La Fogata Cantina - Alamo Heights — Restaurant in San Antonio

Edit 04/01/22: As I stated in my review, i was willing to give them another try and I did last week. In their defense, the margaritas were better this time around, but with mediocre service, lukewarm unmelted queso, bland rice, and really flavorless shrimp with the fajita plate, unfortunately, my 3 star review stands and I'd strongly recommend Las Palapas over this new La Fogata. That might be a bit harsh, but the price point should reflect something better than what this is. Like I said in my initial review, just go to Soluna for the same price point, atmosphere, and better service and food. Sadly, I won't be going back to this La Fogata any time soon.

Original review:

La Fogata Cantina on Vance Jackson has been a go to for myself, friends, and family since moving to the city 6 years ago. The margaritas ALWAYS slapped (though you definitely paid for them $$$).

The last time I was at the Vance Jackson location, though the food was a comfortable familiar, something was wrong with the Margaritas. They didn't seem as potent, and after one I felt sluggish and a bit queazy. I have since heard that they changed their recipe and boy, at the new location, the cracks are really starting to show.

We were so excited to have one of our favorite places so close to where we call home in SA (downtown). When arriving at the Austin Highway location, we were greeted with kindness and told there was a pretty long wait time; par for the course for any La Fogata experience... but that's where those amazing margaritas come in! You mean I have to drink delicious margaritas for 45 minutes? Yeah, count me in. I wish more restaurants would ply you with sweet libations while you wait at a bar or outside, smelling the delicious things coming from the kitchen, having great conversation, connecting with friends and family; all while your appetite is growing with every sip.

We approach the bar to eagerly and patiently await those delicious margaritas. The bartender comes over and explains that margaritas were $5 for happy hour. I couldn't believe it! A bit skeptical, we promptly ordered two.

Though the presentation was the same as the original location, the margarita was overly limey and sweet. All around undrinkable. "Maybe it's just the 'on the rocks' that tastes this way", we pondered out loud. Everyone knows that the frozen is really where it's at at La Fogata. It was our mistake!

We requested frozen margaritas and much to our dismay, it was more of the same headache inducing level of sweetness with zero detection of the spirit that makes the margarita so loveable. By that time we were ready to be seated; so I un-triumphantly swapped what should have been a delicious margarita... for a Sol.

The meal was enjoyable enough, we had the combo fajitas which were great and they even comped our queso (also great) for the long wait times which was a pleasant surprise because we didn't complain about it one bit.

So... Why the 3 star review? It hinges on the margarita for me. Charge me $15. I don't care, I want an excellent margarita, especially when these used to contend with the likes of Soluna's deservedly famous Chispa. These once lauded frozen glasses of heaven now occupy the same space in my mind as to what you'd expect from the Taco Cabana drive thru; a true fall from grace.

With so much fantastic types of Mexican food in San Antonio, and more so with Soluna being in the same neighborhood and both revolving right around the same spectrum of the cuisine, the whole experience just counts as a miss to me.

Go to La Fogata on Austin Highway. Try it. See how it stacks up to all of those memories you made at the old location. I know I'll inevitably ​be back in a couple of months to give them another chance. I hope that next time I don't leave with the same feeling of regret I left with last night, fussing to myself, "Man... for the same price, I could have had a great meal...

My mom and I go to La Fogata all the time. They have the best margaritas I just love for $5. My mom has stopped going because the service is just absolutely horrible. Some of the waitresses are okay but the bartender there and the to-go orders are just consistently horrible. I go in there and get to go orders all the time so I can get a couple of margaritas to go and drink at home. Every time I get a to go order they bring the bag out with no utensils, no napkins, no hot sauce. They make me feel like I'm a bother even getting something to go. And they stand around waiting for their tip when they don't do anything. The only girl that is consistently terrific is that young hispanic girl that works the front door. If I'm sitting at a table she always gets me a to-go box, she stops what she's doing to get whatever I need because my waitress isn't around. One day they were really busy and she took my to-go order over the phone. When I got there, I was shocked she bagged me up chips and salsa, napkins, utensils, hot sauce! She was out of breath from running around but she didn't act put out or anything from having to do a to go order. She didn't just hand me an empty bag with nothing but what I ordered. She actually put all the necessary things that go with your order into the bag and then she tries to run off without getting her tip after she did all those wonderful things. I called her back to give her her generous tip for all her efforts that she always does. That's why to go orders receive a tip because they get your order together. Other people just want to grab the bag from the kitchen and hand it to you without doing anything and stand around waiting for their tip. One time it took 30 minutes for our nachos to come out and we were eating them and there was so much cheese on the nachos, I knew there was something wrong. There was no beans on them!!! Then the bartender tried to say oh there's just hardly any beans. I moved the cheese and I said there's no beans! Last night I went in there for a to go order so I could get my Margaritas to go. I ordered one bean taco and two margaritas to go. He brings the bag out with two bean and cheese tacos nothing else in the bag not a napkin not a hot sauce and the order was wrong. I told him I only wanted one bean taco oh my bad but you still charged me for two bean and cheese tacos!! And could I have some napkins and a hot sauce? Another time I ordered a chalupa to go the girl bartender brings me out a bag with a chalupa shell beans and cheese on it. No lettuce, no tomato, on my chalupa, no napkin, no hot sauce! This place is consistently horrible, absolutely horrible the way they treat people! And I always, always tip anyway! I don't order much off the menu because I personally just don't like the food and I've tried several menu items. The only thing they have going for them is their Margaritas or I would not...

Ordered the paradilla for dos and 2 margaritas. Margaritas were some of the best I had ever had. Restaurant was packed, and service was still good. Attentive waitress, and got us everything we needed! Chips and Salsa were good. We got our food and it looked okay. The ribs had a jerky texture, the chicken thighs were slightly undercooked and had pink in them still ( but were still really good. I've never had an undercooked meat I won't eat. My stomach is steel.) Shrimp were dry and had no seasoning, but we're okay. My wife liked the pepper with stuffed chicken breast. Tasted like it had some sort of cheese mixed in and it was shredded. Rice was dry but had decent flavoring. Charro beans were charro beans, nothing special. Had alot of juice and not alot of beans. Steak was good and tender but still not alot of flavoring.

Waitress asked how our food was and my wife and I said we were disappointed and the food wasn't very good. There was no flavor whatsoever to any of the meat and it was subpar. Manager came and acknowledged we were not satisfied and we showed him the jerky, dried rice, and voiced our concerns. Manager was very understanding and offered to take off some of the price. (We had ate a 1/4 of the food already cause we were looking forward to a great parradilla like the pics we saw so we didn't expect him to do too much). Manager looked at our food and agreed it appeared subpar and wasn't to their standards. Offered us a dessert and gave us a discount on the meal. I have never had service quite as good as he provided to us. We weren't expecting anything out of it, as we had already ate a good portion of the meal by the time he got there, but his dedication to his expectations was on point. Not sure if we would ever come back here for the food because we had high standards going in and were dissapointed, but will definitely be back for the Margaritas as they had a floral taste that we have never had before! Other food we saw looked very good and if we do go back, we would not get the parradillas. Maybe in the future we will give it another try and try something with better recommendations. PS, we got the Tres leches to go. It is in the fridge right now and we haven't tried it, but it looks...