Lala's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Sonora

My family is on a road trip, moving from WA State to San Antonio.

My husband, young siblings and I stopped by for dinner two hours before closing. No greeting, slow service. The waitress seemed tired and said she was working there alone. Even so, she didn’t really seem to care about offering a quality service by any means. She sighed and looked frustrated every time we ordered (and we weren’t getting complex things. Just tacos and chicken tenders and such) and she wasn’t sure if my husbands WA State Drivers License was valid. She was very hesitant to give him a single beer.

She only checked on us once while we ate and I can only assume she was working the outdoor dining area the rest of the time. We spent a lot of time waiting on her to come back in to ask for the bill and anything else.

The food itself wasn’t great. Fried food was all soggy. We had to ask for condiments multiple times and still didn’t get them all.

When we ordered our food, I let the waitress know that my mother and youngest sister were resting at the hotel and that we would be making another order to go after they had a chance to view some photos of the menu. Towards the end, when she finally came back inside and asked if we were ready to pay, I reminded her that I still needed to order for the rest of my family. She reluctantly took the order (chicken tenders, some tacos with strictly no meat because my mom is a vegetarian, and a sprite) and told us the bill total.

Apparently because we had 5 or more plates (we had 4 in house and 2 to go) they charged us automatic gratuity of 20%. Due to poor service I would have tipped less, but okay. I get it. I’m from the PNW and there, automatic gratuity isn’t usually charged unless there are like 10+ people, but lots of things are different down here. Maybe that’s normal for this area. I don’t know.

They didn’t give us any of the condiments for the to go order, didn’t give us the Sprite that we paid for, and to top off the night, the tacos had beef on them.

We are exhausted from traveling for days and were really hoping for a nice, relaxing dinner. What we got was a subpar meal that we had to double and triple check, paired with horrible service. If we had shown up 10 minutes to close, I would understand a couple of the issues, but we arrived hours before closing.

All in all, it was a very disappointing...

Don't order the nachos and I've never had worse refried beans in my life. I've never complained at a restaurant before, but I did tonight. 3/4 of our food was inedible and was left on the table. My daughter ordered nachos with meat and cheese only. They came out with beans, so when they took the plate to have it fixed, we could hear the server and the cook arguing over whose fault it was. When she brought the plate back out, she said "she did the best she could." All 3 nacho plates ordered were terrible. Chips were chewy and tough, the few shredded cheese pieces were burnt, and the meat tasted spoiled. Our server never asked how the food was, perhaps because the gratuity was included because we were a party of 5 and she had another table, or because she knew the food was terrible and didn't want to hear it. I have no problem with gratuity, but I do have a problem with being ignored. I brought up the nachos being terrible and she replied with an apathetic "sorry." My 3 kids we asking what they could eat when. we got home while we still had plates in front of us. Paid $80 for garbage and now we're home...

I'm really confused what people see in this place. We stopped in for a quick breakfast before heading on down the highway, and I was not impressed. First off, if the only sodas you have are canned, that's a bad sign. As for food, our meal took 20 minutes to arrive, and we were the only diners in the place (probably another bad sign).

My huevos rancheros were completely underwhelming and flavorless. And was not served on a tortilla as advertised. My wife had a chorizo breakfast burrito which was forgettable, as did my oldest son. My youngest ordered a Transitional Breakfast which clearly states that it comes with choice of bacon or sausage. When his plate arrived meatless he flagged down the teenage waitress to inquire about his bacon. Without looking at a menu or verifying with anyone she, said "I don't think it comes with meat..." and left, never to return.

If this is the best Sonora has to offer, then they are in trouble, but I'm guessing there are much better options in town. I'd pass this one up if...