In one sense, a restaurant makes it easy for me when they serve a lousy Corned Beef sandwich. I taste so much high-quality Corned Beef that it’s pretty easy to identify a loser. It doesn’t make it any easier to call their version a loser, though.

Especially when they have a sign in their front window claiming “Best Corned Beef”. That’s an assertion that needed some investigation.

Luna’s is a little diner and luncheonette at 33 West Aurora Road in Northfield, just west of Olde 8 Road (on Route 82). My wife is in this part of town on the occasional Wednesday and since I was going to be in the neighborhood, she suggested we connect up for lunch.

So we did.

She and the kids ordered off the menu (cheeseburger, fish fry, fish sandwich, pizza and club sandwich) and everyone was pleased. I, of course, couldn’t let their claim go unverified and so ordered the Corned Beef sandwich.

The color was excellent, the cheese nicely melted, the bread just the right kind, etc. And as far as grilled sandwiches go, it was a good sandwich. But when you call it a Corned Beef sandwich, standards increase.

And as far as that goes, it was a lousy Corned Beef sandwich.

The Corned Beef was not quite rubbery, but close. Corned Beef should be easily severed when bitten and the rest of the sandwich shouldn’t pull out of your bread when you pull away.

The taste was average but the texture and consistency were both below average. I shudder to think of it, but perhaps this had been sitting a while. Again, as far as grilled sandwiches go, it was acceptable. It just wasn’t a Best Corned Beef sandwich, by any stretch of the imagination.

I hate to say it, but perhaps Luna’s should consider taking down the sign. Or blocking out the “Best” part of it.