Mi Carreta Mexican Grill — Restaurant in South Boston

This is a very popular Mexican restaurant here in South Boston VA. The atmosphere is excellent, and the service is great most of the time, (every one has an off day now and then). We stopped in for lunch while out shopping. Their salsa is one of the best ones I have had in the Virginia area, and it's hard to not fill up on the chips and salsa. Hubby had the Birria taco plate which has 3 tacos, and cilantro rice for $17.99, and I opted for the choose 3 lunch combo plate with a cheese enchilada, tamale, and challupa (tostado) which is $14.95, M-F, and $1 more on Sat & Sun. They also offer vegetarian combo meals. The food here is always good, and I usually have to get a doggie bag (darn those yummy chips and salsa 😉). The restaurant has a smoking section which is crazy in this new non smoking world, but I personally think it's awesome. They have a nice bar area, and although I have not tried their margaritas, I hear they are awesome. We have been coming here for years, and will continue to dine here...

I've been here a couple times and never had any issues, but went last night and the food was terrible and the service was even worse. We arrived at 9pm, they close at 10pm, and none of the 4 meals that were ordered were fresh. If they close their kitchen at 9pm then that should be posted for everyone to know, but paying full price for old food isn't acceptable. I was unable to even eat my chicken fajitas because the tortillas I was given were hard and crunchy, obviously they had been sitting under a warmer for a considerable length of time, I sent them back for a replacement but the replacement was the same, they were inedible. I asked for a refund of my personal meal and the waitress rolled her eyes and got visibly upset and annoyed. In hindsight I'm glad I was unable to eat any of my meal because my wife now has severe food poisoning and the Mexican is all she's eaten within the last 24 hours. The owner was nice about it and apologized, that's the reason for 2 stars...

Service was great. Things looked clean- so no complaints as far as that goes. The menu had typical Mexican/Tex-Mex options and had plenty of variety. Prices are very reasonable. I ordered a Strawberry Margarita and it was very good. Unfortunately, there were a few negatives. First, the food took quite a while to arrive. Also, I ordered the fajitas and the bottom of the pan had burnt much of the meat. I did mention to to the waitress- after I had finished eating what I was going to eat and she said this happened sometimes. In my opinion, burnt food should never happen; but she was polite about it. The rest of the food was good. When I received the check, the Margarita rang up as $5.75. I knew it wasn't that much on the menu- I double checked and it was only $4.75, but when addressed they did fix this mistake. Overall, if I was in the area again I would probably give it another shot, especially with the lack of close...