich.“ It’s so good that it’s worth the sometimes slow service.
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I joined on 09-09-09 after living here over a year, and having to listen to my dad tell me how his best friend is, like, #27 or something crazy like that, and how said friend never lived further than 50 feet from the Illini Inn while going…