La Hacienda Real Keizer — Restaurant in Keizer

The location is attractive - lots of seating and the typical Mexican-themed decorations you find in this sort of family-style dining establishment. The menu has lots of choices, maybe even 10 pages worth, including appetizers, nachos, combination dishes, house specials and a number of vegetarian choices. We visited for dinner, but there are also about 35 different lunch specials that range from $5.95 to $7.95. Most dinner items are $9.95 to $13.95. I ordered a two-item combination plate, selecting a tamale and a chimichanga. My wife chose the Enchiladas Fajita plate. Strangely, while the menu says the meat choices are chicken, shredded beef, pork or chunks of beef, when I tried to order a pork chimichanga I was told I could only have shredded beef or chicken (I picked shredded beef). When I wanted a chicken tamale: "you can have pork or beef." (I went with pork) and then learned pork is $1 more (where I shop, pork is usually cheaper than beef!) Why you can't have any item with any of those meats is a mystery. No limitation on my wife's enchiladas- she wanted chicken and received it. Another option with the meals is a choice of refried pinto beans or black beans, but our server failed to ask us which we preferred. When we later asked him about this, he said that the meal comes with pinto beans. When we pressed further asking "isn't black beans an option too" he did say "yes" although he said the plates were almost ready and already had pinto beans on them - but he offered to go ahead and give us a side of black beans, which he did at no extra charge. Prior to receiving our meals, we snacked on the complementary chips and salsa - the chips were "below average," a little over cooked. The salsa was better than average, among the "nippier" salsas we've been served in local restaurants. The chips also come with a small plate of pico de gallo and bean dip, which were both pretty bland. As for our main courses, the food was well-prepared and tasty - the portions very generous. We both thought we were extra hungry, but neither of us made it more than halfway through our meals. Great flavors. One big negative: the seating features those booths where the back of your booth is also the back of the booth behind you - and anytime the person seated behind me moved at all, I felt like I was being thrown halfway into my table. It was as though the seating was "spring-loaded!" My wife had the same comment. In short, the seating sort of ruins the experience. And frankly, the more humble taquerias with the $7 entrees that you order at the counter are really more my speed. But if you can be seated at a table ( not a booth) and you're okay with spending about $12 per meal, you'll probably enjoy La...

Review as of 6/18/2022. I used to like this palace a lot more than I do now. The food is still pretty good. However, the music now gets played so loud you can barely hear the person you're with, across the table. Also, I'm all for good Spanish music but the genre they were playing was incredibly annoying and repetitive. The tables... Or maybe the menus stunk (I couldn't figure out which) it smelled like they aren't changing out their sanitizing solution often enough.... Like stinky feet. Not very appetizing. Food was slow to come out. The new bartender/waiter they have in there is not as friendly as the old crew they had in there so... Because I know they have the potential to be great but are not currently that good, I'm knocking my five star review down to a three star. I mean...if I'm not sure that my table is truly clean, how can I trust that my food is made in a clean environment?

(old review)When I visit my parents we always go here because the food is always good and the service has always been excellent specifically when we sit in the bar - so we always sit in the bar. They have an excellent happy hour menu, multiple good beers on draft, including Modelo especial and Pacifico (which I personally hadn't seen anywhere else - it's one of my favorite Mexican lagers). They make a mean margarita. They have not one...but two really good salsas that they serve with their chips (the true test of a good Mexican restaurant) and here's the topper...they make their own tortillas!! Homemade tortillas!!! Yum! Beware...happy hour menu is so good and so well priced you'll want to order everything on it. But again definitely recommend sitting in the bar for a...

For mexican food in the local area, It was decent enough. I doubt I'll go again though.

Mucho chicken burrito (idk): Was bland AF. Looked delicious, which made the first, second and proceeding bites even more disappointing. I waited for all the flavors that the burrito looked to have. But for some mind bending reason NEVER HAPPENED! I'd rather it look like a wet turd and taste delicious, then look absolutely mouth watering and taste like a bland turd. Like...come on.

The steak fajitas: Steak was flavored very well in contrast to my burrito. A little Overcooked and dry though. The tortillas were under cooked. The tortilla can seriously make or break tacos and burritos. You can't FUDGE this up!!! And I don't expect a place that specializes in this to do that....yet they broke that cardinal rule. It was a sad sad moment when I tasted all the goodness inside the fajita, but the tortilla couldn't hold it's own and took away from the flavors due to its poor cooking.

The free chips and dip: Best part. The free part was the best part hands down.

The service was decent at best, The atmosphere was nothing special, The menu looks like it was made in the 1920s and the pictures were taken after the food was 20 days old.

I recommend finding a different place if you are craving Mexican food. This was a letdown. Especially for 20.00 plus a plate. Not disgusting, not horrible, just disappointing and not remotely worth the money. Especially when you really need some Mexican food to hit the spot on a late night...this Absolutely hit nothing...