Lobera Tacos & Tequila — Restaurant in Raleigh

Visitors in town for a funeral. A group of 10 for dinner. We were seated in far back room, straight back from main door (more about the room later in review).

1st: Our server Cintia Marsala. She was wonderful. A shout out to the bartender and 1 other male individual that occasionally helped out. I do hope all of you receive the credit for this review. You were all amazing!

2nd: The food was delicious and portions were big. Another shout out to the kitchen staff. Wish I had room to try those churros, but we were so full with all the food.

Now the back room. Walking in the front door, the atmosphere is wonderful. Entering the back room was a different story. There was a very strong smell of bleach and some sort of underlying smell. Not great. But our group was large, and it was evident there was no other area for re-seating a large group. So we stayed and complained among ourselves. As you sat for a while, you became acclimated to the strong smell of bleach. We sat and enjoyed our meal, had some drinks, then some some of us had to use the ladies room (in main area near bar). After fresh air and returning to the back room, the odor of bleach had subsided, but the underlying smell was much stronger and most definitely recognizable as a sewer type odor. I do hope they find the cause and...

Ambience and the server, Brian was great! BUT!, first of all..please allow me to say that I have lived all over the US and have eaten at various and numerous Mexican restaurants. Because this place had a 4.8 star review, I was super excited to have some delicious birria tacos. However, I was extremely disappointed. Let’s just say that an extra draft of Modelo was NEEDED to kill the after taste of whatever concoction this restaurant deemed to be birria tacos. Then again, what can I expect from a non Mexican cook..? (A lil birdy says that he is Guatemalan) My regret aside from eating here is that I did not take a pic of my food. Sorry.

I had brought along two guests of whom I ordered the “sopapilla” desert to make up for the disappointing food experience. What did they get? Even more disappointment. Deep fried tortillas with a bowl of ice cream (of which I did take a picture of). Judge for yourself. If you have a palate for good Mexican food and KNOW the delicious tasting of such…do yourself a favor and skip this restaurant and try another. Stars mean nothing. Great service and...

It’s a clean, well decorated place but the music is too loud such that it is hard to have a conversation with your companions. I like that they have the big windows open for fresh air. I have eaten at Lobera several times trying different items and the only dish I liked was the Barbacoa burrito. The steak taco I had was tough and dry. Chicken burrito was bland with dry chicken. Flautas were very dry and bland. Overall they seem to have an issue with tough dry meats. I do like their house salsa which is spicy. Soda is flat and tastes off. Last time I was there we had awful service. No waters, she barely checked on us. I felt really bad for our server because she seemed to be the only server for the entire busy restaurant and she was also the host. It seems this restaurant has a major staffing problem. I preferred Gonza and which used to be at this location. I would not...