La Hacienda Real

We've been on the hunt for some good vegetarian Mexican food lately and we recently decided to give La Hacienda Real out in South Salem a try. I've read several good reviews of their food so we were excited to see what they had to offer.

Everytime we drive by La Hacienda Real, it looks like their parking lot is packed so when we arrived on a Friday right at noon, I was surprised (and relieved) that they were able to seat us right away. They put us in a small booth by the window and quickly brought us water - including a children's cup with a lid and a straw.

The table was clean, their menu is huge and they have several children's options including a burrito, taco, enchilada, tamale, quesadilla, taquitos or a Mexican pizza with the choice of either refried or black beans and a soda (they charged us for her milk). Our waitress misunderstood my order, but it was still vegetarian and we were in a hurry so I didn't complain and it was still delicious. They also brought us the wrong order for dd but fixed that quickly. I was pleasantly surprised when they brought dd's plate that it was not hot like mine was. Her portion was actually larger than my lunch.

My complaints were that their aisles are very narrow (can only pass 1 person at a time) and so you are sitting very close to your neighbor, which was a little awkward. Also, our booth wasn't spaced well and although dh had plenty of room on his side, I was awkwardly crunched in and couldn't fit dd on my lap.

At one point, dd (who just turned 3) became terrified of a pot that had a lizard on it and we had to take her for a walk. By the end of the meal, she was getting very antsy so we handed her a tortilla (homemade) and spoonfulls of sour cream, guacamole, etc. so she would stay busy.

An overall good experience and so far the best vegetarian Mexican food we've found - we will be back!