I don’t think I’m alone in loving Mexican food. It’s kind of like pizza, everyone likes it. So I was pretty excited when SKC readers recommended adding Loco Coco’s Tacos in Kittery, Maine to our restaurant review list. I have no idea what I’m going to order, but whatever it is, it will have lots of hot sauce and guacamole. Let’s do this.

We arrived around 12:30pm on a busy Thursday lunch hour and the place was hopping. Because of how the main entrance is set up, there isn’t anyone at the door to greet you and if you’ve never been before, it can be a bit confusing on how to proceed. One side of the restaurant has counter service where you can either take-out or eat-in at one of the tables in the dining room. The other side of the restaurant offers full service in their bar, lounge area and additional dining room.

We found a nice, sunny open table in the dining room with no problem (it was mostly business lunchers packing the self-service and bar/lounge area). The décor is bright and authentically Mexican with plenty of artwork on the walls. It took an extra few minutes to get noticed, receive menus and take a drink order, but that seemed to be more of a staffing issue—the lone bartender was single-handedly waiting on all the bar patrons and dining room tables. In an attempt to counteract impending boredom, I asked our waitress if they had any crayons and coloring pages. Nope. Really?

The kids’ menu offers four items: a cheese quesadilla, a ground beef or chicken taco (hard or soft) and a bean and cheese burrito. All are priced at a reasonable $4.25 and served with a child’s drink and their choice of beans, rice or chips. We ordered the kids a limeade (not knowing it wasn’t a kid-approved drink and cost us another $2 each), but it tasted homemade and was delicious! The adult menu offered tons of delicious sounding options and we settled on a Chicken Tostada and the Lime Salad with Grilled Shrimp. My son wanted the kids’ chicken and cheese quesadilla and my daughter requested her favorite Mexican dish—a soft taco with just lettuce and cheese (she has a very refined palette).

The food came without delay and we were really impressed with how fresh everything looked and tasted! The kids’ quesadilla was huge (the size of a normal quesadilla) and the soft taco was without error. And here’s what I really appreciated about it all—the portion sizes were perfect. I get really upset with restaurants that serve unnecessarily large amounts of food so that you inevitably eat too much and/or waste food by throwing half of it away. We finished everything and all felt perfectly satisfied. The food clearly hit a bull’s eye with this group.

Check, please! And much to our pleasant surprise, Kids Eat Free on Thursdays! Diners enjoy one free kid’s meal with the purchase of each adult entrée, niiiice! In the end, the four of us scored lunch for about $30—all in all, very reasonable. In fact, there’s nothing on the menu more than $9.95 with most options hovering in the $6-$7 range—unheard of for dinner! Loco Coco’s is super fresh. It’s good. And it won’t break the bank. If they considered getting some crayons, we might move in.

Please Note: as of May 2010, Loco Coco’s no longer runs the Kids Eat Free specials :(

Here’s the bottom line (based on a five-star rating):
Distraction Offering: ??
Atmosphere: ???
Food: ????½
Affordability: ???½
Service: ???½

Loco Coco’s Tacos
36 Walker Street, Kittery ME (207) 438-9322
www.locococos.com

 diningroom    bar    

counterservice     tostada

quesadilla     salad

1 Response

  1. I love this place. The food is very good. Good fish tacos! We also ordered tamales for a party. Try the hybiscus juice. Not only is it tasty, it is good for you too.

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