New Moon Cafe has brought its dinner buffet back to Decatur, Illinois, with $12.99 all-you-can-eat service on Wednesdays and Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. The restaurant announced the start of evening service on October 14, giving its buffet regulars a reason to come back around suppertime.
The cafe had teased the change with a simple message: “Dinner buffet is returning to New Moon!” Its launch announcement describes the twice-weekly evening schedule as the arrangement “for now.”
Lunch already has an established place here. The restaurant’s website lists a Monday-through-Friday buffet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with hot entrees, a salad bar, nachos, soup and dessert. The evening return gives diners who cannot make that midday window another way to get to the spread.
New Moon’s buffet cooking leans toward the sort of comfort food that makes choosing just one entree seem unnecessarily strict. A recent Monday lineup advertised beef stroganoff, fried chicken, goulash, Salisbury steak and barbecue, along with sides, soup, salad and dessert. Those are examples from its daytime buffet; the dinner announcement does not spell out a separate evening menu.
The cafe’s broader menu mixes American diner food with Mexican influences and an all-day breakfast offering. Cuban subs, quesadillas, omelets and biscuits and gravy help explain why its identity extends beyond the buffet line. WAND’s 2016 introduction to the business named operators Sergio Insante and Lori Romans and highlighted its Mexican-influenced sandwiches and paninis.
There is also a full bar, with pool tables and arcade games beyond the dining room. It is a neighborhood cafe with room for an evening out, which makes the return of supper service a natural fit.
The cafe lists an 8 p.m. closing time on Wednesdays and Fridays, but the buffet finishes an hour earlier. For the returning dinner spread, the window to remember is 5 to 7 p.m.
