I mean, not really. But they’re putting the finishing touches on the new facade and it’s looking more or less like an actual restaurant again. And they said before “June at the latest,” so it could be any day now!
26 Responses to “La Rondalla is open for business! (Almost.)”
Allan Hough (7858)
Brittany Janis & Katie Cruz (104)
Authors
Ah, La Rondalla. Origin of many the gutbomb-laced hangover. Ordinarily, you’d never eat the food. But after many pitchers of frozen strawberry margaritas, suddenly ordering the taquitos platter sounds like a great idea.
On a recent visit to Manhattan, I got dragged out (kicking and screaming) to one of the “good” Mexican restaurants, and bless my buttons if the food wasn’t almost an exact replica of La Rondalla!
Oh man! Can’t wait for it to open back up! Margaritas all around!
One of the owners is named Betty Barrios, which would make a great name for a Mexican bar/restaurant.
This place has been closed ever since I moved into the Mission. What did I miss or what am I looking forward to?
The Best margaritas in town, bar none.
Shittiest margaritas in town, bar none, and the worst Mexican food. Shrimp flautas should not smell of ammonia.
You are a crazy person.
No hes’ right. Ever had a rat burrito from this place?
You are also a crazy person.
It used to be all about cheap food, of questionable quality, and endless pitchers of margaritas and sangria. Three generations of my family have eaten there, and I don’t think any of us ever had an issue with cleanliness, as long as we didn’t think about it too hard.
What can one expect? Presumably, it will be healthier from a food safety perspective than the old version, with less charm and much higher prices.
The decor was like a mood ring set to permanent mellow. The margaritas were always high-octane brain-bombs. The food tended to be kinda grim — if you were sufficiently loaded with their margaritas, you wouldn’t know or care.
The problem is, none of us can have any prior knowledge about whether or not any of these facts will still be true once La Rondalla, The Next Generation opens its doors to the public again.
You make a cromulent point, sir.
The biggest draw was that they never carded anyone and it was cheap enough for a paper-route salary. We kiddies sauced up here and then stumbled across to Harlow’s (aka the Crystal Pistol, now Range).
The woman in that photo is what I imagine the “Bad Neighbors” lady looks like.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking this! She also looks like my crazy neighbor, who actually *is* a bad neighbor.
Will they replace the year-round Christmas decor?
why are people excited about this? The food was less-than-mediocre (yes, it was…stop acting like it wasn’t. You KNOW that it was). The place was shut down for rampant health code violations and now it’s being re-opened by the former owner’s daughter (who worked there while this happened, as I understand it) and an earlier story last year implied that she wanted to hire the same chef. Cheap neighborhood dives are good for stiff drinks and good jukeboxes, but not shitty food that’s prepared in a disgusting kitchen.
Of course we are, they had the best margaritas in town, duh.
Troll on, big river, troll on.
They had the strongest magaritas, thats for sure, but i like the ones at the latin american club better….
Beg to differ. Tommy’s on Geary are the best margaritas anywhere ever.
Tommy’s Joynt? It’s pretty awesome in general, but NOT a place to go for margaritas.
God no, not Tommy’s Joynt. Tommy’s Mexican on Geary/23rd Ave. Check it out. The tamales are pretty insane too.
I’ll have to check it, I’ve never been there. I gotta say it’s hard for me to imagine better margaritas than La Rondalla’s, though.
I believe it was closed originally due to a serious rat infestation. No lie. It remained closed at one of the best locations for so long so that was suspect too. The Margarita’s were excellent but the food was beyond bad. I just hope it isn’t remodeled into just another cleaned up Yuppie/Hipster joint with an over priced menu that still leaves you hungry. I go out for food and drinks all the time and have lived in the Mission for 30 years. These news places popping up are so phony upscale in the thick of working class neighborhoods full of snooty stuck up assholes. Hope they all just crash and burn and we get our funky SF cool vibe back.
Can’t wait. We used to call it La Rondiarrhea. They had the strongest margaritas in town – suffice to say I’ve spent many birthdays in that dive.