Loco Lou's 2.0 Arcade Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Calgary

I'm pretty new to Calgary, having just moved here a month ago, and as such I've been enjoying checking out the food scene and finding exciting places to go for good food and a fun time. I saw Loco Lous while out with my cousin and I do what I usually do, check the online reviews to see if it's worth giving a shot. It seemed to be a mixed bag of extremely positive and terribly negative, which made me apprehensive but I decided to give the benefit of the doubt all the same.

I typically am positive in my reviews because I want to highlight diamonds in the rough that people should appreciate more, and if I'm negative it is for the sake of being constructive.

This may be the most negative review I've ever written from the sheer amount of upset that this place caused me during my visit on October 19th, 2024.

Atmosphere: I thought this place was pretty cool, it's an interesting building with lots of wood and fun signs on the wall that my cousin and I enjoyed looking and laughing at as we were sat. The place was pretty barren when we were in around noon-ish for lunch, only two other tables there. I liked the Halloween decor.

Service: There was only one server at the time, and she was pretty good. She was friendly and polite to us, and we didn't have to wait too long to be tended to. The chef, though, has upset me for reasons below.

Food: I wasn't expecting fine cuisine when we went to an arcade/bar, but what we got was...interesting. We loved the appetizer chicken bites, the sauces were delicious and the chicken crispy, and they alone gave another star to my review, my cousin had a couple drinks that he was very happy with. He wanted the steak sandwich, and I ordered the Lous Cheeseburger. His 'sandwich' was weird since it didn't have a top bun, or the mushrooms the menu said would be on it, but we shrugged it off since it didn't seem worth making a stink about.

My burger was fine, nothing to write home about, though I did like the pretzel bun and sauce they put on it. The worst was the fries that both of us ordered as our side, which came out so overdone that it was like chewing rocks. We tried to pick through to find edible ones but it was hard to do so. I didn't want to eat them, so even though we hate to complain I requested we get the fries remade, which were much better. We didn't finish them and I felt bad wasting it since I'd asked for fresh fries, so I asked to take the leftovers home.

Our bill, after one appetizer, two entrees, two sours and a single pop? After tip, it was over one hundred dollars. Because I didn't want to waste the fries, as our server informed us, the chef said that we were being charged an extra seven dollars. An extra seven dollars because they gave us awful fries that came with our meals. And my cousin was charged $24 for his steak sandwich instead of the $16 it was supposed to be on the lunch menu. The only explanation I could think of is that they charged him for the sirloin steak from the dinner menu accidentally, but even then that item is only $21, so what happened? We paid because we didn't want to make a fuss, and didn't realize the incorrect price, but it was frustrating.

The Arcade: I was very skeeved after we finished eating, but my cousin wanted to play some games so we stuck around for a bit. We went upstairs and almost all the games on the left side were off or out of order, no Bubble Bobble or Street Fighter for us, unfortunately. We managed to play a few games on the ones that were functioning and had fun with Mario Kart and Halo.

Final Thoughts: This seems like a cool place to hang for a drink, but I do not recommend getting food, aside from the chicken bites. I don't expect this to be well received, but my review is coming from a place of construction, as I genuinely wanted to like this place and am disappointed, to say the least. Feel free to give it a try and see for yourselves, though. (Sorry...

I've never been compelled to write a bad review, and I've never been compelled to leave zero tip. I don't expect the most amazing service any time I go out to eat or drink, but this was aggressively bad. We walked in, the waitresses looked at us, said hi and walked away. There was already kind of a weird vibe here, but we assumed this meant we should seat ourselves since they didnt tell us to hold on a second, or anything like that. We sat down, and never had anyone come over to us. I finally went and ordered drinks from the bar and apologized for seating ourselves. We got our drinks, but then had to track down a server to order another round and get menus. Honestly, so far it's fine... not the best service, but it's ok. Our waitress came back at some point, seemed to be rushing us to order and kinda angry for some reason. We apologized and said we were waiting for another person before ordering. She walked off.

After we finally ordered food we had a different waitress come over and give us nachos. It seemed to everyone at the table that the nachos were an appetizer that they serve everyone on the house. When our waitress came back finally she chewed us out and asked who ordered the nachos and why we were eating them? We explained that we assumed that they came with our meal and she left angrily. We never heard whether or not we were supposed to eat them. We still assumed it was on the house but she never came over and apologized or explained what happened.

The owner (or manager) came over to check our IDs after we ordered our first set of drinks and he seems really nice. The waitress that wasn't our main one, who brought the nachos, seemed nice. But the one we had just seemed angry at us the whole time. Not a good experience which is unfortunate. I'd been looking forward to going here for quite a while, it's such a cool looking restaurant. I don't plan on...

Ate here for the first time Friday evening. Service was fantastic and friendly, atmosphere is great for drinks and games on a weekend. The lou’s lager was on special- would not recommend as it tasted like water. The Peach beer was awesome! Had a wonderful peach flavour I also would equate it to a sour beer however this aspect of it was light. Extremely disappointed in the food. Tried two of the appetizers- Mac and Cheese bites and Bbq Pork Potchos and the main fish and chips (that was also on special).

Mac and cheese bites tasted like they were from frozen, not made in house. Sirracha mayo tasted more like buffalo however my boyfriend really appreciated the peppered Ketchup. Would not say that the mac and cheese bites are worth the $14.

The bbq pork potchos were awesome at the start- made with waffle fries that were delightfully crispy however the problem was the pork. It was advertised on the menu as pulled pork yet there were massive chunks/ strips that needed to be cut- was not pulled at all. We were expecting a saucy bbq sauce however the pork was dry and had a yellow colouring. the taste of the seasoning on the pork was off-putting and as a result we did not end up finishing the potchos. We talked to the server and she said we could substitute the protein which may be a better option in the future.

Fish and chips were crispy and delicious however, we were disappointed in portion size. When ordering fish and chips and the fish being Haddock, we are used to fillets being long and size of the plate. We ordered a two piece fish and chips and the fillets were the size of frozen fillets you get from Highliner. Definitely not worth the regular price of the two piece ($22). The flavour and crispness maybe makes it worth the special price ($16) but just don’t expect to share. If the fish was Halibut, I would say the portion would be adequate...