Fiesta Hut — Restaurant in East Rutherford

Going to a concert, I figured Mexican food was a safe pre-show bet: cheap, fast, tasty. Spoiler: none of those boxes got checked.

First red flag — there’s no real sign. Just a tiny sticker on the door that looks like an 8th grader doodled it. Inside it was dark and empty, and the waiter waved us to sit anywhere. Chips and salsa came quick, but the salsa was so spicy it felt like it was forged in a volcano.

Menus? Not until we asked. Drinks were taken before menus even appeared. When we finally got them, they didn’t look like any Mexican restaurant menus I’ve ever seen — just a generic, thrown-together list. On the back was a story about “hardworking Mexicans back in the day,” which was touching, but didn’t make the menus any less odd.

We ordered guac & chips and a salad as appetizers, and the taco/burrito/tostada combo as our entrée. The appetizers showed up 30 minutes later. The entrée? A casual 1 hour and 15 minutes after we sat down. And it’s not like the kitchen was slammed — when we walked in, there was one other table… also staring into the void waiting for food.

The guac was particularly tragic. Imagine someone scooped a single spoonful of avocado, plopped it onto shredded lettuce (or maybe cabbage?), and called it “guacamole.” No salt, no lime, no seasoning. Just avocado cosplay.

During the long wait, I had time to notice things: water-damaged ceiling tiles, chairs unraveling like they’d been attacked by raccoons, and the constant ding of a microwave. The music? Not mariachi, not salsa, but The Beatles. Another red flag: not a single diner looked remotely Hispanic. At this point, I’m convinced the food wasn’t made by Mexicans at all — more like a committee of confused Midwestern dads who once saw a Taco Bell commercial.

Around 7pm, the one table that had been there before us finally received their food. At that point, we were honestly just curious if ours would ever arrive or if this was some elaborate social experiment. The waiter, perhaps sensing our despair, brought over some mystery “on the house” dish in the meantime. Let’s just say I wouldn’t feed it to my dog, mostly out of respect for the dog.

Finally, the entrée arrived around 7:15. My burrito looked like a depressed Hot Pocket drowned in marinara sauce, with chicken that tasted exactly like Costco rotisserie leftovers. The taco was soggy mystery beef, the tostada was sadness on a shell. Culinary theater at its finest.

And for the finale: cash only. With two margaritas and a beer, the bill was $71. For that, I could have bought three actual Costco chickens and eaten them in the parking lot. Honestly, I now want to drop acid, bring a group of friends here, and just watch their minds unravel trying to process this “restaurant.”

Somehow this place has a 4.2 rating. Unless in the past year the restaurant suffered catastrophic apocalyptic damage, the five-star reviews are either bots, family members guilt-tripped into posting, or people from the same bizarre dimension this restaurant seems...

When my cousin raved about going here, I had high hopes. Once I got there, however, those hopes were dashed. The first sign something was wrong was the moldy smell coming from the entrance/foyer. Then, when you walk in, there's a tiny sign you could very easily miss if you walk by too fast that says "Cash Only Since 5/5/2022"...so if you don't have cash (like we didn't), you get to walk down over the railroad tracks to the Bank of America in order to get money to pay for your food. The free chips they bring out to start you off before the meal aren't salted, and neither is the near-liquid salsa, which was too spicy. Once your order gets taken, be prepared to wait. While you wait, try not to look up, because you'll see most if not all of the ceiling tiles are in need of replacement, festering with water damage. Oh, and if you dare ask about how much longer until the food comes, be prepared to be met each time with a snappier, more annoyed-sounding response from the one waitress who works there. The man who seated us seemed a bit friendlier. There is apparently only one person who is cooking in the back, so if you're in any rush, be prepared to wait. Once the food did come, it was underwhelming, both in size and taste. For the prices they charge, I expected much larger portions. I can spend less at Chipotle and get more food. Before I left, I used the bathroom, which looked to not have been cleaned in a while. If this is how they keep the areas the customers see, what do the areas we don't see look like? Overall, this isn't a place I would rush to again, or...

We waited for almost 15min in the dark entryway (why is this area not lit up??) Neither of the understaffed waiter or waitress acknowledged our presence.

Saw people sitting down with only drinks and chips & salsa, their food never arrived the whole time we waited. We saw the women look around, as if wondering where their food order was.

I finally called the restaurant from within the restaurant and told the waiter who answered that we had been standing in the dark entryway and neither he nor the single waitress said hello, or anything else. When I asked how long the wait was for a table for two, the waiter said they were the only two there and they would try to seat us as soon as possible.

We waited a few more minutes, then left at 8:20pm to dine elsewhere.

The food here is good.... well, from what I remember, it was good. I've been eating at Fiesta Hut occasionally - way back to 20+ years ago when they were on Route 4 in Paramus .. but the lack of common courtesy tonight was a big negative.

So if you're hungry and have A LOT of time to spare, then go to Fiesta Hut for some great Mexican food.

But if you need to be seated and served within a "normal" amount of time, you might want to consider...