Office Dad has been after me for a while to try La Luna Rossa, one of his favourite restaurants in #yyc. Office Dad knows the owner and chef Benny, who you can see in the picture below. I love that Benny wears a chef’s hat. I think it shows an old world craftsmanship and ceremony you don’t often see in Calgary.

I had bought a TravelZoo voucher for our dinner. It cost me $50 for one appetizer, two mains and dessert, plus extra for certain dishes, add-ons and beverages. Though we received a big discount, the food we received was the real deal. The dishes we tried were delicious, service was great and the freshness of the seafood was incredible. Another bonus, since it was Thursday, select bottles of wine were only $30.00.

For our appetizer, L and I shared the Calamari ($14). The ringlets were lightly battered with a thin crispy coating. The squid was soft and cooked perfectly. The heat from the spicy tomato sauce lingered on our lips. I would order this again.

L ordered the veal special. I took a bite of his veal, which was super tender. His entree came with pasta and a side of vegetables. I haven’t tried veal since grade nine, when I made it for my home economics class.

I ordered pasta with two lobster tails in a rose sauce. I devoured this dish. The lobster was sweet, plump and fresh. The sauce was creamy and tangy. Those noodles? Luscious, soft strands of heaven. Yum, yum, yum.

Office Dad informed me that La Luna is popular with local politicians. Though we didn’t see Mayor Nenshi or Premier Notley in the room, we did bump into L’s colleague, Flower Child. I took a picture of Flower Child and her husband but L made me delete it. He said I was invading their privacy. I thought I was being careful as I purposely didn’t zoom in to their faces. L permitted me to use the picture above – you can only see a quarter of her face. We stopped by their table and Flower Child’s spaghetti with seafood looked amazing. I want to return to try it myself.

L picked the homemade apple cake with caramel gelato for dessert. The apple cake was warm and it matched well with the gelato. The texture of the gelato was cool – it felt like whip cream and it didn’t melt as quickly as ice-cream. Flower Child told us her tirimisu was fantastic.

The food was so good that each time our server came to remove our dishes, each plate was scrapped clean. Our server joked that us that we were doing them a favour, as they  wouldn’t have to use as much water to clean the plates, as we had done most of the work ourselves.

La Luna Rossa is a real gem. The restaurant reminds me of the places in Italy I’ve visited. There’s an open kitchen where you can see the chef at his helm and hear the hiss of the grill. The ambience is romantic, with its white table-cloth, candle-lit room, professional service and soothing music playing quietly in the background.  I can see why La Luna maintains a lot of regulars. I enjoyed my meal so much, I’m planning my next visit for either my birthday or Valentine’s Day.