Luciana's Mexican Restaurant is a locally, family-owned Mexican restaurant named after the family's…read moreeldest daughter. The Indiana mini-chain has six locations - Broad Ripple, Clearwater Crossing, Greenwood, Columbus, Traders Point, and this spot just south of 96th and Meridian Street.
This Luciana's is located in an office building with retail on the ground floor. This building includes the fairly new Swig (which consistently had cars around the building while we were dining here).
Luciana's has a beautiful interior, however, my part of about nine people decided to eat on their spacious patio. The hostess saw me coming and noted that my party had already arrived and was on the patio. As a wheelchair user, I appreciated being able to go around the side and get directly to my table.
Our server brought waters and took drink orders as our party arrived. Luciana's offers a full drink menu and all the usuals you would expect from a Mexican restaurant including appetizers, nachos, taco salads, quesadillas, burritos, tacos, chimichangas, fajitas, enchiladas, a few combination items, some specialty items, a kids menu, a vegetarian menu, and desserts. They serve Coke products (including the beloved Mr. Pibb) and have iced tea options.
The atmosphere outside is pleasant. I've been trying to remember what restaurant this was before Luciana's. I for the life of me can't remember the name, however, I remember dining here. There are a couple accessible spots right near the front door (not quite ADA but pretty workable). There's a double-entry doorway and then the dining room. The outdoor dining is to the side of the building (visit the host area first). It's a weird area as it's a definite office park area with some apartments over a fence. Meridian, of course, stays busy.
I ordered a "Big Quesadilla." If you're idea of a quesadilla comes from Red Burrito, you're going to be freaked out by this thing.
Chips and Salsa were brought out and we ordered side queso. I ordered my usual unsweetened iced tea.
Overall, this was a good experience. Service was good. Service definitely wasn't great. Our gathering is typically from 7-8:30pm. We'd just switched from another restaurant that we were simply tired of and were anxious to try something new. This is a better location, however, service was quite slow. I can appreciate casual and non-intrusive, however, we ended up getting done close to 9:30pm (partly fueled by a fun night). It just seemed like service was a step slow at each phase - getting drinks, taking orders, bringing checks, picking up checks, etc. It wasn't bad. It was noticeable.
The food was solid, though I doubt I'd order this again. Again, easily 4-star. Definitely not 5-star.
This was a good experience. I'd definitely return and I'd imagine we will return next month. We all enjoyed ourselves and the patio was a definite winner. While I'm not quite willing to fork over that fifth star, a return to Luciana's is definitely on the menu.
