Restaurant Review: Loca Luna

Last night Stephen's mom took us out to dinner to Loca Luna on Amsterdam Ave.  It used to be located right by my apartment on 6th in Midtown but that location looks condemned right now.  Will I ever head back to Loca Luna?  Probably not, unless it's with a group of people and it's more of a social event rather than dinner.

Let me start by saying, we may have picked a bad night - I'm not sure.  Tuesday night's are $18 all you can eat so the kitchen and serving staff might not have giving their best effort.  However, when I'm paying money for dinner, I expect to get good service.  Last night that was not the case.  We were sat inside, by a giant fan, and it took close to 5 minutes for anyone to come by the table to greet us and take a drink order.  That was our first meeting with Lucas.  Because we were using a Living Social coupon we weren't able to take advantage of the $18 deal but we could only order items on that menu, at full price.  It was another 10 minutes before Lucas came back to take our order, and he still didn't have our drinks with him.

Twenty minutes after sitting down we finally had our drinks and we put in our order.  When the food came out it was good, but could have been a little bit warmer.  I have a feeling it was sitting in the back ready to go when it was ordered.  The flavors were fantastic, but not fresh.  We had the steamed mussels and we had 3 that weren't open and 2 that didn't have a mussel in them at all.  If we had the all you can eat menu this wouldn't have been a problem, but we were paying full price.  The best part of the meal was the mojito - it was delicious.  I also want to note that nowhere on the website does it say that Tuesday nights have a special menu and coupons aren't accepted - that would have been very helpful information, especially with there is a Living Social deal AND a Groupon for them floating around out there.

The service was horrible.  I believe it came down to our server not caring at all about his job or our evening.  Very disappointing.  The atmosphere is great and in a good location with plenty of parking, but the service killed it for me.  Because there is a chance that I'd get the same server again, I don't want to go back.

Overall, I give Loca Luna a 2 out of 5 stars.  The two stars being for atmosphere and the drinks.  The service and food left a lot to be desired.