Tuscan Moon

Tuscan Moon does NOT hit your eye like a big piece of pie.
And it's NOT amore.

It kinda flops against you like a limp noodle and is a-mediocray.

First of all, talk about weird. It's in Kalona in the heart of Amish country but is this kinda sophisticated, Italian date spot? *blinks* The crux of business in this area is for visitors day shopping like antiques, quilts, jams, scented candles, yarn...that usual hokey jive. It looks like a converted house (and I bet it is) all spruced up.

So a group of us went to the souped up cottage on a slightly off dining hour (2:30pm) and entered the foyer, to a hall w a host stand no one was at, to the first dining room to ask to be seated. A man and woman working seemed rather flustered by this. I found this odd since there was only one other smaller group and they were in the other dining area. Push 2 tables together, we will all be ok. After they endeavored this task we were sat. In spite of being dead the service lagged. Another thing that irks me..

While the service was snail city the manager guy sat near us and was using his laptop. I discussed this matter w a friend (who's on yelp too) and we agreed its unprofessional and off putting when staff sit by you while you dine. It's a total "that's me in the corner! That's me in the spotlight!" moment and awkward. Plus made him look wack seeing as we waited for refills and such.

Everyone ordered different things except 2 women ordered burgers and fries. I think they all liked their meals but weren't like blown away. But who care's right? I got a flatbread pizza that was pretty good. Perfect portion size, fresh toppings that played well off each other. My meal was clearly the envy of the table.

Unfortunately, Tuscan Moon is eclipsed by it's dodgy service and awkward concept for the area.

Very nice atmosphere, one of the best I have seen. Classy set up, very quiet area, nice music playing, really impressed.

The menu is very nice, has a lot of good choices.

I love the fact that it is off the beaten path, I like going to places that you can travel a lil ways and enjoy the whole experience.

We'd eaten here before (see previous review) and had a wonderful experience.  We've recommended this place to many friends as a wonderful place to eat.  So wonderful, in fact, that despite being sick I drug myself out of bed, got dressed up,  and found a babysitter.  My husband called and made a reservation and we drove 45 hours each way to go to the restaurant.  When we arrived, we didn't see a hostess so we tried to walk into the restaurant to find one.  We were sent back to the entryway.  Then a waitress almost ran us over bringing dirty dishes in.  Finally someone greeted us and asked if we had a reservation.  I explained we were late because I used Google maps and we got turned around on the gravel roads to get there.  We were told to go stand on the porch until they could work us in.  Then, before we moved to the porch, someone else asked us if they could help us.  My husband explained we had a reservation but we were 15 minutes late because we got lost, and THAT person told us it was fine and seated us.  Then we sat there for fifteen minutes while a table of four was seated next to us.  And took their drink order.  Then someone came over and took our drink order.  Before our drink order came, several staff members came over, told me to move my wallet, and cut our table in half to make a table of six next to us, without even a cursory apology.  We got our drink order and managed to ask someone for an appetizer.  Then the table of six was seated, and everyone there got drinks.  Then the table of four on our other side that was seated after us got their FOOD.  We then flagged someone down and asked if we could order.  The waitress came over and said, "Sorry, that took longer than I expected."  We weren't sure which of the things she'd done in the 30 minutes we'd sat there before requesting to order she was referring to.  She took our order, then the table of six next to us got refills while we sat at our table, actually being bumped by the staff as they refilled their drinks.  We sat there with empty drinks.  Both of my husband's drinks were empty.  Our server brought our salads, did not refill our drinks.  She came back and took our empty salad plates, still not refilling our drinks.   I tried to thank the server for taking our plates, and she ignored me while talking to the server at the next table.  The table of four who was seated after us was finishing their multiple course meal, and we still hadn't seen any of our food, had a refill, or been acknowledged as anything other than a piece of furniture in the restaurant.  I'd been asking my husband not to lose his temper up until this point, but I was so frustrated I got up and waited in the car.  From what I understand, my husband explained our disgust and there was some attempt to try to make us happy, but after an hour of being ignored, we were ready to drive the 45 minutes home, still very hungry.