La Hacienda Dover AFB — Restaurant in Dover

We had been here once before when we previously were in town. If you go, be warned they are slow... but tonight was a whole different level of a terrible interaction that I have never experienced at any restaurant, in which we will never be back, nor would I recommend it to anyone unless you have 3 hours to kill. Back to today. We show up and there are some people outside so we knew it was busy. There were a couple of people who walked in right before us and there was already someone waiting inside to be seated. We all just kind of waited at the hostess stand waiting for someone to come over. It looked like there were 2 servers, someone else cleaning some tables and running around and the bartender. After about 5 minutes of all of us staring at each other wondering if anyone was going to come over, the first lady left. A server walked by and said "I'll be back in just a minute." Another 10 minutes go by and the other couple leave. I think, cool, I guess we are next. Well, this same server walks past us about 5 or 6 times not even acknowledging the growing line. The guy next to me says "I'm just here to pick up a phone order, this is ridiculous!" Finally someone comes up to the stand and looks like he is grabbing some menus so I'm thinking, awesome, he's getting us a table. NOPE... I ask him if he is seating us and he says no, I'm seating a party that has been waiting for an hour. I start letting him know the frustration of standing there for nearly 30 minutes, with little to no interaction with anyone (even the server who said he would be back in just a minute), despite them walking past everyone 5 or 6 times!!! I asked him how long we would be waiting and he said another 20 minutes. Seriously??? I don't mind waiting at a restaurant to be seated, but usually they will tell you when you get there how long the wait is. I continue to vent my frustrations and he doesn't have any explanation. Next thing you know, the bartender who apparently is the manager comes over and asks us do we have a problem. As I start to tell him whats going on, he says, "It doesn't matter, you don't have to wait anymore, you aren't going to eat here tonight. You made my 16 year old nephew cry and so you need to leave". Seriously... there are like 10 people waiting at the front door, no one from your restaurant even gives us the time of day, and now you just tell us to leave. At this point, he doesn't even want to hear what happened. I took my son and left. Will never be back. As a business owner myself, I know when things get crazy and you are busy and understaffed. It does not excuse though the complete lack of decency, especially if you are running a restaurant. One could only assume this guy is not fun to work for, hence they are understaffed... Bottom Line: Don't go here. Plenty of better places to eat where you will get better food, better service, and it won't take...

They have parking all around the building. They were busy when I came in, but I still found a spot. This is a stand alone restaurant that looks like it could've been a fast food joint at one point. The place had quite a few tables and a large bar area. They had a slight wait for tables, but I chose to sit at the bar. The bar had a solid tequila selection of around 50 or so with a good top shelf. The service was top notch, everything I needed I got quickly. The decor was aesthetically pleasing. My only issue was that the floor was a little slippery in my sneakers.

I ordered a Modelo bottle. It was cold and delicious. I also did a couple shots of 1800 which was about $9 a pop. Not terrible, not great.

Chips & Salsa!!! Chips...solid chip, tasted like it should, and could hold a topping well. Salsa...the red was chunky and more of a pico, but a bit mushy. The green was a solid tomatillo based salsa, just a little on the tangy side for me.

I ordered Stuffed Jalapenos:Four large jalapeno peppers, hollowed out and filled with our cream cheese mixture, then wrapped in back and broiled. Spicy, creamy, and savory in every bite! $8.99 They weren't wrong in their description. These were delicious, fresh jalapenos, wrapped in bacon. They misspelled bacon on the online menu lol. I was like what is back exactly? They also had a bit of showtime in there, coming out on a sizzling plate. Exciting!!!

I ordered Street Corn: Steamed and grilled corn with mayo, cotija mexican cheese, and chile powder (optional) $3. The corn was solid, I like it a bit sloppier, but this fulfilled my craving. I go nuts every time I see some sort of elote. I gotta have it!!!

I ordered a tamale, although I don't see it on the online menu. It was chicken with verde sauce and cheese that melted on top. The masa was tasty, almost dry, but not. The chicken inside was good and flavorful. I should've used more sauce on this. I feel like the pork might be an even better choice.

I ordered Tacos Al Pastor: Three tacos filled with our original al pastor seasoned pork, served Mexican taco -stand style. $11.99. I didn't see an option to get tacos like I normally do, so I went with the Pastor trio. The pork was seasoned well and delicious. The flour tortilla tried to dry it out, so I used more of the green salsa to combat it. I wasn't asked my preference, I thought "taco stand style" would be corn tortillas. Nopeski! With that being said, they were good on the flavor meter, and loaded with meat. Beans...chunky texture, nothing special, serviceable. Rice...soft, fluffy, a little crisp, nothing...

Take Mexican out of your name and call yourself "Random made up fusion food for the uncultered American". Seriously offensive and gross cultural misrepresentation. It ought to be illegal that they have "Mexican" in their name. If you want some kind of wierd American fusion nonsense, then eat here. If you want authentic Mexican food go to El Nopal or El Pipil. Now let me explain why. The first thing I noticed, once we were seated, is that there were zero hispanics eating here or working here. Second, when my wife ordered, (who grew up 20 years in Jalisco Mexico but who is also a perfect and indestiguishable english speaker) the waitress could not understand the proper pronunciation of the food being ordered. This happened to me as well when I ordered. If you do not mispronounce the names of the food items and use a strict american accent, then they don't know what you are ordering. Imagine having a restaurant and not even knowing how to properly pronounce the menu items. When we received our food, one entrée was chicken instead of beef as ordered. They were kind and corrected it quickly. Here is where the real issues start: "Fajita burrito" is basically something like a philly cheesteak without the cheese and add some unseasoned blackbeans straight from a can. The tacos al pastor..... Lol.... Basically Hawaiian pork tacos with pineapple. Then I orded some dish called the Mad Eddie because I couldnt find ANY menu items that sounded like they might be traditionally prepared. It was $17, there were two things on it that they called tacos. They had something like bland pinto beans, bland rice, a horrible excuse for chorizo (i literally had to ask the waitress to confirm what kind of meat i had received because it tasted like ground beef like you would make for hamburger helper or something), and finally it had half a stuffed poblano pepper thrown on top of it with a weird assortment of veggies on top of that. Like seriously, I thought we were on some kind of low grade world tour of tastes and none of it landed in Mexico.... I paid my outrageous $80 bill for 3 nasty entrées and a kids meal of chicken tenders and kindly left. The worst part about this whole situation is that they are still in business because aparently there are enough uncultured white people in Dover to support such nonsense. Very very unhappy that this establishment represents Mexican...