After going to the Heritage Day Festivities on Prince’s Island Park and having some delicious tacos there from La Doña, we (Michelle, my Mother and myself), decided to take the trip out to Forest Lawn and give the restaurant a try. The tacos at the Heritage Day festival were really delicious and left us wanting more!
Unfortunately, La Doña didn’t live up to that day at all. Which is weird to me – I’d expect that the limitations of cooking outdoors at a festival would be burdensome and that the quality (and taste) of the food at a restaurant, (with all the proper equipment, better facilities, etc.), would be much better. But this was not at all the case with La Doña.
Quesadillas at La Doña
We were really excited about having a new Latin/Mexican restaurant in Calgary, especially one that bills itself as serving “The real Mexican food”. There isn’t really much in terms of authentic Mexican restaurants here in Calgary, so we were really looking forward to this. But this food is not authentic at all, nor very good by anyone’s standard anyways. In fact, one of the things I still remember vividly about that day – there was a Mexican lady and her husband that sat in the table across from us the day we went. She hardly touched any of the food she ordered and asked the waitress where she was from. I’m not sure how the waitress responded, but we then heard her ask “What about the cooks? Where are they from?” I think they were in fact all Mexican, but you’d never know that from the food. She paid her bill and left looking very offended, with 90% of the food still on her plate – unpalatable.
Chicharrones at La Doña
I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but to further emphasize my point, we ordered “Chicharrones con Guacamole” from their appetizer menu – the guacamole tasted OK, I’ll give them that (nothing to write home about though) but the chicharrones (pork rinds) were so old and so hard, we were afraid we were about to break off our teeth. In fact, my Mother said her teeth hurt for a whole week after having that and I don’t doubt it for a second. I’ve had these before but these were seriously rock-hard. I’d never serve that to anyone!
The rest of the food we ordered (fajitas, tacos, steak, enchiladas) left very much to be desired. Even the tacos. (The onions from the fajitas, I remember, were actually burnt black. Again, I’d never serve that to anyone.) If this place continues to bill themselves as “authentic” and as “the real Mexican food” I know they’re going to really offend a lot of Mexicans! When your “Authentic Mexican” restaurant can compare to Julio’s Barrio or even to Taco Bell, and it’s debatable which is better, you’re obviously not doing things right!
Food Rating: 0½ stars
We were exceptionally disappointed with the food, and for that reason alone, I can’t recommend this to anyone, especially if you’re looking for authentic Mexican food.
To make matters worse, the service was only one notch above atrocious. From the moment we arrived, our waitress acted like she really didn’t want to be there (after trying the food, I don’t blame her, but still…), she never smiled, never looked us in the eye, etc. etc. And the service was pathetically slow too.
Half-way through the evening, trying to enjoy our evening in spite of the food, we all-of-a-sudden felt like we were in the middle of one of Mexico city’s markets. The staff conglomerated in the kitchen and were laughing, yelling, screaming, (fighting?) – just making tons of noise, oblivious to the fact that they were in a restaurant. They were making so much noise in fact, and were so distracted having a gay-old-time that it took them a long time to realize that the background music CD had finished. Terrible. Not the way you’d want to spend an evening, not at all.
Enough was enough so we decided to leave, but our waitress was nowhere to be found. We made our way to the front so we could ask for our bill and pay it, and found our server sitting in the corner, texting away on her cell phone. When we got her attention and asked for the bill, she looked at us with that “Latina attitude” on her face that you all know, and said “Yeah. I’ll get it for you in a second.” She made us wait another five minutes, standing at the front door, while she finished sending her text messages. Seriously!?
Service Rating: 0 stars
The sad thing is, I’ve really been looking forward to having more Latin American/Hispanic/Mexican restaurants in Calgary, especially some real authentic Mexican food, and I’m anxious to support them. But this place was beyond terrible, and extremely disappointing. I’m not Mexican, but being Hispanic, even I’m offended! :-(
Overall Rating: 0½ stars
I haven’t been able to find any other reviews of La Doña online, but on Chowhound I remember reading that they never seem to have Horchata. (They didn’t have any Horchata on the day we went either, but it’s still on the menu.)
Post a comment and let me know your thoughts.
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Honestly, I would rather eat Taco Bell than eat the food at La Doña ever again.
Really sad and disappointing.
bueno entonces vete hartar a taco bell si crees que alli es mejor yo creo que no sabes ni que es lo que dises
Si, que se vaya a comer a Taco Bell mera comida con preservativos. No sabe que es comida Mexicana. Pos de donde saldria?
No estoy de acuerdo, lo siento. Lo que mas me gusto es el MEGABURRO. Sobre todo el precio. Super.
Hola,
He estado en el Restaurant, y a mi me ha gustado mucho la comida, creo que es lo más parecido a comida mexicana en Calgary.
El agua de Horchata es deliciosa y siempre la tienen.
saludos
For all my non-Spanish-speaking readers, here’s a translation of this comment posted by the owner’s wife:
I still have to disagree with the authenticity of the food (or at least the quality), but as for the Horchata, a quick search online will reveal that on more than three occassions, they haven’t had it. Regardless, when I went, they didn’t have it, but I think that should be the least of their worries anyways, no?
I have no feelings of ill-will towards La Doña, in fact, I sincerely hope they can fix these issues and get things in order. The tacos I tried at the Heritage Day festival were decent, but not anywhere good enough to justify (or make up for) such a terrible experience…
I have been to the restaurant a couple times. It is true that the service is slow. However, I think that the food is great.
I’ve been to Mexico three times and, I sure La Dona has the best taste in town. When I when, they did have the horchata juice and I like it.
Hi Vicky,
Thanks for your comment!
While it’s obviously not ideal, I can definitely tolerate slow service. But if it’s going to be slow, either the food or the service has to be exceptional to make up for it, no? The fact that the service was slow didn’t offend me, but the attitude of the waitress sure did. (Not to mention the attitudes of the other staff when creating a huge ruckus in the kitchen, inconsiderate of their patrons.)
Whether La Doña has “the best taste in town” or not will always be debated I’m sure, since taste is very much a personal thing. (I have to disagree, but that’s my opinion.) I know they have a lot of potential since the tacos I had at the Heritage Day festival were good, but how can so much go wrong, under vastly better conditions? One thing is for sure, they haven’t “ironed out the kinks” yet if the food can be good one day, and absolutely terrible the next. Consistency is vital for a restaurant! I really wanted an authentic experience but I I could only see traces of it at best… Also, the fact that they would burn the onions and peppers in the fajitas and still serve them that way (black) speaks loud and clear that they don’t take this that seriously, no? And what about the old, rock-hard, stale chicharrones?
Lastly, yes Horchata is delicious – it’s too bad that they didn’t have any when I went, but it wasn’t a big deal – I can always make it at home any time I want :-)
Once again, thanks for your comment!
DM
Wow, that’s a bad experience!
I hope the owners of this restaurant see this review and take a lesson from it, it would be a shame if they continued on like this.
Also, If they take anything from this, they should invite you back to try to change your mind.
Hola,
Me intrigan tus comentarios, así que de verdad no entiendo si lo haces como un comensal intersado en que el restaurante La Doña, mejore la calidad de comida y de servicio o lo haces con un afan destructivo, pues me parece que tus palabras están orientadas a desacreditar y contienen un pronfundo gesto discriminatorio.
Saludos.
Hi Gloria:
Thanks for checking back.
Once again, here’s an English translation for those of you that don’t understand Spanish:
I can assure you that I have no ill-will towards your restaurant and that all reviews on my blog are meant to be honest, accurate representations of my dining experiences. Nothing more, nothing less.
Quite simply put, if I have a good experience, I feel compelled to tell others so that they too can experience it. And similarly, if I have a negative experience, I feel similarly compelled to share my experience with others to warn them or save them the trouble…
I’ll admit it’s always easier to post a positive review than a negative one… But when my reviews document a negative experience (which luckily isn’t often at all) then I do have to say things like they are. And quite frankly, my experience at your restaurant was by far one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Had it been at least average I would probably have written a more positive review and given you the “benefit of the doubt” wherever possible, (since I was so anxious to support your restaurant), but unfortunately, the food and service at your restaurant were both extremely disappointing.
Thanks for posting on my blog though – I hope my comments will go a long way in identifying your shortcomings and will ultimately serve to improve the standards of both the food and service at your restaurant. But until then…
DM
PS – please explain what you mean by my comments containing a profound discriminatory gesture…?… Thanks!
So, let me get this straight… You went to La Doña and had a terrible experience. Both the food and service were bad. And then you wrote a review of it on your blog. Then the owner of the restaurant happens to read your blog and rather than explaining themselves or offering to make it up to you, they pretend to be a customer and say it’s great? That’s hilarious!
And then they post another comment to accuse you of being destructive and discriminatory, when you’ve said a couple times already that you “have no feelings of ill-will towards La Doña”. That’s bizarre!
I’ve been to the restaurant twice and my experiences have been quite on par with your review. The service was real slow, except there was no party in the kitchen on either of my visits, but it doesn’t surprise me. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said “they don’t take it seriously.” I went back a second time thinking I’d give them another chance, but never again.
Alfred Jaramillo
PS – I found your blog looking for the Stromboli Inn, which I guess it is now Pulcinella, is that right?
Hi Alfred.
Thanks for your comment!
I’ll admit, their approach is a little “bizarre” to me too, but ah well, what can you do! ;-)
In terms of the Stromboli Inn, yes it is now Pucinella. You can read my review here: (DMblog.com/2008/04/17/pulcinella/). I’ve been back a couple times since then (I live only two blocks away) and I can definitely recommend both the “Cotto e Fungi” pizza and the “Speck & Ruccola” – I hope this helps!
DM
Hello people,
My name is Jose Gurrola. I’m the son of the restaurant’s owners.
First, I want to clarify that we do not know how Gloria is. Second, I know that there are things that need to be fixed that’s why I thank you all for the bad and good comments.
I hope one day you have the chance to come back and see the changes.
Thanks for your time.
Jose Gurrola
Thanks for your comment Jose.
I sincerely hope that you take not only my comments, but also those of my readers, to heart and actually make some changes.
The tacos I had at the Heritage Day festival, as I’ve said before, were actually pretty good, so it tells me that you guys definitely do have potential. But my experience at your restaurant was another thing altogether – that should never happen. It does make it extremely difficult to ever return, but I’ll keep my ears open and hopefully with time you’ll have turned things around…
At the same time, I couldn’t help but notice that your comment was posted from the same IP address (as well as from the same Linksys router and same computer/user agent) as the comment from Vicky above. You lose all credibility when you pretend to be a customer and post comments saying your restaurant “…has the best taste in town.”, no? Hm.
DM
Hi there.
Lol, This comment actually made me laught. I’m Viky and I’m in fact a customer of the place. However, I used my laptop to show the comments to Jose, and he just used it to reply.
It is so funny how you can make things up.
Have a good one.
BYE.
Six of us went to the restaurant last week, and had an excellent meal. I had the enchiladas. Maybe the blogger should go back and try again. They have likely improved since your visit. We overstayed as well… not realizing they closed at 8:00pm, we stayed ’till close to 10:00pm and they never got antsy, nor asked us to hurry. I say well done La Doña, and hang in there.
We went to La Doña last weekend and the food was delicious. The rice with the enchiladas verdes was exceptional. It was the best rice we’ve had at any Mexican restaurant in Calgary. The tostadas with beans was great for vegetarians. We’re planning on going back for a meal this weekend and will recommend this restaurant to our friends.
Wendy and Darrel
We went to La Doña last weekend and the food was delicious. We had the enchiladas verdes and the tostadas with beans. The rice with the enchiladas was exceptional; it was the best rice that we have ever had in a Mexican restaurant. The tostadas was great for a vegetarian. We plan to return for another meal very soon.
We went back to La Doña Friday evening and had the enchiladas. I (Wendy) had the cheese as I am the vegetarian and my husband had the chicken and cheese. Again, the food was delicious and we don’t understand what the negative comments are all about. We’re going to become regular customers partially because we love to support independent businesses but, mostly, because the food was so good. If this is not what Mexican food is supposed to be like, what restaurant in Calgary does have real Mexican food?
P.S.
We tried the Horchata. It was the first time that we have ever had that drink and we loved it! We probably wouldn’t have thought about trying it except that there were so many comments about it on this blog. I didn’t mention this before, but the service was excellent. It was really fun to order when we don’t speak any Spanish and the owner of the restaurant who took our order spoke little English. Everything came quickly and just as we had ordered it.
Wendy
Darrel and I went to La Dona for the third time this evening. We both had enchiladas again but this time I tried mine with the green sauce. I loved how spicy it was! We had the delicious horchata to drink and tried something new to us – tamales. I had a vegetarian one and my husband had beef. I wasn’t even sure how to eat it and almost picked the whole thing up to take a bite. The service was great and the food was fantastic. We’ll be back!
Wendy
I was curious about this place since I always pass by it all the time and before I went to the restaurant I found your review online so I wasn’t expecting anything special but it was terrible! Everything you say is true, I should have taken your advice, now I know what you mean when you said “if I have a negative experience, I feel compelled to share my experience with others to warn them or save them the trouble…” Qué vergüenza para Mexico. This isn’t Mexican food.
Gracias.
Hola Señor Daniel Menjivar Pues yo pienso que todo lo que usted habla sobre el restaurante La Doña no es verdad y me molesta su actitud porque su servidor aquí es muy amigo y a la ves cliente de este lugar y créame que es dificil escribir sin insultarlo por todo lo que a dicho pero yo si entiendo y espero que no se vuelva a repetir un comentario tan desagradable de este tipo yo se que todos cometemos errores pero todo se puede llegar a reglar media vez se quiera lo que no estoy de acuerdo es en que usted quiera menospreciar y degradar este lugar yo se que a lo mejor usted nunca a tenido nada en este país pero deje que los otros logren sus sueños y si no le gusto la comida del lugar le voy a pedir educadamente que no vuelva a llegar y si le gusta mas la comida de Taco Bell pues siga consumiendo allí así nos evitamos malos entendidos y enojos no cree Señor Menjivar si es que así se llama porque yo no me escondo para decir las cosas si algo no me gusta yo se lo hago saber rápidamente y mis amigo lo saben pero no trato de destruir a nadie mejor lo ayudo y le enseño la mejor forma y discúlpeme si lo ofendí pero es que me molesta los comentarios absurdos que tenga un buen día
(The above comment was edited for spelling.)
Hi Will:
Thanks for posting your comment on my blog. Here is an English translation (punctuation and grammar added) for my non-Spanish-speaking readers:
(I realize this is probably not the best time for me to stress the importance of sentence structure and using proper grammar, (huge pet peeve), but I can’t resist. Took a couple reads to understand…)
Will: being a friend of the owners/staff and a loyal customer, I can understand your conviction and passion. Nevertheless, I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I have no ill-will towards La Doña. I was very much looking forward to this place opening when I first heard of it, and then after trying the tacos at the Heritage Day festival, I was glad to see that it didn’t appear to be another Julio’s Barrio nor Taco Bell… But unfortunately, my first experience there was so incredibly bad, it’s hard for me to ever conceive going back. Yes, the food left very much to be desired, but the service was unforgivable, and that’s what makes it hard to blow it all off as just a “bad experience.” Again, it’s not my intention to run La Doña out of business, quite the contrary actually. It is my sincere desire that these people can quickly make serious changes to their restaurant – Calgary needs some good, authentic Mexican food, and it would be great if La Doña could bring that…
Thanks again for taking the time to post your comment!
Hola Señor Daniel Menjivar. Yo lee su comentario y mi pregunta es si usted no piensa regresar al restauran que gana con hablar mal de el, que otra gente se de cuenta de su mala experiensia y correr a la clientela de este lugar porque si usted como dise quiere que esta gente tome medidas y cambios drasticos en el servisio que tienen yo le digo que no es la manera mas adecuada para acerlo y yo no se porque la mayoria de latinos son asi que embes de ayudarnos nos godemos unos a los otros, sinceramente yo no entiendo pero dejeme desirle algo estas personas estan trabajando en esos detalles para dar un mejor servisio al cliente, se esta cambiando personal para no tener personas que no son las corectas en la posicion, pero todo esto toma tiempo. Yo como cliente de este lugar me siento ofendido asi como se lo comente el dia pasado, asi que porque no hacemos un extra esfuerzo por ayudarnos embes de dañarnos y como le digo no soy Mexicano pero ami me gusta la comida de este lugar y es por lo mismo que me molesta que hablen mal solo por que no los dejan ser parte en el restaurante o por no querer vender acciones en el lugar hay mucho selos de por medio de gente de diferentes nacionalidades que se esta empeñando en que la Doña se quede sin clientela pero lo que soy yo le digo señor menjivar no quitara usted el gusto de comerme esos tacos y el menudo y todo eso que se sirve en este lugar y como le digo disculpeme por mi mal genio pero yo no cresi aqui y no me enseñaron a Hacer tonto y creer todo lo que los otros dicen, que tenga un buen dia y acuerdese que hay un Dios que todo lo ve y el se encarga de hacer justicia bye…
Entre a google a buscar la dirección del restaurante para dársela a unos amigos a los que se los recomendé y me encontré con esto.
Que triste que la gente no pueda hacer comentarios constructivos y menos apoyar la pequeña empresa que se enriquecería mucho con los buenos comentarios y las sugerencias constructivas y no usando la tecnología para desprestigiar un negocio como este.
Me comí las mejores tostadas que he probado y el servicio fue el esperado (deje mi 20% de propina)…así que les doy todo mi apoyo a este restaurante. Señores de La Doña adelante los felicito por el empuje y emprendimiento, se que hacia delante encontraran muchos retos y personas que buscan desprestigiarlos por las razones que sean y que toman el trabajo de crear un blog de tan buena calidad como esta para dañarlos. Claramente hay segundos intereses detrás de esta crítica.
As there may be space for improvement like any starting small or big business I would totally recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a Mexican experience. I am not a Mexican, but I’ve traveled that beautiful land enough times to know their food. It was gooood!
Thumbs up for La Doña!!!
Mr. DM use your time and those great bloggins skills you have for something more constructive. This society really lacks great and healthy discussion of real important issues.
Solo quiero desir que Viva La Doña y que viva Mexico sigan adelante y no se degen desprestigiar por gente que solo lo que busca es dañar a los que quieren sobresalir,yo desde ya se los digo nada de esto los va afectar porque lo bueno se reconose bye
Wow, I’m surprised to read such a negative review of this place. My husband and I went to La Dona for dinner last night, and it was absolutely the best Mexican food I have ever had in my life. I honestly didn’t know Mexican could taste so good.
I find it funny that you think Taco Bell is the same or better than La Dona. The reason I say this is because of all the Mexican restaurants I have tried around here before, I was starting to think I should just go with Taco Time (which I like better than Taco Bell), because nothing else impressed me. Then I went to La Dona.
Oh.My.God. I’m serious–I was in heaven! My husband’s quite fussy, and even he was impressed with it. I had a chicken burrito, and I don’t know if you’ll know what I mean, but you know how dark meat sometimes gets an “off” taste? I don’t know what it is, but I really hate it. I’ve gotten that “off” taste at all of the other Mexican restaurants, but not here. The chicken in my burrito was delicious, and more flavourful than I thought it was possible for chicken to be. It didn’t have that “off” taste at all.
My husband had a fajita, and there was rice on the side. I don’t know what they did to it, but I agree with whoever said it was the best rice they ever had. The closest I’ve had before was coconut rice from the Phoenix Grill in the far south of the city.
We also shared an appetizer that was chorizo with melted cheese on top, which was delicious, and a cactus, tomato, cilantro, and onion salad that was also delicious. I asked what “Jamaica Flower Juice” was, and Jose (he was our server) gave me a nice big sample to try–it was good, too!
I plan to take all my friends and family there, and I plan to go back many times. I’m sorry to hear your experience was so bad, but I would honestly have to suggest that you try it one more time. I do understand that you might not want to, considering your experience, but I mean, mine last night was SO good! I hope my experience last night means that they’ve got the kinks worked out now, and that they will be more consistent from now on. I’d hate to take people there, raving about how wonderful it is, and then it be terrible. But I had NO reason last night to be unhappy about the food (service wasn’t bad, either–just had to ask for a drink once or twice).
I just enjoyed a Sunday dinner at La Doña, and as I see there haven’t been any follow up posts here for a while, I thought I should mention our experience.
It was absolutely fantastic! José was working in the kitchen and both his parents were there as well, creating a friendly and charming family atmosphere, and very authentic Mexican food.
We tried several dishes – the ceviche was perfect and very fresh. The pollo soup (can’t recall the exact name) was also very good. And our main dishes were also excellent – including tacos and beef.
The location is basic, but is filled with family charm and delicious food – we will be back, and we will bring friends!
La comida que se maneja en este lunar
Es totalmente mala porque es
Una comida llena de mentors como
A Dona y su familia
Bola de rateros que le deven a todo mundo dinero no devalde matienen su posilga en el invierno