Loli’s Taqueria

I really don’t like ragging on new local businesses, because I understand how negative Unilocal reviews can affect business. However, my first experience at Loli’s left something to be desired… and the issues I had with the place can absolutely be remedied.
My first issue? I ordered the peach and grape white sangria, and the peaches were canned. For a restaurant that claims to source local ingredients when possible, using canned fruit is unacceptable. I don’t even care if they use peaches that aren’t locally grown – just use fresh fruit! The sangria itself was too sweet for my taste, but I’m sure others will like it.
The second issue: the complimentary «fresh» salsa. The salsa both looked and tasted like it came out of a jar.
Issue number three: the guacamole was bland. Guacamole is very simple to make well, but Loli’s was missing salt, heat, and the kick of cilantro. Boring.
My last issue was the «housemade Soy-​rizo» that I ordered in my quesadilla. As a vegetarian, when I see the word «soy-​rizo» I think of a vegetable protein like seitan created to look and taste like chorizo. Not so at Loli’s. Their soy-​riso is mushy tofu with a bit of spice. At first I couldn’t tell whether it was tofu or soft scrambled eggs. The flavor was alright, but it just wasn’t what I expected at all.
All that said, the service was great and and it’s very affordable. (BTW, tacos are $ 3 each – something they failed to print on the menu). The space seems to be cursed, because this is the third business there in as many years. I am pulling for Loli’s to succeed, and I think if they refine their recipes, they will do well.

We wrote a really great review about a month ago. Then we showed up a week later and the restaurant was closed with no sign posted. Someone came out and said that they were training a new chef. When we just went back tonight, nothing was the same. The chips are no longer homemade. The burritos are no longer grilled and they are filled with 80% hard rice that isn’t fresh and had none of the ingredients listed on the menu. To top it off, the waitress didn’t get our order right and had no knowledge of the menu whatsoever. The owners were really nice the first time we went, but it is now clear that they have no idea how to run a restaurant. If they really cared about their restaurant, they would stay put and cook and serve their customers for a lot longer than a month. Sorry, but we won’t be going back.

Here’s what I don’t get about my dinner here last night: Given that we waited an hour or more for our tacos, which arrived in three rounds, how is it that everything was cold? Between the long wait and the staggered arrivals, I’d assume the kitchen was backed up and sending things out as they made them, but I swear nothing was above room temp when it reached our table.
I have no idea what was going on in the kitchen, and the servers seemed equally clueless: They had a lot of trouble identifying the various tacos they brought to us, and they seemed completely unable to anticipate our (pretty basic) needs, so we had to flag them down (with considerable difficulty) to ask for things that should have been obvious: to place our drink order, to bring our chips and salsa out while we waited for the tacos, to order another round when our drinks were empty and our food nowhere in sight, to bring a plate and napkins for our toddler. I get the sense that they knew the food was taking too long and they were hiding in the back because they thought customers might be mad, but that didn’t exactly help the situation!
When it eventually came, the food was decent except for the temperature problem. Two of the tacos – al pastor and a steak taco called el argentino – were excellent; two were decent; one was disgusting. Stay away from «papas and soy-​ritzo,» a soggy mess of soft tofu masquerading as vegetarian choritzo, with a few chunks of undercooked potato. Side of rice and beans was tasty, chips and salsa okay.
Manager eventually apologized for the wait, said the kitchen was overwhelmed by a large party of 12 that had ordered shortly before we arrived, and comped our drinks. I’ll give two stars rather than one because of that gesture and because of the two really good tacos, but I won’t be back anytime soon. Too many kinks to work out, both in the kitchen and front of house.

Me and the boyfriend decided to try this place because there’s not many Mexican restaurants in our neighborhood. We got chips and salsa when we were seated and already things weren’t off to a good start. Some of the chips weren’t cooked all the way, piles of salt on them, they left our fingers shiny from all the grease and the salsa tasted like they opened a can of crushed tomatoes and threw in some hot sauce.
I ordered the adobo chicken burrito, it was edible but super bland. I read some other reviews and apparently this place prides itself on fresh ingredients? My chicken tasted like the pre made ones you buy from the freezer isle. Nothing tasted fresh and nothing tasted good enough to come back for. This place did just open a few weeks ago and I could understand working out a few kinks but the food needs HELP.
I can’t hate on the sangria though, it was pretty good. I loved that there was a little fork in my cup to eat the fruit with. Also this place is good for kids– cartoons on the tv and they have crayons.

Closed on a Saturday night? Why? Can’t really give it any stars as it was closed with no hours posted at 8pm on a Saturday. Guess I’ll take my business elsewhere… very disappointed.

I stopped in for dinner about 2 weeks after opening, and so far, so good.
Service is extremely friendly. Seemed like every employee in the place stopped by the table on a slower Wednesday night.
Prices are really good for the neighborhood, especially for the locally sourced ingredients used. All in, $ 30 dinner and dessert for 2 is excellent for a cute place like this in Park Slope.
The food was good, plentiful, and full of flavor. The house made chips were excellent, salsa good especially for a cilantro hater. Tacos are the typical small tortilla size, meat was cooked well and the toppings made good pairings for what we had. Chile rellano special had more kick than I anticipated, but that made it even better.
It’s a great neighborhood joint that deserves to be added to the Park Slope dining rotation.

This place makes me so darn happy. The service is incredibly warm and accommodating. They make you feel like a regular the minute you walk in the front door. The soft tacos are about as good as it gets in New York — both in terms of the home made tortillas and the fillings that are both of excellent variety and quality. The only dish I’ve had here that wasn’t spectacular are their fish taco (more fish stick than fish taco). The food is both complex enough for adult taste buds and simple enough for the kids.
I can’t recommend this place enough! It is just what the neighborhood needs.

This location is off the busy 5^th and 7^th avenues.
The food is very Cal-​Mex, and many of the ingredients are organic and sourced locally. There are numerous vegetarian items available as well. I was very pleased with the food.
The wine list is almost entirely organic, and there are several incantations of sangria.
Deserts and a liquor license are in the works.
A very nice specialty restaurant away from the more frenetic locations in Park Slope.

Loli Loli Loli, get your tacos here!
Loli Loli Loli, got some tacos here!
Come on down to Loli’s, get the tacos here!
You’re going to need
If you write or read
Or even think about it.
Loli’s has a lot of things going for it. Lots of local ingredients, a menu with some interesting menu items that aren’t often found in this neighborhood (I’m looking at you tinga and shrimp ceviche) and a very open, inviting space.
The guacamole was pre-​made, but good. The sangria, very importantly, was *not* pre-​made. So many places in the city make a couple gallons of sangria and let it just sit around and linger for awhile. Unacceptable! Loli makes it fresh for you, in a variety of flavors.
Their daily specials are pretty good ($ 5 nachos on Friday night!?) and the burritos are large, and tasty. You can really taste the organic in the beans. Taco tortillas from Nixtamal is pretty sweet too.
On the minus side, I’d be okay if the second (and third, and fourth) rounds of chips weren’t so small, because they cost. But the chips themselves are thick, greasy, salty, and good. And the salsa is one of the best free salsas I’ve had.
Their delivery isn’t going quite yet, nor is their outdoor seating. Accepting credit cards would be nice too. A revisit is in order, but this may be my new go-​to for Mexican food in Park Slope. Definitely check it out.

This is a charming space where you can find great service and well-​priced, tasty food. We ordered a side of guacamole, shrimp, steak, pulled pork, beet tacos and a carne asada rice bowl.
The tacos were yummy, especially the steak, shrimp and beet. I’d probably pass on the pork as it was a bit dry. The rice bowl was also delicious.
The woman who waited on us was super friendly and even gave a sample of her spicy/​sweet plantains which were amazing. They don’t have a dessert menu and don’t deliver yet, but when they do, it will make this place even better.
This place also sources food from local businesses and uses organic meat. Two more reasons to love this place!

Went in today for dinner with my wife on a spring of the moment since our other dinner plans fell through with a long wait list. We live right around the corner so I was curious to check this place out since it revamped from the disastrous Lucky Lou’s that was there before.
I was excited at the prospect of tacos. The décor and ambiance leaves a lot to be desired. You can tell they wanted to go as low budget as possible, but still I feel that a more warming atmosphere and look would help a lot.
We ordered several tacos plus a couple of other items from the menu. Things started to worry me, when it was already 20 minutes and no food had come out. At this moment it was just us, and 2 more tables that already had their food. Finally they sent out one of our items to «get us started with something».
By this time more people started coming in. The 2 girls that work the front of the house, while very friendly, definitely look completely overwhelmed and inefficient. There were dirty tables that hadn’t even been cleaned since we arrived, and they were running back and forth doing drinks, taking order, running food, etc.
We finally got all our food after about 35 minutes. Tacos were good, although very small for $ 3 each. The tostada was very bland though. It had no salt whatsoever. The queso fundido was very good.
They have a blackboard with all the names of their purveyors and their organic status, etc. So they are trying to go for the good for the environment and good sourcing look. But when all that goes into food this bland and boring it doesn’t help much.
Getting our check and paying was another long wait until one of the waitresses was able to finally give us some attention. They really need to add more staff and get more efficient at what they do.

Everything was unremarkable, and you could do better at just about any other Mexican restaurant in Park Slope. Unless you are just looking for a kid’s restaurant where you can also drink wine/​beer, in that case add two stars. For a place that touts fresh and local, nothing seemed particularly fresh. Nothing was seasoned very well (I guess they’re keeping it bland for the kids), and for the price it’s not exactly a steal.

This place is ok. I stopped by for dinner recently and tried the Loli’s platter. I posted a pic, but it’s basically a make-​your-​own-​tacos platter that comes with a stack of mini tortillas, steak, chicken, shrimp, pico, guac, shredded cabbage and sour cream. Everything tasted ok but even with a side of rice and beans, both of us were still a little hungry after we were done.
I’d go back to try their individual tacos and some of their daily specials — especially the rice bowl on Mondays. I like that their ingredients are fresh and from local sources. The staff was nice, although you could tell that they were trying to work out some of the kinks from just opening.