LA SANTA — Restaurant in Chattanooga

The food here is actually fantastic but our experience today was troublesome. Service was terrible today. First, the basics - parking can be a challenge here, but again, the food is very good so the parking challenge is worth it. You Go up the stairs and past all the patio seating and go through the glass doors to find the hostess stand. Rather than write a whole book, I’ll just list the things that were wrong today.

The family seated after us got chips and salsa over 15 minutes before we did. Their order was also taken first. It took over 20 minutes for us to get chips and salsa. The menu lists the lunch fajitas as including “your choice” of a few different items. I’ve included a photo of that. I ordered it with charro beans and was told there was an upcharge. This is infuriating as the menu says it’s included. I ordered $2 tacos instead of the $10 fajitas. Don’t put it on the menu as included and then tell me there’s an up charge. Include the up charge on the menu. On a positive note, just about everything on the menu can be vegan. However - the item my daughter got was described by the waiter as being full of veggies and had no veggies - but some sort of meat-like substance. The waiter was largely absent so I eventually got up and took the dish inside to ask what it was. Turns out it was vegan chicken (and a lot of it!) but we were told veggies and it had none. Everyone was finished eating before my $2 taco showed up. It was good but very very late. Pretty sure the waiter just forgot about it. I eventually had to go inside, get my own to-go boxes (which I had asked for earlier) and hunt the waiter down to pay for our food.

So…good food, bad service and for goodness sake, put the upcharge on the menu. I don’t think we will be back. The food is not worth the...

Origina review from April 2024: Came here on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago.

We really wanted to like this place based on the reviews but it was a huge disappointment!

Margaritas weren’t made with fresh lime juice (despite saying that on the menu), and were way too sweet.

I really hate to say it but the food was not good at all, and some of it seriously tasted like it was off. No idea how they can claim best birria tacos in the city. These were by far the worst we’ve ever had! :|

Update May 2025: Came back again to see if we just visited on an off-day last year.

Menu is slightly different since our last visit. Queso is par. Salsa is not my jam - looks like tomato sauce with black pepper.

Chimichanga was pretty small and somehow had no flavor, and had very little meat (what meat was there was good tho). And oh yeah, there was a $2.50 charge to upgrade our 4 small bites of chicken from shredded to grilled .

The charros weren't my jam either as I don't like beanie weenies. There were big chunks of hotdog and unrendered bacon floating in the cup.

The oxaqueños looked really good on paper, but the steak was dehydrated looking and the chimichurri was the weirdest chimi I've ever had in my life. Normally it's bursting with fresh herby flavor and vinegar and garlic, but this tasted like salt and oil. And it looked stringy and slightly brown.

Super nice people here, but man I do not understand the great reviews...

Place is not authentic Mexican not even close to anything that is code to south of the border my wife and I ate dinner thru a local flavor deal. We both wanted it to be a pleasant experience. My wife ordered the chipotle cream shrimp and I ordered the chimichurri steak. What mistake on both parts my wife’s shrimp sat on top a bed of oil mixed with annatto seed and the cream wasn’t emulsified to be a cream sauce, with no hint of chipotle. My skirt steak was over cooked. I specifically asked for it to be medium. It was so cool that it was hard and tougher than leather on top of a bag of onions, swimming in oil with some queso that was deep fried. what a terrible experience, very oily, and not tasty at all steak was not even seasoned or marinated. They should be embarrassed to serve food like this. I asked the waiter to re-cook it, and it was still overcooked. What a waste of food just a terrible experience. I wouldn’t recommend it for the food. My waiter. Diego was pretty awesome I must say he gave the best that he could but he had limited resources because the cooks in the kitchen don’t know what the heck they’re doing behind that grill, so I strongly urge and warn whoever comes to eat here to think twice...