Hacienda Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Binghamton

I have been there 5 times now. I wanted to give them multiple chances before writing a review. Now I can be fair.

I had super high hopes for this restaurant. The menu looked great, different from anything here. Being from Texas and growing up in California, Mexican food has been a staple my whole life. I was excited. Then I went. After having given this place 5 chances, I won’t be eager to go again, any time soon. They have a good concept. They are cheaping out on the ingredients, but charging premium prices.

First and foremost we got the dip appetizer. The guacamole tastes weird and is a weird consistency, The first thing I thought was that I tasted sour cream in the guacamole. My husband noticed it too, but couldn’t tell what it was. I asked the waitress, and she said they cut it with sour cream. Avocados are expensive. I didn’t like the taste, but even more than that, sour cream is dairy. When you sneak things into food, especially where it isn’t supposed to be, you could hurt someone. What if someone is lactose intolerant, so they get guacamole instead of cheese dip? What about vegans? It’s wrong to deceive people. The manager came out and started giving me this mumbo jumbo about how it is supposed to be that way, spouting authenticity. Then I told him where I was from and he changed his tune. He said we could order real guacamole, but we had to ask.

Now onto the cheese dip. They make their cheese dip like a roux. They start with butter and flour to thicken, then put cheese in. We got it three times. Once it was fine. The next two times it had so little cheese that it tasted like roux with a hint of cheese. Just to make sure I wasn’t misjudging it I asked again. She said they stretched it out like that. Dips don’t tend to have white flour in them. What about people with gluten allergies? Corn chips and cheese dip should be safe. Not here.

Their tamales are perfect, amazing and by far the best in town. They reminded me of the tamales we’d get from the back of someone’s truck, growing up. It was a huge treat.

They have a battered, fried poblano pepper stuffed with cheese. It’s battered, but not fried. It comes out eggy, and mushy.

Don’t order nachos supreme. There isn’t enough cheese to see, let alone taste. Nachos without cheese? Blasphemous. Cheaping out on dairy, once again.

The chips aren’t great, and the salsa is weird and not good at all.

Chimichangas are weird also and don’t taste very good.

Lastly, the service is some of the worst I’ve seen. I could see other servers there being attentive. I know they exist. We just haven’t been lucky enough to get one.

It’s hit or miss. For me, it’s a miss, except those beautiful tamales that taste like someone’s grandma made them. However, woman cannot live by tamales alone.

If I go back and have more positives to tell, I will. I like to be fair. I don’t pass judgement on one experience. Everyone has an off day, but if the ingredient quality is not there, it’s not there. That’s not a bad day, that’s...

bad service and food ): our waitress was not very attentive to us our whole visit and the food was quite bland.

When our waitress came to take our food order she randomly walked away for a while after asking us if we were ready without saying “I’m sorry hold on a minute” or anything it was quite strange. When she came back we placed our orders and my drink & both my boyfriend’s and I’s food came shortly after so the wait time was not bad! However, they forgot my boyfriend’s drink and due to the waitress never coming back to check on us he was not able to speak up about this until the bill was brought to our table. On the bill he was still charged for the drink and thankfully it was removed but it was very disappointing to not be checked on the whole time we dined while we saw our waitress checking on other tables multiple times.

The food was also very bland and that was super disappointing for a Mexican food spot. I had gotten the taquitos and they had no flavor at all ): it was plain unseasoned chicken inside of them and nothing else.

Also about our bill again, my boyfriend had ordered the lunch special fajitas that were supposed to be around $14-16 I believe? & he was very clear about them being the lunch special ones while ordering. The waitress had mistakenly put in our order as the regular fajitas which are around $20-21 dollars. We were not aware of this until our bill was brought to us due to not having either types of fajitas there before, we were not aware that the lunch special fajitas looked different from the regular ones so nothing was said at the time of our food being brought to us. When my boyfriend asked our waitress why the fajitas were $20-21 instead of $14-16 on the bill, she let him know that she did accidentally tell the kitchen the wrong order of fajitas. I understand everyone makes mistakes and that is certainly okay but it was disappointing that upon her knowingly taking fault for it and us clearly ordering the cheaper fajitas that our bill was not changed to the price of the ones that we actually did order even though this was staff error. It just felt like really horrible customer service ): I would not come here again or recommend...

We had read the reviews for this restaurant and almost decided not to try it but two things changed our minds. 1. Seldom if ever do we follow the reviews of others on almost anything, as we have found out in the past it is always better to judge for ourselves. 2. We love and miss Good Mexican food.

We were seated immediately and our drink order taken. We had a few questions on menu items which were answered and we placed our order. A Combination dinner included a Tamale, Enchilada, Rice and Beans and added a Taco and their El Combo – Taco, Chalupa, Chile Relleno, Burrito, Enchilada, Rice and Beans. We were given a warm bowl of Tortilla Chip and a small picture of Hot Sauce. Chips were great, not oily like we have had at other places and the Hot Sauce was good, spicy but not too spicy.

We had ordered Ice Tea and it was a different brand of Ice Tea than we usually have had. It did have a slightly different flavor but it was a GOOD flavor. Really Liked It.

Our food took a reasonable time to prepare and was served very hot as good Mexican food should be. In all honesty I will give them these two little dings on the food. #1-although the Chili Relleno was filled with beef which is a good thing and not available at most Mexican Restaurants it was not breaded with an egg breading as I was so hoping it would be. Even though it wasn’t, the Chili Relleno was very good. #2 – There was Guacamole on the Chalupa and I definitely do not like Guacamole! Not their fault – just my differing taste – if I knew it was on there I would have asked that it not be put on. I removed it and the rest of the Chalupa was good.

The Tacos were very impressive and the Rice was Good Mexican Rice that actually had flavor to it and is very similar to what we make at home. The rest of the food was very good also. We lived in Texas for 18 years about 3 hours from Mexico. It has been difficult finding a place with the same standard of Tex-Mex food that we have been used to so we make a lot of our own including Mexican Hot Sauce. Since the Mexican restaurant closed in Clarks Summit this may just be our New favorite Mexican Restaurant. Time will tell. We will...