La Espuela Cantina & Grill — Restaurant in Lafayette

This place is full of small town charm. I've been twice. Both times for dinner on a Friday, which is when they do live music. The artists are local and some have incredible talent. People line-dance to the music. The staff know customers by name. The entire vibe is happy. The food is Tex-Mex. Lots of queso and fajitas on the menu and I recommend sticking to those parts of the menu as thats where the food shines. The first time I went I ordered a combination plate with an enchilada, a burrito, and a chili relleno. I got a corn tortilla, a flour tortilla, and a bell pepper, all filled with just beef and all three covered in white queso. More simple than I expected while others at my table had beautiful nacho platers and a pineapple filled with fajita toppings. The second time I learned from my mistake and ordered the molcajete fajitas. Pure excellence in flavor and presentation. The chicken was flavorful without being dry. The grilled cactus was perfect. the steak and shrimp where truely done well along with smoky sausage all served in a heated molcajete with all the peppers and onions trapped at the bottom with the juices from everything else. great for family, great for music, some killer items...

Mixed emotions. The queso was watery, the salsa was pretty good, and the guacamole was very chunky (fine) but very generic. Our server took our drink order, and appetizers and came back fairly quickly. But never took our order. She stood up against the counter and we waited for about 20+ minutes before she came to our table and asked if we were ready. The band they had was playing country music (weird choice but ok) and she could barely hear us and that resulted in most of our food being messed up. The molcajete bowl, the chicken and steak was uncut, that would have been ok if we were given a plate to cut up the food. The taco salad, though we asked for shrimp, we were given chicken, and the majority of the taco salad, literally over half was onions and peppers. Maybe it was just a bad time or the band was too loud. But definitely won't be going back...

Huge HUGE hats off to La Espuela in Carencro. The food was really good. My sis and I went for lunch today and were very pleasantly surprised. Huge portions, good prices, very very nice young man named Fernando waited on us. He took the time to go over the menu with us and point out their most popular dishes. The tortilla chips were homemade and hot out of the fryer; salsa was excellent, just a touch of heat and fresh. I had the Fajita Chimichanga, tender meat, came with guac, pico de gallo, beans and rice. It was outstanding. Enough leftover for a second meal. My sis had the Fiesta Dinner - huge chile relleno, taco, chalupa, tamale, enchilda and rice and beans. She had enough leftover for at least two more meals. We will definitely...