La Esperanza Restaurant

They don’t serve alcohol = a virgin margarita they didnt bother to mention while serving fluorescent kool-​aid. No bueno. Food was not great. Don’t recommend unless you have been wandering the desert for days and are desperate for food.

We eat here regularly, and the food is always awesome. However the pace of service and speed of food is completely the opposite. Lunch usually takes at least 30 minutes for the food to hit the table from the time the food is ordered. Depending on the server you get, usually you have to flag your server down for things that should happen without asking, like refills and napkins. If it wasn’t for the food being as good as it is, we wouldn’t eat here, because the service is ridiculous.

I have come to firmly believe that 50 of the pounds on my ample body were put there by eating La Esperanza’s roast beef tacos. I will go to my grave with this belief.
I hadn’t been there in over 10 years, and imagine my excitement when I was able to return during a visit «home» recently.
I’m happy to say, it’s still great… the salsa was the only noticeable change, but it was good (if not a little too much heat). My «old standard» roast beef tacos were still downright friggin’ awesome, and the rice and beans were as I remembered, which was authentic and tasty. The dinner plate comes with two of the oversized, overstuffed tacos with rice and beans. It’s almost too much food, but on this day it wasn’t enough. I was THAT hungry.
Our waiter was efficient, if not a little too quiet, and we always had plenty of chips and soft drinks to wash down the gorgefest.
Still my #1 place in Odessa. And, I’m glad to see they haven’t changed… much.

Searched up tacos on my gps and this place came up. I’m glad it did. Good breakfast burritos and tacos, definitely coming back to try the rest of what they have to offer

Excellent! This is one great restaurant. I’m a vegetarian and this place is very accommodating. The server really took the time to make sure everything was correct. I had the cheese enchiladas and they were some of the best I’ve had anywhere.

First time here… this was one of my sister’s faves back in «the day» which I think in her case means the mid 80s. And as we all know, the 80s are back… kinda. Also came highly recommended by a native (gringo) Odessan recently. I rarely venture to the West side of Odessa unless of course I’m headed back to Cali, but I thought I would pack up the car and head West for a taste of ‘Hope.’. Turns out said Hope tastes like grease and processed cheese. The décor and atmosphere is cool and clean. The patrons were also cool and some of them seemed to know their Mexican food. Service was somewhat slow and forgetful but honest about her forgetfulness. One of the things I love about TexMex is the chili con queso. The cocinas on the West Coast simply just don’t do queso the way it is meant to be done, most don’t do queso at all. While I liked their tacos better than Delicias, though not as much as the queen bee Rosa’s, their queso was terrible. I wasn’t sure if I was at the movie theatre for nachos or in my kitchen with microwaved Velveeta. For shame. Soy una gringo y yo se meyor. Tsk tsk. Also, my man, who is a much bigger foodie than I, got the Mexican plate and complained of the grease. This place has all the potential of being great again. Great atmosphere, great hours, good location, strong following, but they are cutting corners. Start cooking from scratch, reassess your staff, fix your queso, use fresh ingredients and perhaps then your once loyal following will return. Until then, I will not. In this case, as with so many, ‘Hope’ is just a ploy. But with Faith, perhaps, one day La Esperanza will once again be able to fulfill its name. Or so we can only ‘Hope.’

This place has gone totally down hill. The tables are falling apart and there are flies buzzin’ around like they own the joint. Not to mention how dirty it is.

I hate to be so negative on a place I used to enjoy a lot. We’ve had small glitches before, but today’s experience means my husband and I won’t be back anytime soon. The service was horrible. At 1 p.m. the restaurant was a little busy, but not packed. It took almost 20 minutes just to get our order taken and our drinks. By 1:50, we still didn’t have our meals and my husband had to leave without lunch. The only excuse given was if «I had known you were in a hurry, I would have pushed your order up.» I think a one-​hour lunch is pretty standard. My food was average today when it is usually great. They didn’t charge us for my husband’s order, which was good since he only got chips and salsa for lunch.

pretty darn good. some of the best tex mex i’ve experienced in texas. i wish we had one here in dallas. margaritas are off the chain! salsa is perfectly balanced. and they have a pretty nice menu