La Oaxaquena Taqueria — Restaurant in Wilmington

I had found out about this authentic, Mexican restaurant by hearing from a few others who had recently visited AND by being in contact with the individual being behind their social media platforms. After being assured by this representative that we would love everything about La Oaxaquena Taqueria, I finally decided to try them out on Cinco de Mayo. I advised the social media guru for the restaurant that I wanted to make a reservation for 6:30 pm and they replied with happy face emojis.

FOOD: Not sure. Never had the chance to taste anything.

SERVICE: Ouch. Just ouch...this was brutally painful. We arrived at 6:20 pm, masked up and walked inside the front door. We witnessed 2 sets of patrons dining inside but that was it. Most booths and tables were empty, there was no host / hostess to greet us for approx. 2 mins and there was a male employee sitting at the bar, on a barstool laughing and speaking to someone in Spanish, not even acknowledging our presence right in front of him. 2 minutes later, a young hostess approached us. We asked if we could please sit at their outside dining area to enjoy the weather with our meal. She then asked..."Are you sure? It seems windy." Yeah...I'm pretty sure or I wouldn't have asked. Immediately, her demeanor changed as if we were a total inconvenience and walked us outside where there were 4 dining tables and no one else out there but my wife, son and myself. We were given menus and said she would be back. We waited. Waited longer. Then, waited some more. We sat down at 6:26 pm and waited until 6:38 pm until we said enough is enough. As we stood up, the same young lady was attempting to rush and give us a basket of chips and salsa. No thank you. We left in hopes of finding some place else that valued our business and was the beginning to a horrible Cinco de Mayo experience. Honestly...there is not one positive I can say about service. Deplorable is the best word I can think of and that's sad, especially in a very competitive market. I won't be back. Sorry, not sorry.

OVERALL SCORE: 1/8TH of 1 Star. We did get seated,...

So sad to leave this review but hopefully it’s helpful as constructive criticism to owner at the very least? My husband and I were really excited to try this place when we heard about it. Our main beef with this place is the truly horrendous service. We went the first time and had an extremely rude waitress who rolled her eyes at us every time we asked for something (like a drink when we arrived or napkins). We just wrote it off as a one off. The next time we took friends with us as it was nearby an event we were attending. We had another super rude waitress. Since my husband and I speak Spanish she would only communicate with us and didn’t even so much as say hi to our guests or ask what they would like to drink. You may be thinking - oh she’s shy or unsure of her English, but honestly you can tell people’s vibes and it wasn’t there sort of vibe. At the very least you know the word “hi”. She didn’t refill our drinks even once. Didn’t ask if he needed anything, bring napkins or salsa or silverware. Our friends even tried to communicate with her in Spanish (as one was a Spanish major) and she just deferred to my husband.

Aside from the horrible service the food is only mediocre. My husband is from Oaxaca and we love hole in the wall restaurants (which is how I would describe this place) but the food and service misses the mark. My caldo de res tasted like pure epazote with no flavor, no traditional veggies (chayote, potatoes), tlayuda was a 4/5 out of 10 and the rest of the food was just average. There are a few other places in town with good authentic food and better service we would prefer to frequent.

Super bummed out on this experience and felt like we gave it multiple tries but probably won’t try again or at least not...

We were charged $9 for a "large group" (4 people and we were the only ones there for about 10 minutes) we went here for lunch today with three co-workers. We each ordered about $16 worth of food normal for lunch imo, they don't have unsweet tea so the co-workers got water, I ordered an horchata but was brought a greenish beverage. Two plates were swapped out. The server had an issue with the card reader so we explained how to use their device to them. We were never shown the receipt prior but $73 seemed high. The paper receipt showed the "large group" charge (again $9 for the 4 of us to be there.... the only people there.) We didn't argue, we had to get back to work, i don't have the receipt or I'd post the Pic, the boss paid and kept the receipt. Which is funny because he never asks for the receipt and only did this time because it was $72 for 12 tacos, and a dry plate of chicken and rice, and an horchata. We never did get our salsa and chips that we asked for. The meats in the tacos were dry and lacked flavor. We've been here before and it wasn't as bad as this time, it wasn't great but it was worth a second chance since it's close to the office. We'll never go back and we'll recommend others against going, and if you do go check the "large group" rate on the receipt. Again, 4 of us comfortably sat at a booth, nothing extra was done to accommodate us.

**Edit: the owners comment shows that the owner didn't read past "We were charged $9" this review mentions nothing about the cost of food. It mentions the "large group' rate of $9 for 4 people. It's about principle not cost of food. It sucks that they won't let me comment on their reply....