Luna Trattoria

About Luna Trattoria

Three doors down from Cafe Beaujolais on Ukiah Street, in a modestly-fronted building that gives away none of the warmth inside, Luna Trattoria is the serious Italian room that Mendocino earned after years of pretenders. The kitchen cooks authentic Northern Italian — the food of a family table in Piedmont or Emilia-Romagna — from family recipes that have not been updated to suit California's need to reinvent everything. The pasta is handmade daily. The bread is handmade daily. The desserts are handmade daily. Everything that should be made in-house is made in-house, and it shows on the plate from the first bite.

The menu does not reach for novelty; it reaches for precision. Bruschetta Classica ($9), Antipasto Misto ($26), and Calamari Fritti ($19) anchor the antipasti. The soups — Minestrone and Pasta e Fagioli ($11) — are the ones you remember from the right Italian grandmother. The pastas are where the kitchen shows its hand: eggplant parmigiana, mushroom ravioli, penne alla vodka, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, all executed with the confidence of a kitchen that has done each of them several thousand times. Seafood entrees rotate with what the coast is sending up that week; the cioppino, when available, is the right kind of messy.

The room seats around fifty, warmly — exposed beams, candlelight, paper tablecloths over linen — and the service is genuinely Italian in the sense that no one is pretending. Tiramisu and Chocolate Cheesecake, both $12, finish the evening. The wine list is honest Italian with a respectful nod to Mendocino and Sonoma. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 5:00pm to 9:00pm; Monday is closed, which is the correct European tradition.

This is the restaurant you take your Italian friends to when they visit, and they smile at the first bite. It is also the restaurant you take non-Italian friends to when you want them to understand what the category actually means, not just what chain restaurants have told them it is.