La Hacienda

…El MEJOR de MEXICO,… NORTH… of the BORDER
Hola, que paso? .Como? Que… Digame, muchachos y muchachas
…Si, aqui, hay LAS CINCO ESTRELLAS de MEXICO
Aqui,. hay siempre cerveza gratis mañana,.Si, pero nunca HOY… y mucho tequila bueno y frio
sssshhhh…cajete, silencio… …decilre a nadie usted gringos, ok ?
.
la cantina mejor ??, Si Simone… Oye, Donde ?. Simone, en Chapel Hill… y that no one knows about… Pero Si amigos
Oye, la comida es muy buena… and MUCHO de TODO y por muy reasonable prices
…Ahh, simone, dame mucho mas por favor, y digame mas tambien
.pero comida tradicionala – no 3-​star Michelin fine-​dining, not gourmet
MUY comfortable… spacious…several large areas… FUN Mexican décor
Personal amigable, MUY SYMPATICA… very friendly and FUN… Siempre
Oye tu, gringo… tranquilo, ok, facile, calme, do not be in a hurry, enjoy
la musica, Quando ?.todos los Domingos, Mariachis 6 – 9
…Escape to Mexico… ANDALE, RAPIDO, ARIBA, A HORA !
.
No falo portugues. hablamos ingles… si, we speakety english.
Sprechen kein deutsch. y .Hablamos SpanGLISH muy bien, gracias
…LUEGO…amigo, amiga, y amigos…
…y no, mi nombre no es Juan Toogo, yo me llamo Creole
…Señor Toogo es el Toro, el Jefe de la CASA de La HACIENDA
…GRACIAS.
.oye,… Si, si WIFI… tambien, Gratis… Venis todo el dia
…pero, COME con mucho HAMBRE
.

Manager could care less about your business. I went there with my family of five and ordered two kids meal. I asked to have my child’s drink since she was drinking water and I was paying for the kids meal. I was first told it had to be put in a kids cup to which I said no problem. However, I was charged for an adult drink. The manager came and said it didn’t matter that my kid drank water he still had to charge me. I told him that makes no since if I am paying for it and we weren’t sharing. Reluctantly, he said he would take it off but when I got the bill he still refused. I asked him if he was going to also charge me because I ate my sons sour cream to which he smirked. He was even more put off when I said if I pay for a kids meal at McDonald’s no one can tell me who can drink the milk. I said it was a shame to get this treatment as a customer and again he could care less. Too many restaurant choices out there to have this type of experience. I did go there previously and my cousin found hair in her food. I was giving them a benefit of a doubt but this summed it up for me.

The Parillada was very good! Tons of rich variety and flavorful protein. Pair it with a Dos XX and we are gonna have a lot of working out to do tomorrow. So worth it!

Horrible service when I went and ordered tacos. Forgot my sauce, the lemon, the salt and the pico de gallo. So when they brought it the food was cold and the tortilla was not cook it was cold. In the end they made us wait like an hour after finishing eating to pay. My husband had to go and get the check. Will never return.

So I was brought here being told it’s a dive and great. Well … It is. Come and eat wonderful food full of taste for a reasonable price.

Great value for the money. Food is fresh and flavorful. Staff are friendly. True Mexican atmosphere and this is just generally a great place for Mexican food. Got to try the la cazuela. Pounded chicken and steak covered with chorizo and cheese. Yummy!

We just had the most painful ordering experience. It took us 20 minutes to place an order for 3 tacos. The woman on the phone was rude and when we picked up our food, the three tacos were all wrong. Usually we have good experiences but this one was tragic. :(

Went there for lunch for chicken fajitas. Excellent service great food presentation. They actually had green salsa on request very very good.

Quick and friendly servers, ready with honest recommendations. You get free tortilla chips with quite tasty salsa. Good sized menu including all the authentic Mexican stuff (I think… I’m not Mexican myself). The portions are big (We always have leftovers) and affordable. My partner and I have been here a few times and the food is always good.
They have deals on different days, usually on drinks, but they don’t carry the beer I like. Sometimes there’s live music, too, which is wonderful.

Décor-​wise, this place is a bit weird. There’s an empty and unused fountain in the front of the restaurant. But the food is delicious and affordable, especially their lunch specials. You can get a huge amount of food for $ 7.50. I usually get the more authentic items like chicken with mole sauce. And the salsa here is fantastic. It has that zing! and fresh taste that I love. The service road entrance is a pain, but give this place a try.

I had heard a lot of good stuff about this place, but when I walked in I couldn’t hear anything except the wailing of the floor singer who was wandering around the restaurant insinuating herself into everyone’s dinner. To be fair, some folks love this, but no one had a choice and when we asked if there was a quieter table, the waitress was actually visibly irritated and told us we could try to find a corner in the bar. My review would not have been as bad if the server had not been so unprofessional and callous.

This place is huge with plenty of seating and lots of booths which I prefer. I went for a late lunch so it was pretty empty.
We were seated quickly and had a very nice waitress that took care of us well. They have a choice of a lunch buffet or you can order off the menu. The buffet smelled a little funky to me with all the different scents being warmed like too many candles at once so I definitely bypassed that.
The margaritas were very good and cold. I’ve been finding a lot of places are serving their margs lukewarm which isn’t appealing to me.
They had a fair number of vegetarian items-​more than most places and the menu just goes on forever.
I’d probably come back but the smell of the buffet that you have to pass to be seated kinda made me feel a little queasy.

I live in Carrboro and drive past this place all the time on my way into Durham so I keep stopping in due to the convenience but usually regret it. The food is actually decent, slightly above average and you get good size servings, but the service is just consistently bad. Getting anyone to wait on you is just a chore and really annoying when they are often clearly not busy. I have had to go looking for a waitress on several occasions to either correct something wrong after food was brought to the table or just to get and/​or pay the check. Also, Hacienda really could put a little money into upgrading the bathroom too, but at least they are reasonably clean.
If you are not in a hurry and pretty patient by nature, the food is pretty good and reasonably priced, but don’t expect much else. I round up to a 3 because I keep hoping the service will get better.

La Hacienda will not astound you but it will satisfy every time. Portions are beyond generous. I’ve never had a problem with the service or the ambiance.
The menu is so large that it takes some trial and error to discover what they do well and what they do at a mediocre or sub-​par level. However, once you find the dishes they excel at you will find yourself visiting this place over and over to get the same thing.
My personal favorites are the fried fish, the tortas, and especially tacos a la diabla. The tacos are spectacular. It is a plate of three tacos piled high with a combination of pastor, asada, and chorizo. Also, if you don’t know what any of the aforementioned meats are you’re doing La Hacienda wrong.
Overall, La Hacienda can be a very underwhelming experience if your conception of Mexican food limited to burritos and enchiladas. However, if you dare to explore the more «traditional» dishes they offer, you may be rewarded with a meal that is filling, affordable, and consistently enjoyable.

Huge portions! I came up here by myself and was seated immediately in a booth. Service was great. I had a burrito (I can’t recall which one, but it did have chicken, steak, and shrimp). I’m used to getting a burrito the won’t quite fill me up, so I typically get another taco on the side… I wasn’t able to finish this delicious burrito. No joke, it was about a foot long, and it was fantastic.
I’ll likely come back here whenever I’m in town.

Excellent Tortas (my benchmark on the east coast/​mid Atlantic on quality Mexican food)! Friendly staff. They have what I like to call «old school» chips and salsa, which is a good thing.

Having lived in Chapel Hill for many years, my partner and I thought it high time to go to La Hacienda. We had reasonably high expectations, given the generally positive reviews on this site and from friends. Our experience was instead one of the worst restaurant experiences I’ve ever had.
We walked in at about 8:15 to a not-​very-​busy restaurant. After a few minutes, someone finally came and asked if we were «alright,» at which point we requested to be seated. After being seated, ten minutes passed before I had to go to the front to ask someone to come take our order. We ordered drinks and food at once so as to not have to wait even longer than necessary. Another 7 – 8 minutes passed while we waited for our drinks.
Over thirty minutes later – and without having seen our server once – our food came out. We had to ask the runner to bring us silverware and napkins, as we had none. We anxiously dug in, only to find the food was room temperature rapidly approaching cold. We told our server, who touched the plate and said, ‘this is sort of warm. .. i can go heat it up?’ No, I don’t want you to microwave our food, I said, and we asked for boxes and the check. She came back with the check and asked if we wanted dessert, on the house. We did not want to wait the extra time or experience the disappointment of dessert at this place, so we declined. No discount offered on the food or drinks.
We finally went up front, where we told the cashier/​manager about our experience. Oh, she remarked, I’m sorry. (no discount offered) Maybe next time?
Absolutely not. I will not go back to La Hacienda, and I caution you to go elsewhere, too. Monterrey Mexican, Cosmic Cantina, Cinco De Mayo, and Carrburritos are all close by and much, much better – if for nothing other than consistently quick service and hot food. We had nothing but positive expectations and open minds going in, and the restaurant did everything in its power to obliterate those expectations. Will NOT return, and you shouldn’t either.
By the way, the bathroom was revolting – urine all over the toilet seat, toilet paper everywhere, no paper towels.

Went there before 3pm. i was hoping to try the lunch special, however, they told me that it’s not gonna happen, at least for today. Sad! I ordered a spanich and mushroom questilla which is really greasy and cheesy. I mean it tastes really good tho but I am on a diet, so it makes me feel so guilty. I will def visit this place again. The menu has so many mexican authentic food which I ‘ve never heard so I will def come back

My partner and I enjoyed an excellent meal there this past weekend. We shared a whole fried fish ($ 12) that was served with rice, corn or flour tortillas and an avocado salad and some chickie stuffed enchiladas ($ 6.50). Both were absolutely delicious, and ridiculously good value. They also have Pacifico on tap. This isn’t a fancy or atmospheric restaurant by no means, but for good indulgent Mexican food, it’s quite impressive. We will be making the 25 mile drive back when we crave good, cheap Mexican food.

The service here is great, I just experienced a few things I wished would be improved for me to want to come back.
First, vegan labeling. They have a large menu, with a vegetarian section, but it’s still difficult to know what’s vegan. It’d be very easy to note on the menu what is or can be made vegan, or have a separate vegan/​gluten-​free menu. Many of the vegetarian dishes seem to heavily lean on cheese and sour cream, so the dishes don’t seem to be designed to be veganized. It’d be nice if they automatically substituted avocado/​guac for dairy.
Second, the noise. I was there when they had live music. It just seemed too loud for anyone to enjoy their meal. My phone has an free app that measures decibels, I can’t say how accurate it is, but it was measuring 85 – 90 decibels during the live music, which is way too high for my ears’ comfort level.
If those two things could be modified, I would return a happy customer!
I do wish they would abolish tipping though, just read this paragraph:
Studies have shown that tipping is not an effective incentive for performance in servers. It also creates an environment in which people of color, young people, old people, women, and foreigners tend to get worse service than white males. In a tip-​based system, nonwhite servers make less than their white peers for equal work. Consider also the power imbalance between tippers, who are typically male, and servers, 70 percent of whom are female, and consider that the restaurant industry generates five times the average number of sexual harassment claims per worker. And that in many instances employers have allegedly misused tip credits, which let owners pay servers less than minimum wage if tipping makes up the difference.
Citations for those claims can be found here: