Loteria Grill

6627 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-2500
www.loteriagrill.com
twitter.com/loteriagrill

Parking: Metered Street Parking or Hollywood lots
Days: Daily
Times: 3-6pm
Drink Deals: Half-off all drinks!!! Food Deals: Small Selection of Happy Hour Eats from $4-8

To put it in the simplest terms, I kinda loved Loteria Grill's Happy Hour! Sure, it's only 3-6pm, which is normally a no-go for the Happy Hour Tour – but at Loteria Grill, it’s DAILY from 3-6pm! Couple that with a drink menu that’s entirely ½-off (no joke!), a sampling of swell Happy Hour-priced eats, a very helpful and efficient wait staff, and a really beautiful space that feels like an oasis from the crazy Hollywood Blvd. foot traffic just outside – and you really do have a refreshing Happy Hour!!

Loteria Grill is a small LA chain with locations at the Farmer's Market, Studio City, and then the Hollywood location. It's more a restaurant with great cocktails than a bar, which can be a nice change of pace for Happy Hour Tourists. If you read this site often enough, you know I’m a huge fan of natural light and Loteria Grill’s natural lighting is pretty spectacular. It’s also a nice match for the décor, sort of a modern Mexican restaurant with white walls and an accent melon wall, a mixture of light & dark wood tables & chairs, inside trees (!), and giant decorative loteria cards at the top of the bar seating.

There’s also an outside patio, which looked quite nice too and probably pretty good for people-watching on Hollywood Blvd. For Nic & my small group’s Saturday afternoon visit, we decided to dine inside as I just loved that natural lighting :).

Clockwise from top left - Margarita de Loteria ($6), Margarita de Mango ($5.50), Tequila Martini de Tamarindo served as a Margarita ($6), Ms. Nic enjoying her margarita!

In my limited pre-visit research, I was never able to find Loteria’s Happy Hour deals on-line. So it was a terrific surprise to learn that their Happy Hour featured all drinks – from margaritas to martinis to sangria to tequila shots and beer – for ½ off! We started with the house specialty Margarita Loteria ($6). It was pretty tasty, but I was more into my next 2 margaritas – the Tequila Martini de Tamarindo ($6) that they served as a margarita. The perfect balance of sweet & sour, the drink is sometimes served in a glass rimmed with chili powder. That’s a bit much for Gringo JB, but I loved it as it was! The other gals ordered the Margarita de Mango (Mango Margarita for Gringo JB :) at $5.50 and that was nice as well! Besides tasting great, you also knew you were getting your Happy Hour’s $$ worth – the drinks were definitely well-liquored!

For food, the Happy Hour menu is a little more limited, but it’s still a very good small selection of Loteria’s eats.

Guacamole & Chips ($4)

We started off with the Guacamole & Chips ($4), the standout here was the complimentary salsa – a very delicious Chipotle Salsa. Our chips were re-filled several times without us even asking, sweet!

Trio de Nueces ($6)

We also enjoyed the Trio de Nueces ($6) – a plate with a trio of nuts – Roasted peanuts seasoned with lime & chile, and Spiced Pepitas and Pecans served warm. I think I embarrassed our cutie server when he asked “if we were done with our nuts” and I laughed uncontrollably for 3 minutes. I was also 3 margaritas deep at this point.

Crispy Potato Taquitos ($6)

For our final selection, we went with the Crispy Taquitos ($6) – any mix of Chicken, Shredded Beef, or Potato (guess which I had?!) served with Crema Mexicana, Queso Fresco, Lettuce & Guacamole. Again, delicious.

Rounding out the options were the Plato de Chalupas ($5), which sounded great, but had chicken; the Plato Botanero ($8) with a selection of appetizers; and theAguachile de Callo de Hacha ($8), a Mexican sea scallop dish.

All-in-all, I really enjoyed Loteria’s Happy Hour – if you couldn’t tell! It’s a great stop for an early dinner or on a Happy Hour Tour. You could got to Lucky Devils just down the street and then here and woah baby, you’d be set!

-- JB

Rating: 4.5 Margaritas