I noticed this evening on the way home from church that La Huasteca seems to have transformed itself into a ‘Breakfast’ place. They have changed the big sign on the street to La Huasteca Breakfast Cafe. I noticed this morning (on the way to church) that they were open for breakfast but were closed this evening. So perhaps they are going to only be a breakfast place from now on?
Interesting concept – I know of no other Mexican breakfast restaurants in town. I’m not a big morning person, so I’m not sure I’ll ever make it over for breakfast, but perhaps someone will give it a try and post a comment about it.
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I made it back to La Huasteca for dinner the other day with some of the family. On this trip I ordered Enchiladas Rojas which has 2 chicken enchiladas covered with a hot red sauce. It also comes with steak on the side along with beans and rice.
Not getting the Chili Verde was a mistake. The sauce for the enchiladas wasn’t spicy. The chicken inside the enchiladas had a gummy texture and wasn’t pleasant to chew. The steak was better but had a sort of off flavor to it that I’m having a hard time describing – it was tender though.
I also had a taste of some chicken fajitas that another in the group ordered – I didn’t care for them at all. The chicken and other ingredients weren’t seasoned well and didn’t have much flavor.
My nephew did order the chili verde burrito and said it was ok – but not necessarily any better than other places he has been. Others in the group didn’t really say too much about their meals one way or the other.
Like last time we didn’t get offered the ‘Free Desert with dinner’ advertised on the window even though we were definitely there for ‘dinner’.
I’m not inclined to go back again.
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Original Review – Feb 1, 2010
I’ve drive by La Huasteca several times a week and frankly I’ve been avoiding going there. The restaurant typically has one car (the same car) out front most of the time and that always gives me pause. Lately I’ve noticed that the windows are covered with a collection of hand painted ‘low-priced specials’ which seems –well – sort of desperate. However, I began to wonder if maybe I’m missing something out of the ordinary and decided that La Huasteca deserved a try.
My usual lunch buddies Danny and Steve arrived before I did and were already stealing salsa out of my little dish when I sat down. I figured that meant the salsa was good – and indeed it was above average for this town. The salsa had a nice fresh taste with a good dose of cilantro. The chips were ok. Things were looking good so far.
In addition to the chips & salsa, Steve asked for an order of Queso Flameado. I thought it was going to be a dip as the menu mentioned cheese, sausage and pico served with flour tortillas. When the appetizer arrived – instead of dip we got cheese, sausage and pico rolled up in 3 flour tortillas. Think cheese enchilada without the sauce and you sort of get the idea. They tasted good enough but I thought they were a little heavy on the raw onion. I also didn’t get the “Flameado” part of the dish as it certainly wasn’t spicy and wasn’t on fire.
Steve and Danny both ordered some version of carnitas – which meant I had to order something else. I ended up choosing the Guiso de Res ($9.90) described as tender chunks of brisket and potatoes in a spicy gravy. I’ve had Guiso de Res one other time and liked it. It was like a Mexican version of pot roast.
When my meal arrived – it looked very promising – slices of meat and bits of onion peaking out from a bowl of dark, rich looking sauce. My first bite however let me know that I was going to end up wishing I had ordered the carnitas. The meat was on the chewy side and had no seasoning. It obviously wasn’t cooked in the sauce but rather put in the sauce before serving. The sauce was the next failing component as I detected no seasoning there either – the overall taste was of wet beef. I didn’t understand how this could be as the sauce looked so good. I dug around in the bottom of the bowl looking for something with a little flavor and came up empty (literally). The final straw with this dish was promised potatoes were missing in action. The rice and bean accompaniments were ok but not exceptional. Overall a colossal $9.90 failure.
I have got to mention one other interesting thing about this dish. While I was paying at the register I noticed a News-Leader review posted prominently on the wall with what appeared to be this same dish featured in the picture – hmmm – do you wonder why I do this?
I am glad to report that Danny and Steve faired much better than I. The carnitas were very good and I think as good as the best I’ve had in this town. The pork was tender, the tomatillo sauce while not as tangy as I’ve had before had a really nice flavor. I was super sad after getting a bite of their pork.
Service was pretty good on our visit and our food came out in an acceptable time frame. We all noticed that as the lunch hour progressed there were more people arriving than I had expected based on the usual emptiness of the parking lot.
The looks of the exterior of the building (bright cartoon colors & specials painted on the windows) isn’t anything like the inside. 
The interior was a lot nicer that I expected. It was quite cold inside when we arrived with even Danny putting his coat back on. By the time we left someone had turned on the heat and the temperature was much better. The space isn’t very large and consists mostly of 4 top tables. There is one table that can seat eight in the back and a flat screen TV towards the front.
The menu at La Huasteca is pretty typical for this town, but I think the prices are generally a little higher than average. There are 25 lunch specials from $5.62 to $7.95 (fajitas) a specialties menu as well as some soups. Menudo is offered on the weekend. I could find no evidence of the $2.99 lunch special prominently advertised on the window. We also weren’t offered the ‘free’ desert another window proclaimed even though two of us ordered off the specialty menu at full price.
A group of us tried to try lunch at La Huasteca on Sunday after church but we found out that they use peanut oil for frying and as we had a person with a nut allergy in the group we had to leave.
I was unluckly with my selection for lunch – but – there was enough promise with the good salsa and the tasty carnitas to make me want to give La Huasteca another try – but I think I’ll stay away from the beef dishes.
1647 E. Sunshine – (417) 882-8877
First, Bob, nice pictures.
Second, you must have deliberately misrepresented what I ate in order to get me to post.
Well, it worked…
Danny and I did not have carnitas. In fact, I don’t remember noticing whether carnitas (as such) were even on the menu here. Perhaps, perhaps not. Danny and I actuallyl both had versions of chili verde. He got the “regular” chili verde, and I got the chili verde burrito.
The chili verde burrito was excellent. The pork was really tender and was seasoned very well. The sauce was a little less “green” than some verde sauces, but had a very good flavor and was very obviously not dumped out of a can. I was very happy with my lunch.
I agree that Bob’s was lackluster. It was better when a piece of tortilla was ripped off and used as “pincers” to grab a piece of meat and soak up a little sauce. But really that was just because the tortillas were really good — definitely above par in my opinion.
I noticed that the windows are cleaner with most of the ‘specials’ like free desert missing.
La Husetca is gone. It is replaced by Betsy’s or Betty’s ,not sure as I was driving too fast though it is not listed in health dept inspections
Abby’s Family Restaurant (appears that the owners have renamed the restaurant).