La Carreta — Restaurant in Ponchatoula

We eat La Carreta very often. But from now on we will stick to the original one in downtown Hammond. The service at the Ponchatoula location has been terrible for some time now, but today was the final time I will go to this location.

Upon arriving, we walked in without a mask on (honest mistake). We were asked how many we had, if a booth was okay, and had a full conversation before the hostess asked us to put our masks on. I did ask what the purpose was for us to put a mask on and take ten steps to our table to just take them off but then my friend pointed out that why enforce wearing a mask when the other hostess couldn’t even wear hers correctly? I wear a mask everywhere I go. I respect the rules despite disagreeing with them. We had been outside all day, so I didn’t even think about having a mask when stopping in for a quick bite to eat. However, after looking around the restaurant. Most of the servers wore their mask below their nose or on their chin, the hostess and several of the bartenders also had their masks below their nose or on their chin. We sat down and watched as people continued to come in and some had masks and some did not. So it was not being enforced to all customers dining in today.

That was just the beginning of a horrible lunch. We had a 1.5 year old with us and ordered his food as soon as we sat down because he’s a baby and we wanted his food out first so he could eat. We ordered him a cheese quesadilla and our drinks at the same time (water all around), it took longer than one would expect for two adult and two kid waters but it wasn’t a big deal since we were chit chatting anyway. We order our food, and the baby’s food still had not come out. Our server never came back to our table. Our food was delivered, everything except the baby’s quesadilla. We told the kitchen staff who brought our food out what we were missing. Several minutes went by. Our server never stopped by to check on us. Still empty water glasses. Still missing the kids quesadilla. She finally comes back to our table and I explained that the baby’s food was still not out and our drinks were empty. She responds with “I don’t know why it’s not out, I’ll have my manager take it off your ticket.” We express how ridiculous it is that we put it in prior to everything else for a reason and we needed his food. By this time we had all nearly finished our food, still have not gotten the baby’s food and I notice she is standing at the hostess stand giggling and having a good little time. I did obnoxiously yell from across the restaurant “excuse me, ma’am”, because by this point I was livid. She seemed confused why I was waving and yelling across the restaurant and I told her again the baby’s food was still not out. She knew I was livid and immediately got her manager. The manager didn’t say much because I think she knew how wrong the whole visit was and just offered to pay for our meals. But that was beside the point and wasn’t the end goal for us.

Moral of the story, don’t enforce wearing a mask if your employees cannot even wear them properly and don’t mess with a child’s food order with two angry mamas present. Also thank you for the chicken quesadilla, when we ordered a cheese quesadilla - even when y’all knew you made our lunch a disaster, you still managed to screw it up a little more.

I won’t be going back to this location. They really need to get it together. Stick to the original restaurant in downtown...

Y’all DO NOT WANT TO EAT HERE UNLESS YOU WANT THE DISRESPECT I GOT!

Sat there and waited on the rest of my party to get there for maybe 10 minutes when they got there we ordered out food and they ordered their drinks and it took them 40 minutes for our food to get out of the kitchen which caused me to be late for work. When I had asked When will the food come out because I need to get back to work they then told me that my ticket was up next, And Then asked, but didn’t you have to wait on your party to get here in order to order y’all’s food I said regardless it’s been over 30 minutes and we’ve been waiting on the food to come out. The blonde head lady I’m guessing she’s the manager really needs to learn how to do better customer service because she Was just rude and quite frankly seem like she didn’t care about her customers or customers that were in my group. I didn’t eat lunch and paid for someone else’s ticket which I didn’t realize until I got home to look at my receipt. So thank you so much you arrogant, rude woman for allowing your server to not do as a good job as he should’ve and thank you for allowing such poor action be allowed at this establishment! Never will...

I work and live within a mile from La Carreta in Ponchatoula. I was there with my family this past weekend. As always, the food was great and verry little wait time from order to eating.

My one complaint is that La Carreta is big on their margaritas but does not offer any non alcoholic beverages with the exception of soft drinks and tea. I even asked in three or four different way if they had a creative bartender that could mix up anything with no alcohol and was told no they do not do that. They offered to make me a Shirley Temple.

Craft mocktails are a growing trend and are a great way to make the designated driver just as happy as the drinkers. I would think that a business that makes creative margaritas (and markets them)and other mixed cocktails, that they can do a much better job of making sure people drink responsibly. I was even willing to pay cocktail prices but they could not deliver.

Again the food was fast and great, and the staff are friendly. I will be back to eat here in hopes that they ready this post and decide to make La Carreta just as good for people that don't as they do for...