La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Gilroy

After a "guys weekend" in the country, it was too late to get home for dinner with our wives, so two of us stopped here the way home. We knew nothing about it, but it "looked right." There were cars out front, and they were busy at the end of the dinner hour on a Sunday night. And the author of a great "touring" book taught me that "the bigger the sign, the worse the food."

My friend ordered a dinner plate with two large carnitas tacos. I ordered Camarones a la Diabla (shrimp in a rich red sauce), which the menu starred as "spicy." As we waited for our food, we munched on chips with some of the best salsa I've had in years. It was very nicely spicy, with great flavor, the chips were also excellent -- relatively thin, not greasy, great taste.

We both loved our meals. Both came with a choice of tortilla soup or a small salad. He took the salad, I went for the soup, which was also nicely flavored, with bits of a tasty cheese. My plate had 7-8 large shrimp that seemed very good quality, in a very tasty sauce that was also the most hotly spiced sauce I've had in a Mexican restaurant. It was like 8-9 on a scale of 10 in a REAL Thai restaurant! They asked me if I liked it spicy and I said yes.

I wish this restaurant was a lot closer to my home -- it's more than an hour each way. But it's going to be my first choice for my occasional visits to Gilroy!

One negative -- the server was unwilling to answer any of my questions about "what's the restaurant's specialties," "which dishes he likes" (he said he doesn't eat fish). This sort of response has sometimes caused me to get up and walk out, and if I don't, it always makes my...

I’m a regular I used to go all the time especially for happy hour and the Menudo on Sundays. I’ve never had bad service until yesterday. My server was Alfredo. He was not very friendly then greet Us didn’t say hi or anything to Us he just brought the menus and put them down Every time we try to get him to bring us something. seemed like it was a chore then we tried to get another server attention. He just looked at me and ignored me. The food was terrible. It was cold and bland to spend that much money and you get cold food. That’s not right. we did didn’t tell the server because we couldn’t get his attention also he didn’t come and ask how everything was going, if we needed anything at all but we noticed or I noticed he was catering to a different crowd. I will never go back and neither will my family only in the daytime if I decide to go back. I was so disappointed to be treated like that I haven’t gone out in a while due to my sickness and I said let’s go there because it’s great Service I was wrong. Definitely wrong. I’ve had bad service with him before but I asked if I can get another...

Food was served on cold plates... food was cold not too tasty. Bland in fact. Chips were ok. Salsa was too spicy. Taquitos/ Flautas had no chicken meat in them and no potatoes in it. Rice was ok but beans seemed thin, watered down like. Taco salad was good for the 2 stars. Too expensive for the not so good amount of food that took a while to get cold!

Response to Owner... No we did not address our concerns. Felt the waitress just didn't care... She never came to give water refill. We waited a long time. Asked for more chips and she acted like she didn't understand. A guy was sweeping the floor around us. We felt as if we were being pushed out... and it was only around 6:30pm. Besides that... when we received a plate that was done wrong, the waitress thru attitude with her body language.... and she never came back after that. So in all honesty... I dont think anything would have been done differently. Even your response to my issues... for not being there ... seems...