Los Lobos on NCL: Here’s Everything You Need to Know - My Review
With the popularity of Mexican food at what often feels like an all-time high, it made sense for Norwegian Cruise Line to get involved by introducing this cuisine as a speciality dining option on their ships. Welcome to Los Lobos, NCL’s take on a Mexican restaurant!
I tried this restaurant during a recent cruise onboard Norwegian Luna, and in this article today I’m going to share my experience of dining here with you. I’ll show you the venue, the menu, the food and more.
I really hope you’ll enjoy this post today. If you do, then please support my content by signing up to receive my completely free email updates - you can do that by clicking here now. Also, if you’re on YouTube, come and visit me over there and subscribe to my channel! You can find me on YouTube by clicking here, or by searching ‘Fraser at Sea’ on your device.
Before we get started, I should stress that this review should offer you an insight to this venue on any Norwegian Cruise Line ship, even although I experienced it on Norwegian Luna. The menu and the experience should be very similar across the fleet, so don’t worry about your ship offering something completely different! At the point of writing this post, Los Lobos is available onboard the following NCL ships: Norwegian Encore, Norwegian Bliss, Norwegian Dawn, Norwegian Prima, Norwegian Sun, Norwegian Viva, Norwegian Aqua and Norwegian Luna.
I experienced Los Lobos while cruising onboard Norwegian Luna, but this review should help you no matter which ship you’re planning to cruise on!
First, where is Los Lobos located?
This will obviously depend on which cruise ship you’re travelling on. If you’re going to be onboard Luna, then you’ll find this venue on deck 8, directly opposite the entrance to ‘The Local’, one of the ‘included’ eateries. Those who have cruised on this ship class before will know that deck 8 is also where you’ll find the wrap-around Promenade Deck, which means that - yes - Los Lobos does feature outdoor dining spaces, too!
What’s the venue like?
Los Lobos in a Mexican restaurant, and it’s been themed accordingly. The design decisions for this venue are incredibly interesting, as I didn’t think that the ‘theming’ in any other upcharge dining vanue was as strong or intense as what it is in here.
You can expect to walk into a venue that’s covered in bright colours, which do strike a familiar resemblance to the colourful streets in the Mexican cities that I’ve visited on previous cruises. The restaurant isn’t big, but it does feature a relatively high cover count. If you’re dining inside, you’ll either be seated at a table around the outside of the room, or you’ll be dining in the central section, which is underneath a bright colourful art installation on the roof.
When you dine here, you have the option to either dine indoors or outdoors, with the latter being out on the external deck directly outside the venue under a solid roof. In other words, you’re able to dine out there even in inclement weather (although you might get some funny looks if you opt to do so…).
Before we move to look at the menu and the food, I’d offer you the advice that I found this to be an incredibly dark venue during the meal service. I’m usually not bothered by things like lighting levels in restaurants, but I actually did request that the lights be adjusted during our meal, but was informed that it wouldn’t be possible.
What’s on the menu, and what’s the food like?
If you’re considering dining at Los Lobos on one of your future cruises, let’s move on to arguably two of the most important aspects of this review: let’s talk about both the menu and the food that we received during our meal here. At home, I do really enjoy Mexican food, and so I was delighted to see that the menu here wasn’t unexpected at all. It featured many of the dishes that I’d have expected if I were going for a Mexican at home.
Here’s the menu that was available during my recent cruise.
Los Lobos Menu (1 of 3) onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Los Lobos Menu (2 of 3) onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Los Lobos Menu (3 of 3) onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
With six appetizers/starters, eight main courses and four desserts, I thought this was a good size of menu. All of the dishes are included with your cover charge payment (I’ll tell you more about this later when we get to the ‘cost’ section of this review), and if you’d like to add a Lobster Tail to any Entree, then you’ll be charged a supplement of $25.
An interesting ‘heads up’ to offer you is that the ‘Guacamole Fresco En Molcajete’ on the starters menu is prepared table-side. While this is a fun thing to watch, we opted against it as we didn’t fancy table theatre on the night we dined here. From an onlookers perspective, it seemed as though everyone who ordered this dish was delighted with it (as were those watching the display!), but it was a little too much of an ‘all eyes on us’ situation for us this night!
I ate in here with my friend, and we opted for a typical 3-course meal: we chose one item from each course. Let’s now move on to look at what we each ate. Note: our main courses and dessert were the same, so I won’t attach multiple images of the same dish!
Chips and Salsa to start, served onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Pollo Adobado Tacos, served onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Ensalada De La Casa, served onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Fajitas (1 of 2), served onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Fajitas (2 of 2), served onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
Pastel Del Tres Leches, served onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
In terms of quality, we felt the food in here was adequate.
In all honesty, this overall meal didn’t have an much flavour as the other Speciality meals that we enjoyed over the course of our cruise, nor did the quality feel as high. The environment itself also didn’t feel as premium as the other venues that we dined in, but I guess we can move on from that to a degree as I feel that NCL are trying to create a Mexican-cantina vibe in here rather than a fine dining restaurant venue.
If you’ve also ready my review of Sukhothai, then you’ll know that I was sold on the crockery in there. That statement applies here too - I absolutely loved the speckled crockery that these venues are using to serve on.
How much does it cost to dine at Los Lobos?
This is the interesting part. As you can see on the menu above, the cover charge to dine at this venue is $40 per person. If you book your table once onboard the ship and you don’t have a dining package, then you’ll also need to pay a 20% ‘gratuity and speciality service charge’ of 20%, which will take your booking here to $48 per person. This price is correct at the point of my cruise in April 2026.
Interestingly, when I boarded Luna, I was informed of a ‘2-for-1’ speciality dining offer, where several of the restaurants were available to book at half of their cost. This is what we opted to take advantage of, and so our meals here only actually cost us a cover charge of $20 per person. At this price point, we were happy with our meals, but our view would be different at the regular $40, based on our experience.
When we compared what we ate at this venue at this price point versus what we ate elsewhere around the ship, the $40pp cover charge seemed difficult to justify, but that could be because we simply have a taste better suited to some of the other venues.
Here’s an image of the ‘2-for-1’ promotion - take a look, and make a note to ask about this on your future cruise!
2-For-1 Speciality Dining onboard Norwegian Luna, © Fraser at Sea
So, would I recommend that you dine at Los Lobos during your cruise?
To be really honest, I’m on the fence with recommending this venue to you. If you really love Mexican food, then you’re probably going to really enjoy this place. However, there are lots of other options available elsewhere onboard, and the ‘included’ food is also really good, too.
If you’re able to secure a discounted rate to dine here, then it’s a ‘thumbs up’ from me, but I’d recommend a bit of thinking time if you’re going to be paying the full price, especially if there are a few of you at the table.
If you’d like to see more from our experience onboard Norwegian Luna, check out the below video on YouTube. In this video, you’ll see our cabins, we’ll show you what we got up to onboard, and you’ll also see each of our favourite meals while we were on the ship. Beneath that video, you’ll also see lots more Norwegian Cruise Line content that I’ve created right here at FraserAtSea.com!
Check out these posts next!
