I've been to Loca Luna 3 times. The first time I sat on the open air patio with my sister and best friend. We enjoyed our delicious variety of tapas and we had a very attentive waitress. When I realized a meat I ordered was ambitiously rare, she had it cooked longer and all was well. The evening segued naturally from dinner to a club. The music was great and there were some people who actually know some Latin dance around. This lured me into a false sense of security.
The next time I went for birthday party. It's was $20.00 a head for the 4 (more or less) tapas the birthday girl had chosen. There were about 30 of us. When the waiter arrived most of the table was dismayed, because they had recieved poor service from this guy the year before. They tried to shake of that concern, but it was obviously still true. The dude was an inattentive, inhospitable, and incompetent waiter.
As the first platters of food came out the majority of the party did not have plates, silverware, or drinks. Although, it was brought to the waitstaffs attention several times, the first selection was consumed before half of the guests were able to have any. (Also, the portions they brought, were never reflective of their regular portions or how much we paid.) It wasn't until mid-way of the second course that majority of the table had dining utensils or were sharing with a friend. The waiter never took my drink order. I went up to the bar to retrieve my own drink. That's pretty much how the night went. Being squooshed at a table in the middle of the what was turning into a dance floor, with not enough food to eat, and not enough server. Terrible.
We had our car parked by the Valet and it was raining. No one ever came back with our keys after we waited outside for 20 minutes. Eventually, I decided to gallant and trudged out into the rain myself to the valet box. I retrieved our keys. And we left on our own.
The last and final time I went to Loca Luna I went with my sister (who by now had had 2 out of 3 experiences that turned out badly). Once again, the food was great. The two of us were sat in a very busy part of the floor between two parties. We watched sadly as other diners on the next floor enjoyed their quiet place of conversation. One party, while relatively subdued, was large and bumped us and the table everytime they shifted, because our table was stupidly at a diagonal. I moved to another chair to give them more space. The party on the other side of us was already drunk and obnoxious at 6:30pm. We mentioned our discomfort to our waitress, who gave very sympathetic nods, but didn't reseat us.
The Whoo-Girls got progressively louder and pushier shoving into our table. Eventually, they convinced a man to remove his shirt and dance for them, in FULL view of the staff. It was ridiculous. To top things off, as we finished up, a large waterbug/cockroach scuttled around our feet. We held our feet off the floor and waited for our waitress to return. It took a minute. So, we hoped that it would perhaps go to distract itself with the Whoo-Girls.
When we went to talk to management, the response we got was annoying and it was obvious Loca Luna was indifferent about out business. To Crowed Tables: Well, we'll seat you someplace else next time. I don't know why you were sat down there. To the Whoo-Girls: Well, this is a very popular restaurant and it's a party aptmosphere. To the Roach: We have an open air patio. We can't really keep bugs out. Having a couple of bugs in here is the nature of the design of the restaurant. Can you keep them out of the kitchen Loca Luna? Is your restaurant just a place for people to pregame before the party starts?
Really, the music and food is great. Most of the crowd and the staff are terrible. Not worth the trip. I'm sure there is some less desperately-hip place to try.
Pros: Very Good Food!
Cons: Poor management, bad waiters, Whoo-Girls, 2/3 bad visits
more