La Guadalupana

Restaurant Name: La Guadalupana

Location: 2801 Klondike Road West Lafayette, IN  (map it)

Phone: (765) 464-8203

Cuisine: Mexican

Review:  I’m a big fan of eating at hole-in-the-wall places that offer great food at great prices. I had a recommendation from someone to try out La Guadalupana on the west side, so I decided to check it out. It’s way west, on Klondike Road in the strip mall by the Family Express gas station.

First off, you need to be aware that this is actually a Mexican grocery store slash restaurant. There’s a grocery store, and on one side there are three tables with chairs set up. That is the restaurant. So if you are looking for something fancy or something less like eating in a grocery store, go elsewhere. This is not the place. It did appear as though they are working on expanding into the next room of the building, but for now, it’s three tables.

We walked in and were greeted warmly. We picked one of the three tables and sat down. Menus were on the table already. We placed our drink orders and perused the menu. Drinks were served and I was a bit saddened that the water I ordered came in a bottle. Not that I dislike bottled water – quite the contrary – I just wasn’t expecting to pay for water. No fountain drinks either, everything was canned or bottled.

The menu was fairly normal Mexican fare. Tacos, quesadillas, burritos, etc. I ordered two steak tacos, my husband the chorizo tacos. The kids ordered a mini quesadilla and a taco each.

Let me take a minute here before going into detail about the food and say a word or two about ambiance. Now, this is a restaurant in a grocery store. In a strip mall. Attached to a gas station. My expectations were not high. I was there for one reason – the food. There was Mexican music playing which was good, although not as good as having a Mexican soap opera on a TV in a corner. (Don’t ask me why, but I like that.) But for some reason on some of the songs, there was this terrible bass. At first I thought it was a car at the gas station with the bass thumping, but it never really went away. I’m not anti-bass or anything (let’s not get political) but it was really, really annoying.

So anyway, onto the food. It came out one or two plates at a time. And for a grocery store restaurant, the plates were nice. I expected baskets or paper plates, but they were real plates with real silverware. The food was, unfortunately, mostly “meh.” The chips were good. The salsa was very tasty but also very spicy. But the tacos were fairly bland. The beans were thin.

My daughter ordered a quesadilla from the kids menu. The menu said it came with beans and rice, but what we got was one small flour tortilla, with cheese inside, folded in half. It was cooked and the cheese was melted. But it came alone on a plate with nothing else. For the cost of $3.99. I had to ask to get the rice.

My husband liked his chorizo tacos, but was unimpressed with the beans as well.They also had some interesting choices on the menu including beef tongue and tripe.

I would say that I’m not sure I’d go there again, but I might consider having it delivered. Their menu says they deliver to all West Lafayette. It doesn’t say on the menu if they charge for delivery or not, but I’d guess there’s a fee.

As for price, it’s a toss up. The individual tacos were $2.00 each, which is fair. But the kids ‘meal’ which was supposed to come with beans and rice (and didn’t) was $3.99. Without a drink. (For a small tortilla with cheese.) I thought that was a bit excessive. I asked for cheese on my son’s taco was charged extra for it as well. It was clear on the menu that cheese was extra – nothing was a surprise at the end. Still, it seemed unnecessary for a tablespoon of cheese.

Kid friendly: Yes and no. The children’s menu only consists of Mexican food. They also do not offer ground beef as an option.

Downloadable Menu

Tagged as: burritos, tacos, west lafayette