La Carreta Hispanic Grocery and Taqueria

Great food and lovely people here. They really care about you and the food and service is great. Tamales and soups, plates, a la carte dishes however you like all delish and fresh at a good price. Great drinks too. The little grocery has hard to get south american stuff that my friends from there urge me to try. I love it.

Had a very poor experience, and simply can not recommend. For the good, our waitstaff did the best they could for what they were given and made sure we had what we needed.
We showed up on a Saturday at around 6:45PM or so, and it was packed. After waiting in the front with a few other groups of people confused, a hostess finally comes up. Since we had a small party, we were sat quickly, which seemed nice. It was clear, and made even more clear throughout the nice, they were vastly understaffed.
As others have mentioned, they do charge for Chips and Salsa, a balmy $ 3. I am glad we ordered it though — as our food took about an hour to arrive after ordering.
We received our food, and the disappointment continued.
The chicken quesadilla was soggy and wet, drizzled with a sauce. This should never happen, quesadillas are firm, it is not rocket science. Later, checking with both the assistant and lead manager — serving soggy quesadillas are on purpose and how they are made.
The shrimp with garlic-​cilantro sauce does not actually contain sauce. We were served overcooked shrimp with burnt garlic and cilantro tossed on top.
To be fair, the arrachera was served fine, decent flavor very adequate but perhaps not justifying the $ 13 price tag. Less style, more substance.
All rice was overcooked and mushy. The side salad was swimming in lime and was too acidic to eat. The coleslaw is alright, there does not seem to be much to it.
Given all of this, we still decided to push forward and eat what we could as we had waited an hour with a toddler and did not want to wait another one for ‘fixed’ dishes.
We asked to speak to the manager, and the assistant manager came over. Heard our complaints, stated that is how they serve quesadillas, said sorry and asked if we were done — taking our plates. There was no apology in his voice or actions.
I spoke to the manager who had been receiving complaints all night. During our talk, he had to help a lady who had been waiting over an hour for 1 cup of soup, and she had two kids.
After arguing with me about the food, he finally took ¹⁄₃ of the bill. The funny part is — had the first manager been actually concerned and made any gesture — say removing the $ 3 charge for chips since we waited an hour for food, or made an effort to retain us and have us come back, we would have left somewhat happy.
Instead, it was a horrible experience all around. Sorry guys.

TERRIBLE my toatoanes were literally fried to a crisp. When i asked for them to be remade then came out worse the second tome. Also they charge for chips and salsa. A small cup of salasa for my quesadilla cost me $ 1.00 and sour cream $.50… The waitress didnt even tell me… never will i eeeever go back. This place SUCKS

Their food is above average and much more authentic than your average Mexican joint. Their Colombian food is also quite good. Service was good but I still think it was a bit overpriced in some areas. For instance, we paid $ 5.25 for a small portion of guacamole. It was maybe one or one and a half avocados at most. Yes, it was fresh and tasty and also came with fresh salsa but I still felt the cost or portion should be adjusted.

YES! on so many levels-​YES!
The hubs is a So. Cal. native, and therefore has proclaimed himself to be quiet the Latin-​influenced food snob. Until I met him, I was always just excited about canned refried beans and stale chips and any salsa. In my college days, I’d forget Mexican leftovers in my car overnight, throw caution to the wind the next day, and reheat and eat anyways (but honestly, at least that was legal college stupidity as opposed to…). Moving on:
Over the years, my husband has opened my eyes-​taste buds-​to awesome Mexican and Central American food. And now, no canned beans for me. No chewy and tough meat in my enchilada, no indistinguishable meat-​by product in my burritos. Only the best. The Best of the Best.
That’s this place.
Our server was wonderful. An amicable chap, very attentive to us (who didn’t seem to judge us when we asked for extra rice, because our (adopted Chinese) kids really, really, really liked rice.).
Go out on a limb, be courageous, be adventurous, try something besides tacos.
Also, the guacamole is on point. Yum.
All the meat that fills whatever shell you choose is amazing. Tender, moist, juicy – perfect. God bless those animals who gave their lives for that meal.
Oh, and that’s another thing… the beans! They have real beans! (not the canned refried stuff I mentioned earlier).
We’ll be back here, lots.

Love this place! Very authentic and the most friendly Mexican spot around. The first time you come, you have to get the tacos. Their barbacoa is perfect. Not too spicy. All of the food is delicately balanced. Not too salty and has enough flavor without taking away from the natural flavor of the meat. Great job!

Pretty good but not your typical Americanized Mexican. They charge for chips and salsa! The staff was hit or miss some were really friendly others were downright ornery. I had a barbacoa taco and a steak Quesadilla. The quesadilla came drizzled in some kinda sauce that was not listed on the menu.
Overall the food was pretty good but I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here. The salsa was good but forgettable.
The parking lot was a good size and the inside did have a nice casual atmosphere.

I came this way today on my home and decided to give them a try. This place is supposed to be a Colombian eatery but they now have added mexican dishes, in my opinion its mostly mexican with a colombian flair. So I ordered the mondongo soup, guava juice made with milk and an empanada. I was not impressed today. The mondongo was missing key ingrediants to make it authentic. The empanada was slightly warmed but I could tell it had been sitting for a while. The guava with milk juice was good but it needed a little extra blending. It was frozen at the bottom. In their defense I came in on a Friday afternoon busy lunch hour. It just seems like they were taking shortcuts to get food on the table asap. I will give them another try maybe not at lunch. The service was good, waitress very kind and the ambience nice.

We were recommended by a fellow foodie here and we weren’t disappointed. This isn’t normal Mexican/​Tex Mex food — this is the real deal. I have their barbacoa tacos just about every time. The meat has good flavor, the corn tortilla is perfectly cooked, and the sauce/​salsa that comes with it finishes it off well. I am not a fan of the rice too much because it reminds me more of a sticky Asian rice.
I highly recommend going on Sunday for their special Columbian soup. It’s the only day they offer it and well worth the wait. It reminds me of the chicken caldo my mom used to make.

Our friends brought us to this market because they have found it to be the best in our area. We love Spanish food so we were excited to go! First off they have a small eatery inside, the tacos were amazing! As far as grocery shopping goes, the veggies and fruits were very fresh and in good health. The meats and cheeses were top notch, brought a flank steak home (they will season it for you) and it was unbelievable on the grill… just 5 minutes on medium heat.
We are definitely going back!

The wait-​staffers here are friendly and attentive. The service is very nice without being over-​bearing. During my last dinner, I was advised of an off-​menu item, Churrasco. It’s a New York Strip Steak. It is a nice steak and offers an alternative to a diner who may not be quite in the mood for a latino-​style meal. So, today, in order to try it out I had a Churrasco and requested handmade tortillas and their house hot sauces and salsas. I could not correctly remember the sauce called Aji, so I was treated to their entire suite of six sauces. I recognized the one I wanted and was advised that it is Aji; it is a green salsa that is very nice with meats. There may be more off-​menu items that I have yet to be advised of. It may not hurt, if you’re in the mood, to ask about off-​menu items.

Probably the first «authentic» Mexican restaurant I’ve been too, as opposed to the typical ones that you can find in every small town. By authentic, I mean my food wasn’t this giant plate of bean/​cheese goo. I could actually see the components of my dish. I ordered two tacos: steak and fish, along with a side of rice (white, and not that standard orange color) and black beans. All of it tasted fresh, and none of it felt heavy. The meats were well seasoned and tasty, the veggies crispy, and overall a lovely little lunch meal. And for under $ 10 too! I can see myself coming back here since I live about 5 minutes away.
Adding to the authentic experience, I noticed a lot of Spanish speaking costumers, both dining in and shopping at the adjacent grocery store. And if that wasn’t enough, I was watching a soccer game on the TV while Shakira was playing overhead, lol.
The restaurant looked clean. The vibe is pretty chill, which is great for customers. However, I felt it was a little too chill for the service. We waited a hair too long to have someone come bring us water, and then waited a while again before our order was taken. And it wasn’t busy or anything. Not sure if there was just a mixup with who was assigned to our table. So it was annoying, but not bad enough to make me stay away from La Carreta in the future.

Colombian and Mexican food with good atmosphere.
They have a handful of traditional Colombian dishes to choose from as well as several Tex-​Mex dishes. Is it just me or does anyone else find it weird that a place can’t just serve one type of Latin American cuisine without having «Mexican» dishes sprinkled in?
The meat is always cooked to perfection here. Steak, chorizo, chicharron, all have been consistently delicious each time I’ve been. Rice is authentic– light fluffy, flavorful. The only thing keeping this place from five stars is their beans. I am half Colombian and grew up eating Colombian food, beans are the most important part!!! The beans are not in a thick enough sauce (no estan especitas– not sure how to say that in English lol), they taste canned. They need to up their bean game and then I’ll change over to 5 stars.
I recommend the Bandeja Paisa: Rice, fried egg, chorizo, steak, chicharron, beans, avocado, and arepa. Try the sickeningly sweet Manzana Postobon («apple» flavored soda) to complete the Colombian experience.
I’ve actually never gotten their «Mexican» food here since the Colombian stuff is so great but friends say nothing but great things about the tacos.
it bears mentioning that have big TV’s everywhere playing sports which I find distracting. I like to be fully attentive to my dining companions and it is hard to concentrate with giant televisions (silently) playing the «game». Although I guess if you’re into that, it can be a good thing

Some words of advice to the owners, managers, staff, board of directors, whoever… do NOT change a thing! I had dinner there tonight with my Dad who is a huge fan of your delicious establishment. I had the pork belly quesadilla and it was… how do I say this!!!#$^!/ amazing! Pork belly, tomatillo salsa, cheese… that’s a hat trick in my book! The service was awesome. There was some bone head behind us giving his waitress a hard time and was doing so in Spanish. I am not fluent in Spanish but I do speak asshole and this guy was hard to please and the waitress handled it with grace. Kudos to you! If you like food… eat here. If you like good food, eat here.

Definitely nicer on the inside than what you would expect based on driving past — not a place for a romantic night out, but classy enough to go out with friends & family.
Salsa was nothing to brag about (basically canned diced tomatoes with a few onions & cilantro)
The guacamole was a big disappointment. It was fresh avocado, but extremely bland (like, say, mashed up avocado with nothing else in it).
I thought the black beans tasted bad (compared to say La Cubanas which I had just two days ago) but my wife liked them and the kids didn’t complain.
The shrimp diablo was… Excellent… Great flavor & lots of heat. The steak tacos were ok, the pork was bleahh
Took quite awhile to get our food (as my restless kids are on the verge of belong something out of sheer boredom…).

Nice nice nice restaurant! Please keep in mind this is a Mexican restaurant but there chips and salsa is NOT FREE! Very upsetting but at least the food is good! A nice hidden gym that I always use to pass on my way home and decided to stop by for lunch. It is authentic Mexican that everybody seems to love. I just really can’t get past the fact that the chips and salsa are not free. I would give them five stars but since I had to pay for my chips and salsa I will give them four.

I have to confess that I was surprised when I first walked in. Based on the name, I was expecting more of a latin grocery store with a few tables in the back, but this is a very nice and spacious restaurant. The grocery is a small room off to the side with a lot of packaged/​canned food packed into a tiny little space.
Our server was extremely friendly, although it did take a little while for him to return and take our entrée order. Since I like to surreptitiously scope out other people’s plates, I knew I wanted to try the Tostones con Guacamole appetizer. I went with the half order to save room for my entrée, but I really wish I had gotten the full size since it was scarfed down in seconds! Oh well, you live and learn. My tilapia dish had a good flavor and the Mexican coleslaw was a nice addition to the usual rice & beans side items. The weekend lunch prices were very reasonable with good-​sized portions for your money. This restaurant will definitely be moving up into rotation on my list of regular go-​to spots.

Honestly, what caught my attention about this place was the fact that they had «and Grocery» in their name. I had extremely fond memories of a Hispanic grocery store out in San Francisco that also happened to have what I still consider to be the greatest burrito I’ve ever had in my life, and I was hoping that kind of magic would apply to this restaurant/​grocery store I happened to locate in Marietta.
Ultimately, the magic wasn’t replicated verbatim, but I still found a pretty darn good place to get some good Latin food with some unique options.
They’re located pretty much where Roswell Road ends and becomes Roswell Street begins, and are basically almost underneath I-​75. They’re unfortunately not located right off of I-​75, and are accessed easiest off of SR120 or off of Cobb Parkway itself. They have a large bountiful parking lot, and can’t really be missed off of Roswell Road.
The restaurant and grocery store portions are decisively separated, so it’s not like walking through a grocery store to find some sit down tables in the back or anything. You either walk in through the restaurant or the grocery store part, and there is a partition in which one can go between the two on the inside.
Anyway, I was there for the restaurant naturally, because I’m a pig always on the lookout for new and quality cuisine. I was seated quickly, and from what I can remember every single person who worked there was friendly, and it looked like the person (s) who managed the place were amicable folks hanging out with random patrons on what appeared to be a fairly quiet Saturday night. The overall ambiance and atmosphere of the place is decidedly relaxed; I imagine it would be slightly busier if they catered to the college football-​hungry South, and put college football on their large numerous televisions instead of futbol, but I can enjoy a fairly low-​key joint too.
One thing that stood out to me was just how cheap the food was. I got this amazing plate of food that had chorizo, pork belly, rice, beans and flank steak, which was barely $ 12. It was an extremely generous portion of food, at an absurdly low cost. Everything tasted great, but the one thing that blew my mind was the way the pork belly was prepared. The best way to describe it was that it was this slab of pork belly with the skin attached, but the flesh was like waffled and fried, but it was so delicious, if you’re into kind of that burnt-​end chewy, slightly dry pork meat. As I said, it’s hard to describe but I know I want more of it. I’m having a hard time believing that I’d delve into other options when this magnificent plate of food is available.
Overall, I was very pleased with La Carreta and the overall dining experience. However, that being said, it begs to ask, then why not give it five stars? One simple reason — chips weren’t free. I mean really, there are a ton of places serving Latin food that pretty much drop the complimentary chips when you sit down, it was a little bit of a brow-​scruncher when I realized that I had to pay for some chips and salsa. Give me my chips and salsa with my meal, and this place is five stars, handily.
Otherwise, I’m still a fan of this place. I would most definitely come back again, as I think this place definitely stands out amongst the legions of Mexican restaurants that are pretty much in every single plaza in Atlanta.

La Carreta has renovated and expanded since my last review, so it’s time for a review update. This business still consists of a restaurant and grocery store. However, the restaurant has expanded into the old market space and the market now occupies a new, separate space in the back. It’s two businesses in one.
The restaurant is now more fleshed out. It’s almost like Robert Irvine from Restaurant: Impossible gave this place a makeover. It looks nice and more like a full-​fledged restaurant now. There’s a decorated bar, windows in the dividing wall to make the space feel open, and multiple ultra thin TVs playing news and sports. The owners have done well for themselves and this place seems popular.
As far as I can tell, the menu has remained mostly the same. It’s pretty simple and straightforward with sopas (soups), plates featuring steak, chicken, shrimp, and assorted combos, tamales, tacos, quesadillas, tortas (sandwiches), and burritos. The menu isn’t as extensive as a local Mexican restaurant like La Parrilla or Los Bravos, but it doesn’t need to be.
Prices are mostly reasonable as most entrees are less than $ 10 each. Tacos are $ 2.25 each, which I think is a bit pricey for tacos, especially given the size of the tacos here. Burritos and tortas are marginally a better value at $ 5.99 each.
Meats offered in many of the dishes (e.g. tacos, burritos, quesadillas) include asada (grilled steak), barbacoa (pork, pulled or steamed), pollo (chicken, shredded, breaded, or grilled), carnitas (braised pork, Michoacan style), pescado (tilapia, breaded or seared), tofu, and pastor (adobo and pineapple seasoned pork).
If you want to go the taco route, there’s a 2-​taco combo available for $ 7.99 and a 3-​taco combo available for $ 8.99. Alternatively, you can just order 4 tacos and it works out to be exactly $ 9.00. I prefer the 3-​taco combo because you get 3 tacos in addition to white rice, black beans, and a side of Mexican coleslaw. I actually think the coleslaw is very good here and is one of the restaurant’s highlights. It’s coarse, crunchy, and refreshing. It’s a little big tangy and not «mayo-​ey» at all.
The tacos (and burritos) are hit or miss with me. It all depends on what meats you get and what cut of meat you happen to get that day. I’ve had the best luck with the asada and pastor. Those meats are usually succulent and tender. The barbacoa and carnitas haven’t been consistent.
I had a barbacoa burrito where the barbacoa was pulled into very thick chunks. The meat seemed dry and overcooked. The sauce/​salsa on the inside of the burrito didn’t seem evenly distributed, which exacerbated the problem. There were times where I’d take a bite out of the burrito and get nothing but a huge chunk of dry meat. Not appetizing at all.
Like the barbacoa, I’ve seen the carnitas come in big pieces and I’m not sure if they’re ideal for tacos given the sizes. I had one taco with two large pieces of carnitas inside. It’s hard to take a bite out of one of these carnitas, so you have to eat the whole piece. That means the taco was good for only two bites of meat. Not only that, but the meat suffered the same fate as the burrito barbacoa — too dry.
I do like the homemade corn tortilla shells the tacos come in. However, the tortillas are rather weak and don’t hold together the tacos very well, especially if the taco has a lot of moisture from salsas/​sauces. I’ve had many tacos annoyingly break apart on me and that shouldn’t be happening.
I still recommend the guava flan, a dessert I mentioned in my last review.
Service is very good. The employees here are friendly and enthusiastic. It really sets the mood. There might be a language barrier with some of the servers. Johanna is a very upbeat and courteous server.
For more of my thoughts on La Carreta, please review to my original review below.

Oh my goodness! I am so happy I saw this on Unilocal– I seriously drive past this everyday and had no idea about this gem. It’s the type of place you don’t want to tell anyone about or give it one star like another reviewer suggested so no one else can enjoy it.
I followed the other Unilocalers and ordered guacamole which was so fresh, two taco meal which came with a choice of beans and salad/​coleslaw. Agree with others that I could have been just fine eating the beans and rice. taco time! I enjoyed the pescado (fish) taco and it was great– all of the flavors worked well and the corn tortillas were so fresh and lovely. The pastor (pork with adobo and pineapple) taco was also yummy but after I gulped down everything before it I was too full after a few bites. I will definitely be going back to try the plantains, brisket and tamales. (checkout the photos I posted.) Don’t judge a restaurant by it’s outside appearance– definitely give this one a go!

Buenisimo! tienes que ir!