La Loca Maria — Restaurant in Mumbai

Although positioned as a Spanish restaurant, La Loca Maria is a confluence of Spanish, Mexican and Italian cuisine but sadly excels in none. Being situated at the same place as erstwhile Indigo Deli, La Loca has big shoes to fill as Indigo Deli was perhaps one of the best casual dining restaurants to come out of Mumbai. We visited the restaurant for dinner last week and ordered the following:

Crispy Fish Tacos: Pretty good with freshly fried fish and topped with avocado, garlic mayo, etc. Crispy Cauliflower Taco: Again pretty good topped with cabbage, chipotle sauce, etc Pincho (pintxo) Moruno: Grilled chicken skewers with a side dressing was quite underwhelming with the chicken devoid of any taste or flavour. Lobster Paella: The entire seafood (lobster, clams, prawns) in the Paella was significantly overcooked with everything being chewy and rubbery; the Chef should be taught how to cook seafood for the right amount of time Paella de Verduras: Having eaten a lot of Paellas across Spain over the years, I can easily say this is the worst Paella I have ever eaten in my life. The rice was undercooked and devoid of any flavors or taste La Loca Maria Tiramisu: This is LLM’s own version of Tiramisu and while it was decent, I would still prefer the Classic Tiramisu any day over this.

To summarize, while LLM is certainly differentiated from the whole bunch of restaurants cropping all over Bandra, I wouldn’t visit it again as it completely missed the mark on the taste of its food. Surprisingly, despite the owner’s Spanish heritage, LLM completely missed it with its Paella (being one of the worst I have ever eaten). The restaurant by itself was quite buzzing with good vibes and fashionable people but can certainly improve on its food...

Very busy on a Friday evening. Great place food-wise. Obviously this place isn’t authentic “Spanish” as they serve items like burrata, negronis and pastas on the menu, but I really liked it eitherways

We were 4 people and had 6 drinks, 6 starters & 3 mains in total, and spent a little over 3k per person.

The burrata is great to start with! Hard to go wrong with it. Tacos: both chicken and veg cauliflower tacos really stood out. The chicken & vegetarian skewers (2 separate dishes), however, I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of. The ham croquettes tasted like minced meat from a pork sausage - wasn’t bad but you’d expect better?

Mains: the veg paella was UNREAL! The chicken and wild mushroom paella couldn’t even stand a chance - the rice and the sauce base were completely different in the two aswell. Would recommend the veg version over the chicken. The sweet pepper canelon was yet another hit on the table for the vegetarians.

We over-ordered, thus would recommend 1 main dish for 2 people or 2 dishes for 4 people and so on

Too stuffed for desserts but I’ve heard their tiramisu is great! A bit of slow service but not the worst.

Drinks: I had the loca negroni which was one of the best negronis I’ve ever had as I love negronis - it’s quite sweet for a negroni but you can still feel the bitterness which is incredible! Sandia Effervesencia is like drinking a lighter, much sweeter version of the loca negroini. Both have a bit of watermelon flavour to them. The white wine sangria came with a slice of orange as opposed to infinite tiny fruit pieces which I like somehow - would recommend!

Both truffle fries and garlic flatbread were out of stock which was...

📖 General information

Spanish based restaurant situated in Bandra. Their menu included dishes not only from Spain but other South American countries such as Mexico and Peru.

🏆 Highlights

✨ It's a very warm and cozy place to dine in. The chef and owner seems very friendly and approachable. He is seen interacting with people, and truly cares about the customer experience.

✨ Importance to customer experience is also evidenced by the attentive and professional staff. They will serve you without invading your own personal space.

✨ There's effort to include a variety of items (both for food and beverages) in the menu, integrating Spanish based products from different origins.

✨ Decoration is original, using warm colors that make the restaurant classy and visually appealing.

✨ Fish items seem speciality.

🌱 My recommendations

🍃 I found the food portions to be small. While it's a good place to appreciate different kind of dishes of different flavours, if you are a foodie who needs quantity, you might have to order extra. Therefore, this will also affect your pocket, as prices are more on the higher side.

🍃 As a person of Spanish origin, I found that few names were not true to the original dish served (e.g Crema Catalana). Seeing the reviews, I should have opted for Tiramisu as seems to be highly valued by other reviewers.

🍃 The menu could include a wider range of variety for veg people. I did not try meat, but the fish dish was delicious. I suspect that fish are the best dishes they offer. However, there are many dishes from Spanish origin that could be served as veg as I found the variety...