Debra B.
Yelp
We celebrated my birthday at Over the Moon Cafe 1 our first visit to this wonderful, family-owned and operated delight, tucked away on Opera Alley in Tacoma. What a delightful dinner we had!
The atmosphere is warm and cozy, with soft lighting and a quiet vibe, with soft background music of pop tunes from my youth. It was cute how they had a little book of birthday fortunes (which turned out to be eerily accurate) and poems.
Our server was fantastic, providing efficient and friendly service. She was attentive to our needs and helpful in selecting our choices. Our water glasses were kept topped off and each course came out promptly and well-timed, without making us feel rushed.
We started off with seasonal craft cocktails, which were both festive and tasty! I had the special Black Moonhattan Old Fashion made with Four Roses Bourbon, Amaro, Bitter Truth aromatic bitters & Tempus Fugit Creme de Noyaux. My husband chose the spiced rum with apple cider and he loved it.
For our first course we both chose the crab bisque - and I'm glad we did! The thick, creamy soup was filled with crab meat and served piping hot (as a soup should be served). It was so flavorful and satisfying! I would go back just to have a big bowl of this soup along with the warm, crusty sourdough bread.
For entrees, my husband chose the Cioppino, which had a delicious broth and was filled with delectable seafood offerings. He said it was the best cioppino he's had! I went with the Braised Short Rib Ragu, slow cooked with red wine, carrot, tomato, celery, garlic and onion, seasoned with bay leaf and thyme, finished with cream over rigatoni. The flavor was intense and there was a generous amount of the tender, flavorful short rib meat. I could eat this every day! We had intended to bring a lovely bottle of Caymus Cabernet, but left it at home, so we went with two glasses of hearty Zinfandel which paired nicely with our entrees.
Since it was my birthday, we ordered dessert. I chose the Grannysmith apple bread pudding with bourbon ginger sauce and topped with lemon cream and some vanilla bourbon ice cream. This was the only course that we found underwhelming. The bread pudding was good, but the lemon cream didn't pair well - it was too tart and masked the flavor of the apples and bread pudding. This dessert would be so much better if served only with a scoop of the delicious vanilla bourbon ice cream and no lemon cream. A better sauce would be salted caramel, burnt sugar or a traditional hard sauce. Next time we will try a different dessert. Our server suggested the Turtle pie and we should have listened to her!
Regardless of the disappointing sweet ending, the dinner was smashing! Such delicious, hearty food and cheerful, friendly service in a quiet, intimate setting - a perfect place for a romantic evening to celebrate a special occasion, or to satisfy your craving for a hearty, flavorful meal.