Hacienda Buffet Fort Worth — Restaurant in Fort Worth

Thursday on 10/06/2022 this place was dead at 5pm. My wife and I thought it was just because it was early, boy were we wrong. We gave it an honest try to be fair. To start off, the cost of this place with a drink is something like $15 a person for dinner on a weekday. The agua frescas were powder base. I guess it's too costly to use real fruits and rice and cinnamon. My wife tried a few of the soups because she likes those types of things. They were bland and completely unremarkable. Everything fried was stale, soggy, cold, and tasted of burnt oil. All of the meats you would want to put on a tortilla were also just as bland, minus the pastor which did have that signature hint of pickled flavor you would expect. All of those options were just warm enough to not call cold. The tamales were a complete disappointment as you could tell they had been microwaved and were not freshly made, they had that crunchy stale bit, that always happens when you reheat cheap tamales in a microwave. The green cheese enchiladas honestly had a decent flavor but were so cold the cheese had a gritty texture and was unbearable to continue eating. Most of the guisados were pork skin and just unappetizing to myself so I stayed away from those, the majority of what was left were pork guisados and two of those I tried were just as bland and odd tasting as most of everything else. The rice was sad, I'll leave my review of it at that. The beans looked good but were the most bland beans of my life. This place has either not heard of the delicious Hispanic herbs and spices they could be using or are staying away from it due to a specific customer base they are serving. It's okay to not put salt in things since that was on the table for us to salt to personal taste, but come on. My wife tried a few of the desert options and spit pretty much everything back out that she tried, except for the Rompope flavored gelatin. The best thing at this place were the tortillas which seemed to be freshly made and were brought to our table at request steaming hot. To make matters worse, when I asked one of the daughters to the supposed owner of the place what the issue was, they replied with something along the lines of, Saturday and Sunday are our busy nights and we don't see the need to put fresh food out on the buffet since we don't get enough patronage on other days. She said all this while laughing and with a smile, even while I explained that they should check the oil they are using to fry their foods as it is giving those items a burnt oil flavor. I may go back on a Saturday or Sunday, just to be completely fair as I can understand the cost of a business and not wanting to cook extra food they know will only go to waste. If Thursday's dinner service is any indication of what the rest of the weeks days are, I do not recommend this place to anyone. STAY AWAY, GO TO TACOBELL. ATLEAST YOUR FOOD...

I went at noon on a Saturday.

The process: Upon entering i was greeted by a couple of Lovely young ladies, who took the money and showed me to the table. My firstt shock was the price. I thought I saw a tiktok that said it was 20, which is more than i prefer, but willing to do it anyway. It was 28 dollars, which shocked me, but I was already there. And the location was a little tucked away, but convenient still. The server got my stink order, and the type of tortillas I wanted, bringing both quickly. From there, I grabbed one of the small plates and checked out the offering. It had quite a bit of stuff, but most was not my thing. The whole middle was soupy stuff, which i really dint eat, though probably delicious for others. The back had some pretty good looking American chicken nuggets, fries, and onion rings. The next turn had Cicero and beef fajita meat, cactus stuff, cheese sauce, and the chips. Advertised the way, there was salads, fruit, sauces, and salsalsa. gathered fajita meat, 3 tamales, a fried tostada shell, which i put some of that kinda looked like taco meat on top then piled some Tortilla chips and grabbed a little thing of hot salsa (i Love hot, but I will warn you... they mean it... lol). The tortillas chips are deep fried tortilla wedges that are very hard, though it didn't bother me as I expected it with that style. All of the food tasted good, though I would have liked some chili sauce on my tamales, but I probably missed it. I did realize the had baskets for the chips in my second run. I had another round of similar food. I effed with 5 fajitas overall, but the were very small. They also have some type of grilling station in the front eating room that had corn, peppers, and other stuff on a stick. I didn't see anything that explained it.

The good: the food was pretty tasty, though not what I'm used to, but probably more authentic. There is a good selection. The the server was attentive. The place is cute and clean.

The bad: To expensive. Panchos has tacos and an ice cream machine and I think it's just 18. Though I know the food quality is probably far inferior at panchos, but I still like it a lot... lol. The parking lot is across what i would say is greater than a 30 degree grade which sends problematic for older, or challenged people. I would say lack of mainstream selections, but that is my thing and probably a plus for others.

I was shocked that so many could afford to bring their families, but maybe I'm just cheap. :)

Overall I'm on the fence. For 28 dollars i could go to Taco Casa and get more than I could eat. I could probably eat for two days. But again if you like variety of new flavors, it's probably worth it. I am probably not the best to review this, but...

They advertise lots of seafood crayfish ect. There was none of that lol zero. They advertise mole and there wasn't any. I went there for those two things so highly disappointed. Also I asked for a frozen margarita. She said their frozen machine was down lol you'd expect that from McDonald's not a Mexican restaurant. I had two babies with me I wanted to sit outside on the patio. They told me I couldn't they said the patio was closed for the day. It was 4pm on a Sunday at a restaurant. HOw and why lol made zero sense and the longer I sat inside i noticed other people were seated out there. There was zero air conditioning and it was like 90 degrees outside, their air doesn't work I really REALLY wish I woulda known that before going too cuz u took my babies and my kids. As I was leaving I asked the front host (different than the one who checked me in) if I could take my kids go the patio area because they wanted to see the ambiance. She said yes of course anyone can go out there. I said I was told by the girl before you that it was closed. She said no its open. Open all day til we close its the patio. Idk why I was denied a seat there and my kids had to sit in that hot ass building but okay. I honestly left early cuz it was just so hot. And there was literally no music. You'd expect at minimum they would put some vibes on but we ate in silence. It was not it. The whole experience was meh. The food was good. The grill was good. Lots of sopita lots of pork. I do not eat pork I came for the seafood and it wasn't there at all. I wanted mole sauce and it wasn't there but it's all over there fb page. The deserts said ice cream. Zero ice cream for the kids. Didnt even have an ice cream machine lol. It was just jello and dulce and pan. Fruit and a few galletas (cookies). The waitress was kind and saw me with all of my babies and kids and gave our drinks. Good wait service from her. But outside of her it was meh. The food was good but not advertised accurately. Being refused to sit outside was very unprofessional and I needed outside seating cuz I had two screaming babies and a double stroller. But then to not be able to serve any frozen drink on the menu frozen was the worst...