I'm sad to say that I did not have the experience that the rest of the reviewers did. I wish I had! We came here for take out Friday after our friends recommended La Hacienda to us.
The first thing that got me was how unpleasant the people were to us. We were virtually ignored while we waited to place our order - and the restaurant was EMPTY. Finally, we ordered a shrimp burrito and a chicken chimichanga platter to go. We waiting about 10-15 minutes, which is fine, but when it came time to pay, the girl behind the counter just gave me a piece of paper with what we had ordered on it, no amount or anything. I asked her how much we owed and she stared at me. Maybe she blinked once or twice, hey, good for her, right? Finally, through a series of hand gestures and kooky winks, we deduced that we needed to pay $20.15. Ok, great! I gave her my card and she disappeared...for 10 minutes. I was so over it by this time I had the fleeting thought of just leaving, she could have my card, I'm broke anyway - joke's on her! Finally she returned and we went on our merry way. (on a side note, she totally spoke the Queen's English to a group of regulars who came in shortly after we did, so there was no language barrier.)
So we get back to our humble abode and open up our take-out containers and I am totally surprised at the amount we got for our money. It was HUGE. Enough to feed a small family for 3 days, not bad! Well, until I dug in, that is. P dug int his burrito and I went for my rice and beans first - holy Salt City, USA! You know when you eat something so salty that your lips shrivel a little bit? No? C'mon. Well, that actually happened. And then I realized something odd...the rice..."It tastes like Chinese food..." said P, just as I was thinking the same. I frowned and tried my chimi, the same thing, all salt. Salt and blocks of cheese. Not shredded, not melty, not even fresh. Just blocks of sliced cheese about the size of a pack of Post-It notes. Yuck.
I'm going to pause here to say that I love Mexican food. I love it more than anything. If someone said, "Ok, you can have a really awesome boob job or Mexican food for a year - I'd take the tacos." I also cook a lot of Mexican, authentic Mexican. I pride myself on my ability to cook slammin' Mexican food. So please, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining (thanks Judge Judy).
The bottom line here is that I really wanted so badly for this to be good. I've been spoiled living in Philly for the last 12 years. Taco Riendo, La Azteca, that other place I liked off Passyunk - not the white people Mexican food, the other place, you know. All good. This wasn't good. Bad service, salty food, Chinese food rice. No. No thank you. Good portions though, hence 2 stars. read more