Hamburguesa Loca has two crazy good burgers

While eating cheeseburgers — purely for research purposes — for last week’s Pitch story titled “Ten Great Burgers Under $10,” I belatedly stumbled on the Crazy Burger, the signature burger of Hamburguesa Loca, the tiny Mexican restaurant at 3009 Independence Avenue. You might think, from the restaurant’s name, that there might be more than two kinds of burgers served here, but there are only dos, along with a more traditional array of Mexican and Latin American choices: tamales, fajitas, a “fluffy quesadilla” (really more of a puffy taco), enchiladas and a Cuban sandwich.

The signature sandwich here, the Crazy Burger — priced at $8.95, it’s not an inexpensive burger, but it does include french fries — is notable more for the toppings than the burger, an 8-ounce patty that’s almost an afterthought underneath that jumble of ham, bacon, American cheese, avocado slices, tomatoes and lettuce. There’s a mushroom burger, too, made with queso fresco and caramelized onions.

The Mexican dishes are, frankly, better than the burgers (you haven’t lived until you’ve tackled the chorizo sandwich called “soaked bread”), and the two-year-old restaurant, operated by Gonzalo Padilla and Angelica Galvan, will make eggs — any way you want them — served with rice and beans, all day.

Hamburguesa Loca is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is closed Sunday. The phone number is 816-589-8925.