Review

La Hacienda simply reliable

Tortas are a best bet — and bargain — at La Hacienda.
Tortas are a best bet — and bargain — at La Hacienda.

A safety school is a backup plan, the college you apply to but don't really intend to attend unless you're not accepted by your first choices. So -- to use an example unlikely to offend more than a handful of readers -- Skidmore is seen by some as a safety school for people who'd rather have gone to Yale (a fact confirmed by the good-natured ironic T-shirt they used to sell in the bookstore: "Yale is for students who didn't get into Skidmore"). In some ways, La Hacienda on Cantrell Road near the Riverdale Shopping Center often functions as our safety restaurant.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A Shrimp Burrito is served with refried beans and rice at La Hacienda in Little Rock.

By this we mean it's highly satisfactory and comfortable, and we're pretty sure we can always get in.

La Hacienda

Address: 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock (other locations in Benton, Conway and Hot Springs)

Hours: Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

Cuisine: Mexican

Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V

Reservations: No

Alcohol: Full bar

Wheelchair accessible: Yes

Carryout: Yes

(501) 661-0600

As such, it's not a place we're called to think much about. Though in my lifetime I've likely eaten there more often than any other restaurant -- certainly more often than any fast-food chain or pizza joint -- I don't think of it too often. Yet if I'm trying to arrange a lunch meeting, or if we need to grab a bite somewhere after an early-evening event, it's invariably the second or third option that pops to mind. As reliable and underpraised as a good middle-innings reliever, La Hacienda is always there for us.

Understand we're talking about a specific La Hacienda, the one that has occupied a renovated old Pizza Hut building for the past 18 years (centuries in restaurant time). It is a relative of the even more venerable Hot Springs La Hacienda, which is widely acknowledged to be -- and often voted -- one of the best Mexican restaurants in the state. This year the Alvarez family opened La Hacienda to Go in the quasi-drive-in space at 7706 Cantrell Road, Little Rock (formerly The Hop, etc.), offering an abbreviated version of the full La Hacienda menu; the phone number is (501) 223-9060.

While we've visited other locations, they didn't seem the same. There is an aura of authenticity that attaches to the Cantrell Road location that didn't transfer to the others. While the food might be just as good, the feel drifts off the perfectly pitched velvet-sombrero tackiness of the original Little Rock location.

As for the food, it is excellent -- for what it is, which is, as the good folks at the restaurant are fond of pointing out, "original Mexican food -- not Tex-Mex." Now let's state right here that, for most diners, questions of authenticity are entirely irrelevant. While no doubt there are those who take to the table an ethnographer's interest in ur-cuisine, most of us are content to rely upon our immediate and unpremeditated sensory responses to the dishes laid before us. Some people prefer Tex-Mex; some people toss Tabasco on everything. I don't much care whether they use ancient family recipes (though that's exactly what's on offer here). I just care whether I find it palatable.

And I do, though people get heated on the subject of locally available Mex. We took a couple of partisans of Casa Manana -- a rival restaurant a couple of miles west on Cantrell Road -- with us to La Hacienda on a recent trip and listened to them vent their prejudices. They were under the impression La Hacienda was a step down in class, a bit more plebeian than their usual joint, and that while the refried beans were terrific, its salsa was inferior. (A fair point -- while La Hacienda's salsa verde is hands down the best I've had in the state, its two red versions are just passable. The warm red one is especially divisive; some find it too sweet with a pronounced cilantro trill.)

While I'm not sure they were completely converted, they left happy enough, probably in part because they ordered well. La Hacienda's menu is thick, probably too thick, with a bewildering number of options, including 21 different lunch specials, 18 Family House Specials, nine vegetarian options, seven combination platters, six Mexican House Specials, six varieties of burritos -- the shrimp version is a winner -- and more. You can order chicken tenders for your kids or, if you're really feeling perverse, a cheeseburger ($4.95, $5.95 for the deluxe version).

Similarly, La Hacienda has a decent house wine by the glass, bottled and draft beers (small and large, and I mean large), and underpowered entry-level margaritas (frozen or not). You can get a Black Russian or a shot of bourbon. I've seen it done.

We've had deep experience with a couple of the dishes. Carne Asada a la Diabla (No. 19 in your programs, No. 1 in our hearts, $13.95), a comforting heap of sirloin strips (though chicken is an option), pico de gallo, chopped green peppers, onions and cheese, which is also available "con queso" with chorizo and extra cheese. While I'm not sure it genuinely merits the Diabla designation -- the dish is flavorful but not dangerously hot and spicy -- it's a standard, a reliable hunger-buster when you just want something warm and hearty.

The Camarones -- shrimp, en Ingles -- Veracruz, plentiful well-grilled shrimp with pico de gallo and hot salsa ($13.95), are similarly situated, a step up from what you'd expect at a family-style restaurant but still unpretentious. The chicken with mole ($12.95) is one of the restaurant's signature dishes, and while La Hacienda's sauce is a little mild for our jaded tastes (we prefer the thoroughly inauthentic stuff we make up at home, starting with a store-bought jar of mole we tart up and thin out in ways that might be disturbing to the purist), lots of people go to La Hacienda for the mole.

I sometimes go for the liver -- "Higado Encebollado" ($10 for dinner, $5.99 for a lunch portion) on the menu. It's not the sort of thing you'd expect to find in a Mexican restaurant, but this calf's liver and onions dish is a real find. One of the secrets to the Alvarez family recipes that populate the menu is the way they marinate their beef, chicken and, in this case, liver. It's grilled to tender perfection, served with onions and warm tortillas.

The gigantic tortas -- sandwiches -- may be, at $6.99, the best value on the menu. Good-size loaves of French-style bread filled to bursting with grilled sirloin, ground beef or chicken (your choice), they are sometimes topped with guacamole, sometimes not.

We also are quite fond of the egg-based dishes such as the Machaca Plate ($9.95) and Huevos with Chorizo ($9.95) and the Chile Rellenos -- available by themselves ($5.95) or in combination with a cheese enchilada or a guacamole taco ($8.95 or as the centerpiece of a lunch special -- $6.25, augmented by rice and beans). The catfish ($9) is succulent and lightly breaded, as are the fish burritos and taco ($12 dinner, $7.99 lunch).

A couple of notes on the service: It's quick, sometimes to the brink of curtness. While the waiters are professional, La Hacienda is not the sort of place where you'd want to loiter over drinks. Things generally bustle, and while there's a certain campiness that is manifested in birthday celebrations where the guest of honor is crowned with a sombrero and serenaded by the staff, the overall feel is one of efficiency that might be taken for brusqueness. We count this as one of the restaurant's merits, but there are better venues for quiet, romantic evenings or lengthy working lunches.

For us, it's not a special occasion place -- it's where we wind up more often than anywhere else. And while you might count that as faint praise, it's praise nevertheless; La Hacienda's virtues are modest but real. It's like the reliable friend who'll take you to the airport at 6 in the morning. It's something we all need, even if we don't always appreciate it.

Weekend on 06/04/2015

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