Hacienda Mexican Restaurants — Restaurant in South Bend

When you live in South Bend, Mishawaka and Notre Dame, there are two things you know; ND University and Hacienda. When driving around or through the South Bend area, you are bound to see at least one of Hacienda's billboards. The billboards are just as awesome as the resturaunt itself. If you've seen one, you'd remember it because most of the time, there is a punchline following a food/drink item being advertised. Each one, no matter how bad your day is going, will make you laugh or at least smile briefly.

Hacienda is a local Mexican style resturaunt/pub. For those of you who remember Bennegan's, Hacienda is similar without the memorabilia on the walls. Just as Bennegan's was infamous for their breadsticks and garlic butter, Hacienda has their own... lure; warm chips and salsa. When the waiter/waitress brings the basket of chips and salsa, do not let him/her go without asking for a large ranch. No, they won't bring you a deed for a ranch located somewhere in the area, but, they will bring you a large bowl of AWESOME ranch dressing/dip. Trust me, you will need this. It IS an extra charge, but, it is WELL worth it! I may not be able to tolerate hot/spicy food very well, so, this may be just my opinion, but, only salsa from an authentic Mexican resturaunt is hotter than Hacienda's. The salsa is also more of a paste and looks more like tomato sauce. If you pour some of the ranch into the salsa, they make an awesome combination and you can also alternate between regular salsa and the ranch. If you run out of chips, don't worry, before you eat the last chip, there will be a fresh basket with fresh salsa.

If you can tear yourself away from the chips, the menu has a variety of different items including those who go to a Mexican resturaunt to order a cheese burger and fries. 😒 All the food offered is beyond belief. My personal favorite is the original shredded beef burrito combo with the white chilli. I can not begin to say how good the combo is. My wife actually gave me a look when I considered licking my plate and chilli bowl.

Hacienda also offers a wide variety of beers, mixed drinks and soft drinks. If you have room after filling up on chips, salsa, buttermilk ranch and a nice sized Mexican plate, (unless you're totally off your rocker and order a cheese burger), you can try the mudslide desert, or, even share it with one.. or two... people.

If it's your birthday or maybe someone you REALLY want to embarrass, this IS the place! Not only do they draw attention coming out to your table, but, also sing their version of a happy birthday song as loud as they can and... just to make sure you are completely embarrassed, they plant a straw sombrero on your head so EVERYONE in the resturaunt knows you are the lucky birthday boy/girl, (after your family or friends coax you out from under the table).

Hacienda is great! You can not leave this place without a smile on your face and a full stomach. And if you can leave sober, you will remember it in the morning and won't question why there is a strange bull's head on the pillow...

My family and I decided on hacienda for dinner tonight and it was a disappointed experience. The food was okay, we had the mushrooms as a side and they were off. They didn't seem to have as much of a taste. They were dry and not very flavourful. Our entrees were good, no issue there.

The biggest issue we had by far was the waitress. We were seated in the bar to avoid the half an hr wait, in hindsight we should have waited. Jess seemed rather upset to be our waitress. When she first showed she seemed okay and then 4 of the 5 of us ordered water. It was at that point she seemed to lose interest. (Imagine that is the drink of choice when it's 90+ outside.)

She disappeared and came back probably close to 5 minutes later, dropped the drinks and some chips off and gone for another 5-10. To return with the ranch we ordered and then to finally take our order.

Everytime we needed anything we had to specifically ask her for it and then wait at minimum 5 minutes. That was including chips and waters, it's toasty outside. Glad I ended up being the only one that had a refill on the water.

When she brought the food out she could not even remember who ordered what food. 2 of the items that were ordered were wet burritos, one of them had a special request that she couldn't even remember what it was, saying that 1 of them was ground beef when both were chicken, in which luckily was correct.

Oh and when she brought the checks back to have us sign them as we had the dinner split, she just left them on the table and and said here I don't remember who's check was who's and then disappeared to the back again.

This was not an issue of it being busy. The bar was fairly calm for 8 o'clock and she had all the time in the world, and care, to pay attention to any of her other tables.

Hopefully she doesn't wait outside the bar so if we return the next time it will be worth the...

Today: 12/8/23. Waitress "Cloe" is exceptional. Ask to be seated at her table. She's such a lovely person

Old: Today at Hacienda (Portage Rd) was just STUPID ! Oriental/Mexican waitress said kitchen was backed up. Wait would be 10 minutes. Ok.... But tables were empty! Seat the damned people! People don't need to be standing around. Many of us can't stand for long periods of time! There was something else going on as this made no sense. There were more than 25 tables open and the kitchen was backed up?? Why?

And no one should wait to be seated in the damned bar! It's not like it's going to make it more special! Let people find their own damned table! This "wait to be seated" sounds like a managerial "brain fart".

I walked out. I don't tolerate stupid people or stupid notions.

Old: Best salsa ever!

Prices are out of control.

No longer affordable to eat there for the average person.

However, years later...... I learned they suspended the $5 lunch specials! Now they're $10!!!

I'm very disappointed! I'm not rich or even well off. The lunch specials were the only way I could afford to go there.

My last visit there on 5-3-21. A soda is over $3 ?????? Are your freaking kidding me? They never came and refilled it. I would have needed to drink soda for 2 hours to get my money's worth! The bill for 2 people for ordinary food was over $30 !!! It should have been 1/2 of that.

I think others feel the same as parking lot is not full as it once was. (not due to plandemic) We are now looking for a new...