La Union Bakery — Restaurant in Coral Springs

You pretty much cannot go wrong with ordering anything on the menu, which is centered on authentic Mexico City-style taqueria fare. It is very much the real deal. While most members of the staff speak pretty good English, this is an ideal place to practice your Español. Don't worry if it doesn't come out sounding perfect, mine isn't.

The authentic and quite excellent pastries, bread, and tres leches cakes -- the latter of which is essential for hosting any traditional Mexican celebration -- are just like you will find at any respectable panaderia in Mexico. But our favorite baked goods are the guava-filled puff pastry sticks and their sweet and moist cornbread.

While of course you can get Mexican refrescos (soft drinks) I suggest you begin with agua fresca, the Mexican version of fruit punch. They have tamarind, Jamaica (hibiscus), pepino (cucumber lemonade) and horchata (cinnamon/vanilla rice milk). These are great when the weather is blisteringly hot.

Tacos here are served on soft corn tortillas, as one would find them in many parts of Mexico. For meats, you've got your choice of carne asada (steak), pollo (chicken), carnitas (pork), barbacoa (beef cheek), and chorizo (spicy pork sausage). But you can also get them as tostadas on fried flour tortilla shells, or as sopes, which are griddled disks of nixtamalized white corn masa.

Another option is as tortas, the Mexican version of the hero sandwich, on toasted freshly baked bread.

The best way to order these things is con todo, i.e., with everything -- lettuce, tomato, cilantro, queso fresco, and crema. Wedges of lime and house-made red chili and green tomatillo hot sauces from big squeeze bottles are on the table for adding extra zip.

The guacamole is served with freshly fried totopos (tortilla chips) and is one of the best I have ever had in the area.

In addition to the standard taqueria fare, you can get plates as well. Chile rellenos, or battered and fried poblano chiles stuffed with white Oaxaca cheese, draped with a seasoned tomato sauce, are the absolute bomb and should make any vegetarian happy. Fajitas de carne asada, which are served sauteed with green and red bell peppers and onions, are meaty, juicy, and have plenty of spice.

Quesadillas, burritos, and enchiladas are also available, and yes, they are damn good. All the plates come with yellow rice and refried beans -- and more tortillas if you need them.

Our favorite meal at La Union though is brunch. In addition to my standard huevos a la ranchera, there's also huevos à la Mexicana (scrambled eggs, Mexican style, with pico de gallo, chorizo and jalapeño), and the ubiquitous chilaquiles, runny fried eggs served over warm tortilla chips moistened and soaked with green chile tomatillo sauce.

Or do the ultimate Mexican breakfast hack: huevos divorciados con chorizo. That's fried eggs over crispy corn tortillas, with red and green sauces, side by side (divorced), with spicy Mexican ground pork sausage and cheese and crema on top. It looks like the Mexican flag when they serve it.

On the weekends, the restaurant has caldos, hearty soups. The most notable is pozole, served Mexico City-style, which is an ancho chile seasoned chicken broth, with chunky pieces of meat and large kernels of hominy corn in it.

If you walk out of here hungry, there's something wrong with you. Make sure you get some...

La Union is a delicious little corner of Mexican cuisine. From the moment you enter, you can definitely tell this a place where all the community locals gather for authentic quality dining. When you arrive you can either order at the cashier and find a seat or get seated first and a server will come take your order. It's efficient either way.

The menu is hand written and surprisingly detailed, containing an assortment of tacos, quesadillas and other combination entrees. Prices are extremely reasonable ranging from $3 for a taco to $6 for a meal. If you have any questions the server is more than willing to explain. I recommend trying all the tacos (there are 5-6 different kinds). The assortment of drinks is rather sparse but on the upside they have a tasty bottled mango soda from Mexico. The last time I visited I ordered tacos, a quesadilla, rice and beans.

Food takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to arrive, especially if you're dining with a few friends. Food is prepared fresh and arrives on plates or baskets depending on the meal. Literally everything I've ever tried is delicious. The tacos are small but packed with meats and veggies. The quesadilla was amazeballs, especially the amount and taste of whatever cheese was included. The rice and beans were cooked well, although I'm not a huge fan of refried beans.

For desert, they have many different kinds of candy at the register and also more baked goods than I can count. I don't like sugary sweets but if diabetes is your thing, try any of the candies. The baked goods are stored in clear shelves so you can see what's available. You can pick and choose as you will, making it a good option to-go. Baked goods range from the familiar cheese Danish to other things that resemble sponge cake, different bread based items, etc. Most of the baked goods are fresh however you may occasionally run into a stale one here or there.

I've dined at different times of the day and it's almost always busy. Combine that with limited seating and this place may not be suitable for larger groups. There are many small tables available but combining tables may be problematic especially when busy. Overall people come and go quickly so you may not have to wait too long to find a seat. Affordable, friendly, quality - give this...

This place is small, drive too fast and you will miss it. It's a Mexican restaurant and bakery in one. The place looks a bit worn down, the decorations are starting to show their age as well as the counters, tables and chairs. The place is small and can get crowded easily, with 10 people in at once you will feel claustrophobic. The baked goods were good, if anything I can say that everything is overly sweet but I'm sure some people will not mind that at all. The food was brought out in parts, they did apologize for the delay in the kitchen. They also apologized for forgetting our drinks. I heard one customer complain about the chicken empanadas not tasting the same as before. The server explained that it might depend on who cooks them. That led me to believe that consistency is an issue and that they don't have system in place in the kitchen to avoid this from happening. Our food was good overall. It was cooked well and with authentic flavor. I did find the portions were a bit small and the steak in the steak tacos were skimpy. The quesadilla was by far the worse dish , the tortilla was bland and too soft to support it's own weight, the steak was bland and the cheese salty. The rice and refried beans tasted fine enough but came out on the cooler side of lukewarm if that. If you are in the area definitely give them a try it could have been a bad day when I went. If you have not been in a while or live farther away...