La Sandia

Reviews 5

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Keyera Griffin

Horrible Experience. Mediocre Food. La Sandias had always been one of my favorite places to go for Happy Hour until recently. I decided to bring a friend to the establishment in hopes of her having a great experience and it turned sour to say least. It began with the waitress. The waitress was very rude. I was looking over the menu and deciding on what to order and she says, " Are you going to order?”. The tone was used in a way that made it seem like I was taking too long. Second, I asked for Queso and the woman forgot about it. She proceeded to bring the food to the table and when I asked her about the Queso, she stated "I didnt know you ordered that". Third, after putting the order into the computer, she bought shredded cheese instead of Queso. I had a whole conversation with this woman about how I ordered Queso and she bring me shredded cheese. Fourth, my friend ordered a Quesadilla from the Happy Hour Menu and asked the waitress politely about why her Quesadilla did not resemble my Quesadilla. The woman responded in a defensive manner and walked off. The Queso arrived cold. I then asked to speak to a manager. The manager came over and didn’t really resolve anything but explained to my friend that my Quesadilla looked different from hers because I did not order the entree from the Happy Hour Menu. Fair enough. My friend had her order switched. The waitress avoided our table the entire time after speaking with the manager and only checked on us to ask if we needed a check. I left very upset and disappointed in this establishment. I did not at all feel like a customer they cared about. Most importantly my friends first time experience was awful to say the least. THIS IS NOT EVEN THE ICING ON THE CAKE. Last, my friend and I decided to walk around the mall and she soon realized she left her credit card at the restaurant. We walked back to the restaurant and informed the host that my friend had lost her card. Before showing the card to my friend, my friend told her that her that her fiancés name is on the card and described what the card looked like. The host pulled the card out of her back pocket, looked at the card and said and proceeded to ask for an ID. My friend questioned why she was needing to show her ID; especially, since the friend had told her about the card before she pulled the card out .The same manager who did not really solve anything the first go around, then comes to the front. My friend tells her the situation, the lady also doesnt believe her and goes to reconfirm with the waitress and brings another manager. After confirmation comes from the waitress, as if my friend was a liar. She gives my friend the card. Once again, I felt like our service was not appreciated and we were being treated unfairly. I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO SANDIA! IF ANYONE SUGGEST OR ASK ABOUT THE ESTABLISHMENT I WILL HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM TO TRY A BETTER PLACE WITH A MORE COMPETENT STAFF.

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Orin Thompson

Let me say I enjoyed this place so much that I had to go back twice in the short time I was in DC. My best friend and I discovered this place when we went to LA a few months ago. I meant to write a review about that location when I went but I forgot. When we found out there was one in Tysons Corner, not far from our hotel, we had to check it out. They have the best happy hour!! We sat at the bar the first time we went. The bartender was supercool and friendly. She made a mean strawberry margarita ($6). We had the bottomless guacamole ($5) and the guacamole was on point! Flavorful, smooth, and delicious. They had the option to get 5 tacos for $10 and you could mix and match the types. Those were really good. The thing I fell in love with was the chorizo quesadilla. Mmm mmm, so tasty and inexpensive. Slapped some quac on there and really set it off. I brought my mom and sis back there and we went to town. My sis cooks and shes very hard to please but she agreed the food was worth a 5 star review. We order the appetizer sampler ($11) and the portions were great. Mexican corn, wings (I dont eat wings but they tore them up), cheese quesadillas, taquitos that were really yumm. Did I mention you get a free aguafresca with a yelp checkin? Thanks Yelp! This was great and I cant wait to go back for happy hour.

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Brad Barkett

This is normally a very good restaurant, with good Mexican food, and the staff is pretty cordial, but my girlfriend has Celiac Disease (the real kind, not the fad Gluten-Free diet) and we ordered off the Gluten-Free menu, but a negligent cook prepared her wheat tortillas instead of corn, and she didnt notice until she had already eaten a bite of it...if you know anything about Celiac you know that its kind of like a food allergy, it only takes one bite of gluten to make you sick for days or even weeks. And that sickness is guaranteed to happen. The management was very apologetic and accommodating and they gave us the meal for free, but there is just no place for this kind of negligence in food preparation these days, particularly at a restaurant that presents a "Gluten-Free" menu, because that implies and extra standard of care above and beyond whats normal, and Celiacs rely on that, in order to feel semi-normal. Restaurants trade on their reputations and there are just some things you cannot afford to screw up, and must get right 100% of the time, and preparing food for Celiacs, like a peanut allergy, is one of them. If you have no food intolerances this place is otherwise pretty good, but because of this gross negligence, I cant recommend it to people with allergy or food intolerances.

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A Private User

Ended up coming here because the other restaurants in the area had 60+ minute waits. Walked right up and got sat. It took us a few minutes to get noticed once we got sat, but the manager just happened to come by and apologize that our server was in the middle of a big order a couple tables over. Manager got our drinks in, and the best dinner outing kicked off. This was our first time here, and the manager noticed. He offered a couple good suggestions, and even offered to bring out the different sauces they use for cooking. After having fresh made Guacamole brought to our table for our wait, we ordered the Chicken Mole Poblano and Carne Asada. Both were out in a matter of minutes (VERY FAST, our chips/salsa werent even gone yet!). Food was amazing. And Very reasonably priced. 4 Margaritas, 2 Strawberry lemonades, Our Meals, and some ice cream each, $62.15. Not bad for a Tysons meal!!!

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A Private User

I gave this place one star because I wished it was as good as the photos on the website and because the margaritas were pretty decent. But, let me tell you....BAD FOOD. RUN from this place. We visited on 1-22-10. To be fair, maybe they were training a new chef or the kitchen staff was on vacation...? Overly spicy, underly seasoned, dry, small portions, lazy waiter...I mean I dont send food back or even write bad reviews hardly ever. But, I couldnt wait to get home and vent. We arrived during happy hour with a party of 7 and they would not give us happy hour prices unless we sat on the patio (which was full). So we sat at a table and forfeted the discount. Our waiter messed up our orders. The food was so spicy I couldnt eat it. Gross.

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