4/5 overall — food 4/5, value 2/5
There are some restaurants you walk into as a customer, and others you walk into carrying a little baggage. Loca Luna falls into the second category for me. I actually worked there for a while more than 20 years ago, so my memories of the place come from both sides of the table. That makes going back interesting, because I’m not just judging the food in front of me — I’m also inevitably comparing today’s Loca Luna with the casual, quirky place I remember from years ago.
This was also a business lunch with a friend, and for that, Loca Luna worked really well. It was quiet enough that we could actually talk without competing with music or a packed dining room, and we had enough room at the table to spread out a little and get some work done without feeling cramped. For a lunch where you need to eat, talk, and actually accomplish something, the atmosphere was a definite plus.
I went with the Loca Burger — Loca sauce, butter lettuce, roasted Hatch chile, caramelized onion, jack cheese, and a milk bun — for $15.
The flavor was good, but it wasn’t on the level of somewhere like Big Orange, which is still one of the stronger burger benchmarks around Little Rock. And at $15, I expected considerably more burger. Either a noticeably larger patty or a double would have made the price easier to swallow. Hell, that’s getting pretty close to Five Guys money these days, and if I’m comparing burger-for-burger, I honestly think Five Guys does it better.
The Loca sauce is basically a nicely spiced ketchup-and-mayo blend, and I liked it, although the jack cheese and Hatch chile were strong enough that the sauce mostly stayed in the background.
The strange part was the texture of the patty. I’m not saying this is what they do, because I have no idea, but it had that texture of beef that had once been fresh, then frozen, thawed, and cooked. It wasn’t bad, and it didn’t taste like a factory-made frozen patty either. It just didn’t have that loose, juicy, freshly formed texture I expected from a $15 restaurant burger.
The fries were fine. Nothing wrong with them, but nothing particularly memorable either.
We also got the Cheese Dip & Salsa for $14. This is basically a holdover from the old Abernathy-era Loca Luna, although it isn’t quite the same as I remember. No corn, seemingly a little less seasoning — although my taste buds may have changed over the years — and the old multicolored chips are gone. Now they’re just regular tortilla chips. Still good cheese dip, just a little less distinctive than it used to be.
Then there was the Baltimore Crab Cake at $24. The old Loca Luna served two smaller crab cakes; now you get one considerably larger one. It was good and had a noticeable spicy kick from the seasoning and remoulade, but I would have preferred a little less filler/breading and more actual crab. At $24, the crab should really be the star.
Where the meal absolutely excelled was the service. Amanda was fantastic — easily some of the best service I’ve had in a while. Friendly, attentive without hovering, and completely on top of everything.
Having worked at Loca Luna years ago, the biggest thing that struck me was just how much the restaurant has changed. It’s physically smaller, the menu has been pared down quite a bit, and the whole atmosphere feels considerably more formal than it used to.
Old Loca Luna was quirky, casual and a little funky. This version feels more upscale — maybe even borderline pretentious compared with what the place used to be.
And, of course, it’s considerably more expensive.
Would I go back? Probably, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. I’d go if somebody else in the group wanted Loca Luna, or if I wanted somewhere dark and quiet to sit down with a martini.
Overall: 4/5, and Amanda’s service is doing some lifting there.
Food: 4/5
Service: 5/5
Value: 2/5
Inflation only explains so much. For $15, that burger should have been a hell of a lot bigger.
