Choose Luna Fargo for all your Valentine’s Day date needs

I have lived in Fargo going on three years now. In that time, I haven’t found a better restaurant than Luna Fargo. I first discovered this restaurant back in June 2020 for my birthday. My boyfriend had heard of the place from a YouTuber that he watches. The outside, and frankly the inside, doesn’t look like much (it shares a wall with a liquor store), but the food is like nothing I have tasted before. Since that first time eating there whenever he asks where we should go out to eat, I always say Luna.

Until going to Luna, I needed to go to other parts of the country to get food this good. Since experiencing their food every restaurant that I thought was nice in Fargo just pales in comparison. The menu, while small, is very diverse and brings North Dakotans food they are definitely not used to.  

I personally think that everyone needs to try Luna’s food so they can know what great food actually tastes like. So, if you’re tired of the same food at every single restaurant, you need to break out of your habits and just go to this restaurant. You won’t regret it.  

Luna is also the perfect place to take your Valentine’s date for a showstopper meal that won’t break the bank. I always tell people that the average meal at Luna is the same price as a meal at Applebee’s. The only difference: you’re getting a lot better, and I mean A LOT better, food at Luna.   

My last visit

I just recently went and ate at Luna prior to writing this article. The chef changes the menu regularly, so I wanted to provide you with the most up-to-date information I could. Also, it made a great excuse to go and eat there.

To start we got a cheese plate and some chive and cheddar popovers for the table. We always start with a cheese plate. The cheese plate is a mix of domestic and imported cheeses and they have always been spectacular. The plate comes with three different kinds of cheese, some fruit, nuts and bread. I’ve never been disappointed with their choices, and the best part is they also sell the cheeses at the front. So it’s a great place to pick up some cheese for your homemade charcuterie boards.

For me though, the popovers are the star of the starter’s menu. The popovers come out covered in white cheddar and chives and are served with the best butter I’ve ever tasted. (Also sold at the front, look for Hope Butter). The outsides are crunchy with a warm, flakey inside. We’ve found the best way to eat them is to rip them apart, slather on some butter and put some cheddar and chive topping with it. They’re so good that after we finish the last one it takes all our self-control not to get another order.

My boyfriend and I also shared a salad before our main dishes. Looking at the salad menu we both saw the crab and kale Caesar and decided that was definitely the salad for us. Sadly, they had just sold the last crab and kale salad to the table next to us.

I have 100% confidence in the chefs at Luna, so I ordered the arugula and radicchio salad instead. This was after my boyfriend did nothing but complain and insist that is was going to be absolutely terrible. I am pleased to tell you that he was wrong and officially had to eat his words.

The salad was great, there was a combination of flavors that I never thought could go together but tasted like they were meant to be. This is a common theme for me at Luna. That’s why I have surrendered all my trust to the chefs because I know that whatever I order will be amazing. I’ve never had a salad quite like this before and suggest going with this one over the crab and kale so you can experience the flavor combinations.

For our main courses, my boyfriend got the seared diver scallops, and I got the Goette Farms roasted lamb belly. I’ll start with my dish first. Every time I get lamb at Luna, I always wonder why fancy restaurants don’t serve it. The lamb was cooked beautifully. It was extremely tender and basically fell apart. The cook and the flavor of the lamb were also spot on. The brussels sprouts and za’atar were amazing flavor combinations with the lamb. After having everything together you truly get to experience the mastery of the chefs when they create these dishes.

My boyfriend’s scallops were just as impressive. They were cooked beautifully with a great golden-brown sear on them. The flavor was great. So many places when you get scallops it is just a strong fishy taste, Luna’s scallops were full of flavor. The risotto was perfectly cooked. I’ve only had well-done risotto a couple of times before this, and it was at a much steeper price tag. Both the risotto and scallops were great on their own, but together it was truly a masterpiece.

Side note: I swear I don’t have any financial stake or connection to Luna. Their food just really is that good. It still blows my mind that this isn’t the most talked-about restaurant in Fargo.

Every dish that I’ve had from them, everything is meant to be together. Every piece of the dish tastes good on its own, but when you bring them all together you get a flavor combination like no other. That is the thing that I haven’t been able to find at other restaurants. These chefs not only know food, but they also love food. They want to push the boundaries of what food can be and challenge what people think ‘belongs’ together. I’m telling you; you will not regret going to Luna. I can’t sing its praises enough. Just do yourself a favor and go.