La Nopalera Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

For MANY years this restaurant has been my family's favorite gathering place. We even celebrated my husband's return from Afghanistan at this restaurant. That all changed this past Saturday night. I had reserved the back room, well in advance, for 30 people for a surprise party for my husband. Everyone was there by 6:30 and the party began. Everyone was ordering drinks, snacking on chips and dips and mingling. Soon, the waiter came in (one waiter for 30 people) and started taking orders. Now, with 30 people ordering meals, all the food cannot possibly come out at the same time, so, some of us were finishing our meals as others were just receiving theirs. No problem.. We had just cut the cake and were still eating that and finishing meals when the waiter came in at 8:15 and told us another party had just arrived for the room and we needed to leave. As I said, people were still eating dinner!! So, as everyone is trying to get to go boxes and clear out, the 30 of us were now bunched together at the door because we hadn't even received our checks yet! But they wouldn't let us sit and wait for our checks because they were scrambling to clean and get the other people in! They had no room in the main dining room for everyone to sit and finish meals so everyone, very angrily left. What had started out as a wonderful celebration turned in to a disaster! We were beyond disappointed and our family and friends will not be returning to this...

This is by far the best Mexican restaurant that my wife and I have ever been to. We have been going to this location since the early 1990s at its old location. Their food is always consistent with excellent and robust flavors and with a great environment. Every meal comes with more than abundant portions and with excellent customer service. This location and restaurant will always be my first choice for my Mexican food cravings. You know it is good when the kitchen catches fire and the customers refuse to leave like it did in the 90s.

Edit (29 Dec 2023): Over the past year and a half, I have seen a steady decline at this location. What was once a family favorite is now a place to avoid, which is so disappointing! Everything that once set La Nopalera, apart from other Mexican restaurants, has now fallen to the waste side. They have changed their menu, taken away their signature staples, like green onions in their food, and how they make their guacamole. There are now pop-up ad displays in the restaurant. Sorry, I already get too much of that in life. I don't need another place with that. Within this last visit, and the way everything is being ran at LA Nopalera, I don't think I will ever go back again which is so disappointing because this is a restaurant that I grew up going to since 1990. At this point, I no longer recommend this restaurant, no longer worth the...

This place is going downhill. The food is so good but the last 2-3 times the service has been awful. A few weeks ago, they sat us and forgot about us, and when my Dad went up to the front they said to him "oh yeah, no one knew you were there" while we're watching 2-3 staff members chatting at the front. Tonight it took 15-20 minutes to order, even longer to get water. I finished the salsa dip before drinks even came. The usual staff shortage excuse doesn't apply here; there were two non-wait staff girls doing the best pretending-to-work job I've ever seen. I've never seen someone move so slow. We were all laughing because the girl would clean the same table 2-3 times and was so obviously pretending to sweep. But what really makes me mad is that apparently management allows these girls to sit on the benches and use their phones. So we're waiting for chips, water, and to order, and these girls are just sitting on the benches on their phones. They'd get up, pretend to sweep, go sit down and get on their phones. Did it at least 10 times. We overheard our waitress complaining how annoying it was that we were "out of her section." Sorry, I guess? Hostess acted annoyed we were there when we walked in and said nothing to us when we walked out. Hope management wakes up and saves the great...