Used to be great. Now? Save your money and possibly your stomach…read more
I genuinely don't know what happened to La Hacienda Ranch over the last year, but the decline has been impressive -- and not in a good way. We used to really enjoy coming here. After our most recent visit, I'm not sure we'll be back.
The experience started going downhill literally at the front door. We told the hostess we had a party of four, and she seated four people with two menus. Apparently we were expected to read in pairs.
Then we waited...and waited...for our server to finally appear. This was a Wednesday night. The restaurant was somewhat busy when we arrived, but it cleared out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, our service speed did not improve with it.
Our waitress had a fascinating ability to identify everything she was forgetting without actually correcting any of it.
"Oh, I should bring you more chips."
No chips.
"I should bring you another water."
No water.
We needed additional silverware. That became another waiting game.
At one point, it felt like we were participating in some sort of restaurant-themed escape room where the goal was to figure out how to acquire menus, water, chips, silverware, and eventually food.
And then there was the food.
We waited approximately 45 minutes, only for it to arrive cold and incredibly mediocre compared with what La Hacienda Ranch used to serve. One chicken dish came out cold enough that I was genuinely concerned it may not have been fully cooked.
The salad dressing deserves its own honorable mention. What arrived looked so bizarre that I initially mistook it for a bowl of refried beans. It appeared to be balsamic dressing that hadn't been properly mixed -- separated, lumpy, and completely unappetizing. Nothing says "enjoy your salad" quite like wondering why your dressing has the structural integrity of bean dip.
By this point, the restaurant wasn't particularly busy, so I'm not sure what exactly was happening behind the scenes.
After the cold food, missing drinks, missing chips, missing silverware, forgotten requests, and approximately three business days spent at the table, we were finally asked if we wanted dessert.
Ma'am, we wanted to leave.
This wasn't one small service mistake or an unusually busy night. The entire experience was bad from beginning to end. The food quality has noticeably declined, the service was painfully slow and inattentive, and the experience was nowhere close to what we've had here in years past.
I'll be contacting management because this location used to be genuinely good, which makes the decline even more disappointing.
If we decide we want La Hacienda Ranch again, we'll make the drive to Frisco. Based on this experience, this location isn't worth the time, money, or the potential upset stomach.