La Estrella Mexicana — Restaurant in Lawrence

I haven't been to the new place so while tooling around 23rd street, hubby and I popped in. First, it's much, much larger than the former place. Second, it's a colorful layout. The counter's in the rear and you order your food like before but they bring it out to you. Finally, the beer selection is more extensive and they keep an opener by the cash register for your use (I find this very whimsical and cool). We sat at a table painted in vibrant tropical colors with chairs to match. Our food was brought to us. Ok, the food. THE FOOD!!!!!! I ordered 2 Carne tacos which came on corn tortillas, onions and cilantro. Also ordered the no Carne burrito which is huge and is filled with rice and refried beans. I purposely ordered too much food so I'd have leftovers because thats how much I love this food. The Carne was incredibly tender and seasoned just perfectly with a bit of a bite. The onions and cilantro rounded out the entire taco experience. Just freaking delicious. My burrito had a bit more rice than I liked so next time I'll request poquito arroz. Nonetheless, it was a generous burrito and very appetizing. The refried beans were a bit tangy melded with the seasoned rice. Pretty darn good. The salsas I will warn you are muy caliente but dang, they're fantastic. The burn is worth it as it disappears and doesn't leave that "hot taste" in your mouth. Hubby had chicken tamales and I swear I've never, ever seen hubby clear a plate that quick. I'm still a bit peeved he didn't share. He proclaimed the two tamales absolutely delicious! I will have to order those next time and WILL NOT SHARE with hubby. If I could give this place more stars I would. The food is definitely the best Mexican food in larryville. The ambience is ok, mostly because the TV was blasting a soccer game. Service was quick and efficient. The staff doesn't have alot of people who speak English but they get the job done well. It's clean and BTW, you bus your table yourself. There's a market downstairs which I didn't check out. I'll rectify that next visit. And yes, there will be a next visit and relatively soon. You see, hubby dropped my leftover box in the parking lot. So, I'll fill you in on...

This was my first time being at the restaurant, I'm Hispanic myself whose fluent in Spanish, I came from a different town nearby and my husband suggested we should try it out. At first as we walked in we looked at the menu of course, deciding on what to eat as soon as we were about to order one of the cooks told us we have to pay first at the cash register. Which was fine but really? it's a restaurant you order your food, get your food, then you pay right? Why change the process? How is this more convenient for you guys? Why would I also leave a tip before even receiving our food? I didn't see no waitress serving me or my family. Another thing is that I had told the lady at the cash register that I wanted my children's tacos plain as well a torta of ham plain only cheese, ham, and mayo. The tortas are supposed to be giant because that what it says on the menu for $9. The torta is regular size my people, talk about over charge. Anywho back to the tacos that we received with onion's and cilantro and the torta de ham with beans. My husband went to one of the cooks to ask if they can remove the cilantro and onion's. The cook had the audacity to tell him that it wasn't on the receipt? It made my husband upset because he felt like the cooks were just trying to argue with him and making him feel like if he's better than them. Mind you my husband was speaking to them in Spanish, he had to ask the cook twice to remove the cilantro and onions off. Imagine if one of my kids was allergic to the onions or cilantro it's a lawsuit awaiting to happened. The only good thing about this place is that they clean right away my daughter had dropped my soda of glass bottle and right away a cleaning lady came out to clean up the mess. For that I am thankful because I was embarrassed about it. Overall this place was not what we thought for a Mexican restaurant you get the feels of the employees just staring at...

I'm so happy they moved to a bigger location! the top part is the restaurant and the bottom is a little market/store with its own carneceria ( meat shop).

I think the restruant is really cute for going with the loteria theme! most of the options they sell are in spanish and even the food upstairs it has a lot of Spanish which I think lends to the authenticity. but they do have it written in English what is in the food!

also bistec is just means carne asada.

ordered the birria quesadilla and when I got it I thought they just gave me tacos. but it indeed have cheese in it and a generous amount of meat with pickled onions. it was just so good. it's messy to eat but so worth it and the soup they give you to dip the tacos in is also very generous. I like to add some Limon to it and drink the rest while it's hot. the menu options are very good and I can't wait to try more but those bittia quesadillas were just so good idk when I'll get around to trying more of their menu.

also looks like they might open a dessert or ice cream shop in the restaurant part of the shop so I'm looking...