La Costa Restaurant — Restaurant in Sandy

La Costa still has the best Mexican food. But my experience with them yesterday has caused me to remove 2 stars from my rating for them. We dined in on Friday, Aug. 22nd but only ate a little and boxed up the rest to take home. Later that evening, I went to eat my cheese enchilada but when I cut into it, I saw it wasn’t a cheese enchilada, it was chicken. So I called them but they were already closed. I called again the next day and this is when the problems began. First they kept hanging up on me because they said they couldn’t hear me very well. Next, they told me there’s nothing they can do about it because I should’ve called yesterday. I explained that I did call yesterday as soon as I realized I had the wrong item, but that they were closed. The manager told me there was nothing she could do. I insisted that I should get the correct item I paid for. She asked if I had pictures and the original receipt (I did) and then she told me to come back after 8:00 when they were slower.

When I came at 8:20 with my pictures and receipt, she again said I should’ve called the day before. She tried to tell me what a cheese enchilada looks like and how it’s different than a chicken enchilada. I showed her the pictures I took. She went back to the kitchen and came back a little later with an iPad and a copy of my order. She said the waiter entered it in correctly. So I said then the cooks made it wrong. She said she asked the cooks and they said they remembered the order and they made it right. Then I reminded her that I had just showed her the pictures of the chicken enchilada they gave me. She scoffed as if to imply I was lying and had shown her pictures of something else. But she said they would give me a cheese enchilada just to “satisfy the customer”. After a long wait, she brought me a cheese enchilada wrapped up to go and said this is because the customer complained. No apology. No offer to include some extra beans and rice for my inconvenience of having to come back. She just maintained that her employees were right and I was trying to steal from them.

I still say that La Costa has the best Mexican food in town. In fact, while I was waiting for my enchilada, I voted for them on my phone for the “Best of…” contest that they were competing in. However, for customer service, they get an “F” this time. It’s really sad that the manager would assume I would go to the trouble to call several times, doctor some fake photos and drive all the way back the next day just to see if I could swindle them out of an enchilada. It’s one thing for them to make a mistake on my order. That’s understandable and forgivable. But for them to do all they could to avoid correcting it, and to try to prove that I must be lying and that they are very regrettably remaking the enchilada, that is extremely poor customer service. If their food wasn’t so dang good, I wouldn’t want to give them any more of my business.

What I like best at La Costa: their chips and salsa and bean dip, their carne asada, their cheese enchiladas, their House Nachos with carne asada, and their fried ice cream! But if you take any of it to go, make sure you check it before you leave or you’ll either be out of luck, or you’ll be in for one of the worst customer service...

The host was super friendly and the atmosphere was nice. When we sat down I asked for a margarita/drink menu and was brought a food menu. The waitress came over and asked use if we were ready to order. I let her know we were not yet but would like to get some drinks. Not knowing what they served, we decided we needed a minute but asked for water.

We got our water and I again asked for a drink menu. The waitress dropped of the drink menu and said ok, but are you ready to order your food. I put in our food order and didn't see her again for a few minutes. I ordered a 2 large item combo with a burrito and shredded beef super taco.

About 3 minutes later she came back with our food. I got the burrito, and a small ground beef taco on the side.

She asked if that was all and went to leave, but I let her know we wanted a beverage (again).

The good was decent, although not a lot. Or waters were both empty the rest of the time.

Next time we saw her she asked if I was ready for the check, and I asked for fried ice cream as I had find memories of the dish. It only took a few minutes to come out, but before it came out she dropped off the check and tried to pick it up at least once if not twice before it came up, only to be faced with the awkward situation of me not even having looked at it yet.

The fried ice cream came out and looked good. The ingredients were right, but memories of a freshly fried shell around a frozen ice cream center failed to gel with the reality of what was served. Instead of a crispy warm outside, the reality was a soggy cold shell topped in what was a tasty honey sauce.

Finally ready to pay my bill I did so. I normally tip generously but in this case it was only 15 percent. I don't know if the server was having an off night, or is just not a great fit, but I was really hoping for a nice dinner with my wife. It wasn't busy at all but she seemed flustered. Instead we ended up with a 25 minute rushed out the door/ fast casual dining experience. Having a babysitter with the kids, and time to kill we just went and wandered around Sandy for a while instead.

I'd like to try again here some time to see if it was just a one off experience, but it will probably be quite a while...

I've been going to La Costa since before they relocated here from across the street and have always loved it. Best salsa around. However, my girl and I just went in there to eat today and were so disappointed that I doubt we'll ever be back. The menu apparently changed from the large standard book style to a small card stock menu about 8"x4" front and back and they seem to have slimmed down their options? It appears they've changed their portion sizes as well... I got the breakfast burrito, and she got a bean and cheese burrito ($10 each). We both laughed when they brought our food out as they both looked like microwave burritos from Walmart, hers with melted cheese on it and a small scoop of rice and beans. Mine was even smaller at around 3.5"x2.5" I had a small cup of black beans and a small scoop of rice. I could see more white plate than food. I'm used to receiving a full plate of food like every other Mexican food restaurant in town. We initially thought we had accidentally ordered from a kids menu or something. Maybe we did? That's the only menu our waiter left us with... Neither of us were happy with the food. It was bland and dry. I've had far better microwave burritos. I would have sent it back but we never even saw the waiter again despite being one group of maybe 4 in the entire restaurant. We never got a refill on our drinks, and I had to go find someone to get our check! Overall, I'm extremely disappointed and I highly doubt we'll be back. On to the next I guess...

((really wish I took a picture of the food before we ate a portion of it before losing our appetite. Pretty comical portion size of Mexican...