Bad service almost ruins visit to La Carreta Mexican Restaurant in Manchester

When my wife and I were first dating the La Carreta Mexican Restaurant was a frequent stop for its fun atmosphere, good service, food, and of course, the margaritas. We decided to stop in recently as it has been a few years since our last visit. Although it is still a fun place with decent food, we were disappointed with the service.

La Carreta has several locations in New Hampshire and on this particular night we decided to go to the one in Manchester on Hooksett Road. They have many booths and tables divided by a stained glass wall. A small bar is located in the back and rustic colors throughout.

We arrived to a busy but not mobbed restaurant and were quickly seated at a booth on the side. After 10 minutes no one had come over to check on us so we had to let the hostess know that we were still waiting. After detecting a bit of a sour attitude from her, our waiter finally came by to take our drink order. It appeared that he may have had too many tables. We ordered a couple of their gold margaritas that arrived a while later.

My wife commented that this was good as it always has been although she thought it had very little alcohol.

In the meantime, we were served a basket of freshly made nacho chips with salsa, these had a nice crunch and were still warm.

We started to look over the menu and wanted to ask our waiter for assistance given that we hadn't been there for a while but each time he seemed so busy and rushed we didn't bother. The appetizer options include nachos, grilled shrimp, chicken wings, soups and nacho chips with a variety of dips including espinaca.

We selected their chicken and cheese nachos. Covered with tender chicken, cheese and tomatoes you would enjoy these.

They have a plentiful selection of entree options for dinner including beef, seafood, chicken, vegetarian, combination plates and a children's menu. I decided on one of their combination entrees, a chicken taco and beef burrito along with rice and beans:

The taco was a tasty concoction filled with fresh vegetables and tender chicken. Surprisingly, the burrito only had ground beef inside and nothing else making me think that it was an enchilada. If our waiter had come back to check on this I would have told him...but he never did.

My wife has always leaned toward their seafood dishes and has not been disappointed. On this trip she chose the Camaron Yucatan:

Filled with large shrimp, vegetables, and rice we suggest that you try this dish.

The service was a huge disappointment. Our waiter missed a lot of the basics and we would really like to see that something is done to ensure that this doesn't happen again. If someone is too busy a manager (I didn't see one) or the hostess should jump in to help out until the server has time to catch up or make sure there is enough staff on to handle the traffic.

So there you have it, although the service was bad I am hoping that this was just an off night given that it had always been okay in the past. The food is excellent and for that we are recommending La Carreta. They have locations in Nashua, Derry and one more in Manchester.