La Hacienda or San Angel?

[MinniesYooHoo]

Can someone please explain the difference? Do you prefer one over the other?
Thanks!

 

[ChloroFiend]

San Angel Inn is located inside the Mexico pavilion building and serves both lunch and dinner. La Hacienda de San Angel is located outside, on the shores of World Showcase lagoon. It only offers dinner; the seating inside is used as CS seating for La Cantina de San Angel during lunch hours.

The menus are similar. Both serve modern Mexican (not Tex-Mex or 'southwestern') cuisine. This is not the 'mexican' food you'll get at Chili's or On The Border....it's not Americanized. Just don't want you to be surprised. That's not to say it isn't awesomely tasty, because it is....but I also have a fondness for the food.

Ambiences are a bit different; SAInn let's you dine 'under the stars' inside and may be a bit more elegant, where Hacienda has a bit more modern vibe inside with the potential for the lagoon/Illuminations view. We did have some kids running around in Hacienda our last trip, and another one crying up a storm. I'd say the likelihood of having children running around is less in SA Inn due to the more cramped quarters of the restaurant area.

I haven't been to SA Inn for almost 15 years, but I remember liking it; I can almost guarantee the menu has changed since then. We did Hacienda on our last trip and loved it.

 

[missmd]

[The menus are similar. Both serve modern Mexican (not Tex-Mex or 'southwestern') cuisine. This is not the 'mexican' food you'll get at Chili's or On The Border....it's not Americanized. Just don't want you to be surprised. That's not to say it isn't awesomely tasty, because it is....but I also have a fondness for the food.
.[/QUOTE]

Hi, Chloro- could you reply with what you had at La Hacienda? We like San Angel and have been wanting to try the new restaurant. I like authentic Mexican food so I'm hoping for good reviews. THX!

 

[cigar95]

Over the years, the Inn (remember, they're both "San Angel", which is the company that runs them both) had gotten a lot of comments about their food being, shall we say, "not particularly memorable".

However, when La Hacienda opened, I saw a definite improvement in the food next door at the Inn. I had lunch there just a few days after La Hacienda had opened, and of the half dozen or so times I've eaten there over the past 20 years, this one was definitely the best.

I also liked my meal at La Hacienda. I think it was the second or third day they were open, and they were working really hard to get things right - had two or three managers talk to me during my meal.

The way they explained the difference to me was that the two restaurants represent food from two different parts of Mexico. I think La Hacienda was the more southerly part of the country.