Habaneros Mexican Grill — Restaurant in City of Leduc

I just want to preface this lengthy, yapping review by stating that I have no joy in dragging a business around in the mud, especially one that's family-owned and considering the state of restaurants in this country at the moment. However, my experience at this establishment was so terrible that I feel compelled to share.

I visited Habaneros with a friend tonight, as we were craving some Mexican food. It's typically slim pickings in Edmonton for this cuisine, so we took the drive down to Leduc to try this place. We started by sharing a plate of nachos with beef, whilst I ordered the diabla enchiladas with beef cheek. The nachos themselves were mediocre at best, considering that it's pretty difficult to mess up nachos, cheese, and salsa. Nothing especially wrong with them, but nothing great either. The issue began with my main dish, the enchiladas. I can't properly describe what they tasted like, the best comparison I have is that the sauce covering the enchiladas tasted strongly of iron, like putting a quarter in your mouth. The beef was strange and consisted of a weird odour, but it was covered by the copious amounts of iron-like sauce on the food. My friend also complained of a weird odour from the chicken in his chimichanga meal. Suffice to say, I did not enjoy them. I very quickly began to enjoy them less as, twenty-five minutes past my consumption of the food, I felt my stomach twist and turn in agony. For lack of a better term, I was forced to rush to the bathroom and vomit my 25$ enchiladas into the washroom toilet. Not an ideal situation for a Saturday night dinner.

However, the situation went from bad to worse as I reported my sickness to my waiter, who then got her manager. Now, admittedly, I was a bit curt and straightforward in my wording, maybe bordering on rude, but I was also feeling like my stomach had been punched in the gut by a Tyson Fury uppercut, so I was very much trying to leave. The manager, in response to my request to not pay for my food thanks to my sickness, muttered "we served a lot of people today..." as to, from my perspective, invalidate my request and sickness. I found this interesting, how does serving a large number of people automatically imply that it's my fault for getting sick? As if she was insinuating that I was being difficult and causing problems. It's like writing seven tests, getting 100% on six of them, and then 0% on the seventh. The fact that you had six good tests doesn't invalidate the garbage seventh test, doesn't it? The manager then muttered afterwards, "It's only been a short while, you don't get sick after a short while..." I'm sorry, would she have been better convinced if I grabbed the plate and threw up on there? Perhaps I could've hurled into a bag and then showed the staff like it's a trophy. Regardless, she took the enchiladas off the menu, but not before sternly and curtly reaffirming that we were paying for everything else, because it doesn't matter that a customer just threw up in your washroom, it's more important to ensure that the money is made for the evening. Of course, nobody asked if I was alright, apologized, or anything of that sort for the entire night, which was a nice touch as I was withering in pain for twenty minutes.

Again, I was pretty curt in my conversations with the waiter and manager, explaining how I wasn't going to pay for the food but still saying thank you and trying to maintain some decency while my stomach went on a rollercoaster. In response, I felt like I was treated like a burden and a liar, which didn't feel especially great. We left the restaurant in silence and I spent the next hour at my house throwing up the rest of my Mexican-inspired contents into my washroom toilet. A wonderful experience and a great way to spend my...

Short version? This place is ok.

When you’re in Leduc late and want to eat something other than traditional Canadian pub food, Chinese food or pizza then this is the place to be. This place shines just a little brighter just because of location, if you put this in Edmonton it would be near the bottom of Mexican restaurants.

The last few times we have been here I have gotten a chimichanga, taco salad, chips and salsa, cochinita pibil tacos, pastor tacos, and baja shrimp tacos most recently.

I have a couple sticking points with this place, one being the salsas. I think they would benefit from cutting down to 4 salsas, a super mild, a chipotle, a jalapeño, and a habanero. It’s like this place thinks you’re too stupid to pick your own salsa. They give you either spicy or mild as an option but you don’t get to choose beyond that. If you go to the 4 salsa and give me the three spicy ones in small portions I can find which one I like easier and enjoy my flavour profile more. This seems to be almost standard in Edmonton as you get tacos and they give you three little cups of salsa, I’ve found the ones I like and buy them to take home as well. At this place though it’s a guessing game of which one I even got. Sometimes doing so many options of something ruins the output of the kitchen and I think that kind of happens here. Do 4 really good salsas that are perfected, not 8 mediocre ones.

That leads to the chips, if you’re ok with Tostitos this is the place to order chips. If you’ve had home fried from the tortillas chips then this is not the place to order chips.

The refried beans and cilantro rice has got to go. I’d prefer to not receive them and have the tacos be a little cheaper. They both add absolutely nothing flavour wise to the meal.

The most recent baja shrimp tacos tasted a little like old burnt oil. They were ok, normally I would have went pastor but they didn’t have it on the menu? Pastor is the most commonly enjoyed taco in my opinion and should always be there. Honestly though I don’t recall their pastor being great anyways.

Overall it’s most likely the place that your elderly parents brought you to when you came to town because you told them like Mexican food. You were excited for a bit reading the menu and then most likely disappointed with the food in comparison to what most places are putting out. You then realized that it’s pretty much the only option unless you want chicken wings or a burger so you accept it for what it is and come back here hoping the next thing you order will be redemption. So far...

I went to this restaurant this evening with a friend who has been to this restaurant in the past and suggested we go there.

We had fantastic service from Tonya our waitress the entire evening and she clearly has been working in the restaurant business for long enough to know great service.

Now here’s the problem...

We ordered Chorizo tacos and Blanco tacos. The Chorizo tacos were dry & flavourless meat. The only flavour was the pickled onions. The Blanco tacos I opted for the Pico Gallo as I didn’t want anything to spicy. I asked for no cilantro but it came loaded with it on top. The flavour was...well there wasn’t much. Even from the Pico I expected something. We brought it to the attention of our waitress who spoke with the owner Don. When she came back he said to offer us more “salsa” to give it flavour or offered 50% off of our bill. Tonya came back to tell us this and clearly it was not acceptable for what was eaten. Don came over after Tonya told us this so we talked to him and explained what was wrong. We told him was was wrong and what was “missing” flavour wise. Not once did he say “how can I make this better”, “can we remake this meal for you”, can we get you something different”. He said thanks for the feedback and walked away.

Tonya came back and she clearly was embarrassed for what had happened and she had offered to do the 50% off and she said she would pay the other half which we rejected right away. In no way was I allowing a waitress have to pay for this meal.

This is obvious that Don has no experience in running a restaurant or any business for that matter. This is not how you deal with a unhappy customer.

The bills come and just the Chorizo tacos were discounted.

This is how a business will fail. Poor ownership skills on not knowing how to rectify a situation will kill a business. These reviews I know are important for businesses as I often check reviews for places before going. Be sure to rethink...