La Tonalteca - Hockessin,DE — Restaurant in Hockessin, Delaware

Parking was easy, we got a spot right in front of the place. It's beside a gym in the middle of a strip mall. Even if they were really busy, they have an overflow lot.

It wasn't busy when we walked in. They had a couple people at the bar, and a couple of tables had customers. We sat at the bar. The service was top notch, anything we asked for, and all questions were handled quickly. The whole inside of the restaurant was aesthetically pleasing.

I ordered a Carte Blanca bottle & Bob ordered a house lime margarita. The beer was decent temperature, not as cold as I'd like, but I drank it. The margarita was not too tart, not very strong, I'd add a shot or get a top shelf instead of the house. The tequila selection was not very strong, especially for a place people come to for happy hours. The Don Julio Anejo was reasonably priced at $8 for a shot. They should have 1942 here for real.

Guacamole was a light green color, chunky, and had a nice cool temperature. It lacked just about everything else that makes good guacamole, to me. No tomato, barely could taste the cilantro, and light salt. To me it was more of a avocado spread that I'd give to a date in the morning with toast. It was a good spread, but not guac baby. The salsa was chunky with a little heat, but tasted more Italian than Mexican to me. The chips fried light & delicious.

I ordered...Grande Sampler (#180) Chile relleno, enchilada, crispy corn shell taco, vegetarian tamale and burrito. Chile relleno was creamy and delicious. Not Morelia good, but I would do it again. Tamale was exactly what I want when I order a tamale. Flawless! !! It was even better with the mix of the sauce and leftover relleno cheese. My oh my! We weren't offered a choice of fill for the burrito or enchilada, and I wish I would've spoken up. They filled both the burrito and enchilada with ground beef. Now, they have a hell of a ground beef game, but that's not what I was expecting or looking for when I know I'm already getting a ground beef taco. The enchilada and burrito were the same, the burrito was just bigger. Every item had the same sauce so that was a little boring for me. Ground beef taco was up there with the best ground beef tacos I've had. They really have the seasoned ground beef game down on lock.

We both ordered a chorizo taco. Wow, it was terrible. The texture to me was like silly putty, and the taste was tangy as a MF. It was on a single corn tortilla....poor tortilla got screwed. We both had one...

For your own safety, don’t go.

(Dined in on 12/14/20.)

We were a party of two. A party of 13-14 was seated directly next to us, despite the fact that the tables at the restaurant were roughly 90 percent open. (I will mention, the party was separated into 2 tables - one of 10, another of 3-4.)

In December 2020, La Tonalteca did not adhere to Co-vid 19 regulations required for restaurants operating in Delaware. When my guest and I politely expressed our concerns to our server, nothing was done.

After paying for a meal we barely touched, we paid, tipped and proceeded to walk over to a restaurant where we felt safer. About an hour and a half later, we walked back to our cars in the La Tonalteca parking lot, and that party of 13-14 immediately exited the restaurant and confronted us in a dimly lit parking lot, led my two men much larger than my friend and I.

Two men against two women. In a dimly lit parking lot, who ended up trying to intimidate us later at Valley Road Intersection.

What did the employees of La Tonalteca do? Absolutely nothing. They did nothing to stop it. They stood there watching from inside the restaurant. Cops were called that night.

It makes me sad writing this review. I grew up in Hockessin and frequented the varying restaurants that existed in that building throughout the years, from Thai to different Mexican restaurants. I’ve patronized La Tonalteca from the start, always recommending this place as the best Mexican in Hockessin. I live halfway across the world now, but I always make it a thing to stop in when I come home.

My friend and I wanted to support local that night. We ended up not feeling safe, in more...

Missing two things on the dish I had order. No one acknowledged the fact that it was missing anything. Either that or staff don't know the dishes they are serving. I thought maybe I had miss order or read the menu wrong. After leaving it had checked and it was definitely missing two items; chalupas and stuffed peppers. They also cut down the chicken tenders to be like chicken fries. It would have been fine had the menu stated it, but it honestly looked like someone two the pre-breaded chicken tender most places have and cut them down. Probably trying to cut back costs. The sever stopped by the table a grand total of 3 times. On top of that, my wife clearly asked for three togo containers and the server brought two. We have been here before quite some time back(years ago) and it was good then. However, this was probably one of the worst experiences. I've had eating out in the last couple of years. This is coming from a restaurant manager with over 13 yrs of experience. I don't tend to be too critical due to the fact that I just want to be with my family and enjoy our time together. I know that mistakes happen, but when they do own up to them don't cut corners. This was just all and all not great, and I thought other...