La Fogata Steakhouse — Restaurant in Minden

Went for a late lunch/early dinner on a Sunday. We were greeted and seated with menus right away however we had our 3 year old with us and were not offered/asked if we needed a high chair.

We did find them, set our son up and the waiter was with us within a minute or two. Took our drink order, only juice they had was pineapple juice. Not necessarily the worst thing. My son loves pineapple juice. Just odd not to have a fruit punch/lemonade/apple juice option.

Looking over the menu it's very obviously another Mexican restaurant. I feel advertising as a steakhouse is just asking for disappointment when it's more so your average Mexican restaurant. But I do love Mexican food.

My husband got a sampler platter which came with a cheese quesadilla, beef nachos, small salad, taquito, and what's advertised as hot wings.The cheese quesadilla is plain and simple. Nothing special. The salad, average Mexican restaurant salad. Taquito was crunchy but bland. Beef nachos were bland and a bit cold. Hot wings were dry plain wings that seemed like store bought frozen wings. No sauce on them and they were cold in the middle like they weren't fried long enough. Paid about $15 for plate. Price not bad if it had been good food.

I had the papa nachos. It's just a plate of fries with queso and either fajita beef or chicken. I got the chicken. It does not come with your usual nacho toppings like sour cream, pico, or guacamole. Just fries, meat, cheese. Fries are good. Queso wasn't anything special. Leaning on bland. Chicken was very bland. Tasted like it had no seasoning at all. I sprinkled so much salt over my plate just to have some kind of flavor in it. I did add a side of refried beans so I had something more to the papa nachos. Didn't help it. Their refried beans are very bland. As bland as the chicken. Zero flavor. Paid about $15 for this as well. Again price isn't bad if it had actually been good food.

My son got your basic chicken tenders and fries. Again the fries were good, chicken strips were actually pretty good too. Had more flavor than the chicken fajitas on my nachos. Paid about $5 for his and it was definitely better flavor wise than either of ours. Worth it for 5ish dollars.

For the service, it was subpar. Not the best service but I've had worse service at other places. Took a minute for us to get chips and salsa when we sat down. Salsa was just ok. My plate was also brought out a minute or two before my husband and sons which seemed odd. You typically bring out all plates at once.

Overall wouldn't go again. I feel if you're going to open a Mexican restaurant in an area with other Mexican restaurant options already, you need to have something special.

If you're trying to stay in Minden I'd choose El Jimador. Great food but prices can be a bit high. If you're willing to drive to Dixie Inn Los Compas is good. Good food and decent prices and have always had great service. If you're going to Shreveport/Bossier no one beats La Michoacana.

TLDR: cold, bland food. Subpar service....

I was excited that Minden was getting another Mexican restaurant in hopes that we would finally get a good one and not just another average fare joint to go along with the rest of them we have.

I went at early lunch about 11:00 to avoid the lunch crowd but they only had 1 waiter handling the whole place which slowed things down a bit. It’s a new place trying to work out the teething problems so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

The chips & salsa came out quickly and I found the chips to be of a nice thin white corn variety. The salsa, like all the others in Minden, was a big disappointment. It’s just canned tomato sauce with some added spice, onion and cilantro. Very plain and not the good fresh salsa I was hoping for.

I ordered the Beef Fajitas off the lunch menu. They came out fairly quickly and were the highlight of the meal. Since they are advertising this as a steakhouse, I figured the beef fajitas would give me a good idea of what to expect on the steak side. They were pretty good but not Texas quality fajitas. The refried beans were downright disgusting and unsalted. The rice was just ok and nothing special.

The real problem came when they brought my check and there was a $2.00 up-charge for beef. The menu clearly stated $11.00 for beef of chicken. The manager gave me $2.00 in cash back. The other issue is they charge a credit card fee. I just don’t know why these places can’t just include it in their price without charging an additional fee. It’s the main form of payment today and should be expected.

I’ll probably go back at some point and give them another try, I just wish they had...

Just saw my sister's post and didn't realize she hit it on the nail. First time trying and was not expecting to be impressed, but they definitely did not meet the mexican restaurant expectations. As someone else said, they had Fajitas considering it would be ideal for a steakhouse would be a good option. Pero no. Little portions for the price. I'm not planning on coming back but I encourage everyone to have their own opinions and try...