Hacienda Vallarta has two locations in the San Antonio area, one near Leon Valley and another off Loop 410 in the former home of Acadiana Cafe. I visited the Leon Valley location, which was popping when I stopped by for lunch on a Friday. You pay as you walk in, and to my surprise, the lunch buffet was only $12.99. Compared to previous buffets I’ve visited, this was a steal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A host walked me to my table, which ended up being a booth against a wall with a vantage point of the whole restaurant. Hacienda Vallarta has several food stations, including a salad bar, a bakery and a soup area, in addition to several hot food bars. Here, you can find all sorts of Mexican dishes, from enchiladas to flautas to tacos. The restaurant even has a section for Chinese food, because why not?!<\/p>\n
It was hard to decide where to start, so I grabbed a hard taco shell and filled it with the first thing that caught my eye: chicharrones in salsa verde. Then, I reached for a gordita, a quesadilla, a cheese enchilada, rice and a couple of salsas to round out my first plate. I was almost headed back to my booth when I noticed a mound of bright red ribs calling my name.<\/p>\n
Of everything I grabbed, I think I liked the cheese enchilada the best, as it had a little more oomph compared to the more plain items. The ribs were a shock when I took a bite and was immediately reminded of char\u00a0siu. Yes, this Mexican buffet barbecues its ribs with a Chinese flavor profile, and they are highkey good.<\/p>\n
For my second round, I was only interested in caldo, so I made a beeline to the soup area, grabbed a bowl and served myself some hot menudo. I also grabbed a little bit more rice and a couple of fried shrimps. Again, I was paying less than $15 to eat all this food, and I haven’t even gotten to dessert yet. The menudo was by far the best dish I had from Hacienda Vallarta, with its rich, savory broth and a hint of heat. After that, I wound down with a small slice of tres leches, and soon, it was time to call it.<\/p>\n
Hacienda Vallarta charges $14.99 for its weekday dinner buffet, which kicks in after 3:30 p.m., and on weekends, adults pay $17.99 to dine all day. Even these prices are lower than a lot of buffet options in San Antonio, so it’s no wonder that the restaurant was so busy during my visit. Would I go back? Absolutely, and maybe I’d even try some of the sesame chicken next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Find it: 7200 Bandera Road, San Antonio, TX 78238; 1289 SW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78227<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hacienda Vallarta has two locations in the San Antonio area, one near Leon Valley and another off Loop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1112,820,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-228043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mysafood","tag-mysastaff","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}