La Hacienda de Roselle — Restaurant in Roselle

I don't even know where to begin. My husband and I were thrilled to arrive and eat at this restaurant in which we saw good ratings online. When we first walked in, the smell of the restaurant was a major turn off. After we were seated, they served us chips and salsa as do every other Mexican restaurant. My husband and I eat Mexican food every weekend when we travel. I will have to say this is the worst chips and salsa I ever had. The salsa tasted like pickles!!!! As I though my bad experience will end after the chips and salsa, it had just started. Our female waitress whom did not smile or introduce herself, came to us immediately and asked if we're ready to order. We asked for two more minutes as we had just sat down. I ordered chicken tacos and my husband ordered a steak burrito. I never ordered chicken tacos before so I did not know my full options. When the tacos came, they were hard shell and were soaking in beans. I am not a big fan of hard shell tacos and the presentation of the food was not inviting. When the waitress came over, I asked her if it was possible to get me soft tacos instead. Her response to me was: " next time you should know the menu and order the right thing". I have never in my lifetime of dining been told to know the menu. Isn't it her job to explain the menu to me especially when the menu is mainly in Spanish. When the soft tacos arrived, the pulled chicken tasted disgusting. I took a few bites and my stomach turned. It literally tasted like "dog food". I had lost my appetite and I just wanted to pay and leave. When she came to ask if I wanted a box, I told her no thank you and that I didn't like the chicken. She asked why not, my husband told her that I preferred grilled chicken. Her response to him was, " did your wife not read the menu? ". What kind of customer service it this? I am a customer and she's my server. She should know and explain the menu to us and if we don't know, she should have been understanding. Instead she took my plate, gave us our check, smiled and left. We paid and left. It had...

TL;DR - Great authentic Mexican food. This place IS amazing. Would highly recommend.

Anyway.

I'd like to think that my fiancé and I are Taconnoisseurs. What we had this evening has set a new bar for what I think is the best taco I've ever had.

Service was very professional but also super courteous. I never caught my waitress' name but she was great.

They have a couple salsas, a mild and a hot, and they pair with these extraordinary tortilla chips; I would hazard house made because they were super fresh and oh so crispy. We paired it with their small guac portion which was very reasonably priced for the amount we got and it was also very good. I would recommend adding a little salt, really makes the flavors pop out.

We ordered margaritas, also very reasonably priced. My lady got a raspberry marg and I ordered a peach. The raspberry marg was delicious - frozen, salt rim, but mine was definitely just a standard margarita with no noticeable peach flavor. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I ordered either and I borrowed some raspberry marg to mellow out the flavor.

We both ordered tacos as our main course. They do crunchy corn or soft flour with a variety of meats. I got the carne asada and was kidnapped Guy Fieri style and taken to flavor town. The portion is very generous and the crunchy taco shells are of the same cut as the tortilla chips; super flavorful and oh so crunchy. They offer a ton of other classic faire as one would expect and if the tacos were of the ordinary and not the exception, then there's something here for everyone.

One last thing worth noting, as they were bussing our table, we were pleasantly surprised that dessert was included with our meal. We each got this cinnamon apple pastry thing with whipped cream and chocolate shavings; couldn't actually tell you what it was but it was very good and a perfect sweet to end what had veritably been a feast for the ages.

To anyone who appreciates great Mexican comida, look no further than La...

This is a mixed professional review. I will preface by saying that if you dine in, I'm pretty sure you'll have a great experience. The food here can be absolutely top notch. The experiences I've had both with family and coworkers while in house was amongst the best I've had around in and out of Chicago. However my stars being removed are due to my take out experiences, which is my usual at this place.

The cons are such: I am a "taco snob", these are hit or miss some of the best tacos in the entire Chicagoland area - asada, pastor & carnitas are wonderful. Unfortunately, I've had several to-go orders messed up, with them putting unwanted cheese on the tacos. After a couple messed up orders, I called to tell them of the mistake. They are very nice and assured me they would compensate me the next time I ordered, even when I told them it may be a while. Two months later (yesterday), I called to order and mentioned the aforementioned SNAFU. I was told they had no recollection and no such list - I didn't argue as I still ate the previous meal and it was still good, although not what I ordered. I ordered a taco meal with an extra salsa (their salsa is quite spicy for most but I love it) - they compensated me for the salsa - ok...

If all was well I wouldn't be leaving this review but it was not. While they got the tacos right, the salsa they gave me (which I was looking so forward to for home use the next few days) was absolutely NASTY! It has that rancid 5+ day old taste; Cannot believe they would serve this, especially to someone who they know (or were informed) they messed up on before!

I want to love this place but I cannot, I don't know that I will give them another chance after this but if I do - they may be sacrificed to the 1 star rating...

Good...