Italian cuisine is popular throughout the world for a reason. It is the fresh*ness of the ingredients and the sim*plicity of the cooking that attracts so many people to it, and in Hanoi, Luna d’ Autunno is a prime example of just that First established in 1999 in the Old Quarter by Italian resident Gino Benelli and his Vietnamese wife, die restaurant has recently moved to a new elegant loca*tion inside Eden Hotel in Tho Nhuom St. The restaurant will make an impression on you the moment vou walk in. The first thing you will note is the Roman style architecture with a variety of concrete domes dividing the restaurant into differ*ent dining areas. There are pictures of Italy on the walls. The warm yellow light*ing, wooden bar and furniture, and enamel floors create a comfortable, homely atmosphere. “Ordinarily, we offer the traditional Italian foods pizza and pasta,” says Luca Stefanutto the new manager of Luna d’ Autunno, “but when we moved to these new premises, we changed the menu a lit*tle bit and now we serve more Italian-Mediterranean dishes.” Stefanutto calls it “modern Italian cuisine”, and besides a huge range of homemade, fresh pasta, Luna offers seafood, veal, beef, lamb and chicken as well as pizza, risotto and ravioli. Everything is beautifully prepared from the freshest ingredients. Many are import*ed directlv from Italy; Just a minute after we sat down, we were served a small basket of bread with olive old and vinegar, along with a glass of fresh flavoured lemon juice. It was a good start. As we were confused by the exten*sive menu, which boasted more than 100 dishes written in three languages Italian, English and Vietnamese, Luca recom*mended some of his favourite Mediterranean style dishes: capacdo di scdmone alfaneto or salmon carpaccio with dill vinaigrette for a starter (VND105.000), and spiedini di tonno al limone e salvia or tuna skewers with lemon and sage for the main course (VND255.000).
It’s all about the fish! We visited the restaurant on a Friday, and like other tradi*tional Italian restaurants around the world, Luna d’ Autunno serves mosdy fish dishes on this day. According to Luca, the tradi*tion of eating fish on Fridays is very old. In the early years of Christianity in Europe, the church instituted the practice of requiring the faithful to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in memory of Christ’s death. Nowadays in Italy it is still a tradition, but Luna also serves meat dish*es.
As soon as I tasted the salmon, I knew it has been made just minutes before we ordered. It tasted so fresh and was pre*pared in the traditional Mediterranean al dente style. It summed up what modern Italian cooking should be.
The stir-fried tuna was presented quite differently from how I’d seen it before. A 200g tuna fillet, onion and tomato
were cut into bite-sized pieces, skewed up, and then baked in the oven. One half of a perfectly cooked Da Lat potato and herbs were served on the side.
To finish off, we were given a hot deli*cious grasoll al cioccolato e caffe or sunflower topped chocolate and coffee cake (VND75,000). The softness of the cake and the authentic flavour of premium chocolate made it the perfect dessert to order.
Luna d’ Autunno’s dishes range in price from a very affordable VND40,000 to the more expensive porchetta or trotter meat (pork, beef and lamb) that cost from VND80,()00 to VND320,000. With this price range, the owners hope to attract more and more Vietnamese cus*tomers.
The restaurant also claims to have one of the biggest collections of Italian wine in Hanoi. With all this choice, it was not easy to decide which was best between Chianti Classico (VND640,000), Barbara d Asti (VND480,000) or Nero d Avola (VND450,000).
Luna d1 Autunno also offers free inter*net access and a free delivery service for orders of VND100,000 or more between 11.30am-2.30pm and 5.30-10.30pm.
A long history, great location and deli*cious food are what Luna d’ Autunno offers to its customers

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