Friday, December 3, 2010

Midtown Review: Loca Luna

Friday, December 3, 2010
I might be the only person in this town that has lived in Midtown Atlanta and not tried Loca Luna yet. This place definitely has a reputation in Midtown as a "fun place with a great atmosphere" but I have never heard any incredible talk about their food. So I decided I would try it out last night with a group of friends.
Loca Luna is a tapas style restaurant off of Amsterdam Avenue in Midtown. If this place didn't have such a reputation, I don't know how anyone would ever find out about it. It definitely is hidden between the neighborhoods of Midtown and Piedmont Park itself. All the talk about Loca Luna that preceeded my visit was right; Loca Luna definitely has a great atmosphere. Live music, bright colors on the walls, lights hanging around the restaurant, "tiki hut" style sitting areas for larger groups, and a killer patio are a few of the first impressions I got of Loca Luna as I walked in. The atmosphere definitely didn't disappoint.


We sat down in one of these "tiki hut" lookin areas and looked over the menu. Our waiter recommended the mojitos to drink so we got one. Let's just say I wasn't that impressed, especially since that is the one drink our waiter said was the best at the whole restaurant. Nothing was authentic about it and it didn't stand out from any other mojito I've ever had. Some of the tapas options included Pao De Queijo brazilian cheese rolls with sundried tomato pesto, Moqueca shrimp, scallops, mussels, cabbage in a brazilian tomato coconut sauce, Costillas Espanolas grilled ribs with balsamic reduction and fresh herbs, a couple paella and ceviche options and many, many more. Since we had a larger group, we all decided to get a bunch of different tapas and all share. To start off with we ordered the Tomate y Mozzarella with vine ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, balsamic vin, and the Black Bean Hummus, tortilla chips, carrots, cucumber. (Note: If you order the hummus ask for extra flat bread cause they barely give you any.) Both of these cold tapas were good and made us all begin to scour over the menu to figure out what to order next!

Tomato and Mozzerella
Hummus
Next we decided to all order the Nachos with tortilla chips, roasted poblano - cheese sauce, pico de gallo, Barilla de Pollo - grilled chicken skewers, crispy plantains, Cuban mojo, Filet Mignon tapas and then a variety of their tacos which included chile chicken confit with charred corn salsa, beef brisket with pico de gallo and queso fresco and grilled grouper with cabbage slaw and jalapeno aioli. I'm going to warn you that my review of this food is about to get really boring. I would rather just write that all the tapas were "good" (note my overuse of good in this posting) instead of going into individual detail about each tapas. Normally, I would describe each tapas I tried and what I liked about it but I feel the food at Loca Luna did just enough to get by. I find myself struggling to find enough words to describe these tapas cause they were just good. I didn't leave Loca Luna hating the food but then I didn't leave Loca Luna caring to really ever come back to eat. So instead of boring you with a bunch of sentences about the food that leaves the same "good" conclusion, I will just tell you that Loca Luna definitely has an incredible amount of options for tapas but I didn't find anything that was great.

Grilled Chicken Skewers
Nachos


Variety of Tacos
Filet Mignon

I guess I will close this "exciting" review (seriously I am sure you are yawning by now), by saying that the service was not good at all. I hate when you go to a restaurant with a large party and they put down one long bill at the end of the meal for everyone. Can you not just split it up? So anyways, giving our waiter the benefit of the doubt, I nicely wrote down next to every item on the menu who each item belonged to so that he could split up the bill. He still wouldn't split it up. Seriously? A little customer service goes a long way especially when I pretty much already did your job and split it up for you. And the attitude from the waiter didn't help at all either. So overall I would say Loca Luna = great atmosphere, ok drinks, good food, and bad service.  I guess all the hype about Loca Luna and the atmosphere was right because there definitely is no way this place could be hyped for anything else.

Loca Luna
550 Amsterdam Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30306

3 comments:

Anonymous

If you didn't tell the server at the beginning of the meal that you wanted it split, it makes it very difficult to do at the end of the meal. If you were that upset, you should have spoken with a manager.

MidtownMile

I wasn't upset at all, just found it slightly frustrating. And the attitude from the waiter made it more difficult than it probably needed to be! But your right, next time I will definitely make a point of that at the beginning of the meal!

Fletcher Arrowood

Well when you go with a large group of people that are 20 something, what makes you think that one person is going to pick up the check? IT"S COMMON SENSE. She shouldn't have to ask! Also the waiter giving her attitude when she asked for it to be split is uncalled for! Its a service industry and splitting the check is part of providing that SERVICE!

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