La Victoria — Restaurant in South Carolina

Having grown up in Southern California in the late 60's, this taqueria become restaurant, is as close to the authentic Mexican family style dining I've experienced anywhere during my youth, and it's local, right here in Hartsville. Every dish is cooked to Abuela's exacting specifications, styles as familiar as family and undoubtedly passed on from one generation to another, no americanizing needed! For a few years La Victoria's was a will kept secret of the Hispanic population till a few of us, myself included, starting passing the word. Since then, it has grown from a menu of 4 types of taco's (a very small taqueria, to the modest restaurant of today, well known among Hartsville natives who appreciate the small family run authentic Mexican restaurant dining experience!

Muy Authentico. Friendly, comfortable atmosphere with limited seating. Fairly recently renovated and upgraded from a simple Taqueria, La Victoria now has more to offer for those interested in an authentic Mexican flavor with nice variety of meals.

The staff, native speakers, know English well enough to ensure you get what you order as anyone would expect from any restaurant with a polite and attentive service staff; but, there is plenty of opportunity to try out your spanish speaking skills, if you so desire. I found everyone eager to learn as well as to teach, an unexpected pleasure which only adds to the authentic experience of their deliciously authentic menu.

Don't expect any high priced, or overly ambitious and creative meal choices; this is genuine family cuisine from south of the border appropriately priced. From homemade tortillas, sauces and spices, familiar dishes and meals also come with the usual chips and salsa (mild) but unlike many Mexican restaurants also included with a meal is a generous 3 bowl condiment service found at any typical family meal of chopped onions, cilantro, and lime slices.

Looking for something spicier for your chips or meal than the very mild basic salsa? Feel free to ask your waitress for a nice sample of salsa de picante, and they are happy to provide their customer, "mas picante" , por favor, upon request, ever increasing levels of heat, until last finally something that would appeal to any connoisseur of picante, shy only by half of the blindness inducing, mind numbing pedigreed habanero sauce, which is sure to please anyone looking for something salsa to blow their socks off. (Warning, do not eat and drive!)

I recommend this to anyone curious in having an authentic experience, La Victoria certainly has a moderately high, to excellent reputation in Hartsville with those in the Know, and a well deserved "A" rating by the Health Department. Epicurious? Don't miss out on this unique, simple, family...

First time trying this restaurant. We went there because of the high reviews. Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way, the food was good. That is not the reason for the two stars. I went there with my family. I have 3 kids. I ordered two of them kids meals. My other daughter wanted fajita quesadillas so I ordered her that. You know how kids are, they don’t want to eat vegetables so I asked the waitress if the quesadilla came with anything else in there and I told her the only thing I wanted on there was meat and cheese. She assured me that it would just be meat and cheese. When we got the food, the quesadillas had bell peppers and onions. It took me a while to get her attention but when I finally did I showed her the quesadillas and reminded her that all I wanted was meat and cheese. She then tells me that the fajitas come mixed with bell peppers and onions. In my head I was wondering, if she already knew that, why didn’t she let me know. I didn’t say anything so I asked her if I could change them for steak quesadillas and asked her again if it was just going to be meat and cheese. She assured me again it would just be meat and cheese. She took it back and didn’t come back to check on us for about 10 minutes until the food was ready. We didn’t have any cilantro or limes or napkins. When she finally came back with the plate, we checked it again and it was filled with onions. Rather than making my daughter wait another 10 minutes for her food, we just took them out ourselves. After I paid, I noticed she charged me everything al a carte rather than the meal prices which came out to be a considerate amount more. It’s a shame because we really enjoyed the food but the service was less than stellar. Hope they can take a little more care with...

Apparently 5000 people saw my last photo, so I thought I'd give a bit of explanation this time.

Hartsville is a small town, and it's full of growth potential. However, where we need no growth is La Victoria. Ever since I've stepped through the doors almost two years ago, this has become my Mecca that I visit on a weekly basis. I have never been to a restaurant that is so efficient and delivers such consistently good food, at a damn steal of a price too. I would still come here if everything on the menu was $20, just maybe a little less often for my wallet's sake.

Not many places can you say that, if your order was brought out wrong, you went through a journey of discovery. I don't know how to end this except by saying: if you don't like Mexican food, come here and see if they can change your mind. They sure changed mine.

With that, I leave you all with this picture of an...