La Cita Authentic Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Cherry Hill Township

I was born and raised on the border of Mexico in the great city of El Paso, Texas. I joined the military and was forced away from the border and one of the things that was taken from me was true authentic Mexican food. I have lived in the Northeast now for 10 years since I left back in 2009. With this being said, here is my take on La Cita:

This is my new all-time FAVORITE authentic Mexican restaurant in all of the Northeast by far. This restaurant brought me back some good childhood memories with the very first bite I took and that honestly is a tall order since I have been searching high and low for good Mexican food and have been severely let down in the past. My old favorite Mexican restaurant used to be 'Juanitos II' in Howell, NJ along the Jersey Shore, but 'La Cita' took that title in my books in this region.

To start, we were given a small plate of chips that had mashed beans and cheese poured over them with two small sides of a salsa verde and another dipping sauce. Both sauces were very good to the taste and had a nice little kick to them. The home made chips were excellent along with the bean/cheese topping placed over the top. I also got a traditional rice drink called "Horchata" which was very tasty and well prepared. I was happy to find a place that can finally make a good Horchata as well since I used to religiously drink this as a kid.

We ordered an appetizer called the 'La Cita Sampler', which had two Tostaditas, two Flautas, Nachos Don Goyo, Queso Fondido, a Tamal, Guacamole and Pico de Gallo. I highly recommend if it is your first time coming to this restaurant, start off with the 'La Cita Sampler' to get a true idea of what this food is all about. I fell in love with everything I ate on this plate and enjoyed every last bite of it.

For our main course, we split the Chicken Enchiladas with Verde Sauce. The chicken in the enchiladas were small cube cut, seasoned very well and were bursting with flavor wrapped around a nice lightly fried corn tortilla, topped with that beautiful tasting verde sauce. This plate came with a side of rice and beans. The rice was PERFECT, seasoned perfectly and had that light airy feel to them while eating.

The only complaint that I have, which I will also offer some constructive criticism with, is that the beans that came on the side plate with the rice. The beans had no flavor whatsoever and had no hints of any salt. When the beans were drizzled over the tortilla chips, they tasted amazing as if they were prepared differently from the pot of beans cooking in the back. As gross as this is going to sound to the normal customer, I recommend playing with and taking the beans from the pot, place them in a lightly oiled pan to fry them, mash them up, add lard or bacon fat, salt to taste and top it off with some cheese after it's plated to give it that true authentic flavor.

The service was good that was provided, the seating area is limited being that this is a smaller restaurant. Our waitress was attentive and quickly cleared plates that piled up and quickly provided refills to us. The decor was on point with what I grew up seeing in restaurants right along the border of Mexico and I really enjoyed listening to the music again.

I promise that I will be back to eat at La Cita again and I am looking forward to exploring this menu much further. I am looking forward to trying the Chile Rellenos the next time that I come in. Thank you for bringing back my child hood memories of true authentic Mexican food. You all have done a very good job!

Side note: Those folks that are turned off by greasy, oily or super cheesy foods, Mexican food probably shouldn't be your choice!! It's not the healthiest of foods out there when prepared. If you don't care about all of that and are looking for true authentic Mexican food... La Cita is the...

Update: Food was still as delicious as ever but will not be going back. Tried again as we received a response from the owner from the last google review. The servers were slow, inattentive, and forgot lots of pieces of our order (counted 5 to 6 mistakes for 2 diners). This time around the food came out timely, as the menu is clearly shorter (I couldn't find a lot of the stuff I liked from the last time I dined there). The issue is the servers forgetfulness and lack of care.

review below is from 6 monyhs ago Amazing food. By far one of the BEST Mexican places around. They have cactus which is so hard to find in the area as well! Grilled to perfection. The lamb was cooked perfectly, chicken well seasoned, and the rice was the best texture.

Although the food is incredible, the time it took to get the food was absurd. Were they bringing the chicken from a farm? Did they plant the cactus and wait for it to grow before they cooked it? We were sitting for roughly an hour and twenty minutes before getting our food. The table next to us ordered at the same time, and they were done their meal before we were served. They got tacos which is way easier to prep compared to a full entree platter, but they even sat for an hour before getting served. We told our server we were going to leave and she said the kitchen said 2 minutes (which was 5)...for something to take 2 minutes and not be super hot when getting to our table is hard to accept.

Music was really loud at one point in the night for about 8 minutes so everyone had to scream over each other. The resturant was way too dark...it was really difficult to see and appreciate what I was eating.

I will say, I am 100% going to give this place a try again. Hoping this was a fluke night due to every table being filled, and with covid im sure the kitchen wasn't ready for it. I do wish they would turn the lights on though, so may be going for a Sunday lunch instead in the future.

I highly suggest giving this place a try as their food is top knoch and one of the best places to eat...but be prepared to wait a very very very long time. Hopefully I can make this a 5 star one day.

Side note, get the rice water! It...

I absolutely use to LOVE this restaurant I’ve dine here numerous times and had phenomenal service and AMAZING Mexican food. But the last few times I’ve noticed a major change in the level of service being provided and the quality of food being served. The last time I made a decision which was unfortunate that it would truly be the last time! When I walked in it wasn’t super crowded but a good amount of patrons. There were some empty tables but they all were extremely dirty with leftover food all over tables and floor. I overheard a couple saying they had been waiting awhile to receive their entrees. I sat down with my party and we waited quite some for someone to acknowledge us and bring us a menu. While waiting to put our order a gentleman came in from the outdoor dining area and said “We have been waiting awhile you can just wrap our entrees to go.” At that point after looking around seeing the mess and hearing multiple tables complaining about the wait I had to make an executive decision to go some place else. It was unclear to me what the issue was because no one acknowledged us to advise. My other concern was the menu changed the full menu is no longer available so you would think the kitchen would be moving smoothly. It wasn’t as crowded as normal so I’m unsure what the issue was. Service and the quality of food can’t go down and you expect your patrons to just wait it out when there other restaurants who are still providing best in...