First Look: The Louca’s Team Serves Fish’n’Chips and Burgers From an Old-School Takeaway Spot

The menu at Mr Mario’s is deliberately old-school, but the ingredients used in each dish are restaurant-quality. The new venture from Louca’s Seafood owner, Peter Louca, is a nod to his father Mario, who passed away a couple of years ago. Mario – who was called Mr Mario by locals – ran Norwood’s The Parade Fish Cafe from 1953 into the 2010s.

“There’s a photo of Mum and Dad hanging inside [Louca’s],” Louca tells Broadsheet. “Our designer took inspiration for the new logo from it and, I gotta tell you, it’s pretty uncanny.”

Louca remembers his dad as someone with a welcoming charisma, and the family business as somewhere people knew they’d get a good feed, and great value for money. He approached Mr Mario’s with the same attitude and with a clear goal. “I wanted to do something more casual as a tribute to my father,” he says.

Tucked behind Louca’s Seafood on Pulteney Street, the new venture is an offshoot of the main business. By utilising the same kitchen and produce, Mr Mario’s has access to the best local and international seafood. Mario’s menu is skewed towards quick feeds, rather than a full restaurant experience.

While Louca’s sticks to linen tablecloths and silverware, at Mr Mario’s it’s high tables and cardboard plates. It’s essentially an extension of the takeaway service Louca’s has been offering since Covid, but now with its own address.

With prices starting from just $12.90, you can choose from locally caught whiting, garfish, butterfish, prawns or calamari, all served with a generous side of chips. The fish sando is a hot, flaky and fresh fillet of hake or whiting. Louca describes it as “almost like a hot dog roll, but we toast it and it becomes very soft and fluffy. [Then] we add fresh lettuce – really crispy lettuce – fresh tomato, a little bit of onion, and a tartare sauce that we make in-house. It’s been one of our most popular items so far … especially the younger crowd, which surprises me, because generally [they] go for burgers.”

Mr Mario’s classic burger is the archetypal ideal, a crispy house-made patty from the grill with all the trimmings. Louca is keen to point out that this is not a smash burger – it’s thick. “We’re trying to replicate what we used to sell on The Parade [but] Mum’s a bit hazy with the recipe. We’re getting there!”

If you’re looking for something leaner, there’s a grilled fish option too and seasonal salad bowls.
On the sweeter side, there’s a pineapple fritter for that full-on nostalgia hit.

Louca is looking to attract local office workers looking to add to their weekly lunch rotation or grab a quick dinner on the route home.

Louca is working alongside head chef Eddy Noble and the pair will continue to refine the menu. He shares that down the line they may offer weekly fish specials tied to the market fish served at Louca’s Seafood Restaurant that week, but for now they’re just focusing on the classics.

When Broadsheet popped in ahead of Mr Mario’s official opening this week, Louca was on the tools, flipping burgers and dunking baskets into bubbling fryers. His new blue apron was already smeared with batter.

Mr Mario’s
242 Pulteney Street, Adelaide
No phone

Hours:
Mon to Sat 10.30am–8.30pm

@mrmarios_adl

Additional reporting by Lucy Bell Bird.