La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Peterborough

I don’t know why this place is so highly rated. This definitely isn’t authentic Mexican, despite its claims. It’s not even good inauthentic Mexican. The food is bland, seemingly seasoned only with salt and maybe cilantro. No cumin, no Mexican oregano, and definitely no dried chiles. The sopa azteca just tastes salty, and their mole is extremely sweet and tastes of nothing but chocolate and cinnamon. It doesn’t have any sort of depth to it.

There's absolutely no spice to the food, either. I’m not asking that the food be spicy, but I ask for it to have some flavour to it besides salt. The salsa isn’t any good, either. The salsa is extremely bland and under-seasoned. You can get better salsa from a taco kit.

I’ve never had good Mexican food from an “authentic” Mexican restaurant in Canada. This is probably the last time I ever going to a Mexican restaurant. From now on I’m just making my own at home.

The only good thing I can say about the food is that it was presented nicely. The hot chocolate wasn’t half bad, either.

Edit in response to owner: Cumin was introduced to Mexico over 500 years ago, around the same time tomatoes were introduced to Italy (however it wasn’t until more recently that tomatoes were incorporated into Italian cuisine). While many people associate cumin with Tex-Mex, it is used in Mexico, most notably in northern Mexico.

That being said, it doesn’t explain why the food wasn’t enjoyable. I have minimal expectations of what Mexican food should taste like, as I’ve only eaten what could be described as “bland, unpleasant, or dry” at other Mexican restaurants in Canada. I’ve watched a number of Mexican cooking shows in which a number of dried fruits, chiles, cocoa, and other ingredients were used to make mole, so I imagine mole should incorporate the flavours of those ingredients.

I brought the leftovers home from La Hacienda, and had some other people try it to see what they thought. They were surprised that I had eaten as much of the meal as I had, as they thought it tasted bad.

Likewise, this restaurant not using cumin doesn’t explain why the salsa was bland and under-salted. Most salsas don’t include cumin, so the fact that this restaurant doesn’t use cumin doesn’t explain things. Also, many salsas are mild yet are still flavourful, yet the mild salsa served at this restaurant was bland. If you have to rely on “heat” to give something flavour, it’s not truly flavourful.

I’ve had enchiladas with mole in the southern United States, and the mole at those restaurants had deeper, more nuanced flavour. However, I found the mole at this restaurant overwhelmed the dish and clashed with the food it was served with.

Likewise, I’ve been to a number of restaurants claiming to serve authentic cuisines from around the world, such as Nepalese restaurants, French restaurants, Ukrainian restaurants, and Cantonese restaurants. Despite them not being your typical “Canadian foods”, these places had food that tasted good.

I forgot to add that the restaurant was extremely cold when we went. All the other guests at the restaurant had their coats on. I’m not taking any points off for that, just thought I should give you the heads up in case...

Dined here last night. As a restaurant owner and chef, I went in there after pandemic to help locally female owned restaurant and not a big chain. I want to be fair in my review, knowing hardships faced by the food industry, however, I believe constructive criticism would help owner and managers to improve customer experience. Remember, customers too work hard to earn their money and have been equally battered with pandemic lockdowns too, so its very important to give them a positive experience to make them return.

The service was not at all acceptable. The manager or owner had a terrible attitude, did not have a friendly, caring presentation. The menus were dumped on the table and the way she communicated was rather aggressive.

The Margarita I ordered was excellent. The free salsa/tortilla chips were tasteless and lacked flavour. The prawn dish I ordered lacked authentic, rich, diverse Mexican flavours, but was excessively salty. I but into a sugar cube sized salt blob that made me throw out the bite, and ruined my palate for rest of the dish. The other dish we ordered had melted cheese, but it hardened very quickly, likely having microwaved it when they melted it. Presentation of the dishes were good but the plates were literally thrown and dumped on our table rudely.

When I asked for dessert menu, she rudely asked to wait and almost in threatening tone said they have only flan for dessert and vanished. Another server came to the table with dessert menu and I ordered the flan. It was hard and bit dry, with caramel sauce in top. tasted ok but it was far from fresh, likely too old.

I left a generous tip, still wondering why the servers and owner/manager had aggressive attitude and unfriendly outlook. We treated her respectfully and were puzzled why they lost a good customer yesterday. When passion, quality, flavours, textures of food, service and ambience are missing, discerning customers notice. As for Peterborough downtown is concerned, it was garbage dump night, so outdoor patio reeked of garbage stench badly, at no fault of restaurant.

I am not returning to this restaurant again. Not worth my time, my hard earned money and losing my happiness.

I will post this review on Trip...

During my several visits to the restaurant, I generally had decent service and enjoyed the food. However, my recent experience on July 25 was quite disappointing. My friend and I were seated on the patio, but no one attended to us for a whole 15 minutes. After finally getting the menu, we had to endure an uncomfortable 25-minute wait for someone to take our orders. The server or manager seemed to be attentive to all the other tables except ours. Even two groups seated after us received their drinks and food before we even had our orders taken. What made the situation more disheartening was the feeling that we were being singled out due to being South Asian, especially as the majority of other guests were Caucasian. Surprisingly, the manager/server themself was a person of color, which made the treatment even more disappointing. As my friend and I were leaving, the manager/server saw us but they had no regards whatsoever and simply walked past us to another table. As my favorite place for Mexican food in town, this experience shook me, as it was the first time I encountered such treatment. While I understand that the place might have been busier than usual and understaffed, it doesn't justify the neglect of just our table. I hope the restaurant can address such issues to increase staff and ensure a welcoming environment for...