La Tolteca

In my opinion, La Tolteca is the food gem of The Valley. I’ve gone to La Tolteca often in my 6.5 years up at Misericordia, and it never disappoints! My family and I came here on 12÷20÷15 after my graduation and I was able to show them why I love this restaurant so much. I had the chipotle burrito with steak, my aunt had a veggie quesadilla, my mom and my boyfriend both had burritos, and my friend had pulled beef tacos. We ordered various margaritas and mojitos as well as table side guac and a chicken appetizer. Everything was absolutely amazing! My aunt even said that this was the best Mexican food that she has ever had. I absolutely LOVE La Tolteca, and if I ever return to NEPA I will most definitely continue to eat here!

Good vegan options. Staff was okay. Nice to sit outside and eat. Sometimes they’ll bring in a band. Would recommend

Unfortunately, I have to downgrade my previous reviews for La Tolteca. After a few excellent meals there it became a go to spot for me and friends from work. We would look forward to La Tolteca for weeks in advance.
My love for La Tolteca began to dim when I stepped away from my staple steak fajitas. The rest of their food was just bland and uninspired.
Then, they developed a «customer loyalty» program where you gave them your phone number and got text messages with benefits based on how often you dine. I, being a lover of La Tolteca, dined frequently and received numerous benefits. I even got the «MVP Most Frequent Diner this month» benefit. There is a real difference, however, between receiving these benefits and using them — and it is this distinction that caused me to lower their review score.
Each and every time I have attempted to use these benefits I have been foiled at the very end by some obscure rule they made up on the spot. I know I probably sound like I just didn’t pay attention to the fine print — but after my first experience I did pay attention and they just don’t want to honor these benefits. For example, my friend and I both came in with 5 off of 15 benefits. We typically order (as above) the steak fajitas and leave with a 12 dollar bill. Knowing that we wanted to use our benefits, we actually spoke to the waiter beforehand and ordered an extra appetizer and an extra dessert just so that we would each be over 15. When the time rolled around for our check, the server informed us first that my friend hadn’t reached the 15 dollar threshold. This was in spite of us repeatedly stating that our goal was to reach 15, and also the basic math of our meals. His meal ended up being a mysterious few cents shy of 15 dollars when it should clearly have been more.
After debating this for some time with the server to no avail (and the server was rather rude!), we decided to do the nearly unthinkable in any other circumstance. We decided that since my friend couldn’t get the $ 5 off he deserved (and that we spent more only to get), and that we had been clear with the waiter on our intentions and he allowed us to spend more but didn’t honor the coupon, that we would simply deduct $ 5 from the tip. We still tipped the waiter, but deducted $ 5 to account for this issue. We left upset but not vowing never to return — sadly.
The second time we went we again voiced our intention to use our coupons up front and before ever ordering. We ensured we were over 15 by ordering an appetizer, a dessert, AND a more expensive drink. When the checks came, the waiter announced that we could only use one of the coupons despite the fact that our checks were split. They said that there was a «one coupon per table» rule, when the coupon clearly stated «one coupon per check.» We again deducted the coupon from the waiter’s tip, but this time we decided that to avoid further issues we simply wouldn’t return to La Tolteca again.
If you have a rewards program and you issue rewards to your most frequent customer (literally), you may want to actually honor those rewards. You lost not only recommendations, but a steady income stream from myself and my friend.

I always got disappointment from Mexican restaurants, so mostly I just cook Mexican food at home! BUT this is the first Mexican restaurant that impressed me so well with food presentation as well as the taste! My husband insisted me to go to this place and I’m so glad that finally I found what I have been looking for! The table side guacamole is MUST have! I love almost everything on their menu! Burrito San Jose, Chipotle Burrito and Spinach Enchiladas are on top of my list!

Great food and even better service!
Must come here at least 3 times per month and have never had a bad experience.

La tolteca is the best place to get Mexican style food in the area. It’s mainly American Mexican food.
The area is nice they have outdoor as well as indoor seating. The outdoor seating areas very nice they have an outdoor bar that you can go up to and get drinks or you can just have tableservice.
The staff here is very nice. When you sit down at the table they do bring chips and salsa. Their salsa is pretty spicy here. They have five pages of items on their menu. They offer a lot of different food. I have been here a few times and the food has been consistent. However this is not my favorite Mexican food restaurant. I ended up getting the enchiladas three ways. The first was pulled pork the second was beef and the third was marinated chicken. Of course it came with a side of refried beans and rice. It was OK nothing special I ended up not being able to finish the entire meal and for 1299 I thought that you got enough food. The person that I was with the San Jose burrito. The Barito had some sort of the cheese sauce drizzled over top of it and there was marinated chicken inside. He said that it was very good and it had been his second time ordering the dish. Their chicken quesadillas are good here.
Overall lotto Tecca is a good place for Mexican food in this area it’s not my favorite Mexican place that I’ve ever eaten at. But for NePA it’s good food. If you are looking for Mexican food in the area I would recommend coming here.

Food is ok here. Nothing to brag about. As Mexican as a white person can get.
Can’t go wrong with the enchiladas. Have tried the mole, and chipotle one.
Guacamole is delicious. Plus its table side, so that’s a plus.
Margaritas are good, especially after a long week in the office.

We got the table side guacamole, it was delicious. The Margarita was perfect, not too strong. The food came out very quickly and the food was good portioned and fresh. I would come back every time. Also, they had a great selection for vegetarians.

Stopped here for a quick lunch. Byron our server was nice and attentive. Food came out fast and was hot! Overall, perfect afternoon.

Food quality badly lacking… under cooked tortillas, canned beans, management not accepting of problems. Have a hard time giving even one star. The place also seemed to need a good scrub.

Thought I’d give it another try but yet again the food was overly salty. Got the carne asada and the steak was overcooked and dry. The hostess who seated us was not friendly at all and didn’t so much as say hello or good bye when we left. The only reason they even got a star was because our waitress made up for all of the bad. Not worth the money.

Amazing place. The White salsa everyone talks about is real. And exquisite. I asked for a picante spicy salsa and even that was fantastic. The ambience is fun with Mexican band playing tunes and the servers are pleasant too. The décor tries to bring the Mexican flavor and fairs well. I tried another Mexican place called El ray Azteca in the area, and the food and ambience is a little classier here. Good place for groups, couples, even single person dinners too. Definitely go for the ultimate margarita with agave nectar. And the oxtail enchiladas are quite out of the world.
Honestly I was surprised to find this place and wonder why Unilocalers haven’t reviewed it higher. Full marks to the owners, servers, and obviously the chef. Must go if you’re in the area.

Fan-​friggin-​tastic Mexican restaurant! The décor of the restaurant was more than I’ve ever seen before and the service was exceptional. The staff all spoke English very well and took very good care of me. The food… oh god the food. Seriously perfect. I will be back in here any time I’m even close to Wilkes-​Barre. Little more pricey than most of the Mexican places I’ve been in but I guess the service and décor helps make up for the price difference. Very, very impressed.

The food is great and attentions from jesus make this visit the must pleasant visit to la tolteca

Love this place, the food is wonderful and the service is fast and friendly. Only got 4 stars because we ordered chicken taco salad and got beef, still delicious though.

Very Good food & service. I first went in for my birthday. Its amazing im born on cinco de mayo and have heard the jokes forever and i have never gone into a mexican restaurant on my birthday. Until last year that is. And it was worth it! After the fire they fixed up the place very nice. I like their overall décor. Nice mex feel.

Excellent restaurant if you’re feeling something a little classier than Taco Bell. The seafood chimichangas are bangin’ and the flan is to die for (literally or figuratively, depending on how much you want it). I loooOoove the «white sauce» that comes with the chips. I have no idea what it is and the employees only refer to it as «white sauce» but WHO CARES because it’s great! The employees work very hard and are very friendly. I’ve noticed customers can have twenty good visits and one bad one but they’ll only write their review on the bad one. I’ve gone here probably 50 times and of course I’ve had a few duds but the employees are only human and you can’t please everyone so I SUCK IT UP and go back again next time I go out for FANTASTIC Mexican food! I went back today and I was not disappointed!
WHITE SAUCE

Wanted to find something that wasn’t a chain restaurant. I can find those at home. Friend recommend this place. Great tip.
Food is very good. Not outstanding in a celebrity chef-​prepared way, but pretty good for your standard Mexican restaurants. And fast! The food comes out very quickly.
There is something to be said when most of the folks on the restaurant are Mexican. Good sign to me.
When I’m back in this area I will definitely be back.

Get the veggie fajitas! Unlike 95% of Mexican restaurants, they are not just meat fajitas without the meat. They have asparagus, broccoli, corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, carrots, cauliflower, and just a few bell peppers. Most restaurants just fill up the plate with bell peppers because they are cheap. Not here. The tortillas were fresh and not chewy.
Inexpensive at lunch time, but I ordered the dinner fajitas and had enough leftover for dinner and breakfast!

Downgrading La Tolteca to 2 stars, based on an absolutely atrocious dinner we had there over the weekend.
The two stars are for the renovated interior which happened because of a fire. The new décor is really, really nice. But that’s where it ended for us.
The service was terrible. We waited along time for everything, and although the server acknowledged everything we said, he ignored all of it. And in one key mix-​up, we were served fajitas without shredded cheese. When we asked about it, we were told shredded cheese is not included with fajitas — even though it clearly stated on the menu cheese is (of course) included. May I ask, on what planet, are fajitas served without cheese? Are you serious???
We requested quite a bit of items because none of our dinners were complete. We were then charged for those items which was hilarious. The manager adjusted our bill accordingly, but this was a wasted dinner evening. We collectively have eaten at this restaurant probably 50 times since 2009, and we were always served good food quickly. Now, the service is terrible and the sign out front doesn’t even light up at night.
That should have been our first «sign» we were in for a bad experience.
Note to visitors: Almost none of the photos posted on Unilocal are accurate. They are almost all from the pre-​fire La Tolteca.